The Individual Oral Presentation ¡V The Rules

You Must:

¡P Individually give a 10 - 15 minute presentation based on one of the oral texts that we have studied in class

¡P After the oral there will be a class discussion where you explain your choice of topic, the points you have made and the ways in which you tried to engage the audience

Further Details:

¡P Your presentation can take many different forms (including a dramatic response) and be about any aspect of the text you choose. However, in order to score highly, your presentation must demonstrate a good understanding of the aspect of the text that you have chosen to present about

¡P You are allowed visual aids (e.g. PowerPoint) or aural aids (e.g. music) and so use these in order to make your presentation more engaging to the audience. Remember, however, that a jazzy powerpoint is only one way to engage the audience and you should not rely on it too much ¡V a far more effective way to engage the audience would be to ensure that your presentation is well prepared, well-rehearsed and thought-provoking.

¡P Only one candidate is allowed to present on any given topic, so once that topic has been selected by someone it cannot be done by another member of the class

¡P You are only allowed one attempt

The Individual Oral Presentation is meant to assess your ability to:

¡P Understand the thoughts, feelings or ideas conveyed by an author in a text

¡P Engage and sustain the interest of the audience

¡P Use language appropriate to a formal oral situation and express ideas with clarity, coherence, concision and precision

Remember:

¡P There are three sections to the mark scheme, the first is about your knowledge and understanding and to score full marks here you have to demonstrate an ¡¥excellent¡¦ knowledge of the text that you have chosen to present on. This will involve you making insightful and interesting points about the text that go beyond merely re-hashing what we have discussed in class. It will also require you to support your points clearly with references and quotations taken from the text.

¡P In order to demonstrate excellent knowledge of the text you will have to place the text (or the section of it that you are talking about) into context. This can include relevant historical or autobiographical details about the author or details about where this section occurs in the text but will probably also involve drawing links and comparisons between other works by the same author or other sections of the same text.

¡P The second section of the mark scheme is about the steps that you take to engage your audience. There are obviously many ways to do this and the IB make particular reference to the way in which you vary the volume, pace and tone of your presentation as well as your use of appropriate gestures and visual / aural aids. However, engaging presentations will also usually be based on topics that are inherently interesting or thought-provoking (it¡¦s hard to do an interesting presentation about a boring topic or a topic that we have discussed to death in class); they will be delivered in an energetic and excited manner and they will be structured in a manner that it clear and easy for the audience to follow so that they do not get lost. Bear in mind all of these things when you are preparing your presentation and, remember, that the only way to really score highly here is to practice your presentation a number of times at home until you can deliver it perfectly!

¡P If you do use PowerPoint, remember that a good slide will only include a limited amount of information, or sometimes even just a picture. Your slides should not contain everything you are going to say in your presentation; that should be in your head or your notes. Instead slides should contain visual images to illustrate the point you are currently making, key bullet points of information that the audience need to take away with them which can also function as prompts for you to help you remember what to say next. Most importantly PowerPoint should be used as a summary of your main points which you expand on in your presentation rather than a crutch that contains everything you need to say.

¡P The final section of the mark scheme is about your language which should be grammatically correct and appropriately formal. Although it is good to have a varied vocabulary do not try too hard to squeeze fancy words into your oral. You are better off finding a short, simple, clear word that is perfectly suited to the meaning that you want to convey and which your audience will be able to understand.