so today in lit class we started to present our TED Talks regarding our semester-long projects. You were supposed to talk about your experiences with the project, successes, weaknesses, etc., but the caveat was that it had to be within 3-4 minutes off. It said in the rubric that even as close as 2:59 and 4:01 is a 5 point penalty. And of course, I and two friends had to finish with 4:07, 4:05, and 2:58, respectively. I also heard that a lot of people in a different class period (but with the same teacher) finished outside the grace period.
Now, the rubric also requires you to use gesticulations. That’s personally fine with me, as you can make an argument that hand movements are part of body language and rhetoric (which was the point of this assignment). However, I think it’s completely arbitrary and unwarranted to take off points just because it’s not a specific length. I mean, how much is a few seconds going to impact the quality or depth of an argument, if it does at all? The reason I’m PO’d is because it’s a freaking major grade, and this teacher is already really hard (probably 5ish people have As, and they’re all 90-92).
You do realize that TED talks have a specifically defined length, don’t you? You and your friends are more than “a few seconds off”. With a 3-4 minute length, the target duration is 3:30. That means you all were 15% or more off.
The TED 18 minute rule specifies an upper limit, but doesn’t necessarily define a lower limit. I’ve read that Steve Jobs gave a 15 minute TED Talk, and even if 15 is the minimum amount of time you’re allowed to speak, the point still stands that we were given a time frame about a third that length.
I think you should have just practiced it more to have kept in under 4 mins. If you say this to your teacher, he/she might not take the points away or it might just piss him/her off. Take your chances. Best of luck
Why are you complaining about not meeting a hard limit? It’s like your teacher asked for a 2-3 page paper and you wrote half a page. Or five. It’s not what was asked for.
They suck but as long as the teacher was clear about the guidelines from the beginning, the teacher isn’t really at fault since students should have been practicing to ensure that their speech was in limits. The teacher probably included the limit so students could practice conciseness (though, the 1 minute time frame does seem rather limiting).
The main argument for adhering to strict cutoffs is the slippery slope. If you don’t think 4 minutes should be a hard cutoff, then what is considered a ‘reasonable’ time? You might say up to 4:30 should be allowed, but then aren’t you creating a new hard cutoff? What about the people who go to 4:35? Aren’t they close enough to be considered ok?
You see where I’m going - the teacher has to draw the line somewhere. But I agree that a 1 minute window isn’t giving much room for variation.
Every project, every assignment in the world has parameters. When I give presentations every day to my classes, they end when the bell rings… not before and not after. Even if I have something really, really good and really important to say, there are parameters on how long my presentation can be. There is no grace period.
It’s the end of May-- if the teacher let everyone talk as long as they wanted, they wouldn’t finish by the end of the school year, or something else the teacher has planned-- like review-- would get knocked off the calendar.
The teacher was trying to teach you how to give an effective oral presentation.
Surely you practiced–you knew you were going to be close to the limit.
As long as you knew the rules ahead of time, it’s absolutely fair.
And if you thought the time limits were unfair, why didn’t you protest when the assignment was given??
Just thinking, for next time: would it be possible to set a timer on you watch or phone, to vibrate when you’re hitting the 30 second mark? That way you would know to wrap it up quickly.
Most of my worrying came from the stigma that surrounded my teacher, who is supposed to be the hardest in the school for English (only maybe 5-10 out of a 100 get As). Considering it’s English and not even an AP, that’s pretty scary.