instructor: Jentery Sayers 
~ classroom: smi 309 
& ougl 101 ~ TTh: 9:30-11:20
Response Paper 2.2/Group Presentation 1: Collabcast (Speaking "For") [ Submit It Now! ]
Due: Thursday, March 6th (PSA duration: thirty to sixty seconds & presentation duration: ten minutes)
This quarter, you’ve collaborated quite a bit, you’ve podcasted quite a bit, and you’ve conducted service-learning quite a bit. Now let’s mash-up those three parts into a single, collaborative podcast (or “collabcast”) that speaks for a local Boys and Girls Club.
The goals for Response Paper 2.2 are:
- To collaborate effectively in order to better understand, communicate, and respond to community needs and complex arguments.
- To consider the importance of context and audience when writing and speaking to others.
- To develop not only your writing skills, but also your verbal communication skills.
- To use sound technologies in the service of a collective argument and composition.
- To connect with and present through the needs of a particular local Boys and Girls Club.
- To create compositions that matter in the public sphere.
Response Paper 2.2 is your first formal group presentation in English 121. For it, you will be put into groups and compose an audio public service announcement (PSA) for a local Boys and Girls Club. (Listen to example audio PSAs . And watch video PSAs for Boys and Girls Clubs of America .)
The audio PSA should:
- Be somewhere between thirty and sixty seconds in duration,
- Include the voice of each of your group members,
- Specifically target the people living in the neighborhood/district of your local Boys and Girls Club (e.g., Central District and Wallingford) and the Puget Sound region in general,
- Include each of your names and your affiliation (e.g., “English 121B students at the University of Washington, Seattle”) in the final “brought to you by…” section,
- Bring public awareness to and encourage action toward an issue or program at your local Boys and Girls Club that you collectively agree warrants more public attention, and
- Be clever and creative! People should want to listen to this thing! Make it radio friendly!
On Thursday, March 6th, your group will play and present your audio PSAs to the class in the Allen Auditorium. Your presentation (including the audio PSA itself) should be approximately ten minutes in duration and may take whatever form you wish (e.g., PowerPoint/website presentation, performance skit, or a formal talk); however, it should somehow unpack and demonstrate your understanding of how your audio PSA is:
- Engaging your public audience,
- Speaking for your local Boys and Girls Club through voice (and sound),
- Responding to specific community needs, and
- (OPTIONAL) Serving as one part of your Major Paper 2 media campaign.
Your (imagined) audience for the presentation includes people living in your local Boys and Girls Club’s neighborhood/district, as well as the young people and staff at your local Boys and Girls Club. Imagine they are in the audience when you present on Thursday, March 6th.
When your audio PSAs are complete, I will forward them to our community partners at your local Boys and Girls Clubs. The idea or hope here is that the PSAs will be of (and put to) actual use by the clubs.
To make your group presentation more collaborative, more effective, and more enjoyable, each member should assume one or two certain roles. Consider the following roles as examples:
- “Tech” Person (in charge of sound technologies and assemblage)
- Academic Researcher (acquires more information on the Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s history, programs, mission, and initiatives)
- Field and Workplace Researcher (conducts interviews with Boys and Girls Club staff about needs and learns more about the neighborhood/district)
- Presentation Organizer (outlines how the presentation will unfold, who will present, and what will be presented), and
- Mediator (ensures communications between the various roles, organizes meetings, and takes meeting notes).
Targeted Outcomes
- Your group presentation should demonstrate an understanding of its audience and the conventions of audio PSAs.
- Your group presentation should utilize evidence from, experiences with, and knowledge about your local Boys and Girls Club.
- Your group presentation should be based in a persuasive argument for particular community needs relevant to your local Boys and Girls Club.
- Your group presentation is a process. As such, between your first group meeting and presentation day, it should go through several stages of revision.
This Message Has Been Brought to You by English Instructors of English 121B
No worries, you will have class time, as well as a group conference with me, to collaborate and plan your group presentations, which will be conducted on Thursday, March 6th in the Allen Auditorium. (The auditorium has a PC, projector, and speakers.)
To help me out, please upload your audio PSA to the course drop box or e-mail it to english3000@gmail.com by Wednesday, March 5th at 9 p.m. I encourage you to upload other presentation materials (e.g., URL for a website, Word docs, or PowerPoint presentations) to the drop box for storage and my reference.
I’m looking forward to your presentations!
uw english | jentery at u.washington.edu
