Alliance History & Thought · Fall 2026
Reading Presentation Roster
The same format applies to both rounds and to every student. This is what you build, how long you get, and what happens if you miss your evening.
What a presentation has to contain
1. The claim
What the author is arguing, in one defensible sentence. Not what the text is about.
2. The load-bearing quotation
One passage that carries the argument, read aloud and unpacked. The whole text, one paragraph.
3. The throughline, and in Round 2 the bridge to the Alliance
In Round 1, how the source connects to the week’s spine idea. In Round 2, how your book illuminates, complicates or challenges the week’s Alliance material. This is why the ordination book belongs in this course and not just on a list.
4. The facilitated question
One real question, submitted to Moodle before class, that you then run for the room. Not “any questions?”
Conditions of the slot
- Ten minutes of talk is a hard ceiling. Going over costs you ground on the claim: failing to select is failing to identify what is load-bearing.
- No slides. Talk to the room, not to a deck.
- A one-page handout for the class, in Round 2 only. Round 1 needs no handout. The Round 2 page is most of the two-page Pathway reflection already, if you are on the ordination track.
- Your question goes to Moodle before class.
- Round 2 is a whole book. If you are presenting one pillar of The Heart of the Gospel, you are responsible for all of it.
How it is graded, and what happens if you miss it
Presentation 50, facilitation 50. Facilitation is graded on what you control: the quality of your question, your follow-up, how you redirect, and how you hold ground under challenge. Not on how talkative the room was that night.
A slot cannot be traded or deferred, because trading a slot means trading a book. There is no make-up for a presentation missed through lack of planning. In a genuine emergency, notify Chris as soon as you are able, then within seven days submit the one-page handout, your presentation outline, and a recording of the presentation. Work submitted that way carries a 5% penalty on the assignment grade, not on your course grade.
Where to get your reading
Most Round 1 sources are sections of the Course Reader (Draper 2009), posted once on Moodle as a single PDF and referenced by its R-numbers. The few that are not are posted or linked in their own week’s Moodle section. Round 2 books come from the national ordination reading list and you obtain your own copy. Your own slot, on the By student page, says which applies to you.