Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kaypea]

Hi,

I'm developing a 10 hour course, in conjunction with a math/science teacher. There are about 35 students, and they're academically inclined, or gifted.

He suggested I teach presentation skills to them, building upon some of the things they've been studying with him. He's been working with them for some time, as part of an afterschool class.

So, I'm thinking I'll have the students, in groups of 5-7, can work on presentation projects based on something they've studied with him (it seems that they've done environmental science and numerical patterns as they appear in nature... fractals?). So, in class, in addition to fun presentation and ESL activities, they can work on developing their final project.

So, my question is:

How long should the final presentations be?

I figure the presentations could have:

-Introduction
-Findings
-Presenting some visual data: charts, posters, photos (on PPT slides)
-Conclusion

How long should these be? Has anybody done a class like this?

Also, the coteacher is nice and speaks decent English. I'm actually quite happy to be working with him. I taught a similar class last year, but without a co-teacher, and it was just esl games/activities... I think this course has some exciting learning potential for all involved.

Thanks!

[Darkeru]

I'd suggest about 10 or even 15 minutes per presentation, if you have time to hear them all. 5 minutes if not. Warn them that you'll deduct points for groups that don't equally share speaking time.

In my experience of making presentations for university, everyone worries about if they have enough to fill the time. Then they tend to often go over it.

This isn't based on anything concrete however. It's just my suggestion.

[thegadfly]

For a large group project like that, with 5-7 students each needing to speak some part, I would tell them it would need to be 20 minutes or more in length...alternately, I would make the groups smaller, and give a 10 or 15 minute minimum. Personally, in a formal presentation, I figure that each student should speak for 3-5 minutes. Usually, I do solo speaking projects, and have one a day over the course of several weeks, until everyone has had a turn...the bigger the group, the less each person has to say....

[Kaypea]

Great idea! 5-7 students is far too many. 2 is probably ideal, but maybe because they're young and it's probably a first presentation exercise in English, 4 would be best: a decent report could be divided into 4 speaking/presenting parts of about 5 minutes each.

I want to use the class time to let the students prepare (I think there'll be about 7 after school classes of 90 mins each, but there may actually be fewer, but longer, classes). So, I'll reserve the last 2 classes for presentations.