Some ideas for Individual Oral Presentation
- Introduce a poem, a story, or a chapter of the novel with relevance to the important literary features.
- Present a passage commentary.
- Write a chapter or poem in the manner of/in imitation of a text; read it and explain the process.
- Do a piece of original writing in response to the text; explain the process and critique your work.
- Become a character in a novel or play and write a dramatic monologue, or more than one, and perform it (them). Costumes and props may be useful here.
- Paint a painting or make a collage of images/structure of a novel; describe it and explain your choices (ranging from medium to form as well as content).
- Write a passage modeled on a novel; read it and explain.
- Mime a basic relationship or conflict in a novel; explain how the mime reflects the text.
- Present a verbal collage of striking sentences/images from a work or a collection of poems. You may add your own images/sentences if you want. Explain your choices.
- Prepare and present a series of visual responses to a text; explain.
- Lead a class discussion.
- Add a chapter, a prologue, or an epilogue to a text; explain the process and critique your writing.
- Write music and/or lyrics to reflect a text; perform, singing or playing an instrument. Explain the process.
- Choreograph a dance to reflect a text; perform, or direct a performance, explaining the process.
- Compare/contrast passages from two works.
Actual IOPs from the past
Note: the successful presentations included an explanation of the creative process that revealed understanding and analysis of the text.
- a poem in the manner of Sylvia Plath, based on the character of Marie in Boll’s The Clown.
- chapter 19 ½ in the novel The Clown, based on themes, incidents and characters and attempting to reproduce Boll’s style.
- a poem based on O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Explanation showed fine understanding of the text and literary devices therein.
- a translation of chapter 14 of The Clown, comparing hers to the official one.
- a poem written in four parts, based on images and lines from the four stages of Janie’s life in Their Eyes Were Watching God, with illustrations representing each part.
- a dramatic recitation of Plath’s “Daddy,” with explanation of process.
- a translation of “Daddy” into Hungarian, with a discussion of what worked and what did not and why.
- a new chapter for The Things They Carried, including all kinds of moments, images, variations of sentence patterns, dialogue…
- a dance choreographed and performed in response to Plath’s “Tulips.”
- a poem and collage reflecting The Clown.
- ideas for turning The Things They Carried into a film.
- a comparison of Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God and Hans from The Clown.
- a comparison of the fictional setting in The Great Gatsby to actual locations in New York City and Long Island with relevance to the social significance of various settings
- a comparison of Basho to other major Japanese poets
(United NationsInternationalSchool. 2008.)