Presentations

Presentations.

Most teachers, particularly older teachers, struggle with technology integration. There was no class in my education degree about how to incorporate technology into the classroom. As I settle into my third decade, with 8 years between my undergrad degree and myself, I come to realize that I may be one of those “older teachers” to whom I refer. No one taught me how to use computers in my classroom. I learned during inservices, workshops, and on the fly. It was not until I entered grad school that I had any formal education on technology integration. I’m told that this is addressed today in universities across the country. But a mere 8 years ago, it wasn’t even on the radar.

And so, the one piece of technology that most teachers feel absolutely confident with in the classroom tends to be power point.

Want to integrate technology? Have your kids write a report in power point, or increasingly Prezi, power point’s hip younger cousin in the cloud.

And you know what? This is totally valid. Studies say that your students learn something the best when they are forced to teach it to someone else.  But like everything else, there is a right way, and a wrong way to do presentations.

Lets look at a typical classroom where Coach Beck’s high school world geography class is doing presentations. He’s assigned each of 5 groups a country in South America, and they are presenting via Power point to their classmates. Coach Beck reminds his students that all of this information will be on the test on Friday.

Group 1, having already presented, is talking about their plans for the weekend. Group 2 is up at the board, taking turns reading the information on their slides. Coach Beck is at the back, filling out his rubric, wondering  who found the information being read to him, and if this group actually learned anything about their country. He stops the presentation to ask a question, to which the current reader replies “I don’t know. Jose did this part.” Jose also shrugs in response. Group 3 and 4 are not paying very good attention, being too nervous about getting up to present, and Group 5 is working on a computer in the back, desperately trying to finish their assignment before their turn to present. When group 2 finishes, Coach Beck stands up and asks if there are any questions for the group. Despite the fact that most of what they presented was confusing, there are none.

Is this on the test?

Is this a successful lesson? No. Did the technology get used? Sure it did. But the technology is not the objective. Learning is the objective, and learning didn't happen here today. So what could Coach Beck do to make this lesson better?

1.       
      1. Have an outline.

Before students start working, Coach Beck should give them an outline. It should let students know exactly what information they are responsible for presenting on each slide. Here’s Coach Beck’s outline.

2.    2.  Set a word limit.

No more than 5 words on each slide. This way students must be familiar with their presentation. They can use pictures and bullet points to refresh their memory, not as a teleprompter.

"I don't know Ms. Jose did that part."

3.     3. Use the outline as notes.

Have other students fill in the outline as each group presents. They will have to pay attention to each presentation, you can use the outline as an exit ticket, and students will have a ready made set of notes for that pesky exam on Friday.

4.     4.  Require constructive criticism.

Teach students the PQP model of constructive criticism. Praise, question, polish. Students express one or more things that the group did well. They ask a question about the material presented. This gets them thinking about what the subject matter of the presentation, and allows the group to clarify anything that was not presented clearly. And then they point out something that the group could do better next time.  Cold call a few students to read their comments aloud after each group. Here’s a worksheet to use for this purpose.  Students are more likely to ask questions if you require them to write down a question for each group.

This is not the only way to have successful presentations. But this will give you a framework and a place to start. Steal it, use it, modifiy it. And leave me a comment telling me how it went.

Happy teaching everyone.

"I want to teach when I retire."

On the weekends I teach swing dancing. After class, I host a social dance, and after social dances, whoever manages to make it through to midnight without collapsing ends up headed to the local taco shop for a well earned fourth meal. This is where most of my limited social life happens.

Fourth meal - food eaten after dinner, and before breakfast, generally at some greasy all night place.

Last weekend, at said taco shop, a young man about 20 years old sits next to me. I didn't know his name, so I randomly dubbed him Brian. He looked like a Brian. He's only come dancing a couple times. I might learn his name next month.

After about half a quesadilla, this young man says, "I want to teach after I retire."
Before my brain had time to intervene, my mouth had taken over. "What makes you think teaching is so easy that you can pick it up after you retire?"

At the end of the table, my roommate's facial expression changed to convey that feeling you get when you see a car wreck about to happen, and you know that the driver totally deserves the wreck. One part fascination, one part glee, one part utter horror.

The young man is thrown by such a direct confrontation of what he thinks is a noble sentiment. He stutters, "you know, I would teach about what I did. Like if I was a real estate agent I'd teach real estate.

"Knowing the material is just half of the skill set," I continue. At this point I'm debating the wisdom of continuing this argument, but one, I'm kinda pissed, and two, I have encountered ignorance. I consider myself a foot soldier in the war against ignorance. I can't leave it now. "You may know what to teach, but you don't know how."

Anyone? Anyone?

"Well, I would teach at college." Because it's ok to be a sucky teacher at the college level? Really?

All you have to do as a college professor is lecture, right?

"It is disrespectful to people who spend four or five years in college learning how to teach, and an additional three to five years in the field learning how to teach well, to assume that it is something easy you can do in your free time when you're done with your 'real work'." I had struck a chord.  He had no idea he was being disrespectful, and he said so. At this point someone jumped in and changed the subject, preventing me from going into full on soapbox mode. Which is probably a good thing.

Moral of the story? If you want to teach, learn how. If you don't want to learn how, you have no business teaching.