Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Items in red
as general areas
for improvement
COMPLETE YOUR SAR – CHECK LECTURER’S
COMMENTS ON YOUR DIAGNOSTIC PRESENTATION
(CONTINUED)
HKU
© Centre for Applied English Studies,
GUIDELINE HELPFUL BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO
FOLLOW IT IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE ESSENCE
OF THE INFO YOUR TEACHER IS LOOKING FOR.
ELEMENTS IN AN SAR RECORD
Include the following elements when you write your reflection
for EACH area of improvement. Be concise.
HKU
© Centre for Applied English Studies,
2. Resource Description: A brief description of the type and
purpose of the resource.
3. Time spent on the resource
4. What you ACTUALLY DID with the resource (Do NOT
merely describe what the resource does and the details. Use
action verbs to describe what you did, such as ‘identify’,
‘mimic’, etc.). Illustrate with examples.
5. How you plan to APPLY concepts or skills learnt in your next
presentation
6. Prediction of success and limitations of your application of
these concepts or skills (Are you confident that what you have
learnt can be reflected in the presentation; if not, why?)
7. One observation you want your instructor to focus on in
relation to this potential area of improvement
EXAMPLE REFLECTION ON THE USE OF GESTURE
“Nano-to-Macro Transport Processes” on YouTube.
1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jisTDmIk3Nw
This is a lecture of an undergraduate course at MIT in which the professor effectively used
2 gesture to explain mathematical concepts and engage the audience.
HKU
© Centre for Applied English Studies,
I watched the first 30 minutes of the lecture twice with the first one recording the moments the
4 lecturer used gesture and the second time observing how the lecturer referred to presentation
slides and explain technical concepts. For example, he always used his hand to point to the
relevant section of the slides; and at 10:03, when he said “macro in one direction and nano in
the other”, he first opened his arms to describe “macro” and closed them to describe “nano” to
help the audience to understand the meaning of the terms. I did not use much gesture in
my presentation and just relied on the definitions in my power slides.
To prepare for the next presentation, I will think of the key technical concepts and put in
some time to think of the corresponding hand movements. For example, I may move my
5 hands up and down and combine that with the analogy of wave in a swimming pool to explain
the fluctuations or vibrations of electronic signals in AC current. I will use these hand
movements and rehearsed them in front of my room-mate and ask for her opinions.
I think my plan will work as the audience normally remember ‘motions of the speaker’ more
6 than definitions in text. I can check whether my room-mate can remember the concepts
after the rehearsal by showing her the corresponding gesture again.
My teacher can focus on my gesture on how I explain the behavior of AC current and
7
those in explaining its advantages in the application.