It's all in the presentation

Today kicked off my ninth week of classes. It was also the beginning of the presentations in my Jane Austen class. In that class, we are responsible for reading four Jane Austen books (Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion). Each of us has to present on one book and take a quiz on the other three. Today there were three presentations on our first book, Pride and Prejudice. All three were given by Irish students. I was expecting the presentations to be like I have always known them: highly visual with a Powerpoint slideshow, maybe some class participation, and a loose, free-talking kind of feel, like you know what you're going to say but maybe not exactly the way you're going to say it until it's been said.

Instead, the presentations were essentially short, unmemorized lectures. Each presenter had a paper which they read word for word. The papers were not merely guidelines for the presentation, they were the actual words the presenters were saying, right down to the "I will explore this topic in a few minutes" section. The presenters sat at their desks and simply read their papers aloud. All in all, it was very strange. I'm used to thinking on my feet a bit during presentations, coming up with interesting ways to get my points across, fielding questions, and leading discussions. It seems like it's more interesting for both presenter and audience. To each his own I suppose. This seems to be the case with other people I've talked to in different classes as well. It was one of those rare things I noticed as a big difference between school in America and school in Ireland. Another thing is the way in which American students in elementary school learn how to write. We learn to construct a paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. The Irish students had not heard of this practice at all. Our professor pointed this out to us. Even though he is Irish he knows a lot of American elementary school practices. He's a very interesting guy.

I am doing some homework tonight. I have a biogeography lab due at the end of this week, a couple of books to read, and some papers to get started on for the end of the semester. Better go get started!