Mr. Kolman's Class

Oral Presentation Strategies for Mr. Kolman’s Class

How to avoid saying like or um

• Problem: Makes you seem less confident and less believable
• When you practice in front of someone, have them count the number of times you say um
• If you are aware of saying um, like, or uh you will be less likely to do it

How to avoid being monotone

• Problem: Makes audience fall asleep and not pay attention
• Raise your volume for really important facts
• Change your tone/pitch at different points in presentation
• Use bullets on index cards as opposed to reading complete sentences to present
• This will cause you to think more about what you say and you will naturally change your tone as you present

How to avoid walking all over the place

• Problem: Makes audience focus on what you are doing, not what you are saying
• Imagine your toes are on a rope and curl them
• If your toes are curled you will not move around

How to avoid laughing when you look at a classmate

• Choose an object in the room just above classmates head to focus on
• Make sure to look at all parts of the room
• This will make people think you are looking at them, so they will be focused

How to give a great presentation using index cards

• Don’t read off of a report  (this will make you monotone and cause students attention to drift)
• Write key bullet points on index cards
• Don’t write sentences, just phrases or select words
• Write big (so it is easy to see)
• Don’t do more than 3 or 4 bullets per card
• Number your index cards in case you drop them
• Practice at home using your index cards
• The more you practice, the better you will do
• ** The goal of using index cards is to jog your memory as you present
• When you present, look at your audience and glance down at your index cards as  guide to help