Lesson Planning – Presentations as an Assessment Tool
Jaren Folden and Joel Graham
ECS 410 and ECS 350
materials/preparation required
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PPT ready to display our presentation (projector set up)
Load YouTube Videos prior to beginning
Load “Delicious” site
Hand out provided to all students at the beginning of the presentation
Our presentation topic written on the board along with the outcome to be achieved by our
presentation
Students sitting in basic desk formation
prerequisite learning required
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Students will need to reflect on previous presentations to respond to questions and contribute in
group work effectively
target for professional growth
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See attached Professional Growth sheet
Outcome
for this lesson
Students are able to describe the benefits and
shortfalls of using oral presentations as a form of
assessment.
Students are able to draw upon their own
experiences to determine what makes a quality
presentation.
Indicator(s)
After a 30 minute presentation and 5 minutes
of questions, students will be able to
accurately speak to one benefit and one
shortfall of using oral presentations as a form
of assessment.
Students gain access to various oral presentation
assessment techniques.
Lesson Construction:
Set: YouTube Video - Bad Modeling of Oral Presentations (3 minutes)
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Joel to introduce the topic of oral presentations and what we are trying to achieve today (both
written on the board)
Jaren to distribute our hand out while this occurs
“Before we get into the meat of the presentation, we thought we would start with an example of
what not to do when presenting”
o Phil Davison Speech - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5063G1ZDzo (0:00 – 2:08)
Development 1: Presentations as Good Assessment Tool? Class Question then Lecture (5
minutes)
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Jaren – Despite what you have seen earlier, presentations can be a great tool for to assessing your
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student’s ability to comprehend material.
Jaren – Ask the class for their opinion on presentations as an assessment tool?
o If the class is silent, we will cold call classmates for their opinion on the matter
o Take a maximum of three responses for time purposes
Students will be able to view this material on the Power Point. It will also be on the hand out, so
students can follow along.
Joel - Lecture Portion – In the research we found numerous reasons stating why presentations
are an excellent method for assessing student learning.
o Oral presentations are highly practical for students in the future
 Many professions require individuals who are comfortable and confident presenting
ideas in front of a group
o Communication is an important skill for everyone
 And presenting is a little different than just holding a conversation – holding the
listeners attention is crucial
o Student’s really need to know the material they are presenting to speak about it effectively
 Requires preparation and practice to avoid looking silly
 This can be unlike writing a test, where student’s may recall information briefly, but
have it leave them once they finish the test
o Higher level thinking!
 The actual development of the presentation opens the door for students to be
creative and think outside the box
 Forcing students to encompass various skills in their presentations
Development 2: Issues with Oral Presentations and Mitigation (5 minutes)
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Students will be able to view this material on the Power Point. It will also be on the hand out, so
students can follow along.
Jaren – There are some potential issues with student oral presentations that teachers need to be
aware of and should mitigate against:
o Students often seriously underestimate the amount of preparation it takes to give a good
presentation
 Presentations can sound easier than they are
 “Winging it” is never a good idea
o The students in the audience are not sufficiently engaged to learn from their peers.
 May not consider other students solutions or ideas as “correct”
o Some students have serious apprehensions about public speaking, even if it is only in
front of peers (sometimes this is worse)
Students will be able to view this material on the Power Point. It will also be on the hand out, so
students can follow along.
Joel – Numerous methods of mitigating these issues:
o For problem 1:
 Get students thinking about problems with presentations and how they can be
overcome (almost always comes back to preparation)
 Ask the students to brainstorm about the worst presentation they have ever been
forced to sit through and we write a list of no-no's on the board. The list is usually
quite long, ranging from lack of substance or poor organization to speaking in a
monotone or using verbal fillers like "um" and "you know."
 Then discuss what makes a good presentation and hand out the peer evaluation
form we will be using (which we will be discussing later in the presentation), which
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seems to summarize what they have just come up with.
Remind students to think about the very last thing they plan to say, as I have found
that even good speakers don't always give enough thought to how they plan to end
the presentation.
Ask the class for any other suggestions for overcoming this common problem (if
tight on time, remove this).
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For problem 2:
 Get students involved in the evaluation and feedback of the presentation (students
can provide formal evaluation and comments)
 During the presentations themselves, students rate their peers using the evaluation
form and I give them time at the end to write their comments.
 In addition to filling out the evaluation forms for each speaker, I require that each
student in the audience come up with at least one thoughtful question or comment.
 Ask the class for any other suggestions for overcoming this common problem (if
tight on time, remove this).
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For problem 3:
 Effective grouping of students (outgoing with less outgoing)
 Less reliance on even participation in front of the class (depending on the way the
presentation is assessed)
 Option of presenting to a smaller group or just to the teacher (part of the curriculum
to be able to speak aloud to a group, so practice is necessary)
 Ask the class for any other suggestions for overcoming this common problem (if
tight on time, remove this).
Development 3: Group Work on What Makes an Effective Presentation (8 minutes)
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Joel - Break the class into groups of 4 (work with who is at your table if possible)
Each table is to write down on a piece of paper 4 key areas for quality presentations
o Group brainstorm
o As was proven by our own class discussion on this, there are many more than 4 areas, but
try to summarize or group into 4 areas
Given 5 minutes (or less) to develop your list
After list development, in clockwise order we will ask a member from each table to read out their
four areas of a quality presentation.
Jaren to write answers on the board if possible (likely much duplication of areas here)
o Follow up questions could include:
 How difficult was it this time to come up with 4 key areas to assess presentations?
 Easier in smaller groups? May be something to remember with your classroom…
Development 4: Creating Rubrics for Presentations (5 minutes)
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Students will be able to view this material on the Power Point. It will also be on the hand out, so
students can follow along.
Jaren - After everyone has announced, Jaren to describe how making a presentation rubric will
always look different for each class.
o Making a rubric together can be a good (or painfully long) experience for getting all students
on the same page.
o Leave room in the rubric for alteration for different classrooms and/or for individual
group differentiation.
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Joel - Fortunately, there are many premade rubrics for oral presentations that you can steal and
adjust online. We have created a “Delicious” site so everyone in the class can easily access some
of the ones we located.
o Pull up “Delicious” site with all rubrics
o Login name and password included on the handout
Development 5: Effective Setup of Assessment (2 minutes)
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Jaren - As mentioned earlier, individual, peer and teacher assessment is a good strategy for
gaining engagement
o Teachers need to make sure that the assessment style chosen works for you and your
students (effective, realistic and manageable)
o Manageable for you and your students (need to make sure your rubric is tight and workable)
o If using peer assessment, don’t want to mark too many peer assessments
Closure: Exit Slip – Class Discussion (2 minutes)
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Joel - Ask the class… To reinforce what we learned today, please answer the following (take 2
answers per question):
o After this lesson, name a positive reason for using oral presentations for assessment?
o Name reason why presentations can be a negative tool for assessment? How can this be
overcome?
Only gain 4 responses, but hopefully this is a decent outline of the classes understanding. In a
classroom you could revisit this material in longer than a half hour block.
Questions and Comments (5 minutes)