Making Some Noise! Chapter 4

After tweaking the visuals of a presentation, it's time to start thinking about how you will present it. Some presentations that are visually attractive are destroyed by a monotone voice and lackluster speaking skills.

According to Dr. Burmark presentations that are efficient in education must do two things:

1. Grab students' attention quickly.
2. Be memorable.

She shared a story about walking on stage wearing a bright pink wig and pink boa. Her audience was immediately entranced and waiting for more. (Burmark, 62-63) As I read about this, I immediately reflected on the past week in my classroom. It was a testing week, which requires students to take a test in each subject daily and also display content mastery through a performance assessment. As a science teacher, my performance assessments tend to be fun. Students were required to display mastery of measuring physical properties. The simplest way to do this would have been to provide students with objects to measure and the tools to do it. I chose to make our day into a treasure hunt. This was augmented with a giant, blow-up pirate hat and a journey to a deserted island (aka the empty classroom down the hall). Students were called scallywags and warned that if they weren't on task they'd have to walk the plank, also known as lunch detention. My students really enjoyed it and were more serious about their treasure hunt measurements. The following day a student asked me if it was going to be a ninja day or zombie day. The way that a task is presented will effect how it is completed!

Effective presentations use one or more of the following hooks:

1. Connections-- Could you relate to the information?
   
2. Humor--Did it make you laugh? My students laughed uncontrollable at my ridiculous pirate hat.
3. Images--What do you expect when you see the images? Does it surprise you?
4. Music-- Humans are hardwired for sound.
   
5. Emotion-- Does it illicit emotional response? Are you angry, sad, happy?
6. Story-- Are you hooked into the story and invested in the outcome?

These elements, referred to as CHIMES, can make or break a presentation. The presentation must be related to your content and must illicit a response from your audience. The use of one or more CHIMES strategies can help you create that response.


Works Cited:

Burmark, L. (2011). They snooze, you lose. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.