As a sixth grade teacher, my students had nearly no student access to technology in the classroom for the first half of the school year. In January, students received 1:1 iPads through a pilot program in our district. Students and I were excited to begin our journey creating multimedia demonstrations of learning. This was new and exciting to these students. Groups of students worked hard to create these multimedia presentations. They loved accessing, curating, and inserting images into keynote. They enjoyed experimenting with fonts and transitions. Once these presentations were created, they were eager to show their peers what they had created.

Timeliness

As a teacher, I wanted to validate students’ excitement and give each group of students ample time to share learnings with their peers. However, I quickly learned that the presentations dragged on longer than I had expected. I learned the importance of timing student presentations and being firm with the cut-off point. Recently, I have discovered the value of screencasting, to allow students to both practice the verbiage they will use during the presentation, and to monitor the time they will spend delivering their message. I prefer to use screencastify. The free version cuts students off at 10 minutes and allows each student to record up to 50 screencasts per month. We often expect students to know how to present a multimedia presentation without encouraging them to practice. As a former professional musician, I learned the importance of practicing prior to a performance. The opportunity to practice, not only improves the quality of the end product, but also emphasizes the fact that learning is a process, that preparation is a key component to success in the real world.

Is Anyone Listening?

Another challenge with multimedia presentations is engagement levels of peers in the audience. Students grow weary of listening to presentation after presentation. Their attention wanes and they begin to daydream. How do we ensure that student audience members find value in listening to their peers? We empower them with opportunities to provide feedback to their peers and express what they have learned from each other.

As a classroom teacher, I found success in using a poll and comment feature in the Edmodo platform to encourage students to remain engaged in their peers’ presentations. During each student presentation, the class would rate their peers according to a rubric, and then provide a compliment, a new learning, and constructive feedback. This was done in real time while peers presented. Because the format is in a shared digital space, students who are learning the English language or have learning disabilities are able to view peer responses before responding. I have found that this provides a built in scaffold for these students. Since my time in the classroom, I have witnessed many educators using the Google Classroom create question feature or stream to facilitate shared digital discussions. This strategy is effective for many reasons. Firstly, it keeps student audience members engaged in listening to peers. It also fosters peer teaching as students learn to provide quality feedback to each other. Lastly, students who present gain valuable feedback from which they may continue to improve. This focuses on learning as a process, not merely a product.

I Can’t Hear You!

My first year as a coach, students invited me to view their research based, multimedia presentations. The research was sound and the visual aspects of the presentations were well constructed. It was clear that students were adept at building a speech. However, they struggled to effectively deliver the content. Students stood in front of the board on which their digital presentation was projected, their voices were difficult to hear, it was clear they were not comfortable speaking in front of an entire class of peers. I do not blame these students. Former teachers and myself included did not prepare these learners with the skills for effective public speaking.

How do we teach students to be skillful public speakers? I have found that Erik Palmer’s PVLEGS framework is effective in grades K-12. This framework teaches students to focus on multiple facets of public speaking including poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures, and speed. Rubrics and more information is available at pvlegs.com. Public speaking is a lifelong skill. In their future, students may encounter the need to share their message in interviews, presentations of content in the workplace, and college classes. Public speaking skills not only help to make student presentations less boring in our own classes, they are a vital part of college/career readiness.

My second year as a coach, our school began implementing the PVLEGS framework in classrooms. Students learned and practiced aspects of effective public speaking. They used the PVLEGS framework as a rubric to give peers feedback in real time. After a presentation was complete, student audience members spoke with a partner to compare and contrast their digital responses. The results astounded me. Students were confident in front of their peers and even in front of a local news camera. Public speaking skills continued to build to the extent that a couple of years later, a group of first graders won a national speaking competition.

Our students deserve the opportunity to gain public speaking skills. As educators, let us provide our learners with both guidance and practice in effective public speaking. Our students are the future. Give students a voice and promote clear messaging that resonates with an audience.