Medieval Rus′: Oral Presentation Guidelines

University of Pittsburgh, Spring 2005 (05-2)

David J. Birnbaum (djbpitt+medieval@pitt.edu)
Nancy Condee (condee+@pitt.edu)

Location: http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~djb/medieval_literature/05-2/oral_guidelines.html
Main Course Page: http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~djb/medieval_literature/05-2/

Last revised 2005-01-14

Each graduate student is responsible for a total of three sessions during the semester (undergraduates are responsible for two sessions, but may elect to prepare three). Full-session topics count as a full session; fractional section topics count as the appropriate fraction. You should select your topics from the syllabus, bearing in mind that the topic of your research paper must differ from the topics of your oral presentations.

Unless your topic is very small, your presentation should normally last the entire seventy-five-minute session (or, for fractional sessions, the appropriate fraction of the available time). When your turn is up, you should:

• Read the primary text from Zenkovsky well in advance, think about the approach you’d like to take to presenting this text to the class, and research the secondary literature both for your own preparation and to select supplementary texts that you will ask the entire class to read.
• Plan to provide the class with:
  • A basic bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
  • Where appropriate, additional primary materials. For example, you might supplement the Kievan Crypt Paterikon stories included in Zenkovsky with others that Zenkovsky failed to include, but that you consider important for an understanding of the work.
  • Some secondary reading that will provide either background on the history and context of the text or a theoretical or methodological framework for discussion.
• Once you have completed the preceding step, meet with the instructors at least two weeks in advance to review your proposed lesson plan. Bring copies of any materials you plan to use.
• Photocopy any secondary materials (e.g., readings, study questions) for the entire class and distribute them at least one week before the class meeting, so that everyone will have sufficient time to read them. Collect the cost of the copies from everyone, including the instructors.
• Use any combination of lecture, discussion, or other method of presentation that you consider appropriate to the subject. Note, though, that it is difficult for an audience to listen attentively to a lengthy lecture read verbatim from a prepared text, and communicating information effectively is no less important than the quality of the information itself.

For a guide to conducting research see http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~djb/medieval_literature/05-2/research.html.

You are the teacher during these sessions, and your task is not just to show the instructors that you understand the material. Rather, you are responsible for helping your classmates understand and learn from the materials, which will draw on your pedagogical skills as much as it will on your own knowledge.

Please do not consult with graduate students outside this course as you prepare for your oral presentations. One purpose of these assignments is for you to gain expertise in researching and preparing oral presentations, an experience that will be lost if someone else directs you to the relevant bibliographic materials.