Week 12 (January 10)
Classwork
- First round practice presentations with peer feedback.
Homework
- Use the feedback you received in class to revise your presentation for the next class.
Week 11 (December 20)
Classwork
Being your own devil’s advocate presentations.
Homework
Please enjoy the winter break.
Week 10 (December 13)
Classwork
- Impromptu speaking practice about your topic.
Practice answering questions.
Homework
Continue working on your topic, especially finding evidence to support your positions.
Be prepared to argue against your position for practice. For example, if you believe that alcohol should be illegal, then argue the opposite position.
Week 9 (December 6)
Classwork
- Group presentations.
- Final topic selection.
Homework
- Begin to research the topic selected in class.
- Take organized notes that you can use next week in class.
- Make a mind map or outline of your ideas. Please print out 2 copies and bring them to class next week.
Week 8 (November 29)
Classwork
- Presentations and peer review.
- The importance of learning how to present as a team member.
Homework
- Working with your group members, develop a presentation that deals with the problem of an ageing population and decreasing workforce in Japan. Please use the “less important to most critical” organizing style.
- Work together to design 1 slide for each minute of your scheduled presentation.
- Assign different parts to each member, but parts should be split up. In other words, each member should be responsible for presenting at least 2 non-sequential sections.
Week 7 (November 15)
Classwork
Impromptu discussions.
Homework
Please read the different ways to structure the body of a presentation.
Using your presentation about how to improve education at TUFS as a starting point, apply the “less important to most critical” organizing style to revise your presentation.
Your talk should be about 7-8 minutes long.
Prepare 1 slide for your talk.
Week 6 (November 8)
Classwork
Mixed presentation and discussion work.
Homework
Choose approximately 5 topics that your classmates will be familiar with as possible impromptu speaking topics.
Week 5 (November 1)
Classwork
- Review.
- Presentations.
- Make sure that your introduction is properly structured.
- It is important that you define your ideal program program and outcomes.
- You should be able to explain which outcomes are achievable.
- You should be able to provide a roadmap.
Homework
- Based on the feedback you received in class, revise your presentation and cut it down to 5 minutes. Next week we will combine short presentations with discussion.
Week 4 (October 25)
Classwork
Class discussion about how to improve graduate education at TUFS, with a focus on improving your question asking skills.
Homework
Based on the discussion, prepare a 10 minute presentation on how you would concretely improve graduate education.
Remember to start with defining an ideal program and ideal outcomes.
Choose which outcomes can be achieved.
Week 3 (October 18)
Classwork
- Review, specifically what went well and what did not go well last week.
- In class discussion with a focus on concrete details and focusing on your discussion partners’ ideas.
- Using citations and references in a discussion.
- Topic selection for next week.
Homework
- Prepare for the discussion by reading about the topic and having citations available to support your positions.
Week 2 (October 11)
Classwork
- Discussion.
- Choose new topic.
Homework
- Prepare for the next discussion.
Week 1 (October 4)
Classwork
- Welcome and course introduction.
- Ice breaking activity.
- Topic brainstorming.
Homework
- Prepare to discuss whether Japanese National Universities should stop teaching the humanities.
- Please make sure you can argue both positions.
Resources
- Here is a picture of the whiteboard with the topics you would like to discuss this semester.
Week 2 (October 11)
Classwork
- Discussion.
- Choose new topic.
Homework
- Prepare for the next discussion.