Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre: Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

NWT Heritage Fairs: Teachers Resources Manual

Heritage Fairs Teacher's Guide

Activity 11: Practice Makes Perfect!


Background:

When interviewing teachers for this project one of the main concerns was that, ‘our students don’t talk’ or, ‘we should not put so much emphasis on the speaking presentation as it is hard for my students to do and not fair when they get to the bigger centres.’ Since one of the biggest challenges for students is to effectively speak about their projects it is important to practice.  Students may know their material well, have done an excellent job with their written report, but if they cannot describe what they’ve learned to the judges they are not going to do well.  Preparing students for speaking will not only assist them with their Heritage Fair project it will give them a skill that is transferable to many other areas of their life.

Goal:

  • Students will be able to effectively speak about their project and research.

Materials:

Time:

  • 15  minutes role-play
  • 2  hours for practicing project minimum

Procedure:

Students will likely need more than one audience to practice their presentation.  Complete several of the following:

1. The Good the Bad and the Ugly: Students need to be taught how to speak to the judges.  One way to do this is to role play three different presentations.  Ask a student to ‘be the judge’ and provide a clip board with the judging form as a prop.  Place one project on a table at the front of the room with a chair beside.  Role play, ‘the ugly’ first.  Ask the ‘judge’ to approach you and you act out the following ‘ugly’ behaviours:

  • Remain seated in your chair
  • Wear a hoody and have an MP3 player in your ears playing loudly
  • Chew gum and remain slumped in your chair until the judge has to tap you on the shoulders
  • Say, ‘what’ or ‘huh’ to the judge when they talk to you.

Ask students what you did wrong and try to elicit from them what the proper behaviour would look like.  Ask for volunteers to role play the ‘good’ which would include students standing up when judges approached looking keen and interested with their ears clear of technology and mouths free of gum.  They should also put their hands out to shake the judge’s hands and introduce themselves, ideally in two languages.

After students understand how they should look and what behaviour is expected for introductions role play ‘the ugly’ of an unprepared presentation.  Have the student -actor judge ask some predetermined questions and each time say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘huh’ or simply remain silent.  Give questions to the students that you can feel fairly confident the judges will ask and tell them that they need to prepare these answers and to practice them.

Finally, role play the conclusion of their time with the judge.  Make sure students know to ask the judges if they have any more questions and that they should have a summary sentence for the judges ready.  They should also thank the judges for speaking with them and perhaps shake their hands again.

2. Top 10 Tips for Presenting: Share the following 10 tips with students as a reminder of what they should be practicing.

  1. Stand up when the judge approaches you.
  2. Introduce yourself to the judge.  Even better, introduce yourself to the judge in the language of the land you live on.
  3. Tell the judge what your topic is.
  4. Look clean and tidy.
  5. Take your hat off.
  6. Don’t chew gum.
  7. Be electronic free (no headsets, cell phones ringing etc.).
  8. Speak clearly and loud enough they can hear you.
  9. Show through your body language and voice that you are proud of your work.
  10. Smile!

3. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect:  When two students (or pairs) have their project completed, pair them up to practice their presentation.  Provide a quiet space in the library or somewhere away from the regular distractions of the classroom. 

  • Provide the student hand-out titled Peer Assessment of Presentation Skills which includes a list of typical questions so that they can act out being the judge and act out answering likely questions. 
  • Have each partner evaluate their peer and record comments so they take it seriously.  Include a peer presentation practice as part of the checklist.

4. Family Engagement: Send the Parental Assessment of Presentation Skills sheet home  for their parents.  The note includes questions the parents can ask their child about their project and requires a signature.  This will ensure the students have shared their project with their family members.

5. Peer Evaluations: If possible, work together as a school to have the Heritage Fair set up one day prior to the formal presentation.  There are several outcomes if prepared ahead of time:

    1. Students will be able to learn the content their peers have reported on.
    2. Students will gain an appreciation for different types of reporting and perhaps learn for next year on how to improve their project.
    3. Students will have time to practice their presentations in the environment they will be judged in.  Ideally the peer evaluations will be taken into consideration for a prize.  For example, there could be one prize awarded as judged by their peers.

There are several ways to complete a peer evaluation including:

  • Grade by Grade:  Assign each grade a time in the location where the projects are.  Split the grade into two groups (A and B).  Put the name of all Group A projects into a hat 2 times.  Have Group A stand beside their projects.  Ask Group B students to walk past and look at each of the Group A projects.  They should be looking for general appearance and for what interests them.  Give them time to ask a few questions of their peers.  Then, have Group B students draw a project form the Group A ‘hat’ and using a list of questions have the students judge two projects.  Switch the groups so that Group B students are standing beside their projects and the process is repeated.
  • Grade Groupings: Using a similar process to the grade by grade process described above but this time, have a full grade being judged by another grade.

 

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