Book Report Essay Presentations
Today in English 1A 9-9:50 students showed up for the presentations without enough copies of their abstracts for the entire class.
Look at this as if it were a job and the abstract is your resume. Normally you would not get a chance to go home and return later with the completed application--that window is just closed. Today we were going to complete half the presentations with the second half on Wednesday. Now we have just 50 minutes for everyone. Come with the abstracts in your hands. When you walk into the room, put one on each desk.
Students just have 2-3 minutes each to present. Bring the book or a photo of the book cover and/or your subject or character who exemplifies happiness.
Reflections
Wednesday, May 2, 2013, homework will be to write a self-reflection on the presentation. Talk about what works and what didn't work.
Write your responses on the abstract or another sheet of paper and attach it.
1. For each presentation identify at least one rhetorical move along with a critique of the presenter's argument.
2. How does the presenter make us care about his or her subject?
3. How well was the argument articulated?
4. How did the presenter use evidence to prove his or her claim?
5. What questions do you have for the writer?
6. Were there any areas of the presentation that you would like more information on?
Look at this as if it were a job and the abstract is your resume. Normally you would not get a chance to go home and return later with the completed application--that window is just closed. Today we were going to complete half the presentations with the second half on Wednesday. Now we have just 50 minutes for everyone. Come with the abstracts in your hands. When you walk into the room, put one on each desk.
Students just have 2-3 minutes each to present. Bring the book or a photo of the book cover and/or your subject or character who exemplifies happiness.
Reflections
Wednesday, May 2, 2013, homework will be to write a self-reflection on the presentation. Talk about what works and what didn't work.
Write your responses on the abstract or another sheet of paper and attach it.
1. For each presentation identify at least one rhetorical move along with a critique of the presenter's argument.
2. How does the presenter make us care about his or her subject?
3. How well was the argument articulated?
4. How did the presenter use evidence to prove his or her claim?
5. What questions do you have for the writer?
6. Were there any areas of the presentation that you would like more information on?
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 10:35 AM
8 Comments:
Brendan Gaines
English 1 A 4-5:50
Professor Sabir
Self Reflection and Abstract
Self Reflection
In my presentation I think I did a few things well and I think there are area’s I can improve on. I think that I demonstrated a good knowledge of the subject and a passion for the topic. I feel that I explained why I chose my subject fairly well. I think that I provided statistics that added credibility to my argument. However, I think that I could have structured the way in which I presented those statistics a little better. For the final essay presentation I would like to be more organized in the presentation of my thought process. This was a good learning experience and will help me to be more prepared for the next presentation.
Abstract
In 1937 Dr. Seuss wrote And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, a book about the imagination of child, and the pressure the world on us as we grow up to be more serious. This paper explores the reasons that make authors of children’s literature so influential. It also takes a look at why Dr. Seuss in particular was so good at what he did; He brought joy to millions of kids the world over and continues to do so long after his death. To this day 1 in 4 children will receive a Dr. Seuss book as there first. Children inherently experience the world in a way that most adults wish they could. Because of this, they have built in the mechanisms, we as adults forget about, to lead happier lives.
Amanda Wright
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A 4-5:50
2 May 2013
Self Evaluation:
I was very nervous and I think it showed. I need to try to be more confident when I speak in front of the class. I did try to include all the points for the abstract responses. I also wanted to make sure Grunwald's point of the book about pursuing happiness was clear and included interesting quotes that did back up her point, along with my thesis as well. Overall, I think I presented a different view on pursuing happiness projects and to think about being grateful for what you already have which is what Grunwald tries to point out in her book.
Abstract:
"Whatever Makes You Happy" By Lisa Grunwald
The book is about the main character Sally, who is forty years old and a writer. Sally is married to Michael who is a doctor and also her childhood crush. They have two girls Eleanor and Katie. TJ is Sally's best friend, a successful book publisher. Sally is assigned the topic of the history of happiness for her next book by her editor Jimmy who is also her ex lover. Given the assignment Sally begins to doubt her happiness but points out how great she is as a mother. Sally has an affair with a famous artist Lucas Ross and meets him at her mothers apartment. The apartment her husband thinks she is cleaning out and getting ready to sell for her mother.
That is when Sally begins to pick fights with Michael. Who she says is a good man and always does the right thing, the ideal husband. While the girls are away at summer camp, Sally continues her affair with Lucas Ross and wonders if he is the real love of her life. TJ arranges for Lucas's wife, Marian to decorate Sally's mothers apartment. Marian is an upcoming interior designer. Sally compares and pictures Marian's perfect life with Lucas. When TJ finds out about her affair, she points out things Sally didn't consider in the beginning. TJ also points out that Lucas has had other affairs and how he has changed Marian from the happy and confident person she once was. Sally then tries to picture her life without Michael and can't see herself without him. In the end, Sally ends the affair which Lucas does not put on a fight for. Sally is then grateful for her honest and patient husband and is happy with her life with her two girls.
Grunwald's point is, to be grateful for what you have.
Spencer is doing a Hemmingway book that was put together after his death. Spencer states that Hemmingway was poor most of his life and was not widely celebrated for his work until after his death. Spencer also adds that while Hemmingway lived in poverty and eventually took his own life, he had an ability to look back on his life and remember the feelings of joy being a young writer working from the bottom up. I’m not sure if Spencer has convinced himself that this is that case, nevertheless, from his presentation you can tell that this topic is interesting to him. I am very interested in reading his paper and seeing how he constructed his argument.
Ernest Ramirez talked about his book called The Pact. The book is about 3 black males who grow up with the pressures of a high crime, low-income environment. The 3 make a pact at a very young age to effect change in their situation for the better through education. In the end they all become doctors and go back to service the very communities they came from. Ernest talks about the joy they must have had finishing what they set out to do, and the new joy of using their hard earned education to help lift up the communities that continue to struggle.
Harold Pedroso presented his book on Gandhi to the class. He displayed a lot of knowledge of the subject and I was intrigued by some of the methods Harold used as examples. It was hard to tell if he liked the book, he said it was good. He stated that through civil disobedience and some of Gandhi’s other tenants Gandhi made a huge impact on not only his personal happiness but the happiness and quality of life of a whole nation.
Ngoc Huynh presented her book written by a Vietnamese Zen Master. She is very passionate about this book and the author. She says that she has used the methods talked about in the book in her own writing and that it makes a big difference for her state of mind. She equates using these methods to helping people lead happier lives. She strongly endorses this book and encourages the audience to give it a try. She made good eye contact with the audience and overall it was a very good presentation.
Miaoping Zhong wrote a very nice poem as a part of her presentation. Her book Every Breath Brings Happiness shares its author with Ngoc’s book. She talks about similar teachings but adds her perspective to it as a non-Buddhist. Her insights were interesting and I liked her poem. She is also writing about the teachings of her book and how they can lead to happiness.
I think the only thing that was missing from many of the presentations, including my own, was a rhetorical move. I think that we all presented our books nicely but it was mostly a show in tell and no one really went into depth on the counter arguments that they will address in their papers.
Brendan Gaines
English 1A 4-5:50
Professor Sabir
Presentation Reflections
Spencer is doing a Hemmingway book that was put together after his death. Spencer states that Hemmingway was poor most of his life and was not widely celebrated for his work until after his death. Spencer also adds that while Hemmingway lived in poverty and eventually took his own life, he had an ability to look back on his life and remember the feelings of joy being a young writer working from the bottom up. I’m not sure if Spencer has convinced himself that this is that case, nevertheless, from his presentation you can tell that this topic is interesting to him. I am very interested in reading his paper and seeing how he constructed his argument.
Ernest Ramirez talked about his book called The Pact. The book is about 3 black males who grow up with the pressures of a high crime, low-income environment. The 3 make a pact at a very young age to effect change in their situation for the better through education. In the end they all become doctors and go back to service the very communities they came from. Ernest talks about the joy they must have had finishing what they set out to do, and the new joy of using their hard earned education to help lift up the communities that continue to struggle.
Harold Pedroso presented his book on Gandhi to the class. He displayed a lot of knowledge of the subject and I was intrigued by some of the methods Harold used as examples. It was hard to tell if he liked the book, he said it was good. He stated that through civil disobedience and some of Gandhi’s other tenants Gandhi made a huge impact on not only his personal happiness but the happiness and quality of life of a whole nation.
Ngoc Huynh presented her book written by a Vietnamese Zen Master. She is very passionate about this book and the author. She says that she has used the methods talked about in the book in her own writing and that it makes a big difference for her state of mind. She equates using these methods to helping people lead happier lives. She strongly endorses this book and encourages the audience to give it a try. She made good eye contact with the audience and overall it was a very good presentation.
Miaoping Zhong wrote a very nice poem as a part of her presentation. Her book Every Breath Brings Happiness shares its author with Ngoc’s book. She talks about similar teachings but adds her perspective to it as a non-Buddhist. Her insights were interesting and I liked her poem. She is also writing about the teachings of her book and how they can lead to happiness.
I think the only thing that was missing from many of the presentations, including my own, was a rhetorical move. I think that we all presented our books nicely but it was mostly a show in tell and no one really went into depth on the counter arguments that they will address in their papers.
Abstract
Love
Is there a rhythm in our hearts? Does love come from hearts? Heart, everybody has a heart, but what is inside a heart is matter more. Love, peace, happiness, hatred, bitter, and anger come from hearts. Thus, I will reflect what our hearts contain. If we feel love and peaceful, we will always smile and happy, but if I feel hating and bitter, I will become angry, and worry most of the time. I think feeling is also has rhythm that it can be high, low, and neutral. Every time we see our lovers, our hearts start to sing the rhythm of love, thus I believe love come from heart. Most of us may at least one time fall in love. The love that we just one to give to someone else, without thinking whether or the person will accept it or ignore it. We call that love is unconditional love. When we just want to give my love to others without thinking to get it back, we feel like we already get a lot. Even though we may think that we are loving people, however, our love is too small and too personal compare to the love of Thich Nhat Hanh has for his country. When I start reading about Peace is Every Step book, I was so amazed by the ways Hanh expresses his love in actions and words. Actually, just loving is not enough to say that we love some body, but we need to prove in actions. In fact, Hanh gives up his life to make actions that proving his love to us. His life is just like beautiful flowers that bring people peace, happiness, and love. I want to compare Hanh’s life to flowers because in him I see beautiful flowers that are very special, fragrant, and colorful. Hanh makes me feel as if I want to compose a poem to describe his beauty of love.
Inside of you I see love.
A special love in the earth
You are the flowers of our Earth
That pretty the most among us.
Inside of you I see a river
Peaceful, and smooth with the flow
Put a side all the hatred and hurt, you love us as yourself.
Ngoc Huynh
English 1A 4-5:50
Professor Sabir
Presentation
Self-Reflections
After the presentation, I feel happier because I can share my experiences from the book. With the practice of breathing and being present in each moment helps me manage my life better. I can understand that my life is just like a cycle. If I don’t want to cycle to take me away from my present, then I should be aware of my present. Moreover, I also experience a different shift of my life. Now I can control my temper and mood better by just breathe. I am more aware that I am breathing in each moment. I feel happy and peaceful in each moment that I am living when I pay more attention to beautiful things around me. In the morning, I wake up with a smile and look at the birds singing in my back yard, and I know that a new, beautiful day is waiting for me.
Love
Is there a rhythm in our hearts? Does love come from hearts? Heart, everybody has a heart, but what is inside a heart is matter more. Love, peace, happiness, hatred, bitter, and anger come from hearts. Thus, I will reflect what our hearts contain. If we feel love and peaceful, we will always smile and happy, but if I feel hating and bitter, I will become angry, and worry most of the time. I think feeling is also has rhythm that it can be high, low, and neutral. Every time we see our lovers, our hearts start to sing the rhythm of love, thus I believe love come from heart. Most of us may at least one time fall in love. The love that we just one to give to someone else, without thinking whether or the person will accept it or ignore it. We call that love is unconditional love. When we just want to give my love to others without thinking to get it back, we feel like we already get a lot. Even though we may think that we are loving people, however, our love is too small and too personal compare to the love of Thich Nhat Hanh has for his country. When I start reading about Peace is Every Step book, I was so amazed by the ways Hanh expresses his love in actions and words. Actually, just loving is not enough to say that we love some body, but we need to prove in actions. In fact, Hanh gives up his life to make actions that proving his love to us. His life is just like beautiful flowers that bring people peace, happiness, and love. I want to compare Hanh’s life to flowers because in him I see beautiful flowers that are very special, fragrant, and colorful. Hanh makes me feel as if I want to compose a poem to describe his beauty of love.
Inside of you I see love.
A special love in the earth
You are the flowers of our Earth
That pretty the most among us.
Inside of you I see a river
Peaceful, and smooth with the flow
Put a side all the hatred and hurt, you love us as yourself
Ngoc Huynh
English 1A 4-5:50
Professor Sabir
Response to Classmates’ Presentations
1. Ernest Ramirez’s Presentation
_ The story from his book is so pretty that the three young kids become close friends and help each other to be better person. They decide to be a part of others and help themselves to make their dreams come true.
_It is very interesting story to know because the unique friendly relationship that these three people created is very special. Now a day, people live in community that they become less contact to each other, so they miss the friendly relationship that the three friends have. I think the book is the beautiful example that reminds us having good friendship with others.
_I don’t see any argument here from Ernest’s presentation, but I see the motivation and love that he wants to present of the book.
_Ernest tells us story about the three friends that we lived in a bad society that children became criminals in very early ages. Moreover, he also describes how the three men growing up without being affected of bad habits.
2. Brendan Gaines’s Presentation
_Brendan asserts that children literature is very attractive. Since we grew up, with children books, and imagination, children books are important parts of our early life.
_He points out that children books are very easy to read and having wider audiences than other books.
_ Brendan proves that Dr. Seuss has more published books and more impact on children literature than other author. Brendan, himself, also affected by Dr. Seuss because when he was a child has been reading Dr. Seuss’s books.
_He argues that Dr. Seuss brought happiness to millions of children to adult readers, and even after his death, Dr. Seuss still continued contributing his works to readers.
3. Joshua Harvey’s presentation
_ The story that Joshua brings to us is the lovely changes after a couple having children. The changing in their everyday life that their kids become important parts of their life makes their story interesting.
_Joshua gives examples from the book that in reality we are also facing.
_He insists that even though the children keep their parents busy and angry sometimes, the parents still appreciate of having children in their life.
_He gives example that before the parents can do anything they want; now most of their time is for the kids. Moreover, the kids are following them very where from bedroom to bathroom.
Ngoc Huynh
English 1A 4-5:50
Professor Sabir
Response to Classmates’ Presentations continue
4. Amanda Wright’s Presentation
_I see the beauty of Wright’s story is that we are used to chasing happiness in elsewhere, while happiness is existing in our life, in our family. It makes me remember Thich Nhat Hanh said that happiness is in front of us, whether or not we can feel it.
_ Wright makes her story interesting because her story is a true story that also can happen in our lives too, so we want to hear her stories in order to look at ourselves to see if we are missing something in our lives like the author she wrote about missing her happiness.
_ Wright argues that while people always compare their happiness to others, she recommends us to look at ourselves and find happiness in our lives.
_ Wright gives an example that even though a wife has a happy family with her husband, she also has an affair with another artist because she thinks that the artist will make her happy. However, the artist also cheats on her and his wife. On the end, the wife finds out that life is just like a cycle that one chases on the other. If she doesn’t stop chasing and recognizes her true happiness in front of her, then she will never be happy.
5. Spencer Stevens’s Presentation
_ Stevens tells us about the life of author Hemingway. After a long time being starved for being an infamous author, Hemingway’s books became famous after his death. The beauty of Stevens points out is that Hemming appreciated the life of being a poor author because he could feel peace and happiness by that time.
_I think this is a very interesting story because I also have the same experiences as Hemingway. I agree that money don’t bring happiness. As long as we feel peace and happiness, our lives are already beautiful.
_ Stevens asserts that: “Happiness can be obtained no matter the quality level of your lifestyle.” I agree to his argument that as long as we feel happy, nothing else is matter.
_ Stevens tells us that Hemingway had felt so happy even he was poor, but when he became famous, other struggles that he had to facing take away his happiness, thus he committed suicide.
6. Harold Pedroso’s Presentation
_The beauty of the book the Harold presented is that Gandhi was a brave man who dared to fight for his peace and happiness. He was not only find peace and happiness for himself but for other people.
_We think the story is so interesting because first it based on true story of Gandhi, second it helps us believe that we have to right to find our happiness and peace. If we don’t see it exists or somebody take it away, we will fight to bring back our happiness.
_Harold says that Gandhi was using nonviolence to fight for his believe. Even though he had been imprison and killed, his belief has saved India free from restrictions of the government.
_Harold uses that example that Gandhi was using Civil disobedience to fight with the Indian government.
7. Miaoping Zhong’s presentation
_ The book Peace is Every Breath that Zhong presents is similar to my book Peace is Every Step. The important parts that Zhong points out are that we need to stay in present moment by breathing and being aware of our life.
_Her subject is very nice that it helps remind us to slow down ourselves. Because most of the time we are rushing to do our works without being aware of our life, we miss many beautiful things around us.
_ Zhong states that by just breathing and paying attention to what we are doing, we will feel happier.
_ Zhong gives examples that mindfulness helps us releasing our hardship and bring peace and happiness.
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