CPR assignment

Sean walked up to the podium and immediately mentioned the topic in which he was discussing, the passing of Walter Payton and began to ask who he was. He started mentioning the statistics of the amazing career he had and then showed the human within the legend by telling stories of his nickname “sweetness.” He took a football legend and put a personality to it by showing Walter’s personal struggles from race as a young player to liver cancer and refusing to be moved up on the list simply because he was famous.

A true legend is more than statistics and a recognizable name.

A true legend is someone who excels and makes a name for themselves through their craft but also someone who’s character is unlike any other. 

They are a leader and an inspiration. 

That’s exactly who Walter Payton was. 

Sean did a great job with this speech, I think he was most effective when he asked who Walter Payton was. That question formed the rest of the speech for him and really captured the attention of the audience. I also think that his use of stories were amazing to capture the essence of Walter Payton.

A moment of distraction throughout the speech was when Sean gave a lot of statistics. I think that it was important to know what a great player Walter was because its a major accomplishment, however the delivery was a little too much for someone not as knowledgeable in sports. I found myself wondering what those things were, so maybe a little explanation could have been helpful.

Alexander advocates for using a poetic/artistic response to evaluate student performances because he thinks that it causes more thought to go into responses. It also makes them more appealing, just as the performer being critiqued had to be thoughtful and intriguing, the person responding needs to do the same things. It also helps for mastery of the techniques and to find the meaning in the message of the performance.