Description
What our Using Media in Presentations lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Using Media in Presentations teaches students how to incorporate different types of media into a single presentation. They will learn how to tailor a presentation to their audience. They will also discover the importance of preparation when it comes to presenting in front of an audience. This lesson is for students in 5th grade and 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. For this lesson, you need pencils, pens, and highlighters and access to a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer to make presentations.
Options for Lesson
The “Options for Lesson” section of the classroom procedure page outlines some additional activities and variations that you can use when presenting this lesson to your students. While we often consider our students technologically savvy, many are unfamiliar with presentation software and don’t know how to make presentations. Sometimes, starting with a basic presentation on a poster board or with short verbal presentations will help your students develop the confidence to incorporate more technology into their presentations. One option for the lesson is to have your students create brochures, advertisements, or poster boards with images to practice the basic skills needed to present to audiences.
Teacher Notes
The paragraph on this page gives you a little more information on the lesson overall and describes what you may want to focus your teaching on. This lesson allows students to understand different ways to learn and present information to others. The blank lines are available for you to write out any thoughts or ideas you have as you prepare.
USING MEDIA IN PRESENTATIONS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Introduction
The Using Media in Presentations lesson plan contains four pages of content. The lesson starts with a story called “Monotonous Marvin” and then presents three types of questions that typically pop into a student’s mind when a teacher tells them they need to do a presentation and be creative: What will the presentation be about? How long does it have to be? What do I have to do?
Many students think they can stand in front of the class and talk. But that can become boring at times, can’t it? It’s boring when every one of your classmates does the same thing. And, without preparation, your presentation can fall flat or bore your audience. No one likes to listen to something uninteresting.
Sometimes, you need cool media and good presentation skills to spice up presentations. This helps the audience learn and become engaged. This can also help you get excited about what you’re talking about, and do a better job!
Your presentation does not have to involve just talking! You can use technology and other media to present your information. Nearly all laptops come with word processing and presentation software installed. For example, Microsoft has PowerPoint, Google has Google Slides, and Apple has Keynote. All of these have animation and music. The software allows you to embed video or record video for your presentation. You can use several programs on the internet that edit videos, add cartoons, or even make electronic posters! Let’s begin with some basics of creating your presentation.
Organizing a Presentation
A writer and presenter named Chris Anderson, said, “There’s no way you can give a good talk unless you have something worth discussing.” Anderson says the first step is to make a plan. He calls this framing. Think of a photograph in a frame. The frame focuses you on the picture. The photograph tells the story. Nothing outside of the frame is part of the picture or the story. Your media will focus the audience on the story.
The next step is one we often try to skip. We think, “I know what I want to say and what the media should look like. An outline is an extra unnecessary step.” Is it? Storyboards or outlines break your topic into smaller chunks. Each chunk becomes part of your presentation. They allow you to see which parts must be included and which must be eliminated.
The storyboard or outline is complete. It’s time to choose your tools! Does your school use Microsoft, Apple, or Google? Do you have access to the other internet presentation software? How will the presentation be shown: on a big screen, handouts, or individual laptops? If you are using audio, will everyone be able to hear your presentation? Make sure your creation tools are compatible with your display tools!
Creating and Revising the Presentation
Use your storyboard or outline to start creating your presentation. Experiment with different backgrounds, colors, shapes, and typestyles. Remember, what you think looks great does not always look so hot from the audience’s viewpoint! Avoid using fancy type, too many light colors, or audio that distracts from your message. Think about the picture frame. You want your audience to see your presentation inside the frame (like a photograph) and not be distracted by what’s happening outside the frame.
Again, some students think step 4 is the end of the process. Think again! You wouldn’t want an embarrassing typo, wrong picture, grammatical error, or silly mistake in a presentation. You will lose your audience’s attention and undermine your credibility if you make mistakes. All of this can be avoided by revising and editing multiple times. An additional tip is to have someone else look at your presentation. We often don’t see our errors because we think we are correct.
You have organized an excellent presentation. What’s next? Make the presentation! Technology is a tool, not the presenter or the presentation. Just as there are basics in creating a presentation, there are some essential tips to remember as you display and present. Displaying and presenting work together but are not the same thing.
Displaying and Presenting
The display is what your audience will see. You give or present the information to the audience, which is what the audience will hear. The letter ‘D’ for display and ‘P’ for present is marked next to each tip so you can see the difference between displaying and presenting. The display is the technology or media you use, and you are the presenter.
- Know your audience. If you are presenting information to non-experts, don’t use a lot of technical jargon. But for experts, don’t insult your audience with too simple explanations.
- Test your equipment. Don’t wait until you are ready to present to test your equipment. Check out the room in advance. Make sure you know how to work all of the equipment before you go on stage to present. For example, if you are using audio, stand in the back and be sure the volume is loud enough for people to hear you.
- Connect with your audience. Connecting with your audience is like talking with a friend! Maintain eye contact, avoid distracting gestures or movements, and speak clearly and confidently. Your media and graphics will get the audience’s attention, but they will want to hear from you to get the information. Practice, practice, and practice so you are prepared.
- Don’t overwhelm your audience. Putting too much on a slide or video is sometimes unnecessary. An audience can be overwhelmed by excessive numbers of slides or too much text. One good rule used by many professionals is the 5-5-5 rule. No more than five words per line of text, five lines of text, and five heavy text slides in a row. Keep in mind you are talking about what is on the slide. A slide with too much text or too many graphics will have the audience focusing on the slide and not on what you are saying.
- The 10-second rule. The 10-second rule for presentations is that your audience should be able to look at and comprehend a slide within 10 seconds. How do you know? Have someone look at your slides, wait 10 seconds, and ask them what the slide says.
By now, you are thinking, How many slides do I need to make a presentation? Your teacher will tell you how long you have. A good rule of thumb is that every slide will take about two minutes to talk through. If you have 10 minutes for your presentation, you should not have more than five slides! This is why practicing your presentation and timing is really important. The lesson ends with the “ending” to the story from the beginning of the lesson plan.
USING MEDIA IN PRESENTATIONS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Using Media in Presentations lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. These worksheets will help students demonstrate what they learned throughout the lesson and reinforce the lesson concepts. The guide on the classroom procedure page outlines when to hand out each worksheet to your students.
STORYBOARD ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
All three worksheets will work together to help students create a multimedia presentation. First, students will choose a subject for their presentation. Then they will fill in the storyboard on the worksheet to plan it out.
MAKING THE PRESENTATION PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet will build on the storyboarding from the activity. Using their storyboard outline, students will create the multimedia presentation. The worksheet provides several ideas students can use, such as song, video, and slideshow, for their presentation.
USING MEDIA IN PRESENTATIONS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework, students will write a personal narrative about your last presentation in front of an audience. They will describe how they think the presentation went and how they can improve the next time they have to give a presentation.
Worksheet Answer Keys
The “answer key” at the end of the lesson plan is a guide for you to use as you grade your students’ presentations. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits this page. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep this as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
