01 Sep Presentation and Discussion of a form or genre  The assignment:

Presentation and Discussion of a form or genre 
The assignment: This assignment gives you the opportunity to design a class discussion for one of the genres of children’s literature. The experience of designing, presenting, and leading a discussion will enhance your understanding of this type of children’s literature and will strengthen your presentation and writing skills. 
Getting started: 1. How you want to approach the genre—do you want to give the class information on its history? Background about famous writers who work in the genre? Do you want to focus on a specific text? 2. How you want to lead the discussion—do you want to give background about the genre’s history, introduce a specific text, and ask the class to participate in an interactive activity? 3. How you want to accomplish the work—Do you want to create a slide presentation? Do you want to discuss specific passages from one of the texts we have read? 
Deciding about these matters early on will help your presentation and discussion run smoothly. 
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Some tips: This needs to be a discussion, rather than simply a presentation. This means that you will work to engage the class members with ideas related to the genre. One of the best ways to do this is by asking questions that are “authentic”—that is, questions that interest you and to which you do not know the answers. You could, for example, ask class members to share their experiences related to a specific genre (how do you respond to poetry? Fantasy? Adventure?) 
You can also ask class members to discuss a specific text in a genre and ask them how it relates to others they have read. Another way to get class members involved is to ask them how they see the genre connecting to larger cultural, social, or historical issues. Why have fantasies been so popular in the last fevs. years? Does it have to do with moving to a new century and millennium? 
Assessment: A discussions will strongly accomplish three or four of the following. B discussions will strongly accomplish two or three of the following. C discussions will accomplish one or two of the following. D discussions will accomplish one of the following. F discussions will not accomplish the goals and will fail to engage the class. 
The discussion was well-organized and well-developed. The questions were arranged to move from simple to more complex, and the questions discussed specific details rather than surface issues. The discussion elicited participation that helped the class deepen their understanding of specific passages or themes.