Give High School Presentations
As if High School isn't stressful enough, knowing that you have to stand in front of a classroom for 10 - 15 minutes can be very stressful. It takes a lot of discipline and practice to put on a presentation.
Contents
Steps
When Preparing for Your Presentation
- Research about your topic. It is very essential to know your topic very well. Learn things about your subject. Remember, it is a presentation, meaning presenting information to an audience, not reading your report.
- Keep your introduction short and strong. After introducing yourself in front, start your introduction to your presentation with a short concise idea about your topic. Show your objectives or a bird's eye view of your report. Then, make it strong with a spark of interest and camaraderie with the audience and teacher.
- Keep text to a minimum; because if you don't, people will tend to read it instead of listening to you.
- Check the font style and font size. Make sure that people can read it from a distance. Avoid creative and fancy fonts.
- Use pictures, graphs, and charts to get your ideas across. Avoid complicated charts. Keep visual ideas simple.
- Familiarize yourself about your visual aids. You don't want to stumble on your work and get confused with it.
- Rehearse. Practice at least three days before the day of presentation. If you are going to present a complicated topic, preparing a week before the day is ideal.
Giving The Presentation
- Think positive.
- Speak slowly, do not talk so fast that no one knows what you are saying. Pause when you need to take a breath.
- The class will get hooked if your presentation excites them. Give a warm welcome at the beginning of your presentation to get the class' attention. Have your presentation (the visual aids or power point presentation) simple and sound, and keep your talk alive and sure.
- Maintain friendly and calm eye contact. If you look to your audience eyes, they will feel that you know what you are doing and that you feel comfortable. Don't just stare and talk on your visual aid. Talk to the class.
- Do not agonize over mistakes – don't say you're sorry. If you did a mistake, don't let your audience notice it. If you forgot to say something important, make a smart way to insert it through your delivery. You may say, "In addition to our previous point, before I forget to share it. . .", "One more thing is . . ."
- Instead of saying sorry, say "I mean. . .", ". . . rather."
- Smile, laugh and joke, if appropriate. A little humor can go along way, but don't overdo it. Make sure it is related to your topic and not offensive.
- To make sure everyone understands what you're talking about, ask if anyone has any questions at the end of every slide.
- End strong.
- The most important thing is to make sure your presentation is interesting to your class.
- Evaluate your own presentation after delivering it. Ask your classmates or teacher if you did well.
Tips
- Practice.
- Think about your audience, and how they can relate to what you're talking about.
- Pass out an outline of what you'll be talking about.
- If your brain turns fuzzy, close your mouth and think of what you have to say next, do not go errrmmm or ummmm, this will only induce further panic.
- Stay calm.
- Be prepared, and practice!
Warnings
- Remember, giving a presentation is hard work, make sure that you've done enough research on your topic.
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