My Presentation Results

So today I gave a big 30 minute presentation in my History and Criticism class. Each student was assigned a different type of criticism and then we had to use that type of criticism to analyze the book of our choice. I got Marxist criticism, and decided to apply it to the first two books of Patrick Carman's Atherton series.

I made a 40 slide PowerPoint presentation (technically it was in Keynote, but most people don't know what that is), and spent A LOT of time on this. And trust me--reading about Marxism isn't how I'd like to be spending my time this summer.

I was pretty confident in my presentation. My professor expressed during the first class that he doesn't know how to use PowerPoint, so I kind of figured anything I do with technology would be impressive due to his lack of know-how. My thesis is essentially accusing Patrick Carman of promoting Communist ideals to children through his books.

So I presented, it went well. I knew what I was talking about. I answered questions at the end. Did my professor say one word of feedback? NO.

As a teacher myself, I always give my students feedback at the end of a presentation. I usually use a 2:1 ratio, two positive things to one thing to work on. Something like, "I like how you approached this..." or "This idea was really fascinating..." and then "If you wanted to work on this, you might want to refine your point about..."

I don't know why he didn't do that... Did he think that kind of feedback is private? Because I wouldn't have cared, and I think my classmates would have liked to hear some feedback to get an idea of what he's looking for when it comes their turn to present. So I've resolved to e-mail him tonight, and ask for his advice on how to turn this presentation into my term paper.

Oh well. It's done. I have a reading log on Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson to do this afternoon, but I'm hoping I have time to work on my sci-fi book project. Will post on Wintergirls tomorrow (super depressing and disturbing book).