English 4U: TED Talk Summative
English 4U: TED Talk Summative
Your summative assignment in ENG4U this semester will be an oral presentation modeled on a TED Talk. The bulk of this work will be accomplished during five work periods in May. Presentations begin at the start of June.
Here are the steps to follow:
1. Become familiar with the structure, tone, and overall methodology of TED Talks. Links to useful TED Talk how-to sites are provided for you below.
2. Choose a topic that genuinely interests you, possibly one that you already have some specialized knowledge about. Be prepared to undertake and document research into your topic to make your TED Talk on the subject as informative as possible. You may want to focus on some topic that relates to the literature we have studied this semester like representation or some other social issue and a text, a particular critical lens and a text, the life and times of a literary figure; but you are also free to choose a topic that is more purely personal, such as a video game, style of music, a sport, a personal hero, a charity or volunteer organization, etc. Remember, though, that your talk must be argumentative, informative, and must include research.
3. Conference with your teacher to confirm your topic as early as possible in the process.
4. Practise your active listening skills in connection with viewing TED Talks. You will be required to demonstrate and reflect on your own listening skills during the final summative presentations in class.
5. Create a 5-minute TED Talk on your topic that showcases your oral presentation skills, demonstrates your understanding of the codes and conventions that govern this form of media, and creatively incorporates an argument. You will also be required to include a striking visual element or prop in your TED Talk, a standard element in the TED Talk formula.
6. You may choose to present your finished TED Talk either live or as a pre-recorded video. If you opt to do a pre-recorded version, you will need to provide your own recording and editing equipment and hand it in on a USB stick in May.
7. In May, hand in your properly formatted MLA Works Cited page and a one-page snapshot (clear concise outline) of your TED Talk. You may be asked to differentiate what content is researched and what content you generated yourself. Any apt words or phrases that you did not compose yourself—from your own imagination—must be set into quotation marks and followed by parenthetical reference to its source which then appears as a bibliographical entry in the Works Cited. Also indicate stage directions for dramatic effects, scripted nonverbal cues, and visual aids.
Evaluation:
Rubrics drawn from the Oral and Media Strands
Rubric drawn from the Writing Strand for outline of TED Talk and
MLA Works Cited page
Recommended TED Talk How-To Resources:
“Making presentations in the TED style”
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/05/making-presentations-in-the-ted-style.html
“How to Prepare for a TEDx Talk”
http://plpnetwork.com/2012/09/07/prepare-tedx-talk/
“Here are the secrets to giving an engaging presentation”
http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2012/09/02/here-secrets-giving-engaging-presentation/#!pYsJ9
“How to get a standing ovation at TED”
http://www.squidoo.com/Improving-Presentations