10 Tips to Delivering Out of This World Presentations!
For Students of ALL Ages
No matter what grade or subject you are taking, more than likely, there will be moments where you will have to get up and present to the class. Being prepared and well-educated about the topic is key, but being able to deliver the presentation with excellence is also very important!
Here are ten great tips to delivering an awesome presentation for upper elementary grades through college (and above!)
1. Create a one page handout – Giving your audience something to take home and something to remember your tips by. Check out some tips for creating a handout here. Usually, one page is sufficient, but if you have extensive information that your peers may be tested on, you can create one using your Powerpoint slides. Learn how here.
2. Analyze your audience – Know who your audience is and what they might know or want to know. Don’t bore them by repeating what you know they have learned in class. Try giving them new and fresh information in a new and fresh way.
3. Use audience participation – Everyone enjoys a presentation more when they can take part. Build into your presentation a short verbal quiz about the topic or take a survey asking them to raise their hands in response. Make it interactive.
4. Stick to one idea for each slide – Don’t overwhelm the slides with lots of information or several key points. Keep to one key point per slide.
5. Use graphics on slides – When using Powerpoint, be sure to use the graphics and even video clips to make your point. Video clips should not be more than 3-5 minutes in length and should support your point or add to it. The video may also be used as a foundation for asking questions or support a scenario. For example, if you are talking about dinosaurs, show the video and ask the audience to look for different types dinosaurs in the video.
6. Group Participation – To really solidify a concept for an audience, have them turn to a neighbor and answer a question you pose to them. For example, if you are doing a presentation on the history of flight, ask them to discuss the major benefits flight has had on the world. Then they can share one with the class. This should only take 2-3 minutes and have a timer that goes off to end conversation.
7. Ask thinking questions – The goal of any presentation is to get the audience to think at the end. Maybe asking them to consider what the world would be like now if dinosaurs lived would be a good ending thought or quick discussion. Be sure to help your audience consider the main point of your presentation.
8. Leave them with a final thought – Sum up your presentation on one slide with 1-2 sentences (preferably 1) and then leave them with that thought.
9. Take (and ask!) questions at the end– Be sure to ask if anyone has questions at the end. Often, you can only hear crickets (not really!), but the silence can be deafening. If no one asks any, ask a few of your own! Ask them what one thing is they have learned or will take away from this conversation. Ask them if this has made them more 
interested in the topic.
10. Dress for the topic and bring props – If you are doing the presentation on dinosaurs and have a cool shirt that is appropriate, wear it! If you are doing a presentation on flight, bring in small miniature airplanes and pass them around. Anything that is visual and hands on helps a presentation. Even if the instructor has suggested you wear dress clothes, ask if you could wear the beekeeper outfit you have when doing your bee presentation. If the instructor says no, no worries, just bring in the outfit on a friend! There are always ways to make a presentation more interesting by having hands on visuals.
BONUS – This is something many students of all ages forget…READ THE DIRECTIONS. Be sure that you understand the directions, read them ALL and follow them. Also, if there is a rubric to grade from, read it CAREFULLY. You may have an awesome presentation, but if you don’t follow the directions, it doesn’t matter!
Do you have an awesome presentation tip? Leave it (and your URL!) below to share!
Need help with a presentation? Tutor Doctor can help! We provide in-home, private tutoring to Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary, Durham, and the surrounding areas. Read more about our process here.
Jen Benoit, MEd, remembers her first presentation in elementary school. She also remembers not having the great use of Powerpoint (or a computer even!) to do it!
Active vs. Passive Readers
Which One is Your Student?
Active and passive readers are everywhere and they are every age. One reader takes part in what he or she is reading and essentially can apply it elsewhere while passive readers take in the information or text, but do not apply it. At some points we are one or the other and it often depends on what we are reading. If we engage with the reading and enjoy the topic, we are often active readers. Take watching a cooking show for example. We can all watch Rachel Ray or Paula Dean, but when we are cooking one of their recipes or using one of their tips, then we are actually being active in our knowledge.
Source: Scholastic & Harrison Group. (2010). 2010 kids and family reading report: Turning the page in the digital age. Retrieved from scholastic at www.scholastic.com/readingreport. Based on a nationally representative sample of 1045 children ages 6-17.
The same concept goes with reading. As you can see from the chart above, most students read fiction and nonfiction in school. Both are assigned and utilized. When students apply what they are learning, they are active in their reading. What we want is students who are actively reading and applying what they are reading whether it is fiction or non-fiction.
See the chart below from the book Overcoming Textbook Fatigue and read the difference between active and passive readers. It is one of the best overviews and descriptions of active and passive readers I’ve seen.
Characteristics of Active and Passive Readers
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Active Readers
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Passive Readers
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Believe in their own ability to read and understand text.
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Doubt their ability to understand text, even before reading begins.
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Know when they aren’t comprehending and ask for help or use strategies.
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Don’t seem to be aware of when they are not comprehending and do not utilize strategies.
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Have a pen, sticky notes, or highlighter when reading to make notes.
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Do not understand the importance of using highlighters or other materials when reading.
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Ask questions of the author, themselves, peers and teacher related to the text.
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Have difficulty formulating questions related to the text and will often say they have none.
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Can summarize what they have read and have opinions about text.
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Often allow minds to wander during reading and cannot create a logical summary. They offer few opinions.
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Make relevant connections to other texts, world events and personal experiences.
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Don’t see connection between texts and have difficulty relating ideas in text to real world or personal events.
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Thinks about what is coming next and may make predictions.
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Don’t predict or anticipate what is coming.
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Sets goals that may including using/adapting information in text for other courses or purposes.
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Sets a goal of finishing the reading or completing the assignment.
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Make inferences and understand the author’s purpose
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Often read word-by-word and look for answers to questions rather than looking at the larger meaning of the text or chapter.
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Understand that different texts are read in different ways (especially based on the content area) and are able to adapt reading skills to specific text.
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Approach all texts (and perhaps all reading) the same way.
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So, why is active reading so important? Well, obviously students get more out of it, but what specifically do they get out of it.
According to Sacramento State, “active reading is just as important as participating actively in class..If you are thinking about your understanding of the text as you read, you can test your understanding against the rest of the text and identify any difficulties you are having.” You can then bring up those questions in class or with a tutor.
Part of active reading, according to Princeton University, is asking why the instructor is having you read this text or piece of information? There is usually a reason and it generally relates to what will be covered in class. Keep in mind that the information from the text may NOT be covered in class directly, but you are to have been expected to actively read it in order to be able to ask questions and understand the lecture during class. This goes hand-in-hand with note taking as taking notes is a piece of active learning.
Active reading is a necessary part of education and a lifelong skill that people use in their careers and home life. Encouraging students to utilize and improve this skill is essential to success.
If you are looking for more resources and checklists to understand how to use active reading, see the resources below.
Do you have any suggestions about how to help students read actively? Leave your comment (and URL?) below.
If reading is a struggle for your student, read our Top 10 Myths About Reading Struggles in our free download below. Tutor Doctor also provides in-home reading tutoring to Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, Apex, and surrounding areas.
Jen Benoit, MEd, has picked up a few tips about reading actively just by researching this article. Great ideas that can be implemented at many ages!
What College Can Give You
One Perspective on Choosing the Best College
In this day and age, going to a physical college might be becoming more and more scarce. Our children and our grandchildren may never even see the inside of a college, but take most if not all of their courses online. So, what can college give you?
Here are some things that I took away from my college experience that has shaped me as an educator and individual today. Think carefully on these pieces of advice when talking with your student about college and the experiences he or she will gain from going on campus, taking courses online, or living in a dorm.
A New Environment – My college (Wheelock College (turning 125 this year!) is a small college for teachers, social workers and those working with children) is nestled in Boston sandwiched between Fenway Park and the Hospital District. I came from a small town in upstate New York. Having a taste (in a rather safe environment) of a large city and not having to use a car was foreign and new to me. I learned how to get around on the T (subway) and take advantage of seeing the Boston Pops, Museum of Science, Red Sox Games (we could walk there for crying out loud!), and volunteering at the Children’s Hospital. Learning about life from a different living space is great for some college students and not for others. Some prefer staying at home and some want a larger school in the middle of a rural area (such as Cornell University which is essentially housed in farm country).
Advice: Think about what a new environment might be to you or your student. How can you benefit?
Building Lifelong Professional Friendships – I still keep in touch with many of my classmates…especially since we now have Facebook to help us. Not only is that incredibly helpful personally, but it is helpful professionally. All of us who knew one another are still involved in helping children or adults in some form. We all understand stress and struggle with public education and public legal systems, etc. When I need a question answered, I go to my wealth of colleagues scattered around the U.S. You can gain that by being on and off campus, but when you take classes with like-minded professionals, you develop good professional relationships.
Advice: Don’t sell your classmates short. Develop relationships that will blossom into professional ones. Keep in touch with people in your field for advice and discussions.
Excellent Real Life Opportunities – When looking at a college, I just knew that Wheelock was the one for me. It had such a range of opportunity from working in inner city schools to working in suburban schools. Wheelock got us into the chosen field during our freshman year and did not stop until senior year. I interned in an inner city school where I was told by the bus driver to always sit behind him (a rather rough area), I worked at the famous Children’s Museum in Boston. I student taught in a wealthy suburb, interned in Chinatown, worked with orthodox Jewish families, Hindus, Muslims, and various ethnicities, and held AIDS babies at the Children’s Hospital. To prepare me for a life of teaching, I definitely got the real-life experience needed.
Advice: When thinking of a college or university, ask what opportunities there are for internships and real life experiences. Get to know what may be available to prep you for your career.
Learned from Solid Professors and Experts – We learned from people who were knowledgeable, available, and good at educating children. They became mentors and go-to people when we need information and ideas. I learned how to teach and learn algebra from a terrific professor who opened up a whole new way of algebraic ideas to me. I have even featured her work for children on this website. I see information in textbooks today written by my college professors and I know I was taught well.
Advice: Learn from the best. The best is not always at Harvard or an Ivy League school. Look for people who have been published in the field. Look for people who can teach you to be the best…or better.
Classes Can Be Applied to Real Life – Some of my biggest issues with college courses are that they do not have any real life application. I took very few classes during my college years that did not directly apply to education. In my mind, spending two years (freshman and sophomore) not taking any classes in your major (particularly when you know that is what you want to do!) is rather useless. I did take Chemistry, Drawing 101, Baroque Music, Economics (taught by a Harvard professor), and a Film and Fiction (taught by a rather famous mystery author). Those expanded my horizons and were good, but I took them alongside Working with Children with Special Needs and Their Families, Social Issues, and Human Growth and Development (in which a 100 pg paper was due as a freshman). The mixture of classes was exciting and most certainly developed me as a person as well as a budding professional.
Advice: What courses will you take freshman year? Do you know what you want to do already? If so, how can you learn in this discipline during freshman and sophomore year? Look critically at the courses offered within your chosen major.
Helped Me Get a Job – Here is another pet peeve I have about many schools. At our college we had many on-campus opportunities during our senior year to talk with potential employers and interview. We were constantly told about job fairs and there was a database full of education jobs offered around the country. Our resume was looked over several times and critiqued as well as our cover letters. We practiced job interviews with our peers and with the college. We were prepared. Finding a job was hard…really hard with almost 500 applicants per teaching job during those years. But we were prepared and ready. All of us found jobs. It might not have been our dream job, but we were readied and prepared.
Advice: What does your potential college do to prepare students for their profession? Are there job fairs on campus? Do they help prepare your resumes and cover letters? In short, how do they help you find a job? In the end of an education…that’s what matters.
Let me be clear. I am not against having an online education or taking courses online. I currently teach an online course and it can be a great choice for working parents and individualts. I do think that we are headed for more online learning. But as you make these decisions, be careful how much online and real life experience you get. Pair them together if you can so you can be prepared with real life experiences that challenge your thinking and your ideas about your future profession.
I could go on and on about the great life in the dorms (it was fun!) and the great plays I got to see at Wheelock’s Family Theater, but nothing is as important as getting and using your education is it? I have been in the field of education now for over 20 years and I will say I was well prepared, well educated, and inspired. In the end, that is what you want to say about your college…is it not?
Read more about college prep by clicking on college prep in our topics on the right.
What do you feel your college prepared you to do? Looking back, how did your college prepare you for your profession? Share in the comment section below.
Are you working on college applications and pre-college courses? Learn about how our in-home tutors can help you raise your grades and prepare for the next level of education. Learn about Tutor Doctor’s process below, serving Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, and surrounding areas.
Jen Benoit, MEd, considers Wheelock College her first professional growth, but considers UNC-Chapel Hill her Masters level growth. Her professors there were incredible, knowledgeable, and…well…masterful. Thanks to all my professors and teachers along the way for an awesome learning experience!
“Math is the Graveyard of Community College”
Breakfast with Superintendent Tata and Dr. Scott Ralls
Last week, the Superintendent’s Breakfast was held at the PNC Arena. This is a time for schools and businesses to meet together and hear what has been happening. After the East Millbrook Middle School African Drumming Ensemble entertained the group, Superintendent Tata thanked the schools and businesses.
Dr. Scott Ralls, the President of North Carolina Community College System, was introduced as the main speaker. Here are a few of the highlights from his talk about “The Importance of the Employer-Education Connection.”
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He stated that “math is the graveyard of community college.”
This is not the first time we at Tutor Doctor have heard this before. What does that mean to us? Simply put, many students in community colleges have a difficult time completing and passing the required math courses due to concepts that are difficult as well as “holes in their knowledge base.” Because of this professors may have to retrace concepts covered in as early as elementary school because the foundation for the higher math is not strong enough. A shaky foundation makes for an almost impossible situation and we encourage students and parents with students in the lower grades to be sure their foundation is strong.
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“The three R’s of Community College are Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.”
Dr. Ralls described a scene at an early college high school where the students were so thankful to their teachers and administrators they had the drivers stop the busses as they poured out to give hugs and fist bumps to the staff on the last day. Relationships with teachers are incredibly relevant. Rigor in any educational setting is also a good thing as students need to be challenged to develop higher skills. Making subject matter relevant is especially important in this day and age. As we remind our clients and tutors, explaining the importance and need for a subject can be as important as passing the subject. There has to be relevance.
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“78% of the people who lost jobs in the last four years have no more than a high school education.”
That is startling and can point to many things in our society including the fact that blue collar jobs are being shipped overseas as well as to the fact that they may be diminishing. Either way, college is a help and using the community college system can be a money and time saver for any profession.
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“You don’t have a 50/50 shot of employment if you don’t have a college education…the world has discovered what North Carolina knew 50 years ago: Education IS economic development.”
Obviously coming from the president of the community college system, you would expect this information, but he went on to explain the growth of community colleges in places like Brazil and other parts of the world who are training students at this level for a multitude of jobs. Education can be anything from electrical wiring to medicine to computer programming. Students can learn a great deal (both younger students and older) as they grasp the opportunities given them by local education institutions and companies. Don’t delay learning, but learn how you can best incorporate skill and information. As you look at colleges be sure to ask how you learn in the class (hands-on, online, etc) and the options you may have. You may have more than you think!
Do you think math is the graveyard of community colleges? Leave your post below and let us know what you think.
If you would like to know if your student needs math tutoring, be sure to get our free download here.
Jen Benoit, MEd, teaches two courses at a local community college in the school of education. She enjoys seeing students learn and grow as they move their way through the rich programs provided to them.
FACT: 4 out of 5 Students are NOT Proficient Writers
FACT: Employers Look at Writing as a Key Skill When Hiring
FACT: Governments and Employers Spend Billions Re-training For Writing
Source
Crazy facts, right? But TRUE! Because of this, it is fundamental (as a future employee!) to develop and “clean up” your writing. Although the following tips won’t change your life as a writer, they will definitely improve your essay quickly. Read on and apply ASAP!
1. Read the directions and follow them.
I can’t tell you how many times I graded papers that did not include all the points, follow the format, or answer the question. It is depressing as a teacher/professor to see students lose points and content quality over such a simple thing. Read the directions before you write, while you write, and after you write to be sure you really understand what you are to do.
2. Run a spelling/grammar check.
Again, it takes less than 30 seconds to run a check, but it can save you points, gain respect, and earn you a higher grade. I don’t know how to spell everything, but usually my spell check does. Use it!
3. Read it over yourself…twice.
In this age of quick and easy, many students just push the button to submit an assignment, print it, or save it and never look at it again. After all, it’s done, right? Wrong. If you don’t reread for understanding, made sure you answered the question, included all the right information (back to point 1), then you are doing yourself a great disservice.
4. Have a trusted friend (one who ideally makes better grades than you!) read it over.
Give your friend (or even your non-friend) the directions first, then the paper. See if it makes sense and if any parts are confusing. Let’s clarify right here that they are NOT to correct or rewrite your paper (where’s improvement to your skills in that?), but they can certainly provide information for you to revise.
5. Learn the rules.
If you don’t know grammar rules, spelling rules, writing rules and organization rules of writing…LEARN THEM. Work with a tutor, a mentor, or a teacher to really get them down. You’ll see below some errors on a college level paper that should never be made. If you don’t know these rules (and others!) get some outside help. It’s cheaper to pay someone than to retake classes…trust me.
- Uncapitalized proper nouns (dr. Watson)
- Missing punctuation, including periods
- Using the word “stuff” and “alot”
- Using slang (“That is so cool”)
- Misplaced commas and apostrophes (“thats’ interesting but, not necessary”)
- Use of second person rather than third person (“as you can see…”)
- Sentence fragments and run-ons
- Real lack of organization
- Use of numerals instead of words (“…5 years ago…”)
- Using Wikipedia as a “credible” source
- Not citing sources credibly or accurately
6. Upload/Print the correct document…at the right place…at the right time.
OK, even I am guilty of this one, but that doesn’t excuse me. Double and even triple check when the assignment is due, where you need to submit it, and make sure you have the right document. Seriously…I have missed out on some points because I submitted late assignments or handed in the wrong document. And honestly, there really IS no excuse.
Have another tip that may be a life saver for an essay writer? Submit it below and share!
Jen Benoit, MEd, has taken an endless amount of classes and written thousands of pages of material. All the tips above have been from hard-earned experience. No one is the perfect writer, but everyone can improve…even her.