Oral Presentation Skills (Day 2: Practice & Planning)

Today we are going to continue our discussion on how to best prepare, practice and present oral presentations. We spent a lot of the last class just getting comfortable with speaking in front of others and analyzing the physical features of good presentations. Today we will be discussing how to effectively organize the information in our presentations and plan them for maximize efficacy. An outline of today's class can be found below.

Oral Presentation Skills Day 2: Practice and Planning

Objectives: Students will be able to...

1. Describe and emulate two helpful verbal techniques used by effective presenters
2. Describe and emulate two helpful non-verbal techniques used by effective presenters
3. Describe and explain the importance of planning an oral presentation
4. Describe and explain one outline pattern for planning their oral presentation
5. Begin planning the first draft of their oral presentation (for use during next week's rehearsal)

I. Warm-Up
How's it going? How are you? What's new? How was your weekend? How are your other classes going? How did the IMRD analysis go? Was it difficult? Fun? What was the biggest challenge?

II. Vocabulary Quiz
(Cue Chopin's "March Funébre")

III. Oral Presentation Practice
We will begin our discussion with some more practice activities. First, each person in class will be asked to read a tongue twister from the list. Then, we will review the presentation from last week. As we proceed through the presentation, we will stop and do a couple of short activities (appearance practice, voice practice).

IV. Planning Your Presentation
Now, we will move on to discuss how to plan for your presentation. PLANNING IS VITALLY IMPORTANT!  Hopefully by the end of today's class you will have a clear understanding as to why it is so important. We will take the following steps to analyze the importance of planning your presentation: 

1. Step One: Discussing these questions with a partner. 
2. Step Two: Examining a "tried and true" outline for effective presentations
3. Step Three: Examining key phrases and a completed outline 
4. Step Four: Considering ways to incorporate data visualizations 

This short video also offers a few practical tips for improving your presenting skills.

Homework for Tuesday, December 16th, 2014
1). Prepare for the Oral Presentation Rehearsal
Next Tuesday, everyone in class will give a practice version of their oral presentation without the visual aid. Classmate's will be asked to give feedback. In order to ensure that everyone prepares for this, you need to 1). sign-up for a topic (here) and 2). come to class with the following two documents completed: 

1. Content Outline
2. Adjusting Your Topic for a GENERAL Audience

If you do not come prepared to present, you will lost 20% off of your final presentation grade. Please let me know if you have any questions!