PRESENTATION GUIDE

Teaching it

  1. Give the students time to prepare a presentation according to specified criteria (e.g. the results of research, information gathered from a source or activity, etc.).
  2. Have the students take turns giving their presentations.
  3. Ask the students to reflect on their classmates’ presentations. 

Presentation medium: Student presentations can take many forms. For example, a student could create a slideshow to help her present information, but she could also create a poster, draw a diagram, give a demonstration, or simply deliver a speech. Consider allowing your students some freedom to choose what kind of presentations they want to create. 

Formal or informal: Presentations can be either formal or informal. Informal presentations may be shorter, require less prep work, and/or feature fewer visual aides and props. When students share information with just their classmates, an informal presentation will often suffice. Formal presentations are more appropriate for summative assessments, and they may involve an audience of special guests (parents, teachers and students from other classrooms or schools, administrators, community members, etc.). 

Small group presentations: Rather than having students give their presentations to the whole class, consider splitting them into small groups instead. While this might make assessment a little more complicated, it reduces the amount of time the activity takes, and it may help timid students feel more comfortable. 

Reflection: One way for students to reflect on a presentation is through writing. Another is through small group or whole class discussion. 

Note taking: To help them focus on what their classmates are saying, have students take notes during presentations. 

Gallery walk: A gallery walk is a special kind of presentation method that works well when students need to present something that they created, especially if that something is visual. Rather than having your students verbally present one at a time, you can display their work throughout the room and have them explore their “exhibit” at their own pace. It’s a good idea to have students take notes or respond to specific prompts as they do their gallery walk. For a more formal take on this activity, invite outside guests to your gallery walk!

ASSESSING IT

Presentations may be used to measure students’ mastery of the knowledge and/or skills they were meant to obtain during a lesson or lesson activity. They make great summative performance tasks. 

You can use presentations to assess the following: 

  • Knowledge of a topic
  • Clear communication skills
  • The ability to make creative and engaging presentations
  • The ability to build arguments and draw logical conclusions based on evidence

Content-based criteria for specific presentation activities can be found within the Protecting Our Waters lesson plans.

In one activity, the students research the use of surveys as democratic tools. The following criteria can be used to grade their presentations: 

  • Did the student correctly name and describe 3 types of poor survey questions? (e.g. biased questions, ambiguous/confusing questions, questions that the survey-taker probably knows nothing about, double-barrelled questions, questions that should have (but don’t have) a “none of the above” option, etc.) 
  • Did the student correctly describe and provide examples of well-written survey questions? (e.g. clear, not biased, relevant, etc.)
  • Did the student clearly explain how they conducted surveys in the classroom? 
  • Did the student write clear, relevant, unbiased questions for their surveys?
  • Did the student demonstrate clear communication skills? (i.e. was the presentation coherent?)
  • Could the student answer relevant questions from classmates and/or the teacher?
  • Was the presentation creative and engaging? Did it reflect the student’s personality in any way?