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31 of the best class presentation tips for students

Katie September 20, 2022 communication , grades

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed.

Giving class presentations is just part of the school experience. Some students dread presenting to their classmates, and others prefer class presentations to written assessments. If you’re new to this, or if you’re just looking for some ideas, I share my best class presentation tips for students in the post below.

Class presentations often involve a visual component, and an audio and delivery component. The tips in this post are for class presentations that involve SLIDES, such as Google Slides or PowerPoint. Therefore, I break down the class presentation tips for students into the following categories:

text and content
Audio and delivery class presentation tips
Bonus class presentation tips to up-level your game

Class presentation tips for VISUALS

The following tips will enhance the visual component of your school presentation. The strategies are further categorized by format, text, and images.

Class presentation tips for slide FORMAT

The visual format of your presentation must be clear and easy to read.

1. Use a slide deck.

This class presentation tip is obvious, but I can’t leave it off the list. If you’re presenting to your fellow students, you will need some kind of visual representation of the information you’re delivering. Very rarely will you present to your class without slides. Google Slides and PowerPoint are the two primary products to make slides.

2. Use the right number of slides.

Class presentations in high school and college will likely be 5 minutes or less. Follow your teacher’s guidelines, of course, but generally, students will use 1-2 slides per minute. (That would be 5-10 slides for a 5-minute presentation.)

3. Use an appropriate slide template and theme.

PowerPoint and Google Slides come with default slide templates (themes). Most of the default templates are suitable for class presentations, and so you should be fine choosing one of those. You can also find templates on the free version of Canva. I like slidesgo.com for free templates (it’s not sketchy – I’ve personally used it. I also like SlidesCarnival.com but you have to import the templates into Canva first, and then export them from Canva into Google Slides or PowerPoint.

4. Use clear fonts.

Pick your font based on clarity, not creativity. Your audience should be able to read your text effortlessly and from the back of the classroom. Here are some rules:

Avoid cursive / script fonts
Avoid writing in all capital letters
Avoid fonts that are entirely in italics (slanted)

5. Use a maximum of two fonts.

Stick to two fonts: one for headings and titles, and one for body text. More than two fonts make your slides hard to read.

6. Use 3-4 colors.

Stick to a basic color palette of no more than four colors. It’s fine to use images that are outside your color scheme, but besides images, avoid too many colors. Most default templates stick to four colors or less, so you’re safe if you use a pre-made template.

7. Use high-contrast text-on-background combinations.

Your text needs to stand out from the background color. Black font on a white background or white font on a black background provides the highest contrast and best readability. This website here provides excellent information and examples about color combinations.

Class presentation tips for slide TEXT and CONTENT

8. start with a simple title slide..

Your teacher will likely require a title slide in the syllabus. Even if it’s not required, make one anyway. A title slide should be simple: the name of the presentation, your name, and a simple graphic or image.

9. Include a roadmap slide.

A roadmap slide (I made up that term, but it works) is like a table of contents. It tells your classmates what they will learn from your presentation. Even if your presentation is only 6 slides long, a roadmap slide can be helpful. Below is an example.

tips for class presentations for students - roadmap slide

10. Include enough white space.

White space is the blank space that doesn’t contain text or images. White space is very important for readability. In the image below, you can see the impact white space has on readability.

tips for class presentations for students - include margin

11. Use bullet points.

Whenever possible, use bullet points instead of complete sentences. Most slides should include no more than 5-6 bullet points. If you need to say more, continue the bullet points on another slide.

12. Leave some text off the slides.

Your slides should include minimal to moderate text that you will elaborate on during your class presentation. In other words, don’t cram the slides full of everything you want to share on the topic. The only exception to this rule is if you are not verbally presenting to the class, but are instead just sharing the slides with your classmates to view on their own.

13. Include examples.

Examples make most things clearer. When possible, include an example for all your main points.

14. Include statistics and other quantitative information.

Use numbers in place of text when you can. Numbers and statistics can be easier for your audience to process. Example below:

Instead of saying this: There is one-third as many Giant Pandas living in 2020 as there were in 2014.
Say this: Giant Panda population in 2140 = 1864 | Giant Panda population in 2020 = 600 [ source ]

15. Include a summary slide

Consider adding a final summary slide to your class presentation. This is an excellent strategy because it will increase your audience’s understanding of your main points. The text on this slide should be in bullet-point format. The information on this slide might align with the information on your roadmap slide.

tips for class presentations for students - summary slide

Class presentation tips for slide IMAGES

16. include an image or graphical element on each slide..

Every slide should have some kind of graphical element to complement the text. Some slides might even have an image and no text. (You would explain the image in your verbal presentation to the class.) Note: be sure to cite all images.

17. Use images / graphics for illustration and emphasis, not decoration .

Avoid using images for decoration. Images and graphics should do one of the following:

Add something valuable to the text
Illustrate the idea on the slide
Represent the idea on the slide
Emphasize an element of the slide (such as underlines, stars, etc.)

18. Resize and reformat images.

Resize images and graphics to fit the scale of your slide. It should be big enough to see clearly, but still allow for plenty of white space (Class Presentation Tip #10). You can remove the background of an image using a mobile app, or something like the paid version of Canva or PicMonkey. Again, be sure to cite your images.

19. Use video when appropriate.

If your presentation calls for it, include short video clips. Only use video if it adds value.

20. Use icons for emphasis.

Use icons like stars, 3D shapes, speech bubbles, and arrows to emphasize important text. Keep these icons within your color scheme. You can find free icons within Google Slides and PowerPoint, or you can use Google Images or Canva.

21. Use graphs and charts.

Too much text is confusing. Too many images is boring. Solve this problem by using pie charts, bar graphs and other graphical ways of representing data.

Class presentation tips for SPEAKING

You might have the best slides in the class, but your presentation is not complete until you deliver it to your classmates. The following tips are for improving your audio and delivery.

22. Never read directly from the slides.

Use the slides as a reference, but don’t read word-for-word. How do you do this? First change to the next slide. Then look at it for cues. Next, speak directly to your classmates, making eye contact as your speak. It’s okay to glance back at the slide if you need to.

23. Face your audience.

Your body should always face the audience. Stand or sit either straight on, or at a 45-degree angle. Never have your body square to the presentation screen.

24. Explain the images.

When you present each slide, you should spend some time on the text and some time on the images. If your images add value (which they should), then this should be simple to do.

25. Speak slowly and clearly.

Speak slower than you naturally speak. Practice difficult words until they are smooth.

26. Use verbal transitions between topics.

When you change topics, use transition expressions such as “Next, we are going to look at …” or “Now, let’s move on to …”

27. Practice more than you want to.

Practicing your class presentation over and over improves your delivery and increases your confidence. Practice in front of the mirror, in front of others, or in front of your camera (to be watched later, of course).

Bonus class presentation tips for students: How to up-level your game

The following bonus tips are for students looking to take their class presentations to the next level. Keep in mind that some of the ideas below are best suited for college and university students.

28. Provide a printed note-catcher.

An engaged audience is the best audience. To increase your classmates’ active focus, provide each student a printed note-catcher they can use to follow along with your presentation. PowerPoint and Google Slides both have features that enable you to print out your presentation with the slides on the left and space to take notes on the right.

29. Ask questions and survey your classmates.

Another way to engage your audience is by asking them questions. You can build these questions into the slides themselves, or you can pause your presentation to ask questions before moving to a slide with the answers.

30. Use the Speaker Notes section .

The text on your slides should vary from the words you speak to your classmates during your presentation. Either you practice your presentation so much that you memorize it, or you use the Speaker Notes section on PowerPoint or Google Slides.

31. Open with a question, and close with an answer .

A great class presentation tip for students is to open with a question you pose to your classmates at the beginning, and then close with the answer. You could put the question on its own opening slide and then close with another slide that re-poses the question and features the answer.

For example, if you are presenting on Susan B. Anthony, your question could be Who was Susan B. Anthony? and the answer – which is the point of your presentation – could be Susan B. Anthony was one of America’s greatest champions for freedom and equality of women and slaves. College-level presentations would have more complex question-and-answer pairings than this example, but you get the idea.

Class presentation tips for students – summary notes

It’s important to follow your teacher’s requirements when creating your class presentation. Use these tips and strategies to maximize your grade, impression on the class, and your content delivery – but always consult your syllabus first.

And finally, the greatest tip of all is to PRACTICE. In Tip #27 I emphasize the importance of practicing more than you want to. Watch TED talks and other notable speakers to see how smooth they speak – these presenters have practiced the same presentation hundreds of times. Practice is the key.

More resources

How to ask for help in school: 4 tips for self-advocacy
What to do when you’re confused in class
5 life skills all students need to be functional adults

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How to do a class presentation (11 steps)

The best class presentations combine strong content and visuals with an engaging presentation style. This post offers 11 steps for creating memorable and high-performing class presentations.

1. Review assignment guidelines

Before you can strategize about how to start a class presentation, you need to be certain that you understand the assignment details. Consult materials that your instructor provided, like rubrics, to determine what your presentation needs to cover and what form it should take.

For instance, are you presenting individually or as part of a group? How long should the presentation be? Are you required to have visuals? Knowing these details will help you to plan a successful class presentation.

2. Make a presentation plan

Once you've reviewed the specific assignment details, it's time to make a presentation plan. You can start by making an outline of your talking points. Outlines for class presentations will look similar to those for papers, with sections and subsections that work through your main ideas. You'll want to be precise about what points are essential to communicate to your audience. Also, take some time to decide on a completion timeline to ensure that you're ready on presentation day. Remember to build in time for practice!

3. Choose your visuals

At this point, you'll also want to determine what kind of visual aid(s) you want to use: a handout or a digital presentation, or both? Keep in mind the assignment requirements, but also the audience and the presentation format. For example, are you presenting to a large audience? If so, a handout might not be efficient. Are you presenting in-person or online? If you're preparing an online presentation, a PowerPoint or Google slides presentation will help your audience follow along.

4. Fill out your outline and keep it simple

Now that you've developed a plan for completing your class presentation, you can begin to build out the actual content. If you've created a basic outline, fill it in with some substance. Remember to keep it simple. At around 10-15 minutes, the average in-class presentation can only effectively communicate around three main points. Avoid long quotes or monologues. Your audience may find it difficult to follow longer textual components.

5. Design your visuals with minimal text

Along similar lines, don't simply plop your outline or textual notes into your visuals. Visual aids should be just that: aids that allow your audience to better visualize the main points of your presentation. Large blocks of text on a PowerPoint can be hard to see, so work on creating a digital aid that is mostly comprised on images. When text is appropriate, use bullet points and active words that your audience can remember.

6. Allow time for revisions

Once you've compiled your notes and created your visuals, take some time away from the project. You'll return to your work with fresh eyes. Then, allow time for revision: be sure to proofread your notes, slides, and/or handouts and make sure your visuals are clear. Check to see if any images that you're using appear pixelated on a larger screen and make sure your text is readable from a distance.

7. Check your citations

Many in class presentations will require citations, especially if they are accompanying a paper or another class research project. You can use BibGuru's citation generator to create your citations and copy them to your slides or handout. Consult your assignment guidelines, or ask your instructor, to find out what citation style is required.

8. Practice...and practice again

Give yourself time to practice your presentation in front of an audience before the big day. Familiarize them with the assignment guidelines, as needed, and ask them to time you. You'll need to know if your presentation meets the time requirements. After the first run though, consider these questions:

Is your presentation too long or too short?
Are you hitting the main points in a logical sequence that your audience can follow?
Are your visuals clear?
Is your delivery fluid or are you pausing too often to look at your notes?
Are you making eye contact with your audience?

Use your answers to these questions to determine what, if at all, you need to change and then schedule another practice. You should practice your presentation as many times as you need to in order to achieve a fluid delivery.

9. Prepare for technical difficulties

Since most class presentations will include a digital element, be prepared to troubleshoot if there are technical difficulties on presentation day. Always have a back-up plan and be sure to save your visuals in multiple places. Keep a copy of your notes and slides in your email, on a thumb drive, and/or on the cloud. Practice enough so that, in the event that you can't get your visual aid to work, you can still deliver your presentation.

10. Take the stage with confidence

If you've followed your plan, practiced thoroughly, and prepared for possible technical difficulties, you should be ready to take the stage with confidence. Nervousness is absolutely natural, but try your best to relax and breathe. A few shoulder rolls and deep breaths right before the presentation can go a long way to making you feel more focused and centered.

11. Connect with your audience

From the first moment of your presentation, you'll want to establish a strong connection with your audience. Smile, make eye contact, and modulate your voice appropriately. Remember, people exhibit all kinds of facial expressions when they are listening or concentrating, so try not to pay too much attention to individual faces.

Also, although your instructor will be the one grading you, don't simply present to them. Include the entire class in your gaze. Finally, be careful about pace. If you have a tendency to speed up your speech when you're nervous, make a conscious effort to slow down.

The bottom line

Following the tips above will enable you to confidently deliver a class presentation to your instructor and classmates, or to any audience. With solid preparation and ample practice, your next class presentation will be a memorable success.

Frequently Asked Questions about class presentations

The most successful presentations begin with a hook. This could be a short, yet compelling story, an eye-catching visual with brief analysis, or an inspiring quote or statistic. No matter how you begin, ensure that you can fluidly transition to the main substance of your presentation in a way that your audience can easily follow.

Regardless of the subject of your presentation, you can make it interesting for your audience by engaging them through consistent eye contact, a relaxed and confident delivery style, and interactivity. For instance, to keep your audience engaged, you might try including questions or brief activities in your presentation.

Wrap up your presentation by summarizing your key points. You can also end with a provocative question or thought. You should also thank your audience for listening.

Good presentations are well-organized, time-sensitive, clear, and delivered with confidence.

The most common presentation mistakes include: not engaging your audience, using visuals that are overloaded with text, and not practicing enough.

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7.4 Public Speaking and Class Presentations

Learning objectives.

Know how to overcome nervousness and anxiety associated with public speaking and giving class presentations.
Effectively use the six-step process to prepare for and deliver a class presentation.
Create effective visual aids for use in class presentations.
Work with a group to successfully plan and deliver a class presentation.

Public speaking—giving an oral presentation before a class or another group of people—is a special form of interaction common in education. You will likely be asked to give a presentation in one of your classes at some point, and your future career may also involve public speaking. It’s important to develop skills for this form of communication.

Public speaking is like participating in class—sharing your thoughts, ideas, and questions with others in the group. In other ways, however, public speaking is very different. You stand in front of the class to speak, rather than from your usual seat—and for most students, that changes the psychology of the situation. You also have time outside of class to prepare your presentation, allowing you to plan it carefully—and, for many, giving more time to worry about it and experience even more anxiety!

Overcoming Anxiety

Although a few people seem to be natural public speakers, most of us feel some stage fright or anxiety about having to speak to a group, at least at first. This is completely normal. We feel like everyone is staring at us and seeing our every flaw, and we’re sure we’ll forget what we want to say or mess up. Take comfort from knowing that almost everyone else is dreading giving class presentations the same as you are! But you can learn to overcome your anxiety and prepare in a way that not only safely gets you through the experience but also leads to success in your presentation. The following are proven strategies for overcoming anxiety when speaking in public:

Understand anxiety. Since stage fright is normal, don’t try to deny that you’re feeling anxious. A little anxiety can help motivate you to prepare and do your best. Accept this aspect of the process and work to overcome it. Anxiety is usually worst just before you begin and but eases up once you’ve begun.
Understand that your audience actually wants you to succeed. They’re not looking for faults or hoping you’ll fail. Other students and your instructors are on your side, not your enemy. They likely won’t even see your anxiety.
Reduce anxiety by preparing and practicing. The next section discusses the preparation process in more detail. The more fully you prepare and the more often you have practice, the more your anxiety will go away.
Focus on what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it. Keep in mind that you have ideas to share, and this is what your classmates and instructors are interested in. Don’t obsess about speaking, but focus on the content of your presentation. Think, for example, of how easily you share your ideas with a friend or family member, as you naturally speak your mind. The same can work with public speaking if you focus on the ideas themselves.
Develop self-confidence. As you prepare, you will make notes you can refer to during the presentation. You’re not going to forget what you want to say. The more you practice, the more confident you’ll become.

Guidelines for Presentations

Preparing and delivering a presentation in class (or in business or other settings) is a process very similar to the learning process discussed in Chapter 4 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering” , Chapter 5 “Reading to Learn” , and Chapter 6 “Preparing for and Taking Tests” and the writing process discussed in Chapter 8 “Writing for Classes” . The process breaks down into these six basic steps:

Analyze your audience and goals
Plan, research, and organize your content
Draft and revise the presentation
Prepare speaking notes
Practice the presentation
Deliver the presentation

Step 1: Analyze Your Audience and Goals

Who will see and hear your presentation—and why? Obviously, other students and the instructor. But you still need to think about what they already know, and don’t know, about your topic. If your topic relates to subject matter in class lectures and readings, consider what background information they already have and be careful not to give a boring recap of things they already know. It may be important, however, to show how your specific topic fits in with subjects that have been discussed already in class, especially in the beginning of your presentation, but be sure to focus on your new topic.

New terms and concepts may become familiar to you while doing your research and preparation, but remember to define and explain them to other students. Consider how much explanation or examples will be needed for your audience to grasp your points. If your topic involves anything controversial or may provoke emotion, consider your audience’s attitudes and choose your words carefully. Thinking about your audience will help you find ways to get their attention and keep them interested.

Be sure you are clear about the goals for the presentation. Are you primarily presenting new information or arguing for a position? Are you giving an overview or a detailed report? Review the assignment and talk with the instructor if you’re unsure. Your goals guide everything in the presentation: what you say, how much you say, what order you say it in, what visual aids you use, whether you use humor or personal examples, and so forth.

Step 2: Plan, Research, and Organize Your Content

Starting with the assignment and your goals, brainstorm your topic. Jot notes on specific topics that seem important. Often you’ll do reading or research to gather more information. Take notes as you would with any reading. As you research the topic at this stage, don’t worry at first about how much content you are gathering. It’s better to know too much and then pick out the most important things to say than to rush ahead to drafting the presentation and then realize you don’t have enough material.

Organizing a presentation is similar to organizing topics in a class paper and uses the same principles. Introduce your topic and state your main idea (thesis), go into more detail about specific ideas, and conclude your presentation. Look for a logical order for the specifics in the middle. Some topics work best in chronological (time) order or with a compare-and-contrast organization. If your goal is to persuade the audience, build up to the strongest reason. Put similar ideas together and add transitions between different ideas.

While researching your topic and outlining your main points, think about visual aids that may help the presentation.

Also start thinking about how much time you have for the presentation, but don’t limit yourself yet in the outline stage.

Step 3: Draft and Revise the Presentation

Unless required by the assignment, you don’t need to actually write out the presentation in full sentences and paragraphs. How much you write depends on your own learning and speaking style. Some students speak well from brief phrases written in an outline, while other students find it easier to write sentences out completely. There’s nothing wrong with writing the presentation out fully like a script if that helps you be sure you will say what you intend to—just so you don’t actually get up and read from the script.

You can’t know for sure how long a presentation will last until you rehearse it later, but you can estimate the time while drafting it. On the average, it takes two to three minutes to speak what can be written on a standard double-spaced page—but with visual aids, pauses, and audience interaction, it may take longer. While this is only a rough guide, you can start out thinking of a ten-minute presentation as the equivalent of a three to four-page paper.

Never wait until the last minute to draft your presentation. Arrange your time to prepare the first draft and then come back to it a day or two later to ask these questions:

Am I going on too long about minor points? Could the audience get bored?
Do I have good explanations and reasons for my main points? Do I need more data or better examples? Where would visual aids be most effective?
Am I using the best words for this topic and this audience? Should I be more or less informal in the way I talk?
Does it all hold together and flow well from one point to the next? Do I need a better introduction or transition when I shift from one idea to another?

Visual Aids in Presentations

Except for very short informal presentations, most presentations gain from visuals—and visual aids are often expected. If encouraged or allowed to include visuals in your presentation, plan to do so. Consider all possible types:

Charts or graphs
Photos or other images
Video clips
Handouts (only when necessary—they can be distracting)

Use the available technology, whether it’s an overhead projector, PowerPoint slides, a flip chart, or posters. (Talk to your instructor about resources and software for designing your visuals.) Follow these guidelines:

Design your visuals carefully. Here are some basic rules:

Use a simple, neutral background. A light-colored background with text in a dark color works best for words; a dark background used like matting works best for photos.
Minimize the amount of text in visuals—more than eight words per slide is usually too much. Avoid simply presenting word outlines of what you are saying. Make sure text is large enough for the audience to read.
Don’t use more than two pictures in a slide, and use two only to make a direct comparison. Montages are hard to focus on and distract the viewer from what you’re saying. Use images only when they support your presentation; don’t use clip art just as decoration.
Don’t put a table of numbers in a visual aid. If you need to illustrate numerical data, use a graph. (Microsoft Excel can make them for you easily.)
Don’t use sound effects. Use a very brief recording only if directly related to your main points.
Don’t use visual special effects such as dissolves, spins, box-outs, or other transitions. They are distracting. Use animation sparingly and only if it helps make a point.
Don’t use so many visuals or move through them so quickly that the audience gives all its attention to them rather than to you.
Practice your presentation using your visual aids, because they affect your timing.
Explain visuals when needed but not when they’re obvious.
Keep your eyes on your audience, only briefly glancing at visuals to stay in synch with them.
Don’t hand out a printout of your visuals. Your audience should keep their eyes on you instead of fiddling around with paper.

Step 4: Prepare Speaking Notes

As mentioned earlier, it’s not a good idea to read your presentation from a written page rather than deliver it. To keep your audience’s attention, it’s important to make eye contact with them and to use a normal speaking voice—and you can’t do this if you keep your eyes on a written script.

Speaking notes are a brief outline for your presentation. You might write them on index cards or sheets of paper. Include important facts and data as well as keywords for your main ideas, but don’t write too much. (If you forget things later when you start practicing, you can always add more to your outline then.) Be sure to number your cards or pages to prevent a last-minute mix-up.

Think especially about how to open and close your presentation, because these two moments have the most impact of the whole presentation. Use the opening to capture the audience’s attention, but be sure it is appropriate for your audience and the goals. Here are some possibilities for your opening:

A striking fact or example (illustrating an issue or a problem)
A brief interesting or humorous anecdote (historical, personal, or current event)
A question to the audience
An interesting quotation

Then relate the opening to your topic and your main point and move into the body of the presentation.

Your closing mirrors the opening. Transition from your last point to a brief summary that pulls your ideas together. You might end with a challenge to the audience, a strong statement about your topic, or a personal reflection on what you have been saying. Just make sure you have a final sentence planned so that you don’t end up uncomfortably fumbling around at the end (“Well, I guess that ends my presentation”).

Step 5: Practice the Presentation

Practice may be the most important step. It is also the best way to get over stage fright and gain confidence.

Practice first in an empty room where you imagine people sitting, so that you can move your eyes around the room to this “audience.” The first time through, focus on putting your outlined notes into full sentences in your natural speaking voice. Don’t read your notes aloud. Glance down at your notes only briefly and then look up immediately around the room. Practice two or three times just to find the right words to explain your points and feel more comfortable working with your notes. Time yourself, but don’t obsess over your presentation being the exact length required. If your presentation is much too long, however, adjust it now in your notes so that you don’t start memorizing things that you might accidentally still say later on even though you cut them from your notes.

Once you feel good speaking from your notes, practice to add some more polish to your delivery. You might want to record or videotape your presentation or ask a friend or roommate to watch your presentation. Pay attention to these aspects of how you speak:

Try to speak in your natural voice, not in a monotone as if you were just reading aloud. If you will be presenting in a large room without a microphone, you will need to speak louder than usual, but still try to use a natural voice.
In usual conversation, we speed up and slow down and vary the intensity of our words to show how we feel about what we’re saying. Practice changes in your delivery style to emphasize key points.
Don’t keep looking at your notes. It’s fine if you use words that are different from those you wrote down—the more you rehearse without looking at your notes, the more natural sounding you will be.
Be sure you can pronounce all new words and technical terms correctly. Practice saying them slowly and clearly to yourself until you can say them naturally.
Don’t forget transitions. Listeners need a cue when you’re moving to a new idea. Practice phrases such as “ Another important reason for this is…” or “Now let’s move on to why this is so.…”
Watch out for all those little “filler” words people use so often, such as “like,” “you know,” “well,” and “uh.” They’re very distracting to most audiences. Listen to or watch your tape to see if you are using these fillers or ask your friend to point it out.
Pay attention to body language when practicing. Stand up straight and tall in every practice session so that you become used to it. Unless you have to stand at a podium to use a fixed microphone in your presentation, practice moving around while you speak; this helps keep the audience watching you. Use hand and arm gestures if they are natural for you, but don’t try to make up gestures for the presentation because they will look phony. Most important, keep your eyes moving over the audience. Practice smiling and pausing at key points.
Finally, it’s a good idea to be ready in case of an accident. Most likely your presentation will go smoothly, you’ll stay on track with your notes, and your PowerPoint slides will work fine, but sometimes a mishap happens. Be ready to joke about it, rather than becoming flustered. If the computer fails and you lose your visuals, say something like, “Well, that’s a shame, I had some really great photos to show you!” If you drop your index cards or notes, or accidentally skip ahead in your presentation and then have to backtrack, make a joke: “Sorry about that, I was so excited to get to my next point that I’m afraid I lost control there for a moment!” Let your audience laugh with you—they’ll still be on your side, and you can defuse the incident and move on without becoming more nervous.

Step 6: Deliver the Presentation

Be sure to get enough sleep and eat a healthy breakfast. Don’t drink too much caffeine or else you’ll become hyper and nervous. Wear your favorite—and appropriate—clothing and comfortable shoes.

You may use computerized visual aids when you give a presentation to a class.

John Haynes Photography – OLPC – CC BY-ND 2.0.

Remember, your audience is on your side! If you’re still nervous before your turn, take a few deep breaths. Rehearse your opening lines in your mind. Smile as you move to the front of the room, looking at your audience. You’ll see some friendly faces smiling back encouragingly. As you start the presentation, move your eyes among those giving you a warm reception—and if you see some student looking bored or doing something else, just ignore them. But don’t focus on any one person in the audience for too long, which could make them nervous or cause them to look away.

Don’t keep looking at your watch or a clock: If your rehearsal times were close to your assigned time, your presentation will be also. If you do notice that you’re running behind schedule, it may be that you’re saying too much out of nervousness. Use your notes to get back on track and keep the pace moving. But it’s better to deliver your presentation naturally and fluidly and be a bit long or short than to try to change your words and end up sounding unnatural.

At the closing, deliver your last line with confidence, sweeping your eyes over the audience. If appropriate, ask if there are any questions. When you’re done, pause, smile, say “Thank you,” and walk back to your seat.

Later on, ask other students and your instructor for comments. Be open minded—don’t just ask for praise. If you hear a suggestion for improvement, file that in your memory for next time.

Group Presentations

You may be assigned to give a presentation in a small group. The six-step process discussed previously works for group presentations, too, although group dynamics often call for additional planning and shared responsibilities:

Schedule a group meeting as soon as possible to get started. Don’t let another student put things off. Explain that you’re too busy and won’t have time at the last minute.
Begin by analyzing your audience and your goals together as a group to make sure everyone understands the assignment the same. Discuss who should do what. While everyone should talk about what content to include, from here onward, you will take on specialized roles. One or more may begin research and gathering information. Others who are good writers may volunteer to draft the presentation, while one or more others may develop the visual aids. Those who have public speaking experience may volunteer to do all or most of the speaking (unless the assignment requires everyone to have a speaking role). You also need a team leader to keep everyone on schedule, organize meetings, and so on. The best team leader is an even-tempered student with good social skills, who can motivate everyone to cooperate.
Steps 2 and 3 can likely be carried out individually with assigned tasks, but group members should stay in touch. For example, the person developing the visuals should be talking to those doing the researching and drafting to see what visuals are needed and get started finding or creating them.
Before preparing notes in step 4, meet again to go over the content and plan for visuals. Everyone should be comfortable with the plan so far. Make final decisions about who will do each section of the presentation. Set the time for each segment. Then speakers should prepare their own speaking notes. Let someone with strong speaking skills open or close the presentation (or both), with others doing the other parts.
The whole group should be present for practice sessions in step 5, even if not everyone is speaking. Those not speaking should take notes and give feedback. If one student is doing most of the presenting, an alternate should be chosen in case the first choice is sick on the scheduled day. The alternate also needs to practice.
During the delivery, especially if using technology for visual aids, one student should manage the visuals while others do the presenting. If several students present different segments, plan the transition from one to another so that the presentation keeps flowing without pauses.

Additional Resources

For Class Presentations

Using PowerPoint. A step-by-step illustrated tutorial for learning how to create effective visual presentations with PowerPoint. https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/powerpoint/

“How to Give a Bad Talk.” A humorous look (with some very good advice) on what not to do when preparing for and giving a class presentation. http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~pattrsn/talks/BadTalk.pdf

Class presentations on YouTube. Search YouTube with the phrase “class presentation” and look for video examples of actual students giving class presentations. Observing and critiquing the presentations of other students are good ways to get started preparing your own and learning from others. Here’s a good example of a student group presentation on a topic we can all relate to (how body language works):

In this presentation, take note of

how students make good eye contact with the audience;
the first student’s natural speaking voice and tone, and how she did not have to use her note cards very often (obviously she practiced well);
some differences among these students;
the use of PowerPoint slides within the presentation (some better than others);
the appropriate occasional use of humor;
the division of presentation responsibilities within the student group;
each presenter’s interaction with the audience.

Key Takeaways

Public speaking skills are important because you will likely give presentations in class and perhaps in a future job.
Overcome anxiety about public speaking by understanding your feelings, preparing well and practicing your delivery, and focusing on your subject.

Follow a six-step process to prepare and deliver a presentation:

Deliver the presentation and seek feedback
Use visual aids to support a presentation, creating visuals that are relevant, attractive, and powerful.
The success of a group presentation depends on effective group meetings, successful division of roles, and repeated group practices.

Checkpoint Exercises

If you have given a class presentation in the past, what worked best for you? (If you have not given a presentation yet as a student, what aspect do you think will be most difficult for you?)

__________________________________________________________________

Name the two most important things you can do to reduce anxiety about a class presentation you will have to give.

For each of the following statements about class presentations, circle T for true or F for false:

Describe how best to use body language (facial expressions, eye movements, gestures, etc.) when giving a presentation.

If you were assigned along with three other students to give a group presentation in the class using this textbook, what would be your preferred role in the preparation stages? Your least preferred role? If you had to take your least preferred role, what single thing would you want to work hardest on to make the presentation successful?

The Ultimate Guide to Effective Teacher Presentations: Strategies & Tips

Dianne Adlawan

The Ultimate Guide to Effective Teacher Presentations: Strategies & Tips

Teachers, by nature, are considered professional presenters. Their main responsibility is to talk in front of their students to relay educational knowledge, sharpen their minds and skills, and even serve as a second guide alongside their parents. They also speak in front of parents, co-teachers, and school administrators. This just means that preparing for a presentation is already not new to them.

Still, teachers can become so comfortable with their presentation routine that their techniques turn into autopilot. The result of a repetitive task can become tiring and not challenging anymore which may result in students losing interest or attention span in the process.

The tips featured in this article are dedicated to these hard-working professionals. This will help them prepare and perform a better presentation in front of any type of audience.

Why You Should Prepare for a Presentation

Preparation helps you build to structure your thoughts to create a well-organized presentation. By taking the time to prepare, you can decide what information is most important, plan the flow of the presentation, and make sure that everything is connected and easy to follow.
Second, it allows you to think ahead of the questions that your audience might ask. Especially if you’re giving a presentation to a group of various audiences, who are curious about the topic at hand. By preparing in advance, you’ll be able to answer any questions they may have, which will not only increase their understanding but also boost your credibility as a teacher.
Lastly, preparation helps you make the most of your time. Advanced preparation ahead of the presentation can ensure that you’re not wasting time trying to organize your thoughts at the last minute.

Effects of an Organized and Well-Planned Presentation

An audience engages with a speaker who knows their words and poses a confident attitude. While the projector may display clear and concise slides, the presenter is the main ingredient to every presentation.

For teachers, a well-planned lesson presentation helps the teacher maintain the attention and interest of their students, which is crucial for effective learning. Additionally, being organized and prepared will help teachers convey their ideas more effectively and it will help the teacher to feel more confident, which also impacts their teaching and in turn can help to build trust and rapport with their students.

Possible Outcomes of An Unprepared Presentation

Let’s suppose you haven’t allocated enough time to plan and prepare for an important presentation. What could be the potential outcomes?

Increased Stress and Anxiety: Lack of preparation can lead to increased anxiety and stress, which can not only hinder your ability to deliver a convincing presentation but also hurt your mental health and work balance. It can cause a “mental block,” causing you to lose focus and concentration during your delivery.
Poor Presentation Delivery: Without proper preparation, your presentation can appear scattered and disjointed. This can lead to an incoherent message that fails to convince your audience.
Diminished credibility: Delivering an unprepared presentation can harm your reputation as a professional. It can portray you as disorganized and unreliable which could lead your colleagues or students to question your competence and reliability.

Effective Visual and Content Organization Tips

Consider this as the first stage towards an effective teacher presentation. Before moving on to improving your verbal communication cues, let’s enhance first your presentation visuals and content.

Visual Tips

1. add powerpoint animations and different media.

Establishing an attractive slideshow is one of the keys to a successful presentation. This will put a good impression on your audience that you’re prepared just by seeing how well-designed your presentation is. Of course, images add to slideshow attraction, but consider adding another forms of media such as GIFs and videos, as well as animations! Microsoft PowerPoint has a lot of fun & captivating features that you may not be aware of. Check out this example of an easy yet appealing Slide Zoom trick in PowerPoint that you can add to your presentation to wow your audience.

@classpoint.io Did someone say FREE??? Yes, we did. Here are free websites to help you upgrade your next PowerPoint presentation! 😎 #powerpoint #presentation #design #studytok #edutok #tutorial #tipsandtricks #ai ♬ original sound – r & m <33

Read Next: Make Your Presentations POP With This PowerPoint Animation Template

2. Use Readable Font Styles

Make sure to use the best font style that makes your presentation look sleek, readable, and won’t strain your audience’s eyes while reading. We all want to use a fancy font, trust me, I get it. But most of the time, simplicity is beauty, especially if you’re presenting a professional-looking slideshow. Font styles such as Poppins, Tahoma, Verdana, Montserrat, and Helvetica are great examples of font styles that screams simple yet professional to look at.

On the other hand, font styles such as Bradley Hand, Comic Sans, and Chiller are not ideal choices as they are not meant to captivate your audience’s eyes. And another tip is to stick to two or three fonts only!

ClassPoint teacher presentation using 'Poppins' font

3. Use Relevant Graphics

Selecting graphics for designing your presentation depends on your audience and the goals you aim to achieve with the presentation. For example, if you are presenting in front of students and your goal is to keep them engaged, motivated, and actively participating, then you might consider incorporating charts, tables, and relevant shapes into your design.

It’s important to remember that your presentation design should align with the theme of your topic.

Free Websites to Upgrade your Presentation Graphics:

Craiyon. com
The Noun Project

4. Use Audience Engagement tools to Activate Learning

Want the quickest solution to an engaged audience? Well, it’s audience interactive activities! Adding interactive activities to your presentation can help keep your audience engaged and interested. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use ClassPoint, an audience engagement tool added right into PowerPoint presentations.

With ClassPoint, you no longer need to worry about strategies to keep your students engaged, as this tool transforms PowerPoint into a teacher presentation tool with a teacher toolbelt and student quizzes , polls, and games that make presentations more fun & engaging.

By combining ClassPoint with your presentation techniques, you can focus solely on setting up your lesson content in PowerPoint and allow ClassPoint to handle the rest for achieving a learning-activated presentation lesson .

🔍 Learn more about ClassPoint, the teacher add-in for better lessons & student engagement 👍

5. Use a Laser Pointer

Help focus your audience attention by using a laser pointer!

With the help of a laser pointer device, teachers are able to attract the attention of their audiences and concentrate on essential points in their presentations. Highlighting these main ideas and terms assists the speaker in organizing their speech, preventing distraction, and increasing retention of the information presented.

You can use a physical laser pointer & clicker, or with the addition of ClassPoint into PowerPoint, presenters can easily turn their cursor into a laser or a spotlight . This can make it even easier for students to follow along and is a convenient tool for creating a more captivating teacher presentation.

Secret tip: if you write on your slide with the laser, it will leave disappearing ink! 🪄

Content Tips

1. research and fact-check your presentation.

As educators, it is crucial to equip ourselves with reliable and accurate information before presenting to our students. We have a responsibility to not only educate them but to also mold them into critical thinkers who are equipped with factual knowledge. Without thorough fact-checking, we risk disseminating misinformation and hindering their intellectual growth.

To avoid such situations, we must prioritize research and fact-checking before presenting any information. Conducting research helps us not only in finding accurate information but also in ensuring that the sources we use are reliable and credible. Moreover, taking the time to fact-check demonstrates our commitment to providing students with high-quality education and the desire to create a safe and accurate learning environment.

2. Be Prepared to Anticipate Questions during the Presentation

It is important to be well-prepared for a presentation especially anticipating and addressing questions. This applies particularly to a teacher presentation, as educators face varied expectations and questions. Adequate preparation allows you to organize ideas and justifications, and it can deepen understanding, boost confidence, and improve adaptability. Addressing questions, makes your audiences feel heard and appreciated. This will result in comprehensive presentations, enhanced confidence, improved information flow, and an atmosphere of respect and understanding.

A great & visual way you can elaborate, or explain your material in new ways, is by using ClassPoint’s whiteboard tools added to PowerPoint. ClassPoint’s added toolbar presents teachers with unlimited whiteboard slides they can open whenever they need, and user-friendly yet comprehensive pen tools with available shapes, and text boxes. Plus you can also use ClassPoint’s quick poll or other question types to assess students’ understanding with hard data & insights.

Addressing questions well makes your audience or students feel heard & appreciated leading to improved learning, enhanced confidence, and a respectful, safe learning environment.

3. Provide an Outline Structure of your Content

When you are preparing your presentation, it is best to first create an effective outline structure that will guide your presentation flow and help you focus on the main learning objective. But what you may not be doing, is offering that outline structure to your students, but you should!

Providing students with a clear understanding of what this lesson is about, the structure of the lesson, and what they will be able to take away from it is important. By doing so, you can help students stay focused and follow along with the material. Additionally, you are setting expectations and ensuring that everyone is on the same page, which can help promote student autonomy. So, include an outline at the start of your presentation lesson.

Step-by-Step Strategies for a Successful Presentation

Before presentation, know your audience, your students, or observers.

Once you have completed your deck, you may want to add a guide script and any additional notes with important points you don’t want to forget or you want to highlight in your presentation to impress your students .

Practice your presentation delivery/lesson

Practice delivering your presentation give you a chance to fine-tune your content and get your facts down. This will help you become more comfortable with the material and identify areas that need improvement. You can practice in front of a mirror, record yourself and watch it back, or even rehearse with a colleague or friend. When practicing, pay attention to your posture, tone of voice, and pacing. By doing so, you’ll be able to deliver a confident and engaging presentation that will captivate your audience.

Use a friendly tone of voice and pace

Adjust your tone to match your message, and avoid speaking too quickly so that your audience will get the chance to absorb the information you’re sharing. By being mindful of these aspects, you will capture your audience’s attention and leave them feeling informed and inspired.

Use engaging body language

Body language is essential for engaging your audience during a presentation. Stand up straight, make eye contact, and use hand gestures to emphasize important points. You can also move around the classroom to keep your students’ attention. By using engaging body language, you’ll be able to convey your message more effectively and keep your students interested throughout the presentation. You’ve got this!

During Presentation

Create an icebreaker.

Having an icebreaker is a warm-up for your students’ brains, allowing you to focus and engage with the material being presented. It also helps break down any barriers or tension between the presenter and the audience, making for a more relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. Additionally, an icebreaker provides an opportunity for the presenter to showcase their creativity and personality, adding an extra level of excitement and engagement to the presentation.

Good thing that ClassPoint has numerous features to help you perform an entertaining and unforgettable icebreaker. Here are some examples that you can use during an icebreaker.

Quick Poll : Quick Poll allows you to create interactive polls right inside your presentation. When used as an icebreaker, it can engage the audience, initiate discussions, and provide valuable insights that help tailor the content to participants’ preferences.
Word Cloud: Presenters can ask thought-provoking questions related to the topic or general interest. Using Word Cloud, the audiences can answer through their mobile which can be instantly seen as collective responses, with the most frequently mentioned words appearing larger.
Short Answer : In short answer, you can challenge your audiences’ thought process in a short-form writing activity with no options to get from to test their ability to understand.
Image Upload : Using single image, audiences can interpret what they feel like, or their mood using only the photos in their gallery or surroundings. A creative yet fun way for an icebreaker!

Speak clearly

Effective communication is crucial when presenting important information to students. Speaking clearly helps ensure that students understand the concepts being taught and follow instructions effectively. As a teacher, it’s important to focus on clear speech to promote effective communication and help your students comprehend the material being presented.

Pay attention to your audience’s attention

Since distractions are aplenty, attention spans are dwindling, it’s important for presenters to captivate their audience’s attention right from the beginning. For teachers, when speaking in front of your class, you should not only focus on the content of your presentation but also on your students’ attention.

To ensure that your students won’t start drifting away or zoning out, start with a compelling opening that immediately grabs their attention. Use vivid storytelling, examples, or demonstrations to engage your students and drive home your message. Don’t forget the power of humor, and never be afraid to be yourself – authentic, passionate, and confident.

Add Personality: share short relatable stories

“A great personality makes everyone feel energized; just like a flower’s fragrance that freshens ups the complete surrounding.” 29 Personality Quotes to Achieve Greatness

As to what is stated in the quote, having a positive and vibrant personality affects the overall mood of your surrounding, it can capture the audience’s attention and maintain their interest throughout the presentation. While the ultimate goal is to deliver a presentation rich with new learnings and knowledge, adding humor can do no harm to lift up the mood in the room. You might want to start by segueing a short story that your students can relate to and make interactions by encouraging them to share a story too or ask questions.

Post-Presentation Reflection

Take the comments by heart.

Receiving feedback from your students is a great way for evaluating the efficacy of a teacher presentation. This can help you identify areas where you can improve and tailor your teaching tactics to better suit the needs of your students. Listening to your students’ feedback can also promote a feeling of cooperation and enable them to become more actively involved in the learning experience. So, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback and take it to heart in order to continually improve your presentations.

Experienced educators understand that they are perpetually crafting their skills, and feedback from their audience brings an opportunity for professional advancement. In addition, accepting audience feedback illustrates esteem and worth for the students’ views. It promotes a feeling of cooperation and enables students to become more actively involved in the learning experience.

Preparing for a presentation is essential for teachers to deliver engaging and impactful content to their students. By structuring thoughts, anticipating questions, and preparing ahead, teachers can achieve a well-organized presentation that will enhance the students’ understanding and leave them feeling confident.

By following our strategies and tips teachers can achieve successful lessons using PowerPoint presentations. And, with the help of an advanced educational technology tool like ClassPoint, teachers can create dynamic and memorable presentations that their students will enjoy and actively participate in.

Try out ClassPoint today and experience a whole teacher presentation in PowerPoint! ✨

About Dianne Adlawan

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7.4: Public Speaking and Class Presentations

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Learning Objectives

Know how to overcome nervousness and anxiety associated with public speaking and giving class presentations.
Effectively use the six-step process to prepare for and deliver a class presentation.
Create effective visual aids for use in class presentations.
Work with a group to successfully plan and deliver a class presentation.

Overcoming Anxiety

Understand anxiety. Since stage fright is normal, don’t try to deny that you’re feeling anxious. A little anxiety can help motivate you to prepare and do your best. Accept this aspect of the process and work to overcome it. Anxiety is usually worst just before you begin and but eases up once you’ve begun.
Understand that your audience actually wants you to succeed. They’re not looking for faults or hoping you’ll fail. Other students and your instructors are on your side, not your enemy. They likely won’t even see your anxiety.
Reduce anxiety by preparing and practicing. The next section discusses the preparation process in more detail. The more fully you prepare and the more often you have practice, the more your anxiety will go away.
Focus on what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it. Keep in mind that you have ideas to share, and this is what your classmates and instructors are interested in. Don’t obsess about speaking, but focus on the content of your presentation. Think, for example, of how easily you share your ideas with a friend or family member, as you naturally speak your mind. The same can work with public speaking if you focus on the ideas themselves.
Develop self-confidence. As you prepare, you will make notes you can refer to during the presentation. You’re not going to forget what you want to say. The more you practice, the more confident you’ll become.

Guidelines for Presentations

Preparing and delivering a presentation in class (or in business or other settings) is a process very similar to the learning process discussed in Chapter 4 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering”, Chapter 5 “Reading to Learn”, and Chapter 6 “Preparing for and Taking Tests” and the writing process discussed in Chapter 8 “Writing for Classes”. The process breaks down into these six basic steps:

Analyze your audience and goals
Plan, research, and organize your content
Draft and revise the presentation
Prepare speaking notes
Practice the presentation
Deliver the presentation

Step 1: Analyze Your Audience and Goals

Step 2: Plan, Research, and Organize Your Content

While researching your topic and outlining your main points, think about visual aids that may help the presentation.

Also start thinking about how much time you have for the presentation, but don’t limit yourself yet in the outline stage.

Step 3: Draft and Revise the Presentation

Never wait until the last minute to draft your presentation. Arrange your time to prepare the first draft and then come back to it a day or two later to ask these questions:

Am I going on too long about minor points? Could the audience get bored?
Do I have good explanations and reasons for my main points? Do I need more data or better examples? Where would visual aids be most effective?
Am I using the best words for this topic and this audience? Should I be more or less informal in the way I talk?
Does it all hold together and flow well from one point to the next? Do I need a better introduction or transition when I shift from one idea to another?

Visual Aids in Presentations

Charts or graphs
Photos or other images
Video clips
Handouts (only when necessary—they can be distracting)

Design your visuals carefully. Here are some basic rules:

Use a simple, neutral background. A light-colored background with text in a dark color works best for words; a dark background used like matting works best for photos.
Minimize the amount of text in visuals—more than eight words per slide is usually too much. Avoid simply presenting word outlines of what you are saying. Make sure text is large enough for the audience to read.
Don’t use more than two pictures in a slide, and use two only to make a direct comparison. Montages are hard to focus on and distract the viewer from what you’re saying. Use images only when they support your presentation; don’t use clip art just as decoration.
Don’t put a table of numbers in a visual aid. If you need to illustrate numerical data, use a graph. (Microsoft Excel can make them for you easily.)
Don’t use sound effects. Use a very brief recording only if directly related to your main points.
Don’t use visual special effects such as dissolves, spins, box-outs, or other transitions. They are distracting. Use animation sparingly and only if it helps make a point.
Don’t use so many visuals or move through them so quickly that the audience gives all its attention to them rather than to you.
Practice your presentation using your visual aids, because they affect your timing.
Explain visuals when needed but not when they’re obvious.
Keep your eyes on your audience, only briefly glancing at visuals to stay in synch with them.
Don’t hand out a printout of your visuals. Your audience should keep their eyes on you instead of fiddling around with paper.

Step 4: Prepare Speaking Notes

A striking fact or example (illustrating an issue or a problem)
A brief interesting or humorous anecdote (historical, personal, or current event)
A question to the audience
An interesting quotation

Then relate the opening to your topic and your main point and move into the body of the presentation.

Step 5: Practice the Presentation

Practice may be the most important step. It is also the best way to get over stage fright and gain confidence.

Try to speak in your natural voice, not in a monotone as if you were just reading aloud. If you will be presenting in a large room without a microphone, you will need to speak louder than usual, but still try to use a natural voice.
In usual conversation, we speed up and slow down and vary the intensity of our words to show how we feel about what we’re saying. Practice changes in your delivery style to emphasize key points.
Don’t keep looking at your notes. It’s fine if you use words that are different from those you wrote down—the more you rehearse without looking at your notes, the more natural sounding you will be.
Be sure you can pronounce all new words and technical terms correctly. Practice saying them slowly and clearly to yourself until you can say them naturally.
Don’t forget transitions. Listeners need a cue when you’re moving to a new idea. Practice phrases such as “ Another important reason for this is…” or “Now let’s move on to why this is so.…”
Watch out for all those little “filler” words people use so often, such as “like,” “you know,” “well,” and “uh.” They’re very distracting to most audiences. Listen to or watch your tape to see if you are using these fillers or ask your friend to point it out.
Pay attention to body language when practicing. Stand up straight and tall in every practice session so that you become used to it. Unless you have to stand at a podium to use a fixed microphone in your presentation, practice moving around while you speak; this helps keep the audience watching you. Use hand and arm gestures if they are natural for you, but don’t try to make up gestures for the presentation because they will look phony. Most important, keep your eyes moving over the audience. Practice smiling and pausing at key points.
Finally, it’s a good idea to be ready in case of an accident. Most likely your presentation will go smoothly, you’ll stay on track with your notes, and your PowerPoint slides will work fine, but sometimes a mishap happens. Be ready to joke about it, rather than becoming flustered. If the computer fails and you lose your visuals, say something like, “Well, that’s a shame, I had some really great photos to show you!” If you drop your index cards or notes, or accidentally skip ahead in your presentation and then have to backtrack, make a joke: “Sorry about that, I was so excited to get to my next point that I’m afraid I lost control there for a moment!” Let your audience laugh with you—they’ll still be on your side, and you can defuse the incident and move on without becoming more nervous.

Step 6: Deliver the Presentation

You may use computerized visual aids when you give a presentation to a class.

John Haynes Photography – OLPC – CC BY-ND 2.0.

Later on, ask other students and your instructor for comments. Be open minded—don’t just ask for praise. If you hear a suggestion for improvement, file that in your memory for next time.

Group Presentations

Schedule a group meeting as soon as possible to get started. Don’t let another student put things off. Explain that you’re too busy and won’t have time at the last minute.
Begin by analyzing your audience and your goals together as a group to make sure everyone understands the assignment the same. Discuss who should do what. While everyone should talk about what content to include, from here onward, you will take on specialized roles. One or more may begin research and gathering information. Others who are good writers may volunteer to draft the presentation, while one or more others may develop the visual aids. Those who have public speaking experience may volunteer to do all or most of the speaking (unless the assignment requires everyone to have a speaking role). You also need a team leader to keep everyone on schedule, organize meetings, and so on. The best team leader is an even-tempered student with good social skills, who can motivate everyone to cooperate.
Steps 2 and 3 can likely be carried out individually with assigned tasks, but group members should stay in touch. For example, the person developing the visuals should be talking to those doing the researching and drafting to see what visuals are needed and get started finding or creating them.
Before preparing notes in step 4, meet again to go over the content and plan for visuals. Everyone should be comfortable with the plan so far. Make final decisions about who will do each section of the presentation. Set the time for each segment. Then speakers should prepare their own speaking notes. Let someone with strong speaking skills open or close the presentation (or both), with others doing the other parts.
The whole group should be present for practice sessions in step 5, even if not everyone is speaking. Those not speaking should take notes and give feedback. If one student is doing most of the presenting, an alternate should be chosen in case the first choice is sick on the scheduled day. The alternate also needs to practice.
During the delivery, especially if using technology for visual aids, one student should manage the visuals while others do the presenting. If several students present different segments, plan the transition from one to another so that the presentation keeps flowing without pauses.

Additional Resources

For Class Presentations

Using PowerPoint. A step-by-step illustrated tutorial for learning how to create effective visual presentations with PowerPoint. https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/powerpoint/

“How to Give a Bad Talk.” A humorous look (with some very good advice) on what not to do when preparing for and giving a class presentation. http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~pattrsn/talks/BadTalk.pdf

In this presentation, take note of

how students make good eye contact with the audience;
the first student’s natural speaking voice and tone, and how she did not have to use her note cards very often (obviously she practiced well);
some differences among these students;
the use of PowerPoint slides within the presentation (some better than others);
the appropriate occasional use of humor;
the division of presentation responsibilities within the student group;
each presenter’s interaction with the audience.

Key Takeaways

Public speaking skills are important because you will likely give presentations in class and perhaps in a future job.
Overcome anxiety about public speaking by understanding your feelings, preparing well and practicing your delivery, and focusing on your subject.

Follow a six-step process to prepare and deliver a presentation:

Deliver the presentation and seek feedback
Use visual aids to support a presentation, creating visuals that are relevant, attractive, and powerful.
The success of a group presentation depends on effective group meetings, successful division of roles, and repeated group practices.

Checkpoint Exercises

If you have given a class presentation in the past, what worked best for you? (If you have not given a presentation yet as a student, what aspect do you think will be most difficult for you?)

__________________________________________________________________

Name the two most important things you can do to reduce anxiety about a class presentation you will have to give.

For each of the following statements about class presentations, circle T for true or F for false:

Describe how best to use body language (facial expressions, eye movements, gestures, etc.) when giving a presentation.

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Reduce stress and increase success – How to present in front of class

Learning how to prepare for a presentation for class is a key part of a college education. Here are 10 tips for presenting in class used by the pros!

Feeling nervous after being asked to present in front of the class? You’re not alone. Sleepless nights, stress, and anxiety are common symptoms of stress and, if left unchecked, can impact your performance. The good news is that giving a presentation in class is a skill that anyone can learn, and practice makes perfect. Learning how to prepare for a presentation for class is a key part of a college education, and we’re here to make it easier. Here are 10 evidence-based ways to reduce stress and increase success when presenting in front of the class.

BLOG_how present in front class BODY POINT 6-1

10 tips for presenting in class

Nerves are the enemy of an excellent presentation, so we need to find ways to fight back. The more stressed we are, the less information we can remember – causing our brains to fog up. The reality is that stress is part of life, and we all need to find ways to cope with it. Here are some proven strategies on how to do a presentation in front of the class.

#1 Eat healthy, sleep well, and avoid caffeine ☕️

You'll want to ensure you're well-fed, well-rested, and relaxed for your presentation. Try and eat healthily, avoid alcohol the night before (and definitely on the day), and exercise to get your endorphins up. Some people find that mindfulness and relaxation techniques can help manage anxiety. Definitely swap your caffeinated coffee, soda, or energy drink for something else. It may give us a boost, but it can increase anxiety by 300%, a study found.

#2 Use positive visualization 🧠

Visualization involves playing over your presentation in your mind, imagining how you will smash it. Scientists have shown that visualization can create new neural pathways that prime your brain for success. Seeing really is believing.

#3 Start with a joke (or make people smile) 😆

Great speakers – even those talking about the most challenging subjects – start by making the audience smile. One of the best tips for presenting to class is to begin with a well-rehearsed icebreaker. Seeing a room full of smiling faces should help put you at ease. It also builds trust in your audience that you will be relaxed, informal, and funny when presenting in front of the class.

#4 Invite a friend, study friend, or family member 👯

Looking across an audience of any size can be daunting, so when presenting in front of the class, focus on a friendly face. For example, you can invite a friend, study friend, or family member. Focus on them as you deliver your presentation. As long as you’re looking at the audience directly, not staring down at your papers, you’ll deliver a great presentation.

#5 Make presentations interactive ⭐️

One of the main reasons people hate presentations is the thought of hundreds of pairs of eyes trailing on you. The solution? Get them looking at a screen, listening to sounds, asking questions, and playing a part! Avoid ending up with another uninspired slide deck that bores the room. Doing something different will grab attention and take the focus away from you.

#6 Study, study, study 🚀

Most of us aren't born full of confidence; we build it up over time – and that comes from experience and knowledge. One of the best tips for presenting a presentation in class is to have total mastery of your subject. One reason we're afraid to give presentations is the fear of losing our place or looking silly. The answer to this is to study more. Put in the hours researching your subject from reliable sources, and you'll have the confidence to deliver a presentation and back it up in Q&A sessions.

#7 Learn from the experts 👀

TED Talks have transformed how we think about presentations. They're interactive, fun, short, and engaging. One great tip for giving better presentations is to analyze the techniques used in TED Talks (and by other professional public speakers). Watch how they interact with the audience and tell a story. Learn how they command the physical space and inspire confidence in the audience. Then remind yourself that these people were all like you once. If they can learn these skills, so can you. Don’t be afraid to copy them.

#8 Tell a story 📕

As humans, we love a story. The narratives we create have a start, a journey, and an ending. When thinking about how to do a presentation in class, consider the journey you want to take your audience on. Of course, you’ll want to share information, but the best presentations are engaging and trigger emotions. Use your subject matter knowledge to surprise and excite your audience. Case studies and real-life examples can bring any presentation to life. Find great facts, surprising insights, and inspiring stories.

#9 Practice Your Presentation 🗣

It sounds obvious, but it's critical that you practice your presentation before delivering it. Try to replicate the environment as best you can. If you're standing up in front of a class, do so at home. If you're on a videoconference, get some friends and family to dial in and do a run-through. The more times you run through the presentation, the more confident you will be. You'll also be able to track timings and iron out technical issues. If you're feeling brave, capture the video on your smartphone and identify areas to improve.

#10 S-L-O-W down (and leave gaps) ⏳

When we’re nervous, we all speak faster than normal. While your well-practiced presentation may have taken 30 minutes at home, you can rattle through it in 20 in front of a crowd. The lesson here is to slow down, take your time, and leave gaps. If you’ve studied the pros, you’ll see they always leave a pause after each statement or sentence for the audience to process it. Great speakers, like former President Obama, have honed this into an art form. His laid-back delivery and mastery of his brief shine through, and even those who didn’t like what he said respected how he said it. If you're worried about pausing, write a cue card and leave it on the desk. This can prompt you to pause, grab a sip of water, and prepare to deliver your next point.

Remember: Everyone wants you to do well

Fear of failure is the cause of nerves, stress, and anxiety. But always remember, everyone in the audience wants you to do well. They’re interested enough to attend your presentation, so focus on informing, engaging, and entertaining them. You'll quickly learn that presentations aren't something to fear but a challenge to overcome. And trust us, the more you do, the easier it becomes. So while you may never enjoy giving presentations, you'll learn it's nothing to be afraid of.

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How to Present a Presentation in Class?

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How to Give a Presentation in Class as a College Student

We all have given presentations at some point in our lives. But for students, presentations play an important role, be it during a seminar or an important event. If you are wondering how to give a presentation in class, then don't worry; this blog will help you stand out in the classroom. Stick to the end to understand how to present a presentation in class and make an everlasting impression on your audience. Let's get started!

What is a Presentation?

In simple terms, a presentation is a way of communicating an idea to an audience by speech, slideshow, or other visual aids. Presentations are used in academic settings like colleges and schools and even professional settings like the workplace. An effective presentation should be well-structured, engaging, and tailored to the needs of the audience. It should include an introduction, a main body and a conclusion, as well as nonverbal cues like body language and tone of voice.

Components of a Presentation

Your final grade isn't based just on a few multiple-choice exams. Instead, it will combine assignments, exams, and presentations. This is why you need to know how to give a presentation in class if you want good grades at the end of your semester.

To know how to give a good presentation, you first need to know exactly what goes into making a presentation. This will include two main components - a visual element and a spoken element.

Visual elements

An essential aspect of how to present in class is visuals. If you're wondering how to create a presentation for the class that your peers and professor will love, here are a few important tips on how to give a presentation in class:

1. Keep it brief: Most well-made presentations can convey all the information you need in around 10-15 slides.

2. Use minimal text: Don't overcrowd your slides with information. If people are too busy reading, they won't pay attention to what you're saying.

3. Use relevant images: Your PPT's visuals should be catchy, but remember that they all need to serve a purpose.

4. Spoken elements: Spoken elements are the next essential thing in presenting a presentation in class. Most students have trouble with the spoken part of their presentations. If you want to know how to give a presentation in class that'll get you good grades, your speech needs to be well-polished.

How to Start Your Presentation?

If you want to know how to give a presentation in class as a student, you must first learn how to write a good speech.

1. Use a good hook: The start of your speech should get the attention of your audience right away and pique their interest.

2. Use some humor: Speeches are a way for you to showcase some personality. A spoken assignment gives you the freedom to be a little creative and better engage your audience.

3. Complement your visuals: Your speech needs to be informative and convey all the information you worked so hard to prepare.

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How to Give a Presentation in Class?

Now that you have a fair understanding of a good presentation, we'll give you some tips on how to give a presentation in class that will help you make an impact and earn you the highest grade. Here are some tips on how to present in class that you can use before the big day:

1. Introduce Yourself

It's a given that when you begin a presentation, you must introduce yourself with your name and offer a little background information to the audience. You can tell a bit about yourself and what your presentation is about. This will help you establish yourself as an expert in your domain.

2. Build Rapport with your Audience

The next step in preparing a presentation in class is building a good rapport with your audience. Be yourself and genuinely try to connect with your audience. Research what the audience wants, smile often, and look at your audience while speaking. If there's time before your presentation, engage them in small talk.

3. Know your Content Well

The next essential point on how to do a PowerPoint presentation for class is understanding your content well. You must have a good understanding of the content that you are presenting. If you don't understand what you're trying to say, how will your audience? Test out your presentation on some friends to ensure that your content is understandable to someone who isn't too familiar with the topic, so you can ensure that your classmates and professor can easily understand your content.

4. Start with a Story

The presentation starting lines for students should always start with a short story to make it more interesting and relevant to your audience. This is the next important thing on how to give a presentation in class. Try to keep the story short, under one minute, and use humour or thought-provoking ideas. A personal touch to the story can enrich it, too.

5. Organize your PPT

Organizing your presentation is also an essential element of giving a good class presentation. Make sure to put short and minimal content in your PPT and add good visuals, too. If you want to know how to give a presentation in class that will get you an A, remember to create a well-structured PPT and use these best PowerPoint presentation tips .

6. Engage your Audience

Keeping the session interactive is another essential part of presenting a presentation in class. Keep your presentation engaging by asking questions, conducting a fun activity, sharing examples related to your topic, or using humour to make your audience interested and attentive.

7. Speak Slowly and Clearly

While you're giving your speech, make sure that you speak slowly and clearly; it's the next important thing in giving an excellent presentation. When nervous, people tend to speak fast. Speaking slowly and clearly allows you to be more audible to your audience.

8. Manage your Time

Managing your time is an essential aspect of presenting in class. Understand the time you require to present and adjust the length of your content accordingly. You can do this by practising multiple times while keeping track of your time. Try to avoid an incomplete and rushed presentation. Instead, aim to have a concise and well-delivered one.

9. Create a Visually Appealing Presentation

The other important thing about preparing a PowerPoint presentation for class is making the most of visuals. Visual aids like slideshows, charts, and graphs should be used strategically to reinforce the main points, engage the audience, and improve the presentation's delivery. Avoid cluttering your slides with extra information.

10. Maintain Good Eye Contact with the Audience

Another important aspect of giving a presentation in class is maintaining eye contact. Good eye contact will help you build rapport with your audience, improve your concentration, become more confident, and facilitate engagement.

11. Dress Properly

Your appearance has a huge impact on the audience's perception of your presentation. Make sure that you are dressed appropriately, your outfit is comfortable and doesn't distract the audience from your message. So make sure of the dressing part on how to present a presentation.

12. End on a Strong Note

Ending your presentation on a strong note is also an essential part of the presentation process in class. In the end, summarize everything, address everyone's questions, if any, and thank your audience.

13. Seek Feedback

The next essential thing about presenting a presentation in class is seeking feedback. It is always a good practice to ask for feedback from your professor or classmates. It helps identify areas that you can improve upon for future presentations. It also shows your open-mindedness, as you are open to constructive criticism of your work.

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Creative presentation ideas.

If you're wondering how to give a presentation in class, but the typical PowerPoint slides and speech combination seems to be boring, there are a few different presentation styles you could try on how to present in class:

1. Video Presentation

A video presentation is a great way to pack as many visuals as you want into your presentation while still keeping your audience engaged. If you really want to go all out, you can even try out some timed speeches to complement specific parts of your video.

2. Interactive Presentation

You can fill your presentation with short quizzes or audience opinions to get the entire class involved in your presentation. This could be a fun way to lift everyone's spirits and ensure your presentation stays in their minds even when they leave the classroom.

3. Prop-filled Presentation

If you want to go the extra mile, you can bring in physical visual aids, another essential thing in how to do PowerPoint presentations in class to supplement your presentation. Incorporating props into your presentation shows an extra level of planning, creativity, and effort that your audience will appreciate.

Public Speaking Tips for Students

So, your speech is written, and it's great! But that's only half the battle—your delivery is just as important. If the thought of public speaking makes you feel weak in the knees, try these public speaking tips, another essential thing for students to know about presenting in class.

1. Record Yourself Practising

On how to present a presentation in class, the first tip is to record yourself. Listening to yourself speak helps you better understand where you can improve your delivery at different points. Once you know how you're going to sound in front of an audience, you can take the pressure off your final presentation.

2. Practice in Front of Friends & Family

The next tip on how to present in class is practice. To get comfortable with the idea of speaking in front of a crowd, practice with your friends or family. The people closest to you are often your harshest critics, so if you can handle them, you can handle anything.

3. Prepare for the Worst

When thinking about how to give a presentation in class, always be prepared for the worst. Preparing for the worst is an important part of presenting in class. Try to keep a backup in mind in case anything goes wrong, like the audio not working or the slides stopping.

4. Breathe and Do a Self Talk Before the Presentation

Next on how to present in class, is doing deep breathing exercises and talking to yourself before a presentation. Say motivating and inspiring things to yourself, or you can do mantra-based rituals where you can say things like "I'm here to give, not receive." Do use these tips on how to calm down before a presentation .

5. Memorise Key Points

Most people fear getting up on stage and forgetting everything they have prepared. To ensure that doesn't happen, memorize the key points related to your whole content. This is another essential tip on how to present a presentation in class.

Things to Not Do During a Presentation?

Now that you know what you should do, here are a few things you definitely should NOT do. If you want to know how to give a presentation in class, do not make these rookie mistakes while you're presenting.

1. Reading from your Slides

Professors have to see dozens of students' presentations every day, and the last thing they want to see is a boring presentation with someone reading off of their slides. So, the first thing to avoid on how to present in class is reading from slides. Slides are a visual aid and should NOT be used as cue cards.

2. Avoiding Eye Contact

Make as much eye contact with your audience as possible. This is an essential part of giving a presentation in class. Do not look at your shoes or keep glancing at your slides. Maintaining eye contact shows confidence and will keep your audience engaged in your speech.

3. Speaking Too Fast

The next thing to avoid when presenting in class is speaking too fast. Don't rush through your words because that will make you come across as underconfident and reduce your volume. Keep a consistent pace throughout, and you'll get through your speech in no time!

4. Exceeding Time Limit

Don't exceed your time limit. Another thing to avoid when doing a PowerPoint presentation for class is overextending yourself, as people might have other things to attend to. Also, sitting too long through a presentation may cause your audience to lose attention.

5. Overcrowding PPT with Text

The next thing to avoid when presenting in class is making your PPT verbose. Too much text makes your presentation look bad, and your audience might have to put in a lot of effort to read the content.

That was our detailed guide on how to give a presentation in class as a college student. We know we've packed in a lot of information, but if you break everything down step by step, it's all incredibly simple. If you follow all our tips on how to present in class, we can ensure that you'll give a killer presentation! Before you start creating your presentation, make sure you check our blog for the best PowerPoint presentation tips . Also, check out the top 8 presentation tools for students.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to structure a presentation, how do you introduce yourself in a presentation, what is a fun way to start a presentation, how can i make my presentation more engaging, what is the 10 20 30 rule, what is the 666 rule in presentation, which text is best in presentation.

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10 Effective Class Presentation Tips for College Students

Giving a presentation to your classmates can be a bit challenging, especially if you are new to visual or oral presentations or fear public speaking.

However, class presentations foster an excellent opportunity for students to enhance their public speaking skills while broadening their perception and understanding of a particular subject matter.

Also, the presentation provides a platform for students to connect with peers, professionals, and potential employers.

By showcasing their skills and knowledge, they can build relationships and establish themselves as a better performer in their field.

While presentation helps students to expand their horizons of knowledge and skills, beginners may be slightly concerned about where to start and how to master it.

Worry not! Here, we discuss the best presentation tips for students for a flawless delivery of the subject.

10 Handy Presentation Tips for College Students

Effective delivery of a presentation requires efficient presentation techniques and exceptional presentation abilities.

The following tips for presenting in class help students strengthen their public speaking skills, empowering them to effectively communicate their message or information to the audience.

1. Overcome Presentation Anxiety

While it is quite common to feel anxious before the presentation, it won’t allow you to deliver a presentation confidently.

There are several reasons why students fear public speaking, including, worrying about committing a mistake, lack of experience, losing control, or what if their audience dislikes their speech.

Nevertheless, don’t worry, as you can overcome your presentation anxieties with the following techniques:

Prepare and practice your topic thoroughly.
Just focus on the message you want to convey to your audience.
Be open to feedback and criticism from others.
Have a mindset that you are going to make it.
Practice deep breathing to keep your mind calm and composed.

2. Learn the Art of Public Speaking

Learning and getting used to public speaking can help students feel more confident and comfortable in delivering their message to the audience.

Also, it helps them to structure their thoughts and use perfect language to convey their content crisp and clean while engaging their audience.

There are several ways for students to learn public speaking skills, including:

Online platforms and courses
Local resources (community clubs, associations, etc.)
Public speaking workshops
Watching experienced public speakers and observing their techniques

Also Read: 17 Best Advice for College Students from Experts .

3. Craft Compelling Content

A robust opening statement sets the tone for the entire student presentation, helping you grab your audience’s attention.

Ensure to develop a clear, concise, and thoughtful opening statement that talks about what the presentation is about and how it helps everyone out there.

Moving on, your body content is the heart of your presentation, and that is what is going to keep your audience in the loop while conveying your ideas and thoughts.

So, it should be well-structured, engaging, and easy to follow. Here’s how you can devise engaging content:

Create a strong opening and ending statement with a powerful quote, thought-provoking question, or intriguing scenario.
Clearly and precisely define your topic and its significance.
Conduct in-depth research that is backed with statistical data or real-time stories.
Organize your content with slides and images.

4. Add Engaging Visuals

Rather than constantly scrolling the loads of information, it is better to use visuals to engage your audience while helping them comprehend and retain complex matters and building emotional connections with them.

Tips for slideshow presentations:

Use simple yet high-quality images.
Add contrast and pleasing colors to make your slides look good.
Incorporate snippets to support your visuals.
Keep your slides consistent in terms of layout and design.
Choose easy-to-follow fonts and numbers.
Add data, icons, and infographics for illustration.

5. Balance Information and Entertainment

Adding humor to a presentation is a way to engage and connect with your audience more personally.

It can help relieve tension, break the silence/drowsy state of mind, and make complex or dry information more perceivable during class presentation.

Also, it helps keep your presentation memorable for a long time. Here is how you can add humor to your presentation:

Know your audience and tailor your humor accordingly.
Use humorous analogies, cartoons, catchphrases, or your own experiences.
Try not to hurt others while using humor.
You can make fun of everyday situations or activities, so people can relate with them.

6. Time Management in Class Presentation

Time management is one of the best tips for presenting in class. Starting and finishing your presentation in a predefined time frame is important.

It helps you to convey your message precisely and effectively without disrupting the flow of the presentation and making it difficult for the audience to follow along.

To manage your class presentation time, here are some presentation tips for students:

Practice beforehand to know the required time.
If you are going beyond the allotted time, cut short your content, delivering the most important points.
Use visuals to quickly deliver messages.
Use a timer to know that you are nearing the end.

7. Real-Life Examples

Listening to successful presentations helps you learn new techniques and gain insights on how to give better presentations. You can take note of key elements used, gestures followed, and eye contact made.

Also, you can study the agenda of the presentation, like how it is structured, what topics are discussed, how properly visuals and icons are used, etc.

Besides, you can pay attention to the language and tonality of the speaker to see how they used humor, stories, and emotional phrases to connect with audiences.

Considering these insights, you can prepare your topic and present it flawlessly.

8. Take Peer Review and Feedback

Feedback is a way to learn where you lag and how you can improve further to build your credibility, professional knowledge and image.

By receiving feedback from peers, you can identify blind spots, fragile areas, and how your content is perceived by others, enabling you to refine your work, address weaknesses, and develop new skills.

Moreover, this presentation tip can strengthen your relationships with your peers while helping you present better every time.

Also Read: Tips for Building Professional Relationships in College .

9. Stay Elegant and Attractive with Your Attire

What you wear and how you wear it matters when it comes to presenting in front of the public.

The clothes you wear can greatly impact how your audience perceives you and your message. So, ensure to present yourself properly and professionally to attract your audience.

Here is how to dress up for class presentations:

Keep your outfits simple, comfortable, and elegant.
Avoid flashy colors and designs.
Choose outfits according to the environment and temperature.
Get your outfits properly stitched with the right fit.
Choose the right and soothing footwear.

10. Post-Presentation Reflection

Reviewing your past presentations can help drag strengths and areas for growth, which can help you make informed decisions and optimize your performance.

For example, by analyzing your performance, you can assess what works well and what doesn't. This involves identifying areas for improvement concerning the use of visuals, snippets, icons, infographics, etc.

Knowing these can help you make targeted improvements to enhance your future presentations.

Wrapping Up

A successful class presentation in college is vital for students’ academic and professional journey.

It helps students develop valuable skills that will serve them in their future careers and provides them with an opportunity to showcase their knowledge and ideas to a wider audience.

By mastering the art of presentation, students can set themselves apart from their peers and position themselves for success in their chosen careers.

So, use the above-mentioned presentation tips for students to speak more confidently, sharing your thoughts and ideas.

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Tags: Class Presentation Tips Class Presentation Tips for College Students college tips presentation tips

EXPLORE Random Article

How to Give an Excellent Presentation (College Students)

Last Updated: March 3, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 86% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 128,756 times.

College seminars are conducted to test the presentation skills of a student or a group and also allow the student to convey their knowledge to the audience. When students don't come prepared, the presentation may become disorganized, unclear, and dull. It would make them confused during the presentation and lead to vague answers during the questionnaires.

Think of your main topic and break it down into 3 specific ideas. This will help you to focus your discussion and remain clear. Keep the 3 ideas simple and have them in your mind. Write out your main points, then picture what you're talking about so you can visualize what you're going to talk about.
To help you create the "soft humor," don't take yourself too seriously. Second, identify the fears and insecurities around the topic so you can address these in a way that shows we all have these fears, insecurities and taboos and that our feelings are normal. This helps keep you in the moment and present with the audience and allows you to recognize the reality of the effect of your topic on yourself and the audience.
Tell the audience you're excited about what you're talking about. This can make your excited mood infectious and lead them to be willing to come on this journey with you.

You could try doing something fun, like bringing with you a relevant object, doing a magic trick or a dance move to take things out of the ordinary and add some life to your talk.
Another fun approach is to try a meditation and ask the audience to relax - feel your toes relax, your feet, etc.
If you want the audience to move around, don't hesitate to ask. Ask them to stand up and stretch, to shake hands with the person next to them, or to do a twirl on the spot.
You could try asking the audience to say a bunch of affirmations out loud with you, to get them caught up in the mood you're creating and help them to see its relevance to them too.

Step 4 Look at the audience when you are talking about the topic.

You can ask the audience to imagine something along with you, asking them to close their eyes and think about something with you, then resume with eye contact following this.

What Is The Best Way To Start a Presentation?

Community Q&A

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Use images in your slides. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
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Effective Communication in the Classroom

Why is It Important?

In a student-centered classroom, the instructor should not be speaking all of the time. However, when you are speaking, students count on you to: provide clarity by highlighting key ideas; elaborate on difficult concepts; and provide clear instructions for in-class activities. These messages should be backed up by appropriate visual aids that reinforce what you are talking about: board work, slides, and/or handouts.

In-class communication can be thought of as consisting of verbal, vocal, and visual channels.

Verbal channel

The verbal channel relates to word choice: the same content or point can be delivered in different ways using different words. Those differences in delivery affect how students comprehend and engage with the material.

The verbal channel can clarify and reinforce course content by:

Defining and using discipline-specific vocabulary.
Verbally outlining your presentation. Verbal indicators can signal transitions between ideas, helping students make connections to their prior knowledge and experiences, follow along, and organize their notes.

The verbal channel can also be used to send growth messages and create an inclusive classroom. For example, the way you respond to students’ questions and incorrect answers can be an opportunity to create a warm classroom climate but are often not something we consider rehearsing.

When a student asks a question:

Try to call on them by name. This will help to create a sense of belonging.
Thank them for their question to motivate them to ask questions again in the future.
If a question is common, say so. This will help the student see that others’ have needed clarification on this point as well.

If you pose a question and a student responds with an incorrect answer:

Thank the student for responding.
If the student’s response is in line with a common error, say so, so they do not feel alone in their misunderstanding.
Ask the student about the process that they used to come up with the answer to better understand where they made a misstep. This emphasizes process over product and also teaches good troubleshooting strategies.
If a student’s answer is partially correct, ask another student to add on or clarify the response.

Certain verbal phrases can detract from a presentation by being distracting, signaling a lack of instructor preparation, or by making students feel insecure in their ability to succeed in the course.

We all use some filler phrases habitually, and we should strive to minimize them. However, over-focusing on avoiding filler phrases can distract from a clear presentation. The best strategy is to practice avoiding filler phrases when rehearsing a lecture, but when actually teaching to focus on communicating with the students.

Vocal channel

The vocal channel includes aspects of speech such as volume, pacing, and tone. The vocal channel can be used to draw students attention and convey enthusiasm.

Visual channel

The visual channel includes all visual aids that support your message, including you (!), anything that you write on the board, project on the projector, or distribute as a handout.

Your physical appearance—posture, attire, expressions—are all part of your presentation and affect how students listen to you and receive your message. Here are some ways your appearance affects your presentation:

Presence/Position/Posture : standing up straight conveys confidence and authority.
Eye contact : helps you connect with your audience and keep your students engaged. You may tend to focus your gaze on a particular side of the classroom. Consciously make eye contact in a “W” pattern across the room.
Movement : too much movement can be distracting, but well-timed movements emphasize key points or physically signal a transition between points – reinforce the information you’re presenting.

Plan what you will actually write on the board so you can make sure it’s organized, large, and legible. If you have limited experience writing on the board, try to practice in the room in which you will be teaching. You may be surprised at how large you have to write so that it is legible from the back of the room.

At MIT, most classrooms are outfitted with multiple, movable boards. Visit your classroom in advance to know the layout of the boards and use this information in your planning. For example, with movable boards, consider the order in which you will fill them to maximize the amount of information students can see at any given point. Students will want to write down everything that you write on the board.

Practice drawing important schematics. If a schematic is necessary but challenging to draw, consider supplementing your board work with a slide, which can also be distributed to students as a handout. Consider using color to highlight ideas, group items, or add clarity to diagrams.

Slide design

The digital nature of slides makes it easy to include more information than students can process on them. In general, try to keep the mantra of “less is more” in mind to reduce the likelihood of cognitive overload and including extraneous information.

When creating slides, words and images are better than words alone. Relevant images can help to support and clarify your message. That said, there are times when images may not be appropriate and you just need to use text. In these cases, summarize the ideas using phrases and avoid full sentences on your slide.

Simple animations of having bullets appear in a synchronized manner with your oration will help to reduce cognitive overload and help students stay focused on what you are saying. Key ideas can also be highlighted by using bolding and color.

Managing Nerves

Stage fright is natural. Almost everyone gets some degree of stage fright. Below are some things you can do at different stages of your preparation to minimize the effects of stage fright.

While preparing for class

Acknowledge your fears by writing them down or sharing them with a friend or a trusted colleague. This will help you identify specific things you can practice to reduce your nerves.
Practice your presentation. Try to make your practice as realistic as possible: practice in your assigned classroom with an audience of friends, colleagues, or a video camera.

Shortly before class

Warm up your body by stretching, walking around, and standing up straight.
Do breathing exercises to warm up your vocal cords and to regulate your breathing.
Drink water to stay hydrated.
Use relaxation or meditation resources to reduce nerves, like the MIT Community Wellness Relaxation Line, 617-253-2256 (CALM)

During class

Use pauses to give yourself a chance to breathe and think. You can use longer pauses between major ideas or during active learning exercises to get a drink of water from your water bottle.
If you find your speech rushing, try taking a longer pause after your next point. Take a couple of deep breaths and get comfortable with silence to reset your rate of speech.
If you find yourself pacing or moving a lot, try planting your feet or putting your hands on a table or podium (if it doesn’t ruin your posture) to ground yourself. Once you’ve reset, give yourself more freedom to move around the room and interact with your students.

Additional resources

Mit school of engineering communication lab.

The Communication Lab is a discipline-specific peer-coaching program for MIT’s School of Engineering that helps graduate students with their scientific writing, speaking, and visual design.

MIT Writing and Communication Center

MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing offers innovative programs that apply critical analysis, collaborative research, and design across a variety of media arts, forms, and practices.

Our Mission

How a Simple Presentation Framework Helps Students Learn

Explaining concepts to their peers helps students shore up their content knowledge and improve their communication skills.

A few years ago, my colleague and I were awarded a Hawai‘i Innovation Fund Grant. The joy of being awarded the grant was met with dread and despair when we were informed that we would have to deliver a 15-minute presentation on our grant write-up to a room full of educational leaders. If that wasn’t intimidating enough, my colleague informed me that he was not going to be in Hawai‘i at the time of the presentation. I had “one shot,” just a 15-minute presentation to encapsulate all of the 17 pages of the grant I had cowritten, but how?

I worked hard to construct and deliver a presentation that was concise yet explicit. I was clear on the big picture of what the grant was composed of and provided a visual of it in practice. I made sure the audience understood the “why” behind the grant. I showed how it worked, the concrete elements of it, and how they made it successful. I finished with a scaffold that would help others know how to initiate it within their context, giving them the freedom to make it authentically their own.

I received good feedback from the presentation, and more important, what was shared positively impacted student learning in other classrooms across the state.

A Simple Framework for Presentations

That first presentation took me over a month to prepare, but afterward I noticed that my prep time for presentations shrank exponentially from a few months to a few (uninterrupted) days. Interestingly enough, as a by-product of creating the original presentation, I created an abstract framework that I have used for every professional learning presentation I have delivered since then. The “What, Why, How, and How-To” framework goes as follows:

What? What can the audience easily connect to and know as a bridge to the unknown for the rest of the experience?
Why? Why should they care to listen to (and learn from) the rest of the presentation? What’s in it for them to shift from passive listeners to actively engaged? The audience needs to know why you believe in this so much that you are compelled to share it.
How? What are the key elements that make it unique? How is it effective in doing what it does? What are the intricacies of how it works?
How-to? How could they start doing this on their own? How could this knowledge serve as a foundational springboard? Connect it to “why.”

Benefits for Students

One of the best parts of presentations is that they help the presenter to improve their communication skills. The presenter is learning how to give a presentation by doing it. To prepare a presentation, the presenter must know the intricate elements of what they are presenting and the rationale for their importance. In the presentation delivery, the presenter must be articulate and meticulous to ensure that everyone in the audience is able (and willing) to process the information provided.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that preparing and delivering presentations could provide a valuable learning opportunity for my students.

I recall teaching mathematical concepts whereby students would immediately apply knowledge learned to accomplish the task in silence and without any deeper questioning. Only after I asked them to provide presentations on these concepts did they regularly ask me, “Why is this important, again?” or “What makes this so special?” My students’ mathematical literacy grew through preparing presentations with the “What, Why, How, and How-To” framework, which supported them in their ability to demonstrate content knowledge through mathematical rigor (balancing conceptual understanding, skills and procedural fluency, and real-world application).

The “what” served as the mathematical concept.
The “why” demonstrated the real-world application of the concept.
“The “how” demonstrated conceptual understanding of the concept.
The “how-to” demonstrated skills and procedures of the concept.

In addition to content knowledge, the sequential competencies of clarity, cohesiveness, and captivation ensured that the presenter could successfully share the information with their audience. When combined, these framed a rubric that supported students in optimizing their presentation deliveries. The competencies are as follows:

1. Content knowledge. The presenter must display a deep understanding of what they are delivering in order to share the “what, why, how, and how-to” of the topic.

2. Clarity. The presenter must be clear with precise, academic language. As the content they deliver may be new to the audience, any lack of clarity will alienate the audience. Providing multiple modes of representation greatly addresses a variety of processing needs of a diverse audience.

3. Cohesiveness. When making clear connections, the presenter bridges gaps between each discrete component in how they all work together as integral elements of the topic. Any gaps too large may make the elements look disjointed or, worse, the audience feel lost.

4. Captivation. The presenter must captivate the audience through any combination of audience engagement or storytelling . They make the presentation flow with the energy of a song , and in the end, they leave the audience with a delicate balance of feeling fulfilled and inspired to learn more.

Anyone can build an effective presentation with the “What, Why, How, and How-To” framework, along with competencies of content knowledge, clarity, cohesiveness, and captivation. The better we teach and coach others on how to create and deliver presentations, the more we learn from these individuals through their work.

In my class, one multilingual learner responded to the prompt “What are the non-math (life lessons) you have found valuable from this class?” with “I learn what is learning and teaching... I truly understood how teaching is actually learning when I had presentation. I found a bit of desire to being a teacher. I hope you also learned something from this class.” I always learn from my students when they present.

PRESENTATION SKILLS

How can you make a good presentation even more effective?

This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.

By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.

Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.

While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.

You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:

What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.

Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.

Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.

And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.

If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.

To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.

Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:

Contain no more than 10 slides;
Last no more than 20 minutes; and
Use a font size of no less than 30 point.

This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.

If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.

Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.

Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:

Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.

For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:

The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).

For example…

Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?

To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips .

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.

Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.

For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.

That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.

Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.

One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.

For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.

Improve your Presentation Skills

Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.

Start with: What is a Presentation?

Continue to: How to Give a Speech Self Presentation

See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides

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Education and Communications
Presentations

How to Give a Presentation in Front of Your Teacher

Last Updated: April 30, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Trudi Griffin, LPC, MS . Trudi Griffin is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Wisconsin specializing in Addictions and Mental Health. She provides therapy to people who struggle with addictions, mental health, and trauma in community health settings and private practice. She received her MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Marquette University in 2011. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 85% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 72,423 times.

Giving presentations is a challenging, but important part of education. Although almost no one likes presenting, practicing will help you get better. Though you may not like it, you will probably have to give many presentations throughout your life. Fortunately, a well-prepared and practiced presentation can improve your confidence dramatically. On presentation day, there are many steps you can take to ensure that you perform well.

Preparing for the Presentation

Step 1 Understand the instructions for the presentation.

What is your presentation supposed to be about?
How many minutes should your presentation last?
Should the presentation include a visual aspect as well? For example, should you have a PowerPoint presentation, a flip chart, or other props?
Are you allowed to have note cards in your hand while you present?

If you are creating a visual presentation, writing out everything that you want to say will also help you pick out important points to include in the visual part of the presentation.

Step 3 Use visuals or a slideshow to create your presentation.

If you have been instructed to use a poster board or flip chart, then create your presentation using bold markers that will be able to be read easily from a distance. Consider gluing on images that help your presentation make sense. As with PowerPoint, make sure not to make your poster/flip chart too busy. You want your visuals to aid your presentation, not take over it.
Keep the presentation simple and neat. Unless your teacher has given specific instruction on this, stick to fonts and colors that are neutral and easy to read, like Garamond, Arial, or Times New Roman. [2] X Research source
Find ways to use pictures that can illustrate what you are talking about with your words. For example, if you are presenting on an important battle in history, you might find paintings, drawings, or photographs and use those to help your listeners imagine the battle.

Step 4 Bring more than one copy of your presentation.

For example, you can save your presentation on one or even two different USB sticks, and you can also email the presentation to yourself. This way, you have a few different options for getting it open.

If you’re giving your presentation late in the day bring your presentation clothes with you and change into them right before class. If you’re giving the presentation early in the day, come dressed for the presentation and then have more casual clothes to change into, if you don’t want to wear your nice clothes all day.
It is a good idea to lay out the clothes that you want to wear the night before. This way, you will know they are ready to go, and you won’t have to think about what you will wear at all on presentation day.

If you wear makeup, consider bringing a bit of makeup for a touch up before your presentation. You could also bring a comb or brush to make sure your hair is neat.

Try to make sure that your presentation is completely ready to go before going to bed. This will help keep you from laying in bed trying to remember anything you might have forgotten to take care of. Pack everything you will need for school including anything for the presentation before getting ready for bed.

Practicing for the Presentation

You might not have access to a projector, but you can still stand next to your computer for practice.
If you are using a different visual presentation, set it up in the way that you plan to use it during the presentation. For example, hang your poster board on the wall.
In your first trial runs, you may find that you have to stop to fix major problems or to make notes of things you want to say. This is OK to do, but try not to get in the habit of stopping every time you have a problem. Practicing helps to work out issues, but it also helps you practice getting past mistakes as smoothly as possible.

You can use the timer on your phone or a stopwatch. If you don’t have either of those, try doing a Google search for “stopwatch” and you can use the built-in one on the Google search page. Alternatively, you can also just make a note of the time when you start the presentation and then see what time it is when you end the presentation.
Don’t forget to factor in a few minutes for potential questions!

Keep in mind that memorizing, in this case, doesn’t mean having a word for word script in your head. Instead, it means that you know what you are presenting well enough to do it without the use of note cards. It’s OK if you say things a lit bit differently each time you practice the presentation as this will make you seem confident and natural.
If your teacher has said it’s OK, you could consider writing down a few points that you’re having trouble remembering on a small note card.

Keep in mind that if your parents are the type that think everything you do is perfect then they may not be very critical of your presentation even though it would help you. On the other hand, if you have extremely critical parents, try to take everything they say in moderation, and remember that they just want you to do well.

Step 5 Consider giving the presentation in front of a trusted friend.

If you don’t have a classmate you want to ask, then ask a friend who you trust to be helpful with the presentation. Avoid asking a friend who you know will not take the task seriously.

You may not be able to answer every question that is thrown at you, and this is OK. If you get a question that you don’t know the answer to, do your best to tell them what you do know, and tell them you will find out the rest of the answer and get back to them. [10] X Research source

Giving the Presentation

If you really don’t want to go first, try to go second or third. The earlier you can get your presentation out of the way, the better.

During this time, take a few deep breaths and reassure yourself that you’re going to do great. You’ve done everything you need to do to make your presentation go well.

Step 4 Introduce yourself and what you will be talking about.

Don’t go into too much detail when introducing the topic of your presentation, but try to get your listeners interested quickly. For example, if you are presenting about how to choose a college, you could say something like, “You may think that where you go to college isn’t that important; however, you probably don’t realize that where you go to college will have a huge impact on your life. It will have an impact on where you live, who you meet, and most importantly whether or not you can get the job you want.”

Step 5 Speak slowly and enunciate clearly.

If you’re using an electronic presentation, you can use each new slide as a chance to stop for a few seconds and recognize whether you are speaking slowly and loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Step 6 Don’t panic if you make a mistake.

If the mistake was small, chances are that nobody even noticed it. If they did notice, they probably didn’t care too much. Remember that your teacher probably isn’t out to get you, and they won’t get mad at you for making a mistake.
You can also make a joke out of the mistake. For instance, if you stumble over the pronunciation of a word, then purposely mispronounce the next word or two after that and really get the room laughing. Smile and laugh about it yourself — being able to laugh at yourself shows confidence. Then continue with the presentation.

If you are able to make eye contact for a few seconds with several different people over the course of your presentation, you will be giving the impression that you are relaxed and confident.
Don’t forget to smile!

For example, it’s OK to use hand gestures, but don’t overdo it. Use hand gestures where they fit naturally into what you’re saying.
Avoid crossing your arms or your feet; this gives the impression that you are not open to your audience.
Don’t fidget with your hands. When you are not gesturing, you can clasp them together gently in front of you or simply let your arms hang at your sides.
You don’t have to stand glued to one spot in the room, but don’t move around too much or too quickly. Remember that you are trying to convey a confident attitude.

Step 9 Thank everyone for their time and attention.

If your teacher has instructed that there will be no question and answer portion, then leave out the part where you ask if anyone has questions.
Having a few closing remarks will bring the presentation to a more natural and less awkward close than if you simply stop talking and go to sit down at your desk.

Expert Q&A

If other students in the class also have to present remember that they are probably also pretty nervous. Presenting in front of people is scary for the vast majority of people. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 0
Don’t chew gum while you are presenting. This is very distracting to the audience.  Thanks Helpful 6 Not Helpful 1
The best thing you can do is to practice! This will make you feel more confident that you know what to say and when to say it. Practicing will help reduce your nerves during the presentation. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 1

If your presentation doesn’t go as you planned, remember that it isn’t the end of the world. Public speaking is a skill and the more you practice it, the better you will get. If you are worried that it might affect your grade, try talking to your teacher. More than likely they were more focused on the content of the presentation than the skill of the presenter. Thanks Helpful 9 Not Helpful 0
Don’t put off your presentation until the last minute. Instead, try to have the presentation finished a few days in advance so that you have plenty of time to practice. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0

↑ https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/speaking-in-class
↑ http://www.awaionline.com/2011/10/the-best-fonts-to-use-in-print-online-and-email/
↑ https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2010/02/24/15-strategies-for-giving-oral-presentations
↑ https://ethos3.com/the-complete-guide-to-practicing-before-a-presentation/
↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/06/19/the-only-way-to-prepare-to-give-a-presentation/#156222e6426e
↑ http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/11/19/how-to-improve-presentation-skills
↑ http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-body-language-presentation-mistakes-2014-9?op=1&IR=T

About This Article

Giving a presentation in front of your teacher can be nerve-wracking, but if you take time to practice beforehand, you’ll do great. Start by memorizing what you’re going to say and practice speaking slowly and clearly. If you have time, you can also work on making a poster or a powerpoint to help your presentation stand out. On the day of the presentation, calm your nerves by taking a few deep breaths right before your turn and thinking positive thoughts like, “I’m going to do great!” To learn what you should wear to your presentation, read more from our Counselor co-author. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman (St. Martin’s Press).

Partner Center

Professional development
Planning lessons and courses

Student presentations

In this article I would like to give you a few tips and some advice on what I've learned from helping students prepare and deliver presentations.

Why I get students to do presentations
Syllabus fit
Planning a presentation lesson
Classroom Management

Why I get students to do presentations Presentations are a great way to have students practise all language systems areas (vocabulary, grammar, discourse and phonology) and skills (speaking, reading, writing and listening). They also build confidence, and presenting is a skill that most people will need in the world of work. I find that students who are good presenters are better communicators all round, since they are able to structure and express their ideas clearly.

Presentation skills are extremely useful both in and outside the classroom. After completing a project, a presentation is a channel for students to share with others what they have learned. It is also a chance to challenge and expand on their understanding of the topic by having others ask questions. And in the world of work, a confident presenter is able to inform and persuade colleagues effectively.
Presentations can also form a natural part of task based learning. By focussing on a particular language point or skill, the presentation is a very practical way to revise and extend book, pair and group work. The audience can also be set a task, for example, a set of questions to answer on the presentation, which is a way of getting students to listen to each other.

Syllabus fit Normally the presentation will come towards the end of a lesson or series of lessons that focus on a particular language or skill area. It is a type of freer practice. This is because the students need to feel relatively confident about what they are doing before they stand up and do it in front of other people. If I have been teaching the past simple plus time phrases to tell a story, for example, I give my students plenty of controlled and semi controlled practice activities, such as gapfills, drills and information swaps before I ask them to present on, say, an important event in their country's history, which involves much freer use of the target grammar point.

Planning a presentation lesson Normally a presentation lesson will have an outline like this:

Revision of key language areas
Example presentation, which could be from a textbook or given by the teacher
Students are given a transcript or outline of the presentation
Students identify key stages of the example presentation – greeting, introduction, main points in order of importance, conclusion
Focus on linking and signalling words ('Next…', 'Now I'd like you to look at…', etc.). Students underline these in the transcript/place them in the correct order
Students are put into small groups and write down aims
Students then write down key points which they order, as in the example
Students decide who is going to say what and how
Students prepare visuals (keep the time for this limited as too many visuals become distracting)
Students practise at their tables
Students deliver the presentations in front of the class, with the audience having an observation task to complete (see 'Assessment' below)
The teacher takes notes for feedback later

It is important that the students plan and deliver the presentations in groups at first, unless they are extremely confident and/or fluent. This is because:

Shy students cannot present alone
Students can support each other before, during and after the presentation
Getting ready for the presentation is a practice task in itself
When you have a large class, it takes a very long time for everyone to present individually!

I find it's a good idea to spend time training students in setting clear aims. It is also important that as teachers we think clearly about why we are asking students to present.

Aims Presentations normally have one or more of the following aims:

To inform/ raise awareness of an important issue
To persuade people to do something
Form part of an exam, demonstrating public speaking/presentation skills in a first or second language

I set students a task where they answer these questions:

Why are you making the presentation?
What do you want people to learn?
How are you going to make it interesting?

Let's say I want to tell people about volcanoes. I want people to know about why volcanoes form and why they erupt. This would be an informative/awareness-raising presentation. So by the end, everyone should know something new about volcanoes, and they should be able to tell others about them. My plan might look like this:

Introduction - what is a volcano? (2 minutes)
Types of volcano (5 minutes)
Volcanoes around the world (2 minutes)
My favourite volcano (2 minutes)
Conclusion (2-3 minutes)
Questions (2 minutes)

Classroom Management I find that presentation lessons pass very quickly, due the large amount of preparation involved. With a class of 20 students, it will probably take at least 3 hours. With feedback and follow-up tasks, it can last even longer. I try to put students into groups of 3 or 4 with classes of up to 20 students, and larger groups of 5 or 6 with classes up to 40. If you have a class larger than 40, it would be a good idea to do the presentation in a hall or even outside.

Classroom management can become difficult during a presentations lesson, especially during the final presenting stage, as the presenters are partly responsible for managing the class! There are a few points I find effective here:

Training students to stand near people who are chatting and talk 'through' the chatter, by demonstration
Training students to stop talking if chatter continues, again by demonstration
Asking for the audience's attention ('Can I have your attention please?')
Setting the audience an observation task, which is also assessed by the teacher
Limiting the amount of time spent preparing visuals
Arranging furniture so everyone is facing the front

Most of these points are self-explanatory, but I will cover the observation task in more detail in the next section, which deals with assessment.

Assessment The teacher needs to carefully consider the assessment criteria, so that s/he can give meaningful feedback. I usually run through a checklist that covers:

Level - I can't expect Elementary students to use a wide range of tenses or vocabulary, for example, but I'd expect Advanced students to have clear pronunciation and to use a wide range of vocabulary and grammar
Age - Younger learners do not (normally) have the maturity or general knowledge of adults, and the teacher's expectations need to reflect this
Needs - What kind of students are they? Business English students need to have much more sophisticated communication skills than others. Students who are preparing for an exam need to practise the skills that will be assessed in the exam.

I write a list of language related points I'm looking for. This covers:

Range / accuracy of vocabulary
Range / accuracy of grammar
Presentation / discourse management- is it well structured? What linking words are used and how?
Use of visuals- Do they help or hinder the presentation?
Paralinguistic features

'Paralinguistics' refers to non-verbal communication. This is important in a presentation because eye contact, directing your voice to all parts of the room, using pitch and tone to keep attention and so on are all part of engaging an audience.

I find it's a good idea to let students in on the assessment process by setting them a peer observation task. The simplest way to do this is to write a checklist that relates to the aims of the lesson. A task for presentations on major historical events might have a checklist like this:

Does the presenter greet the audience? YES/NO
Does the presenter use the past tense? YES/NO

And so on. This normally helps me to keep all members of the audience awake. To be really sure, though, I include a question that involves personal response to the presentation such as 'What did you like about this presentation and why?'. If working with young learners, it's a good idea to tell them you will look at their answers to the observation task. Otherwise they might simply tick random answers!

Conclusion Presentations are a great way to practise a wide range of skills and to build the general confidence of your students. Due to problems with timing, I would recommend one lesson per term, building confidence bit by bit throughout the year. In a school curriculum this leaves time to get through the core syllabus and prepare for exams.

Presentations - Adult students

Presentation Article

Research and insight

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12 Reasons Why Presentation Skills Are Important for Students

Hrideep barot.

Education , Presentation

Learning presentation skills as a student is like striking gold in the treasure hunt of life! It’s like having a superpower at your fingertips because, let’s be honest, your learning capacity right now is off the charts! But wait, there’s more! Presentation skills aren’t just about talking in front of the class (although that’s super cool too). They’re like the secret ingredient that helps you master the art of communication.

Think about it – you’re not just learning how to present your science project; you’re learning how to navigate the whole wide world.

So, why’s this the primo time to become a presentation ninja?

Super Learning Mode: Your brain is in turbo mode right now, absorbing info like a champ. What you learn about presentations during this time becomes your lifelong sidekick.
Ace Communicator: Being a student means you’re in a constant chat with teachers, friends, and books. Presentation skills give you the superpower to communicate like a pro.
World Domination: Okay, maybe not the world, but you’re certainly setting yourself up to shine in any situation life throws at you.

Remember, these skills aren’t just for school. They’re for life! So, grab that mic (or marker or mouse) and get ready to rock those presentations. You’re gearing up to be the superhero of communication! 🎤

WHAT ARE PRESENTATION SKILLS:

Have you ever thought about what makes some presentations stick in your memory while others vanish into oblivion? Well, here’s the scoop: presentation skills are the secret sauce, and they’re not just a bag of clever tricks. Nope, they’re the mighty keys to cracking the code of effective communication, letting you hook, enlighten, and amuse your audience.

At their very core, these skills are all about forging a connection with your crowd, whether it’s your school buddies, coworkers, or even a gang of pals at a shindig. They’re like the crafters of a message that’s crystal clear, totally convincing, and as smooth as a jam session with your favorite jazz band.

But wait, there’s more! Presentation skills are your golden ticket to success in all sorts of life’s adventures, from nailing that class project to wowing your boss in a big meeting. They’re the secret tools that turn everyday tasks into unforgettable experiences, etching your message deep into the minds of your audience.

So, as you embark on the journey to master these presentation skills, remember it’s not just about what you say; it’s how you say it. Whether you’re facing a jam-packed auditorium or a cozy gathering of pals, may the enchantment of presentation skills guide you, transforming every moment into a mesmerizing performance.

The 12 Reasons Why Presentation Skills are Important:

Presentation skills are not just crucial for students but also for individuals of all ages and professions. Here’s why they matter and how they impact everyone:

1. Effective Communication :

Effective communication is the backbone of all human interactions. Presentation skills equip individuals with the ability to convey information clearly, concisely, and persuasively. Whether it’s explaining a project at work or delivering a compelling speech, the capacity to communicate effectively is indispensable.
Example : In a business meeting, a project manager adept in presentation skills can elucidate a complex project plan. They articulate the project’s goals, milestones, and potential challenges, ensuring that everyone understands the roadmap to success.

2. Career Advancement :

The workplace is highly competitive, and presentation skills can be the differentiating factor that propels individuals forward in their careers. Being able to present ideas, strategies, and accomplishments with confidence and clarity garners recognition and opens up opportunities for advancement.
Example : A marketing professional who excels in presenting marketing campaigns not only impresses the team but also demonstrates leadership qualities. This can lead to promotions and increased responsibilities.

3. Building Credibility :

Credibility is vital in professional and personal relationships. When you can present your ideas convincingly, you gain the trust of your peers, colleagues, and superiors. Your credibility extends to the content you’re presenting, making it more likely to be accepted and acted upon.
Example : An environmental scientist delivering a presentation on climate change with well-researched data and compelling visuals gains credibility among policymakers and the public, potentially influencing policy decisions.

4. Persuasion and Influence :

Presentation skills encompass the art of persuasion. Individuals who can engage their audience, create a compelling narrative, and support their arguments effectively are more likely to influence others. This skill is invaluable in negotiations, sales, and leadership roles.
Example : A charismatic motivational speaker can use their presentation skills to inspire audiences, motivating them to take action or adopt new perspectives.

5. Problem Solving :

Strong presenters are often adept problem solvers. They can analyze complex issues, break them down into understandable components, and present solutions clearly and persuasively. This ability is crucial for addressing challenges in personal and professional life.
Example : During a corporate crisis, a CEO who can present a well-structured crisis management plan to stakeholders demonstrates effective problem-solving skills and reassures concerned parties.

6. Personal Branding :

Effective presentation skills contribute to personal branding. Consistently delivering engaging and informative presentations enhances one’s reputation as a knowledgeable, confident, and trustworthy professional.
Example : A tech entrepreneur known for captivating product launch presentations builds a strong personal brand, attracting media attention, investors, and customers.

7. Adaptability :

Presentation skills encompass the ability to adapt to various formats, audiences, and settings. This adaptability is invaluable in today’s diverse and ever-changing work environments, where individuals must navigate different communication channels and styles.
Example : A teacher who can seamlessly transition from in-person classroom presentations to delivering engaging online lessons demonstrates adaptability in response to changing circumstances.

8. Lifelong Learning :

Embracing presentation skills encourages individuals to engage in lifelong learning and self-improvement. As presentation techniques evolve and audiences change, individuals who continually refine their communication abilities remain relevant and effective.
Example : A retired professional who continues to develop presentation skills for community workshops and public speaking engagements not only shares their expertise but also stays engaged in lifelong learning, adapting to new challenges and opportunities.

Presentation skills are universally essential as they enhance communication, facilitate career advancement, build credibility, enable persuasive influence, promote problem-solving, strengthen personal branding, foster adaptability, and encourage lifelong learning. These skills empower individuals to succeed in various personal and professional endeavors, making them essential for everyone.

Let’s look at a comprehensive overview of these trending presentation skills:

Allow me to introduce you to the 12 skills that encapsulate the very essence of the world’s most exceptional presenters.

1. Effective Communication:

Presentation skills are the ability to communicate ideas, information, or messages to an audience clearly and persuasively. It’s about conveying your thoughts with impact and resonance.

2. Audience Engagement:

These skills encompass techniques to engage and capture the attention of your audience. It’s not just about talking; it’s about connecting with your listeners on an intellectual and emotional level.

3. Organization and Structure:

Presentation skills involve structuring your content logically and coherently. It’s about creating a roadmap that guides your audience through your message, ensuring they follow and understand your points.

4. Visual Aids Usage:

Effective use of visual aids, such as slides, graphics, and multimedia elements, is a crucial component. It’s about enhancing your message with visuals that reinforce your content without overwhelming your audience.

5. Confidence and Presence:

Presentation skills entail projecting confidence and a strong presence while speaking. This includes body language, tone of voice, and maintaining eye contact.

6. Adaptability:

These skills are versatile. You must adapt your presentation style to suit different contexts, audiences, and purposes. Whether you’re giving an academic lecture, a business pitch, or a motivational talk, adaptability is key.

7. Preparation and Research:

A significant part of presentation skills is the preparation phase. It involves conducting thorough research on your topic, understanding your audience, and meticulously planning your content.

8. Problem Solving:

Effective presenters are skilled at handling unexpected situations, such as tough questions or technical difficulties during a presentation. Presentation skills also encompass the ability to think on your feet and respond confidently.

9. Storytelling:

Storytelling is a potent tool for presentation skills. It involves weaving narratives that resonate with your audience, making your message memorable and relatable.

10. Time Management:

Presentations often have time constraints. These skills include managing your time wisely, and ensuring you cover all key points within the allocated time frame.

11. Feedback Utilisation:

Presentation skills are a continuous learning process. It involves actively seeking and utilizing feedback to improve your future presentations. Constructive criticism is invaluable for growth.

12. Audience-Centred Approach:

A critical aspect of presentation skills is adopting an audience-centred approach. It’s about tailoring your content and delivery to meet the needs and interests of your specific audience.

What is the purpose of a presentation?

A) information sharing:.

At its core, the purpose of a presentation is to share information. Whether you’re in a classroom, boardroom, or on a stage, you’re conveying knowledge, insights, or ideas to an audience. This information can range from academic research findings, business proposals, and project updates, to even personal stories or creative concepts.

B) Education and Understanding:

Presentations are powerful tools for education and comprehension. They provide a structured format to break down complex topics into manageable, digestible pieces. By presenting information in a clear, organized manner, you help your audience grasp concepts more easily.

C) Persuasion and Influence:

In many situations, presentations aim to persuade and influence. Whether you’re convincing potential investors to fund your startup, persuading your classmates to support your project, or advocating for a cause, effective presentations can be a catalyst for change.

D) Engagement and Connection:

A well-crafted presentation can engage your audience emotionally and intellectually. It’s an opportunity to connect on a human level, share personal experiences, and evoke empathy or enthusiasm. Storytelling is a powerful technique to create this connection.

E) Problem Solving:

Presentations often tackle real-world issues and problem-solving. Whether it’s proposing solutions to business challenges, addressing societal problems, or discussing scientific breakthroughs, they serve as a platform to present ideas that can bring about positive change.

F) Decision-Making:

In professional settings, presentations play a pivotal role in decision-making processes. They provide decision-makers with the necessary information and insights to make informed choices. Presenters aim to influence these decisions in their favor through compelling arguments and evidence.

G) Inspiration and Motivation:

Some presentations are designed to inspire and motivate. They encourage the audience to take action, pursue their goals, or embrace change. This purpose often applies to keynote speeches, commencement addresses, and motivational talks.

H) Celebration and Recognition:

Presentations aren’t always about serious business; they can also serve as a platform for celebration and recognition. Think of award ceremonies, where individuals or teams are honored for their achievements.

I) Entertainment and Artistic Expression:

Presentations can be a form of entertainment and artistic expression. Think of performances, artistic displays, or creative storytelling. Here, the purpose is to captivate, entertain, and stir emotions.

J) Knowledge Transfer:

Lastly, presentations facilitate the transfer of knowledge from one person to another or from one generation to the next. This is particularly important in educational settings, where teachers present information to students in a structured manner.

In essence, presentations are versatile tools with multifaceted purposes. They are not just about delivering information but about connecting, persuading, educating, and inspiring. Understanding the specific purpose of your presentation is the first step toward creating a compelling communication experience for your audience.

Why is it important to have good presentation skills for students?

Imagine this scenario: You’re sitting in a classroom, and your professor asks you to present your research findings. Your heart races, your palms sweat, and the butterflies in your stomach have a party of their own. Sound familiar? Well, that’s where good presentation skills come into play for students, and they’re more than just a ticket to survive the classroom spotlight. They’re a gateway to personal and professional success.

First and foremost, presentation skills are the ultimate communication tool.

They help students articulate their thoughts, ideas, and findings with clarity and confidence. In an academic setting, this means you can engage your peers and professors effectively, making your voice heard and your ideas stand out.

But it doesn’t stop at the classroom door. These skills are your secret (because not everyone knows this) key in the professional world. Picture yourself in a job interview. Your potential employer asks you to discuss your qualifications and why you’re the right fit for the role. With polished presentation skills, you’re not just answering questions; you’re painting a vivid picture of your capabilities and potential.

Furthermore, good presentation skills are a confidence booster.

They transform nervous jitters into a sense of empowerment. When you can stand before an audience and convey your message convincingly, it’s a feeling like no other. This newfound confidence seeps into other aspects of your academic and professional life, making you a more resilient and adaptable individual.

In essence, good presentation skills are the key to unlocking doors of opportunity. Whether you’re excelling in class discussions, wowing your professors with a well-structured thesis defense, or nailing that crucial client pitch, these skills are your trusty companions on the journey of personal and professional growth.

So, the next time you find yourself in the spotlight, remember that presentation skills aren’t just about public speaking; they’re about showcasing your potential, building confidence, and paving the way for success. Embrace them, and watch your academic and professional horizons expand like never before.

What are the benefits of learning presentation skills for students?

I. effective communication: .

Good presentation skills are the linchpin of effective communication . In both academic and professional settings, students must articulate their thoughts, ideas, and findings clearly and persuasively. Without these skills, even the most brilliant concepts can get lost in translation.

II. Academic Success:

Strong presentation skills can significantly impact academic success. Students who can express themselves eloquently often excel in class discussions, group projects, and thesis defenses. They stand out as knowledgeable and confident learners.

III. Confidence Booster:

Public speaking and presentation practice are fantastic confidence boosters. They empower students to express themselves in front of their peers and teachers, gradually reducing anxiety and building self-assuredness.

IV. Leadership Development:

Presentation skills are often associated with leadership qualities. Students who master these skills tend to emerge as leaders in group projects, clubs, and extracurricular activities. They can effectively convey their vision and rally others behind it.

V. Professional Readiness:

In the world of work, professionals are frequently required to present their ideas, proposals, and reports. Students who develop strong presentation skills are better prepared for their future careers, making a positive impression on potential employers and clients.

VI. Critical Thinking:

Preparing a presentation necessitates critical thinking. Students must organize their thoughts, conduct research, and analyze information to craft a compelling narrative. This enhances their analytical and problem-solving skills.

VII. Time Management:

Creating a presentation involves managing time effectively. Students must set priorities, meet deadlines, and allocate resources wisely. These time management skills are valuable both in academia and the professional world.

VIII. Adaptability:

Presentation skills encompass various formats, from traditional speeches to multimedia presentations and virtual meetings. Students who can adapt to these different modes of communication are better equipped to thrive in today’s technology-driven world.

IX. Networking Opportunities:

Presentations often provide opportunities to network with peers, professors, and professionals. Building connections can open doors to collaborations, mentorships, and job opportunities down the road.

X. Problem Solving:

During presentations, unexpected challenges may arise, such as tough questions from the audience or technical glitches. Students learn to think on their feet, respond confidently, and solve problems as they arise.

XI. Enhancing Creativity:

Crafting engaging presentations encourages creativity and innovation. Students seek unique ways to capture their audience’s attention, whether through storytelling, visuals, or interactive elements.

XII. Global Communication:

In an increasingly interconnected world, students with strong presentation skills can effectively communicate with diverse audiences from different cultures and backgrounds, fostering cross-cultural understanding and collaboration.

These skills equip students for success in various aspects of life and contribute to their personal and intellectual growth.

How can students improve their presentation skills?

Improving presentation skills is a gradual process that requires dedication and practice. By following these steps and staying committed to self-improvement, students can become confident and effective presenters.

1. Practice, Practice, Practice:

The foundation of presentation mastery is practice . Start small by presenting in front of a mirror or recording yourself. Pay attention to your voice modulation, gestures, and overall delivery. This self-assessment helps you identify areas for improvement and build self-confidence.

2. Preparation is Key:

The best presenters are often those who are the most prepared. Know your topic inside-out. Create a well-structured presentation with a compelling opening to grab your audience’s attention and a memorable closing to leave a lasting impression. Visual aids can enhance your message, but use them sparingly to avoid overwhelming your audience.

3. Real-Life Experience:

Gain real-life presentation experience by participating in clubs, engaging in debates, or volunteering for class presentations. The more you expose yourself to different audiences, the more comfortable and adept you’ll become in handling diverse situations.

4. Learn from the Pros:

Study presentations by seasoned speakers and experts in various fields. Watch TED talks, analyze speeches, or follow your favorite orators. Observe their techniques, storytelling abilities, and audience engagement strategies. Incorporate these insights into your style to make your presentations more captivating.

5. Feedback Fuels Growth:

Don’t be afraid to seek feedback. Share your presentations with peers, friends, or teachers and ask for their honest opinions. Constructive criticism is like a roadmap to improvement. It highlights your strengths and pinpoints areas where you can refine your skills.

6. Embrace Growth as a Journey:

Remember that improving presentation skills is a journey, not a quick fix. It takes dedication and time to refine these skills. Be patient with yourself, and celebrate small victories along the way. With consistent effort, you’ll see significant progress and reap the benefits of enhanced communication and self-assuredness.

So, as you embark on your journey to become a presentation pro, keep these elements in mind. Each step, from practice to feedback, preparation, real-life experience, and learning from experts, contributes to your growth. Over time, you’ll not only become a confident and persuasive presenter but also open up doors to academic and professional opportunities. You’ve got the potential; now, let it shine!

Conclusion:

So, here’s the scoop—presentation skills aren’t just about fancy speeches. They’re your superpower for rocking academics, acing your career, and unleashing personal growth. Mastering these and mastering your life would be the best way to put it. We wish you all the best for your presentation and hope this article helps you.

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Motivational Speaker Techniques To Encourage Students’ English Speaking Skills

A student stands at the front of the class demonstrating his English speaking skills

As teachers, we’re always looking for ways to improve our students’ English speaking skills and build their confidence in speaking English. An effective way to do this is to integrate motivational speaking techniques into our teaching methods and teach our students some engaging speaking strategies to use.

It is important to point out to students that speakers in public talks such as TED talks or other significant speeches sound confident because of the key components that make up a successful talk. By adopting some of these, students can begin their journey to confidence and enjoyment in speaking English.

Great motivational speaker techniques

Knowledge and clarity.

Great motivational speakers possess a deep knowledge of their subject, which helps their audience trust in the speaker.

For students, this emphasises the importance of understanding the content they are speaking about.
Encourage students to research and fully understand the topics they discuss. This will ensure they can present information clearly and confidently.
This can be practised through classroom presentations or group discussions where the focus is on explaining concepts in simplified terms.

Confidence and purpose

Confidence often comes from speakers feeling well-prepared and passionate about their subject.

Teach students to define the purpose of their speeches and talks – whether to inform, persuade or entertain. This clarity helps them deliver their message with conviction and engage their audience more effectively.
Role-playing different scenarios in class can help students build confidence and define their speaking goals.

Storytelling

Whether it’s a personal anecdote or something else, stories can captivate an audience and make the speech memorable.

Remind students that by telling a story, the audience is instantly more engaged and likely to follow along throughout the talk.
Help students develop their storytelling skills by integrating stories into language lessons. They could start with narrating simple personal experiences and gradually move to more complex narratives as their skills improve.

Audience awareness

Understanding the audience is crucial for effective communication.

Have students think of a talk or presentation they’ve recently seen. Then, have them think about who the audience for the talk was.
Tell students that speakers tailor their content and delivery to match the audience’s knowledge level and background. This involves using appropriate language, examples and explanations that the audience understands and can relate to.
In class, students can practise audience awareness by presenting the same information in different ways to different groups and tailoring the language they are using and the way they are presenting the information.

A strong conclusion

A strong finish is essential in great motivational speaking. It reinforces the message and often includes a call to action that leaves the audience inspired.

Teach students to summarise their key points effectively and end with a compelling conclusion that prompts further thought or action.
This could be practised through debates or persuasive speeches in class, where students are encouraged to conclude with strong statements and a call to action.

Practical exercises to enhance English speaking skills

Focus on activities that enhance clarity in communication. For example, paraphrasing or connecting complex ideas with simpler concepts.
Have students do exercises that improve non-verbal communication, such as maintaining eye contact, using gestures and controlling hesitations.
Help students reflect on the purpose of their talk or presentation, and choose language that aligns with their goals, for example, to convince, inform, teach or entertain.
Have students discuss how best to explain complex ideas. Remind them that any information should be appropriate and understandable to the audience without requiring much prior knowledge.
Explore the use of extreme adjectives and the connotations of words with your students, emphasising how language choice can inspire and motivate an audience.

Incorporating motivational speaking techniques into your lessons can have a significant impact on students’ engagement and confidence in communicating their ideas. By having these skills, students will not only improve their English proficiency but also gain valuable life skills in speaking and presenting to audiences.

You can read more about teaching your students presentation skills here. Or read our paper for in-depth advice on teaching English pronunciation.

What you need to know about education for sustainable development

What is education for sustainable development .

Education for sustainable development (ESD) gives learners of all ages the knowledge, skills, values and agency to address interconnected global challenges including climate change, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable use of resources, and inequality. It empowers learners of all ages to make informed decisions and take individual and collective action to change society and care for the planet. ESD is a lifelong learning process and an integral part of quality education. It enhances the cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioural dimensions of learning and encompasses learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment itself.

How does UNESCO work on this theme?

UNESCO is the United Nations leading agency for ESD and is responsible for the implementation of ESD for 2030 , the current global framework for ESD which takes up and continues the work of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) and the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD (2015-2019).

UNESCO’s work on ESD focuses on five main areas:

Advancing policy
Transforming learning environments
Building capacities of educators
Empowering and mobilizing youth
Accelerating local level action

UNESCO supports countries to develop and expand educational activities that focus on sustainability issues such as climate change, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, water, the oceans, sustainable urbanisation and sustainable lifestyles through ESD. UNESCO leads and advocates globally on ESD and provides guidance and standards. It also provides data on the status of ESD and monitors progress on SDG Indicator 4.7.1, on the extent to which global citizenship education and ESD are mainstreamed in national education policies, curricula, teacher education and student assessment.

How does UNESCO mobilize education to address climate change?

Climate change education is the main thematic focus of ESD as it helps people understand and address the impacts of the climate crisis, empowering them with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to act as agents of change. The importance of education and training to address climate change is recognized in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change , the Paris Agreement and the associated Action for Climate Empowerment agenda which all call on governments to educate, empower and engage all stakeholders and major groups on policies and actions relating to climate change. Through its ESD programme, UNESCO works to make education a more central and visible part of the international response to climate change. It produces and shares knowledge, provides policy guidance and technical support to countries, and implements projects on the ground.

UNESCO encourages Member States to develop and implement their country initiative to mainstream education for sustainable development.

What is the Greening Education Partnership?

To coordinate actions and efforts in the field of climate change education the Greening Education Partnership was launched in 2022 during the UN Secretary General's Summit on Transforming Education. This partnership, coordinated by a UNESCO Secretariat, is driving a global movement to get every learner climate-ready. The Partnership addresses four key areas of transformative education: greening schools, curricula, teachers training and education system's capacities, and communities.

How can I get involved?

Every single person can take action in many different ways every day to protect the planet. To complement the ESD for 2030 roadmap , UNESCO has developed the ESD for 2030 toolbox to provide an evolving set of selected resources to support Member States, regional and global stakeholders to develop activities in the five priority action areas and activities in support of the six key areas of implementation.

UNESCO also launched the Trash Hack campaign in response to the 2 billion tons of waste that the world produces every year, waste which clog up the oceans, fill the streets and litter huge areas. Trash Hacks are small changes everyone can make every day to reduce waste in their lives, their communities and the world.

5 Steps to Preparing an Engaging Industry Presentation You can make a great impression and generate interest with an exciting, informative presentation. Find out my five secrets to creating an industry presentation guaranteed to wow.

By Cyrus Claffey Edited by Chelsea Brown May 28, 2024

Key Takeaways

This article offers practical advice for delivering impactful presentations at industry events, emphasizing the importance of a comfortable stage presence, understanding your audience, designing effective slides and more.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Industry events are a chance to network with your colleagues and impress distributors — but to really make the most of your time at a conference, you need to learn how to prepare a presentation that engages, informs and leaves an impact.

I've presented at some of the most important real estate and property technology events in the country as the founder of ButterflyMX . Here are a few tricks I've picked up along the way to wow any audience.

Related: 6 Tips for Making a Winning Business Presentation

1. Getting comfortable with the stage

I recommend taking a walk around the stage before your presentation. By familiarizing yourself with your environment, you can prepare yourself better.

And while you're on stage, a relaxed, comfortable presence goes a long way in keeping your audience engaged . Whether you want to play your presentation casually or more formally, audiences can sense discomfort, which prevents them from fully connecting with your message.

To project your sense of comfortability, focus on your body language . You can project confidence by speaking slowly and clearly and by walking across the stage to keep the audience's attention — even if there's already a podium or lectern set up on stage.

Unfortunately, if a speaker spends too long standing behind the podium, an audience might interpret that as a sign of indecision and inaction from the speaker. Instead, you can remove any barriers between yourself and the audience by using the whole length of the stage.

2. Familiarity with industry statistics

An audience that doesn't know me might be wondering why they should be taking my advice. I certainly don't blame them. When I'm watching a new presenter, I ask the same question.

If you can back up your claims with hard data, your presentation will ring true with listeners. You can cite industry-wide statistics or establish your own bona fides by citing stats that buttress your own credibility by establishing your company's success.

In my case, I'm happy to use a couple of statistics that prove how successful my company, ButterflyMX, is in the proptech industry. For instance, we serve more than one million apartment units, and if you're interested in how consumers feel about us, look no further than the internet — we have over 20,000 five-star reviews !

Related: 7 Ways to Captivate Any Audience

3. Knowing your audience

Depending on who your audience is , you'll have to adjust your game plan and prepare for different things.

I've spoken at conferences where the audiences couldn't be more different — a presentation that wows one crowd might have no information that's applicable to another. As the founder of a property technology company, I have the pleasure of speaking at a variety of different conferences that serve different markets.

For example, integrators and installers might value a talk on product features and hardware more than others. And if I'm presenting to an audience of property managers, I'll know to dial down the technical talk and focus on the benefits a robust video intercom offers, such as simplifying their day-to-day workloads.

Depending on your audience, you need to strike the right balance between talking about hardware specs and features.

4. Designing your slides carefully

Slides are a good opportunity to share the aesthetics, tone and values of your company — but you've got to make sure you use them effectively.

A slide with too much text looks busy, and it'll distract your audience and draw focus away from you. Instead, consider putting that information into your notes and speaking it aloud. Slides should focus on one or two visual elements, like bullet points, charts and graphs.

As for the actual design of your slides, you should ensure that you adhere to your company's brand guidelines. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, brand guidelines are a single, governing document that goes over important design concepts like the colors and logos that your company has.

Related: 6 Ways to Take Your Next Presentation to the Next Level

5. Asking for audience participation

Asking for audience participation is the ultimate way to ensure everybody is locked in and paying attention — but it's also a double-edged sword. You also need to be prepared in case asking the audience to participate doesn't necessarily go your way.

For example, you might generally ask if an audience has any questions at the end of your presentation. But you run the risk of running into a hostile, bad-faith question — or you might even be met with silence.

That's why I'd recommend you give the audience questions and tasks that have a little more structure. You could do things like asking for a show of hands, asking for specific anecdotes or taking a poll.

Polls have gotten an especially high-tech upgrade recently — see if you can set up an electronic voting system that allows audience members to vote with their smartphones. Then, you'd be able to throw the results on screen and watch them update in real time!

You should pepper these interactive sections throughout your presentation to ensure that audiences are engaged throughout your entire talk.

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

Founder of ButterflyMX

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Premier says sex education group will be banned from giving school presentations

Organization disputes suggestion that material delivered was outside curriculum.

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Premier Blaine Higgs says he will ban a Quebec-based sex education group from presenting at schools in New Brunswick after a presentation he believes was "clearly inappropriate."

The premier took to X, formerly Twitter, to express his displeasure with a presentation given at several New Brunswick high schools.

"To say I am furious would be a gross understatement," he said. "This presentation was not part of the New Brunswick curriculum and the content was not flagged for parents in advance.

"The fact that this was shared shows either improper vetting was done, the group misrepresented the content they would share ... or both."

Higgs said the Department of Education told his office the presentation was supposed to be about the sexually transmitted infection human papillomavirus – but it went beyond that.

A pink and purple presentation slide with four text bubbles.

He shared and criticized a presentation slide that includes questions like "do girls masturbate" and "is it good or bad to do anal?"

Teresa Norris, who delivered the presentation to several New Brunswick schools last week, denied that schools were misled about what the presentation would cover.

The president and founder of the charity HPV Global Action, which also operates a youth sexual education resource called Thirsty for the Talk, said she was surprised and disappointed at Higgs's reaction.

She said the slide Higgs shared was the presentation's cover slide. She said it reflects actual questions her group receives from students.

"That excerpt that was taken is an extraction of something that's very grossly misrepresenting what this presentation is about," Norris said.

A presentation slide that reads "4 out of 5 have had HPV at some point in their life," with cartoon people shaded in red and green.

"All of the topics that we cover are supporting the learning areas. This is something that your province has decided ... We're not creating something that the province hasn't already put in place."

Norris said she has been giving presentations at New Brunswick schools for several years. All schools receive an outline of the topics to be covered and the school must give its consent prior to the presentation, she said.

The presentation is called Healthy Relationships 101. Norris said it is an "A to Z" about relationships and sexuality.

"We are not promoting any of these sexual behaviours ... we talk about abstinence in the presentation, we empower students to help them make decisions about their relationships," she said.

A presentation slide about healthy relationships.

"We teach them to understand when they are not comfortable, or that they don't feel ready, and to pay attention so that they have those boundaries. Our goal is always to destigmatize conversations about sexual health."

Objectives in the province's high school sex education curriculum include having students define sexuality, discuss safe sex practices that include abstinence, masturbation, condom use and birth control options, and how to handle sexual feelings and sexual pressure.

Andrea Anderson-Mason, MLA for Fundy-the Isles-Saint John West, said she has heard about the presentation from teachers and constituents with family members who attend Fundy Middle-High School.

The Anglophone South School District has not responded to a request for comment.

Anderson-Mason said she has a daughter in Grade 12 at the school, but the presentation was only delivered to Grade 9 to Grade 11 students.

The MLA said reaction has been mixed and she is hoping to see a balanced conversation on the issue.

"When I was in high school, I had a male teacher teach me about breast self-examination, and at 47 years old I am still grateful for that information and use it," she said. "There is a time and a place and an appropriateness to talk about our bodies."

For Norris, the ultimate goal is to help students stay informed and avoid getting into relationship situations they are not ready for.

Despite Higgs's statement, she has not been given any formal message from the province banning the presentation.

Requests to the premier's office for comment have not been answered.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Savannah Awde is a reporter with CBC New Brunswick. You can contact her with story ideas at [email protected].

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May 28, 2024 | Mac Murray

Helping Teachers Recognize Gifted Learners and Elevate Classroom Conversation

‘Project Focus’ brings more learners into gifted programs — and more strategies from gifted education into general classrooms

Students in an elementary school classroom raise their hands to be called on.

(Shutterstock)

Gifted education provides advanced opportunities for millions of students in public schools across the United States. But the availability and accessibility of gifted programs varies widely, and teacher preparation to support gifted learners tends to be limited.

As a result, many students who would benefit from inclusion in a gifted education environment either attend school in places where these resources don’t exist or are excluded from these opportunities.

With an award of $3.4 million from the US Department of Education Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program , UConn researchers are launching “Project Focus” to combat both these issues.

Project Focus will be a professional development program for teachers of students in third through fifth grade. The program will help participants learn to both proactively recognize learners needing advanced services and bring engaging gifted education strategies, like asking high-level questions, into their own classrooms.

“Project Focus is really all about supporting teachers in how they engage in questioning and discussion in the classroom, as a way of giving more students access to the opportunity to engage in high-level discussion about what they’re learning,” says project PI Catherine Little, a professor in the Neag School of Education who specializes in giftedness, creativity, and talent development.

Identifying gifted learners from underrepresented groups is a key research priority for the Javits Program. Project Focus is helping educators learn how to recognize and respond to giftedness among underserved populations, such as “students from low-income backgrounds and students who are language learners; multilingual students; and students who are twice exceptional, meaning they could potentially be identified both for gifted education and special education needs,” according to Little.

Little’s co-PI is Kylie Anglin, an assistant professor in the Neag School who specializes in causal and computational research methods. Anglin will be working with the research team to generate computer models that can analyze the transcripts of recorded audio from classrooms.

By assessing different variables — such as the amount of time teachers speak versus students, the questions teachers ask, and even the types of conjunctions students use in their responses — the researchers will be able to evaluate the quality of classroom discussion and provide targeted recommendations for educators.

The project’s combination of professional learning and continuous classroom evaluation is unique, pairing a data-focused analytical framework with evidence-based best practices to elevate classroom learning.

“I’m very interested in research design that helps us answer whether programs and policies actually meet their goals,” Anglin says. She’s looking forward to “measuring on-the-ground changes in teacher practice — looking to see how these classrooms actually sound different after teachers have participated in the professional development.”

For Little, who is a former elementary school teacher turned gifted education researcher, this work is a continuation of previous Javits-supported projects she has led, including Project SPARK and Project LIFT . Both these efforts included a significant focus on increasing access to gifted education among underserved learners. In another recent initiative, Project EAGLE , UConn researchers focused on increasing representation of English language learners in gifted education.

“All these projects have built on each other,” Little says. “I’ve long worked with the thread of curriculum and instruction as a major mechanism for responding to the needs of gifted learners – and how curriculum and instruction can be our way of providing increased access.”

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?Sigrid Olsson/AltoPress/Maxppp ; High school student giving
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31 of the best class presentation tips for students
2. Use the right number of slides. Class presentations in high school and college will likely be 5 minutes or less. Follow your teacher's guidelines, of course, but generally, students will use 1-2 slides per minute. (That would be 5-10 slides for a 5-minute presentation.) 3.
How to Do a Presentation in Class: 10 Steps (with Pictures)
You don't want to sound like you've just seen a lion, but you also don't want to sound like you've just seen a squirrel, either. Vary it up to make the presentation more interesting. 5. Use hand motions. Move your hands along as you talk, using them to emphasize points and keep the audience interested.
How to do a class presentation (11 steps)
The best class presentations combine strong content and visuals with an engaging presentation style. This post offers 11 steps for creating memorable and high-performing class presentations. 1. Review assignment guidelines. Before you can strategize about how to start a class presentation, you need to be certain that you understand the ...
8 Tips to Power-Up Your Classroom Presentations
Page numbers in slides really don't provide any useful information -- they just remind your students how long they've been watching. 5. Go BIG. Pursuant to tips #1 and #2, you're not going to win awards by cramming the most content on the fewest slides. Make text and visuals as large as you can.
7.4 Public Speaking and Class Presentations
Public speaking—giving an oral presentation before a class or another group of people—is a special form of interaction common in education. You will likely be asked to give a presentation in one of your classes at some point, and your future career may also involve public speaking. It's important to develop skills for this form of ...
What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)
Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images. You'll make presentations at various ...
9 Steps for Making an Effective Presentation in Class
To keep your audience interested, use graphics, photographs, and videos to demonstrate your arguments. Use relevant pictures that are easy to understand and reinforce your message. 5. Practice your delivery. Practice makes perfect, so rehearse your presentation several times before delivering it in class.
The Ultimate Guide To Effective Teacher Presentations: Strategies
Stand up straight, make eye contact, and use hand gestures to emphasize important points. You can also move around the classroom to keep your students' attention. By using engaging body language, you'll be able to convey your message more effectively and keep your students interested throughout the presentation.
7.4: Public Speaking and Class Presentations
Guidelines for Presentations. Preparing and delivering a presentation in class (or in business or other settings) is a process very similar to the learning process discussed in Chapter 4 "Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering", Chapter 5 "Reading to Learn", and Chapter 6 "Preparing for and Taking Tests" and the writing process discussed in Chapter 8 "Writing for Classes".
How To Prepare For A Presentation In Class
The good news is that giving a presentation in class is a skill that anyone can learn, and practice makes perfect. Learning how to prepare for a presentation for class is a key part of a college education, and we're here to make it easier. Here are 10 evidence-based ways to reduce stress and increase success when presenting in front of the class.
How to Present a Presentation in Class?
Organizing your presentation is also an essential element of giving a good class presentation. Make sure to put short and minimal content in your PPT and add good visuals, too. If you want to know how to give a presentation in class that will get you an A, remember to create a well-structured PPT and use these best PowerPoint presentation tips. 6.
10 Effective Class Presentation Tips for College Students
Try not to hurt others while using humor. You can make fun of everyday situations or activities, so people can relate with them. 6. Time Management in Class Presentation. Time management is one of the best tips for presenting in class. Starting and finishing your presentation in a predefined time frame is important.
5 Teacher Tips For Better Presentations In The Classroom
See also 15 Presentation Tools for Teachers. 5 Teacher Tips For Better Presentations In The Classroom. 1. Establish one clear idea. Conventional wisdom of the past used to be about putting as much information and content into a presentation as possible. It was all about trying as hard as you could to come across as an authoritative figure who ...
How to Give an Excellent Presentation (College Students): 8 Steps
Practice your presentation a handful of times to ensure your content and talking speed is under time. [2] 6. Encourage your peers. Helping your friends if they find it hard to give the presentation will boost your skills since you get to know the difference in a good and a bad presentation. 7.
Effective Communication in the Classroom
Presence/Position/Posture: standing up straight conveys confidence and authority. Eye contact: helps you connect with your audience and keep your students engaged. You may tend to focus your gaze on a particular side of the classroom. Consciously make eye contact in a "W" pattern across the room.
How a Simple Presentation Framework Helps Students Learn
When combined, these framed a rubric that supported students in optimizing their presentation deliveries. The competencies are as follows: 1. Content knowledge. The presenter must display a deep understanding of what they are delivering in order to share the "what, why, how, and how-to" of the topic. 2.
Top Tips for Effective Presentations
Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage. Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible. 10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy.
How to Give a Presentation in Front of Your Teacher
6. Have people ask you questions. Ask the people that are practicing with to try and come up with different questions about the content of your presentation. Your teacher or peers may want to ask questions about your topic at the end of your presentation so it's a good idea to have a bit of practice with this.
What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation
What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation. Summary. Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or ...
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Presentations in the Classroom: A student confidently presents in front of a class. Crafting a compelling presentation requires thought into both the content and delivery. The content of your presentation should be clear, concise, and well-structured, ensuring that your key messages stand out.
Student presentations
If you have a class larger than 40, it would be a good idea to do the presentation in a hall or even outside. Classroom management can become difficult during a presentations lesson, especially during the final presenting stage, as the presenters are partly responsible for managing the class! There are a few points I find effective here:
Students: How to PRESENT a presentation
Know the room: If the room is new, explore the empty room before the presentation. Learn the layout of the room, size of the room, where you will be seated and the route to/from the podium. When standing at the podium, know where the audience is. Know the podium area: Be aware of any chords on the floor or dangling from the podium.
12 Reasons Why Presentation Skills Are Important for Students
1. Effective Communication: Effective communication is the backbone of all human interactions. Presentation skills equip individuals with the ability to convey information clearly, concisely, and persuasively. Whether it's explaining a project at work or delivering a compelling speech, the capacity to communicate effectively is indispensable.
Motivational Speaker Techniques To Encourage Students' English Speaking
Audience awareness. Understanding the audience is crucial for effective communication. Have students think of a talk or presentation they've recently seen. Then, have them think about who the audience for the talk was. Tell students that speakers tailor their content and delivery to match the audience's knowledge level and background.
What you need to know about education for sustainable development
Education for sustainable development (ESD) gives learners of all ages the knowledge, skills, values and agency to address interconnected global challenges including climate change, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable use of resources, and inequality. It empowers learners of all ages to make informed decisions and take individual and collective ...
5 Steps to Preparing an Engaging Industry Presentation
1. Getting comfortable with the stage. I recommend taking a walk around the stage before your presentation. By familiarizing yourself with your environment, you can prepare yourself better. And ...
Premier says sex education group will be banned from giving school
All schools receive an outline of the topics to be covered and the school must give its consent prior to the presentation, she said. The presentation is called Healthy Relationships 101.
Helping Teachers Recognize Gifted Learners and Elevate Classroom
With an award of $3.4 million from the US Department of Education Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program, UConn researchers are launching "Project Focus" to combat both these issues. Project Focus will be a professional development program for teachers of students in third through fifth grade. The program will help ...