In Year 11 and 12 in the ACT, students are expected to achieve certain standards when delivering an oral presentation if they are to demonstrate what are considered appropriate skills for senior students.
When you receive your oral presentation task, take a look at the rubric that goes along with it. You will see there are five sections on the rubric, usually labelled as follows:
| Advanced | Established | Demonstrated | Some Evidence | Little Evidence |
So, what does it take for a student to hit the middle band of marks in an oral presentation – the ‘Demonstrated’ standard on the rubric, the standard that all students are expected to meet?
Let’s look at one example of the ‘Demonstrated’ column of an oral rubric:
|
Demonstrated |
| Use of appropriate research material with consistent application of citation conventions. |
| Engages audience. Speaks clearly and audibly, makes some eye-contact, and uses some non-verbal cues of posture, gesture and expression. |
| Developing critical and analytical skills with some insight and justification of viewpoint. |
| Synthesises ideas and texts to form a satisfactory argument supporting a point of view about the area of study. |
| Through choices of material and presentation, demonstrates some creativity and originality. |
The question is, what do these descriptors mean?
Use of appropriate research material with consistent application of citation conventions.
- You are expected to use secondary sources in your presentation, using them to add credibility to your argument and to show that you have thoroughly researched your topic or the text that you are speaking about.
- Your research material should be ‘appropriate’. For more information about what makes a credible source, take a look at the Credible Sources page on Opening Class.
- For examples of how you might fluently incorporate your research into your presentation, check out how some of the professional speakers do it.
Engages audience. Speaks clearly and audibly, makes some eye-contact, and uses some non-verbal cues of posture, gesture and expression.
- You are expected to attempt to engage your audience through your speaking manner.
- To achieve this descriptor, you cannot just read your presentation straight from your palm cards. You need to at least make “some” eye-contact with your audience, so you will need to have practiced your presentation prior to delivering it in class.
Developing critical and analytical skills with some insight and justification of viewpoint.
- You cannot just retell the plot of the text(s) that you are discussing. Instead, you need to clearly answer the question that you have been provided.
- Ensure you analyse the text(s). To do this, talk about how particular techniques within the text position the audience to respond to the text itself.
- Within this, if you are analysing a film, you might talk about camera, sound, editing or mise-en-scene techniques.
- If you are analysing a novel, you might talk about characterisation, narrative structure, symbolism or other techniques.
Synthesises ideas and texts to form a satisfactory argument supporting a point of view about the area of study.
- You need to have a clear point of view coming through your presentation. Ensure that you clearly articulate a thesis (a line of argument) in your introduction.
- Your argument needs to be consistent throughout your presentation. Ensure you do not contradict yourself, and also that you are consistently answering the question – perhaps use the key words of the question throughout your presentation.
Through choices of material and presentation, demonstrates some creativity and originality.
- This descriptor is fairly self-explanatory, but it is one that students often ignore. Without demonstrating some creative thought and originality in how you present your information, you cannot achieve the ‘demonstrated’ standard for an oral presentation.
Other relevant pages on Opening Class:
Opening Class 