Extra-Credit Opportunity: Poetry Recitation and Discussion

Teaching Associate: Patrick Mooney
English 10
Summer 2015

Overview

To get extra credit in this way, you'll need to take over and (effectively) lead the class for ten to fifteen minutes on a day when we're scheduled to read and discuss poetry, then recite a poem (or a substantial portion of a poem) from the syllabus and lead a discussion on it. You should pick a poem that we're scheduled to read on the day when you perform your recitation, memorize at least fourteen lines from it, recite them well, and then lead a class discussion on the section of the poem you recited (as well as, possibly, the rest of the poem, if the poem you picked is longer than fourteen lines). Your recitation should, ideally, be flawless, your verbal interpretation and performance should be thoughtful, and your discussion should get the rest of the class thinking and talking about an interestng and fruitful textual selection. Doing this assignment well will get you a bonus to your total grade for the term of up to five percent.

You must declare in advance what you plan to recite, and each piece of text may only be recited by one person. You must discuss your plans with me before I approve your recitation/discussion. Realize that, if I approve your plans, I am trusting you to run the class effectively for up to fifteen minutes, and so your performance during this time should, in all ways, be excellent and productive. This means that you should make a selection of (an excerpt from) a text that will encourage substantial discussion in class and should prepare a set of questions, themes, or discussion points that you believe the class will benefit from exploring in relation to the text that you have chosen. You may also, if you choose, prepare a handout or other visual aids that will facilitate discussion. You must email me a description or outline of your discussion plans by 6 p.m. the day before your presentation. 6 p.m. on the day before your recitation is also the last chance that cancel your recitation without incurring a penalty. (This may be just a paragraph or two, or it may be an outline, but I need to have some idea of what you intend to do so that I can plan for class in advance.) If you would like to email me a handout by 10 p.m. on the previous evening (as a .pdf, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, .rtf, or Microsoft Word document), I will also photocopy it for you so you can distribute it during class when you recite and discuss. I will also post whatever you send me on the course website to serve as a study aid for other students.

Once you have signed up for a text, you must take all reasonable steps to ensure that you are present at the beginning of class that day and prepared to perform. You should prepare for your recitation with the same degree of care that you would prepare for an important presentation in a professional setting. If you are absent or late, you will have not only missed your opportunity to earn extra credit, but will incur a penalty to your overall score for the course, and will not be given another opportunity to earn extra credit in this way. The only acceptable reasons for missing a scheduled recitation/discussion are documented, unavoidable catastrophes.

The following are examples of acceptable reasons for missing a scheduled recitation:

• Family death.
• Your own hospitalization, or hospitalization of a family member that requires that you leave town.
• Serious illness requiring urgent medical care.
• Presenting a paper at an academic conference, or otherwise receiving a substantial academic or professional honor that absolutely cannot be be received at a different time.
• Natural disasters that personally affect you and/or the rest of the class.
• Other unforeseeable, catastrophic events that absolutely prevent you from being in class.

(If any of these circumstances occur and require that you be absent from your scheduled recitation, please let me know what's going on by email as soon as possible.)

The following are examples of unacceptable reasons for missing a scheduled recitation; they will result in a penalty to your overall score and prevent you from scheduling another recitation:

• Missing the bus on the way to campus.
• Not feeling well.
• Oversleeping, even if you have a really good reason why you're exhausted.
• Getting called in to work at the last minute.
• Needing to study for a test in another class, or needing to work on an assignment for another class.
• Feeling sad.
• Discovering at the last minute that preparing for this assignment is more work than you expected.
• Failure of the equipment you are depending on to present material.
• Being really stressed out. (However, if it's the recitation itself that is causing you stress, then please come talk to me, and I'll see whether I can find ways to make it easier for you.)

General suggestions

• Prepare in advance. If you have not engaged in memorization and recitation in the past, you may be surprised to discover how much work it can be and how much effort is required to memorize and deliver something in a way that is faithful and accurate down to the smallest detail. Trying to memorize something the night before your presentation is unlikely to result in an excellent performance unless you have genuinely unusual memorization skills.
• Think outside the box. You are welcome to do things other than simply recite fourteen lines of poetry in front of the class, provided that what you do (a) is appropriate, and (b) includes the recitation of fourteen lines of poetry from the syllabus. For instance, you may arrange lines of poetry into music and perform the resulting piece. Or a group of two or three people might recite sections of at least fourteen lines each from a longer poem, then collaborate in leading a discussion. Or you might arrange your selected lines of poetry into another interpretive form of some kind.
• Choose a (segment of a) text that will promote useful and insightful discussion. Don't just pick the shortest, easiest-to-memorize fourteen-line chunk; pick a segment that is a useful way for you to open discussion about the larger issues of the text and/or larger concerns of the course as a whole.
• Think about what you want the rest of the students in the class to get out of the discussion, and prepare a short set of questions or issues that you want to discuss with the rest of the class after your recitation has finished. Think about whether you wish to prepare a handout with thoughtful questions and/or selections from other parts of the text that you are not reciting, but that are relevant to the text's/literature's/your/my/the rest of the class's broader interests.
• Be excellent. Go above and beyond. Give a stellar, passionate, insightful, moving delivery and then facilitate a focused discussion about one or two key issues. Find ways to engage your peers' interests.

Grading criteria

The performance/recitation of your chosen text is worth a bonus of two percent to your total grade for the quarter, allocated as follows:

• Up to one percent for scrupulous accuracy in vocally reproducing the exact text that you have memorized. I will check your delivery against a printed copy of the text. (If you have specific reasons for needing to depart intentionally from the exact text that you are performing — for instance, if you are setting a poem to music and want to treat part of it as a chorus or refrain — please discuss your intentions with me in advance.)
• Up to one percent for excellent delivery and/or interpretation.

The discussion following your recitation is worth a bonus of up to two percent of your course grade, allocated as follows:

• One-half percent for making a wise textual selection that allows you to open a meaningful discussion about important thematic issues.
• One-half percent for emailing me a description of your discussion plans by six p.m. the day before your performance. (Emailing me later than six p.m. the day before means that you do not get this part of the bonus, although you are still obligated to email me your plans by midnight. Failing to email me your plans by midnight before you are scheduled to perform will prevent you from performing at all and incur the no-show penalty for your rescheduled presentation.)
• One percent for leading an insightful, focused discussion that engages the rest of the students in class.

Additionally, there is another point, allocated as follows:

• Up to one percent for being genuinely amazing. Merely doing the minimum required does not result in the maximum possible credit on this assignment. Find ways to pass beyond merely reciting fourteen lines of text; there are many ways to do this and be very very very impressive. (Some suggestions: Recite more than fourteen lines. Give a performance that is also a dazzlingly insightful interpretation while yet being faithful to the original text. Set poetry to music. Set up a miniature performance of a section of a play. Come up with something else that is outstandingly wonderful while contributing to the larger-scale goals that you have in your discussion plans.)

You incur a penalty of three percent to your overall course grade if you schedule a presentation, don't show up on time, and don't have a fantastic, documented excuse. Note that this also means that you will not be able to schedule another recitation/discussion opportunity.

I will produce an audio recording of your performance and discussion to assist me in evaluating it; if you request at least forty-eight hours in advance that I do so, I will also make a good-faith attempt to produce a video recording of your presentation and discussion (I am not much of a videographer, though). You are welcome to a copy of this audio or video recording, should you desire one; this can be a useful tool to help you assess your own presentation skills.

I will give you a written copy of an evaluation that provides feedback and justifies your grade for the recitation and discussion within forty-eight hours of your presentation, or on the following Monday if you recite on a Thursday.

If you are planning on using equipment …

… other than the chalkboard/whiteboard in class, then you should speak to me in advance, even if you are planning to supply the equipment yourself.

It is not necessary to use any equipment other than your own voice in order to do an excellent job. If you do use additional equipment, remember that its purpose should be to enhance your presentation, not to carry the weight of it. The golden rule for equipment usage is that the show must go on in some form, even if the equipment does not work as expected, so be sure to have a backup plan in case the equipment that you've chosen fails to operate in the way that you expect.

If you are nervous about public speaking

You're not alone. Lots of people are nervous about public speaking. I'm sometimes nervous about this very issue, myself.

There are other ways to get extra credit, and of course you can get an A in the class without any extra credit in the first place. There are also ways that you may ameliorate the conditions producing your anxiety. One option that you have is to make a presentation as a member of a group. In this case, each of the group members will have to recite at least fourteen lines, each will have to do a substantial portion of the work of leading discussion, and each will receive a grade independently of the others. Having someone else standing with you in front of the group may help to mitigate your anxiety. If you have suggestions for other ways that you can ameliorate anxiety-producing situations related to your presentation, please come to my office hours so that we can discuss your ideas.

If you would like, I can also refer you to an appropriate campus counseling service. You may find that speaking with a professional about your nervousness can help you to become more comfortable with the process of public speaking.