I think my groups informative speech was thoughtfully organized. We designed it in a way to have the topics flow chronologically, and with good transitions. What I think we could have done differently was providing the audience with more decade-related examples. Our power-point presentation focused on introducing each decade and then presenting the artworks of that period, with specific focus on each painting. The way we divided each section to be presented visually was particularly effective, because each painting was clearly shown without distracting the audience from the speaker with other details.  I think that one way we could have used the visual aid more effectively was in switching of the slides. It caused some small problems in keeping the speech continuous. My own personal delivery in this speech was tricky for me to handle. I was very nervous at the beginning which contributed to me mixing up some words, and relying much more on my cards. My goal for the final speech is to come off more confident, and credible by working on my inflection. I noticed my voice catches an unwanted pattern when I start getting nervous while speaking. A quality that I thought was most influential in keeping my attention during my classmates’ presentation was their use of images in the visual aids and the way they tied them in into the speech, making the content memorable.

• I believe my presentation very well organized. I feel that the presentation flowed very well through the different time periods of immigrants in chronological order. Perhaps something we could have done to improve the cohesiveness of the presentation was to make our transition phrases. I think that was the only weak part of our presentation. We used the visual aids in our presentation to give the audience a better idea of how the tenements looked like and how different the city itself looked ever one hundred years ago.  I think I used the visual aids particularly well when I was describing how the Jewish family dressed, referring to their clothes and looks. One instance that we could have used the aids more effectively was during the introduction.  We did not really elaborate too much on the images that we displayed. I feel that this presentation was both good and bad for me. I was able to speak extemporaneously and clearly convey my thoughts and facts. However, I continue to sway slightly from left to right in all of presentations. The most important part to keep me engaged were visual aids. If the aids were interactive such as music or videos, I payed more attention and was more engaged. 

As i look back on my group’s presentation, i feel that  our presentation felt unified although our organization in terms of transitioning from one point to the next and dividing the presentation  into fairly equal portions could have been done better .  I also saw from our presentation that we had one too many texts on some of the power point slides. More images instead of written texts would have definitely improved our overall presentation.  However, i feel that our topic was clearly stated and shown at the start of the power point. I feel that i used the visual aids from the presentation quite effectively. I used a lot of the images that i had in the slides to explain and put my points across. I could have used them more effectively in terms of moving towards the image and combining my body language with the image to animate it.  In terms of my physical nature during the speech, my stance was good and i used many hand gestures effectively like i did in my previous presentations as well. I could have been a bit louder and clearer when i spoke but my pace was well constructed just like in my previous presentations. I believe that if I use more vocal fillers and articulate better, my delivery in the final speech will be fine.  The interesting thing that i noticed while watching my presentation was that, by pointing at the images and interacting to the audience using those images, attracted their attention better than by reading out my speech in a more rigid manner.

Sanjay Gurung

I think my group was very much on the same page with our presentation. We knew exactly what the others would speak about, and I think our presentation was well linked to a central point. We tried to tie it together as much as we could, and in the end, I think it was very coherent and effective. I think we could have used stronger content, however. Our presentation could have probably used a more informative aspect to it. While we definitely put some relevant information out there, I think that it would have benefitted from some more about the actual exhibit and less reflecting on the exhibit. Other than that, I think I could have also created a more effective attention grabber. After looking at the video as an audience member, I wasn’t as interested as I could have been.

We mostly used the visual aids for the audio parts. While the pictures helped convey what we saw, it was almost impossible to speak about what we heard. In that sense, I think the visual aids in our presentation were very effective. I think each of our audio and video parts were good at showing what we couldn’t put into words. However, I thought that some parts of the presentation were a bit extensive and distracting. For example, where there were too many pictures, or too much text.

I think I improved a bit from my previous speech. I was definitely more relaxed than the first one, and I think speaking in a group relaxed me a lot. Overall, I think my physical delivery was better than the last time. However, for the last speech, I should try to project more and be more confident in my voice. I definitely heard points where my voice shook and I want to try to eliminate that completely.

During the other presentations, I found that a presentation with a strong point to tie back to was easy to stay focused on. The presentations that didn’t have a lot of unnecessary information and stayed true to the central point were the ones that kept my attention for the full 15-20 minutes.

Amba Jagnarine

I believe my group did an excellent job in creating a unified presentation. We were able to make it cohesive by sharing the conclusion and introduction. Maybe to make it more cohesive we could have  made better transitions. We did have transitions but I don’t think we were clear and concise enough with them. For our presentation, we used the photographs from our photography exhibitions. We talked about the conditions of the poor back then verses now and we used these photos to depict these conditions. One point where I think we used visual aids in a good way was when Valerie was talking about child labor and she was showing the pictures that showed child labor while explaining the photos. At one point when we were explaining the Zoe Strauss exhibition we had the pictures up on the screen but we were not explaining them. I think we should have explained the pictures more thoroughly. I like how I was not too dependent on my index cards and I was able to maintain eye contact with the audience even when explaining the pictures. However, I feel like I should have used more hand gestures, I was too still. I also think I should have “owned the space” more and make my stance stronger. In my previous speech I swayed too much and I think I did a good job in minimizing that. For my last speech I want to use more hand gestures and have a stronger pose. I think the attention getter is the most crucial part in grabbing my attention. I also liked it when people did not overly explain their topic and they kept it short and straight to the point. If a person ended up talking for too long I ended up losing focus.

I think, as a group, we had a very well-organized presentation. We worked well together, and made sure each member had an equal part of the speech that was just as important as the next. We practiced together beforehand to make sure the speech flowed smoothly from person to person and fixed whatever small issues we still had. We noticed that we were a bit under the time limit, and did our best to fill in the free time. I realized I probably contributed to that the most though, since I probably didn’t speak as long as everybody else. But overall, we had great teamwork and prepared very well. I also figured out my biggest problem-speaking too fast. When I gave the personal speech, I realized I was constantly jumbling my words and not thinking clearly about each point I was trying to make. This time around, I tried to speak slower, which definitely payed off for me. I was able to speak much more clearly, and taking my time actually made me less nervous. I will keep this in mind when I give the persuasive speech.

Jimmy marshall

I believe my group did a good job organizing our presentation. We went over exactly who was going to say what and when. We also added a few concepts in that connected our topics to a central idea. I believe we could have used some extra rehearsal, to get a smooth flow in the transition between topics.

Our visual aids included pictures. We took pictures of the museum’s artifacts and imported pictures from the internet to aid in our presentation. I believe this amplified our delivery and made our message clearer. Although, I think we could have made it better by separating the the pictures from the text. This way, we could have navigated through each picture while speaking.

I believe I improved my physical form in this delivery as opposed to the last. A big problem I had with the last delivery was pacing back and forth. I had to be aware of myself to keep myself from moving around.  This helped in times when I would lose focus, making it easier to quickly glance down at my index cards. In my final speech, I would like to have a very clear flow that the audience can easily follow. I want to get my message across with emotion.

My classmates’ presentations were very interesting to watch. The fact that they were each introducing knowledge made me interested. What kept me more aware was when a person changed their vocal tone to hint that they were genuinely interested. Also, when a person would read directly off an index card, I would have to focus harder to keep up.

Alex Abramov

My group as a whole did a great job, however, we definitely could have spent more time practicing the presentation together. If we had spent more time practicing together, the presentation may have flowed better and we may have had better transitions in between each person’s part. We each had an equal amount of slides to use as visual aids. The visual aids allowed us to really show our classmates what we meant when speaking about how odd and abnormal Rene Magritte’s artwork was as a surrealist artist. The only thing that I may have done differently with these visual aids would be to show more of Magritte’s artwork. When Frannie was speaking about the different symbols and items that Magritte used, it would have been more effective to speak about each one rather than listing them. On a personal note, I think that I need to use more vocal variety. I speak in one tone throughout most of my presentation. I did do better than my last presentation though because I looked at the audience the entire time, swayed less and used less vocal fillers. For the future I will try to be more enthusiastic and use more of a vocal variety.

As a whole, my group worked well together in delivering our informative speech. We each had our own exhibit and were able to weave our ideas together to create one cohesive presentation. To improve our speech, we could have gone into further detail about how the exhibits relate to each other when transitioning from speaking to speaker. In addition, we could have spent more time on internal summaries throughout the speech to have it seem more like one cohesive presentation rather than three speeches with a common theme. In general, I feel my group successfully used our visual aids in a way that supported our speech rather than detracted from it. We each had our own style of how we incorporated the visual aids and they each helped the audience get a better understanding of what we were trying to portray. I think I effectively used the power point by specifically pointing out pieces of the picture that I would further elaborate on. Also, I gestured with my hands without staring at the picture and boring the audience. Looking back, I could have used more pictures in the presentation to further support my claims. In my section of the speech, I feel my stance and hand gestures were natural and strong. I felt much more comfortable with this presentation than I have in the past because of that “we’re in this together” feeling. I was relieved to look back and see that I did speak slower than I have in the past which helps the audience process my ideas and get a better understanding. I wish to continue this and slow it down even further in my persuasive speech. As a member of the audience, those speakers with energetic attitudes and vocal varieties were easiest to pay attention to. I found myself dozing off at those presentations that were either too long or too slow.  Also, facing or staring at the picture on the powerpoint was not very effective. A livelier, fast (but not too fast) paced presentation is ideal to stimulate the audience.

-Valerie Auciello