Top 7 Strategies to Deliver Great Presentations

Help Your Child Present with Preparedness and Increased Confidence

1. Learning Disabled Students Can Deliver Great Presentations

Get a copy of the scoring criteria from the teacher for the class presentation. Create an outline that includes your teacher's requirements and use it to develop your program. If you are not clear on your teacher's requirements, ask to speak with her. Ask for her opinion of your work as you develop your presentation. Use any suggestions she shares.

If your class's opinions will be used in grading, ask several of them what they would like to know about your topic. Try to address their comments and questions in your presentation.

2. Take Charge of the Presentation Process

Tell your audience questions will be addressed at the end of the presentations. Hand out index cards, and ask them to write their questions as you work. Collect the cards near the end of the presentation. If you can have a short break, sort through the questions to eliminate duplicates. Answer questions you can answer. For those you can't answer, let participants know where they can find answers or plan to research and share answers with them at another time.

3. Be the Guide by Their Side and Not the Sage on the Stage

Explore including your class as an active part of the presentation. One effective way is to divide the class into groups to complete a task that will help them understand your topic. For example, each group could read a brief article and write four positive and four negative points about it on paper. Call time, and have one person from each group share aloud their points. Use their discussion to support the points of your presentation.

4. Tackle the Technology and Make it Work for You

Ideally, setup and test your equipment at least a day before the presentation and practice. At least thirty minutes before the presentation begins, setup and check the equipment again.

Have an overhead projector and transparent slides or paper copies of your presentation to use as a backup should something go wrong with your electronic equipment. If a remote control is available for your LCD projector, practice with it several times with it before making a decision about using it.

5. Give Them Manageable Bits of Information

Include only the main points on slides. Reading wordy slides can lose your audience. Write brief, clear statements on the slides, and try to use no more than four or five lines per slide. Choose simple backgrounds with light colors. Use dark colored, simple fonts such as Times New Roman or Garamond. If you must use fancier fonts, check them to ensure they can be read from the back of the room.

6. Transitions Need Not Leave You Lost

Be careful with using transitions. Transitions are the animated movements of text and pictures on a slide. Using too many can confuse you and interrupt the flow of your presentation. Transitions from one slide to another may be animated more easily because they do not interrupt your flow as much as transitions on the slides themselves.

7. Support Your Visual and Spoken Presentation with Notes

Consider handouts of your slides with space for your class to take notes. Distribute your handouts only when you are ready to discuss them to prevent the audience from becoming distracted. If your presentation is for a major part of your grade, consider creating folders for your participants including all the items and facts your teacher requires for your grade. Consider using color coordinated paper, clip art, and fonts for your slides and handouts.