ASSESSING ORAL
CLASSROOM
PRESENTATIONS
DAVID W. KALE, PH.D.
PROFESSOR OF
COMMUNICATION, MVNU
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES





That you will have a fuller understanding of
effective communication principles;
That you will have a rubric to use in assessing
oral presentations in your classes.
You will have practiced using the rubric with
some actual classroom presentations.
You will have seen how the presentations would
have been scored in a Public Speaking class.
You will see how to adapt the rubric for your
unique classroom situation.
WORKSHOP OUTLINE
 Principles
of effective oral communication
 Introduction
 Body of the presentation
 Conclusion
 Supporting material
 Language
 Delivery
PRINCIPLES
1.
2.
3.
Written communication needs to be ultimately
intelligible; oral communication needs to be
instantaneously intelligible.
Not only should we ask whether a presentation
can be understood; we also need to ask
whether it can be misunderstood.
Listeners can process spoken English at a rate
at least three times faster than most people
speak.
PRINCIPLES
4. Two days after an oral presentation,
listeners remember at most 25% of what
was in the presentation.
5. The good news is that the speaker can
have some control over the content of
that 25%.
INTRODUCTION
There are three general purposes for an
introduction.
1. To introduce the topic to the
audience;
2. To stimulate the audience’s interest in
the topic;
3. To let the audience know how the
speaker intends to develop the topic.
INTRODUCTION
 If
you had to condense the whole
presentation into a single sentence, what
would that sentence be? That sentence
should occur several times in the
presentation and first of all in the
introduction.
 Sometimes, with controversial topics, the
thesis sentence is left until later in the
presentation.
INTRODUCTION
 The
introduction should answer the
question, “Why should I exert the energy it
takes to shut out all that I have on my
mind and pay attention to what you have
to say?”
BODY OF THE SPEECH
 The
purpose of the speech’s body is to
develop the thesis.
 Major points should be very obvious and
clearly related to the thesis.
 In a longer presentation, the body should
contain an internal summary to (1) review
for the listener what has already been
covered and (2) forecast what is to come.
BODY OF THE SPEECH
 The
thesis is so important in a speech that
there should be no content, no jokes, no
asides, etc., that are not clearly related to
it. This is how we try to be sure our thesis
ends up in the 25% of the presentation
that the audience remembers.
 It helps the listener if a clear pattern ties
together all major points.
BODY OF THE SPEECH
 Perhaps
the major points are organized by
time, by space, cause-effect, problemsolution, etc.
 Sometimes the order is topical in nature
such as the major components of a
successful marketing campaign.
 A really top-notch presentation will have
transitions between the major points.
BODY OF THE SPEECH
 An
effective transition (1) reviews previous
material, (2) forecasts what is to come and
(3) shows how the two relate to the thesis.
CONCLUSION
 Many
presentations just come to an end
after the last major point has been
developed and don’t really have a
conclusion. That shouldn’t happen.
 Speakers who do this pass up another
important opportunity to influence what
turns up in the 25%.
CONCLUSION
 Effective
conclusions can occur in a
variety of forms.
 1. The conclusion can be a review of the
major points with an emphasis on the
thesis.
 2. The conclusion could give an
application of principles discussed in the
presentation.
CONCLUSION
 3. Another
effective ending is to tell a story
which serves as an example of the major
ideas developed in the presentation.
 4. What ever is done in the conclusion, it is
a very critical point at which the speaker
can make his/her presentation truly
memorable for the audience.
CONCLUSION
 Who
can forget “until day when all God’s
children will be able to say in the words of
the old Negro Spiritual, ‘free at last, free at
last, thank God Almighty, we are free at
last’”?
SUPPORTING MATERIAL
 Supporting
material has three major roles
to play with regard to the ideas and major
points of the presentation:



To help the listeners understand them;
To help the listeners remember them; and
To get the listener to accept them, particularly
in a persuasive presentation.
SUPPORTING MATERIAL
 It
is so tempting for presenters to tell
stories they think are funny or engaging,
but have no direct bearing on the thesis or
topic of the presentation. Don’t let them
get away with that.
 Presenters should also be held
accountable to giving the sources of their
information.
SUPPORTING MATERIAL
 Effective
supporting material is necessary
to manage the audience’s attention. An
endless stream of statistics or facts and
figures is not going to keep your audience
focused on the presentation.
 A mixture of expert opinion, statistics,
specific instances and anecdotes is
necessary to hold the audience’s attention.
SUPPORTING MATERIAL
 With
 1.
each major point, ask yourself:
Did the student fully develop that point?
 2. Did the student show how that point
was related to the thesis?
 3. Did the student show how that point
related to the other points in the
presentation?
LANGUAGE

There is a lot of difference between written
language and spoken language.
 As we said at the beginning, spoken language
has to be instantaneously intelligible.
 Effective presenters learn how to create pictures
with words.
 We tell students their language should be
conversational within a professional manner of
presentation.
LANGUAGE
 Like,
and, uh, you know and stuff like that.
 I am sure that one of these days a
students in public speaking is going to
come up with something like that believing
that it is really a sentence that has
meaning.
 Hold students accountable for
grammatically correct, clear, concise
language.
LANGUAGE
 “She
could care less”
 “Everybody didn’t make the team.”
DELIVERY
 When
the great Greek orator,
Demosthenes, was asked what were the
three most important ingredients to great
oratory, he said, “Delivery, delivery and
delivery.”
 When we talk of delivery we are referring
to tone of voice, eye contact, facial
expression, rate of speech, use of
gestures, pronunciation and articulation.
DELIVERY
When students say “revelant” for “relevant”, that
is a pronunciation problem.
 When we don’t hear the “t” at the end of “Jesus
Christ”, that is an articulation problem.
 When we had the professors of the
Communication department rate to the
speeches on the DVD, we had the most
differences on delivery. We had very similar
assessments in the other areas.

PRACTICE
 Now
you are going to see some actual
presentations students made in the Public
Speaking class.
 All students whose speeches we are using
have given us permission to use the
speeches in training faculty.
 Let’s get on with our practice!