English Seminar
英語セミナーGroup presentations
You will work with a group of people to give a presentation about a book of your choice. Choose a group of about three to fivestudents. (This number may be changed, depending on the size of the class.) You will work together and be graded together, so be
sure to choose people you can work with.
Within your group, you may want to choose specific roles, such as "leader", "main writer", "main speaker", "activity designer", etc.
It is up to you as a group to decide what role, if any, each member should take.
The bookChoose a non-fiction book about a social issue that interests you. Every member of the group will read the book and contribute tothe presentation. You may choose any book, written in Japanese or English, that is related to your major and to the theme of thisclass. I recommend that you choose a short book. If the book you are interested in has more than 200 pages, talk to the instructor
for permission to read and present just a part of the book.
Examples of appropriate books might include:• 外国人と一緒に生きる社会がやってきた! by 河原 俊昭 and 山本 忠行• Capital in the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Picketty (choose just one part)• ゾンビ襲来: 国際政治理論で、その日に備える by Daniel Drezner• It's Even Worse than it Looks by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein• なぜ表現の自由か by 阪口 正二郎、毛利 透、 and 愛敬 浩二• The Case Against Perfection by Michael Sandel• フランスはどう少子化を克服したか by 髙崎 順子• Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford
• 私はマララ by Malala Yousafzai• (among many others)
The preparation
Buy or borrow one or more copies of the book. Make sure every member of your group reads the book. (If the book is more than
200 pages, choose one portion to read and present, and tell the instructor which part you will read.)
Meet with the members of your group to discuss the book. Decide what the important ideas from the book are. Discuss youropinions and other things you know about these themes.
Decide what ideas from the book you will present. Your presentation should include at least a summary of the book's main idea,
and your group members' reaction to the book (your opinions and related ideas). You may also want to include other ideas thatyou know from your classes, other books, or other sources.
The presentation
Start with a 5-10 minute oral presentation in English summarizing the main ideas you learned from the book, and your group'sreactions. You can choose one or more students to speak, but all members of the group should contribute to the presentation bydiscussing, preparing, and helping to write the content.
Prepare some additional activity for all members of the class to do together for about 15-25 minutes. This may be a game, asimulation, or a discussion of questions you prepared. Feel free to think of new and different activities. Surprise us! You have twogoals for this activity: to help the class understand some ideas from the book, and to keep our attention so we think about andremember your presentation.
Some examples of successful activities used in past classes include:• Group quiz. Prepare 3-4 questions related to the topic of your presentation. Challenge people to work in groups and agree
on their answers. Give a prize to the group who correctly answers the most questions.
• Game. Invent a new game that uses ideas from your presentation. For example, one group of students presented a bookabout life on coral reefs. They made a version of the game 人狼 with fish, coral, crabs, and a shark instead of citizens,fortune tellers, knights, and a werewolf.

••Simulation. Ask groups of students to simulate an activity related to the book. For example, one group of students
presented a book about game theory. Then they put students into two groups and had the groups negotiate a tradeagreement.
Discussion. Prepare a set of questions about people's opinions. Bring several pieces of paper, with all of the questions oneach paper. Ask students to work in groups and to discuss their opinions with the members of their group.

The report
After your presentation, each member of the group will write a short report. In your report, you will evaluate how well you think
you did. Write down the following information:
1. Your name
2. What you personally did for the group presentation
3. About how many hours you worked on the presentation
4. What grade you think you deserve (S, A, B, C, or F)
5. The names of each member of your group, and what grade you think each of them deserves.
Your grade for the group presentation will be based on:• The quality of the oral presentation, including how complete it was and how difficult or easy it was to understand• The appropriateness and interest of the extra activity• Your short report• Other group members' evaluations