Assigning Oral Presentations
June 25, 2007
Classroom presentations can be one of the most enriching assignments of the class if enough planning and preparation goes into the process. Below are 6 tips to help you assign an engaging oral presentation assignment.
1. Plan ahead. Give yourself time to communicate your expectations for the assignment and allow enough time for students to prepare. A well-prepared presentation takes time to plan!
2. Write a complete assignment so students understand the goals and aims of the presentation. Give the rubric you will be using to students ahead of time so they can plan accordingly.
3. Encourage creativity. Let students know that you don’t expect any two presentations to be formatted the same. This will ensure students enrich the learning experience by allowing their own personality and experiences to show through.
4. Prepare your students to be a willing and cooperative audience. Students need to be sufficiently engaged to learn from their peers. Consider what the audience will be doing during the presentations.
5. Have students complete a self-assessment. Let the student reflect on their strengths and weaknesses after the presentation.
6. Evaluate the presentations to help the students improve. Provide personalized information on the rubric to let the student know you care about their performance and how they can improve for next time.
Oral Presentation Assessment Tips at Carleton College (This site is geared toward geosciences, but is applicable to other disciplines.)
What strategy for class presentations or the assessment rubric would like to share with the BGSU community?
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Anonymous | June 26th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I also like to provide a couple check points along the way to make sure the students are progressing with their work as guided by the rubric. It also helps prevent their waiting until the last week to get everything accomplished.
I’ve found the following work well (for a 4 week project/presentation): 1 week- topic approval and initial research; mid week 2- rough outline of presentation/research mostly complete; end week 3- a draft of the final presentation (written speech, draft poster, or PPT, etc.).
For these periodic checks, I have the students meet in small groups for 5-15 minutes to show and explain their progress – peer pressure, modelling, and encouragement can be excellent motivators! During this time, I can circulate to note any follow up that is needed with particular students.