Oral Presentation replacement proposal

First I World like to explain why I dont like the Oral Presentations and why we need to change it, well, I understand that the main objective is to practice our speaking skills and the knowledge acquired in the units, thats great, the problem (I think) is the methodology, you see, to prepare something in groups requires time and almost everyone has a job and maybe we dont have that time also we need to coordinate with our peers to talk about the same and avoid to say the same things, it also requires more time, additionally you need to gather the required material, I know, I know, we have more than a week but is not interesting, if sometimes some persons doesnt have the time to arrive to the class room, will they have time to prepare something? And honestly, at the end we prepare the presentation in the last minute the day before and this preparation is just to memorize a few phrases. Why is not interesting? Well because is the same methodology that we use in the high school and the university. The proposal: You mentioned that we will have some kind of interview at the end of the course, well maybe the best option is to prepare us to an interview, I mean, learn to express ourselves, to express our ideas, to fight for our thoughts with arguments and the best option is a debate, but I am talking about a real debate, please dont misunderstood my words, the past debate about Food Inc. was great, I can not remember when was the last time that I learn something additional in the classroom like with that movie, but it was not a debate, we spend about 90 minutes watching the movie and at the end we share little ideas. Before the debate. 1. If we are going to have a real debate we can not allow us to spend to much time just watching in silence, maybe is better to watch this material at home in a more comfortable way, if I know that I must wake up early just to watch a movie in the class room maybe is not a good idea for me. So the first condition: -Any material longer than 5 minutes must be checked at home before the debate. 2. Considering the last point, the teacher must select the topic (maybe based in our suggested topics) the weekend before the debate and let us know the questions to solve (as you did in the last debate), why the weekend? Well if I want to prepare something (is not mandatory) I will have the time to do that and to find any material that I would like to show, this material (video, sounds images, etc) can not be longer than 5 minutes. An additional consideration: the teacher must not tell us when will be the debate; it could be any day from Monday to Friday, why? Because if I know that tomorrow will be the debate maybe I could skip that class, so the teacher select the day and it will be a surprise, any day in the week after the selection of the topic could be a good day. So: -the teacher will let us know the topic and questions the weekend before the debate -it could be any day, it will be a surprise.

During the debate. 3. If we are going to make a debate we must have the right structure, I mean, like a round table, for example if Andrea is talking about something I would like to see her face to analyze her expressions, also if I am going to say something it gives me the opportunity to talk to everybody not just to the teacher, so another condition: -the people must form a round table. 4. The debate will have 2 stages Stage A: every person has 3 minutes to express her ideas about the topics, her general idea not the answer to any question. To guarantee that every one of us talks, we are going to talk in order around the table and no one can interrupt or argue, just listen. The average number of persons is 20 so we will spend around 60 minutes hearing to everyone. During this stage a person can read and essay wrote by her or shows us some kind of material etc. Stage B: the teacher starts to select who is going to talk or argue orienting the debate to solve, or at least try to solve the questions. 5. Considering the last point we must redefine the teacher role, we must encourage our partners to talk so the teacher must be just the moderator, watching basic rules like: -If you want to talk, raise your hand. -In the second stage nobody can talk more than 3 minutes. -You can not interrupt, wait until the other person finish. 6. The topic: well I agree with you, things like the food we eat or the water or how we handle the money are very important and we need to know it but at the end you will see that every person says the same, I mean, there is no controversy, at the end every person will say you: we need to eat better we need to take care of our water and things like that. Personally at the end of the movie I was in shock and I didnt know what to say Also you are right when you say that is not a good idea to talk about religion or politic but for example if the topic is: can the women do a right job in every field you can bet that every woman in the class room will speak. Other topics: -Euthanasia -Abortion -Discrimination in Employment (tattoos, piercing) -gay marriage -How the technology affects our life? -Do you need to go to the university to be a successful person? 7. After we check that something like this can work, we could invite to Miss Claudia or any other supervisor to show them that it works.