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Effective Explanations: Preparation and Presentation

Effective Explanations: Preparation and Presentation. TA Conference Thursday, September 10, 2009. Agenda. Effective Explanations – Your thoughts Component Parts of an Effective Explanation Instructions! Instructions! It’s all about your delivery! Tips and Strategies Resources.

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Effective Explanations: Preparation and Presentation

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  1. Effective Explanations: Preparation and Presentation TA Conference Thursday, September 10, 2009

  2. Agenda • Effective Explanations – Your thoughts • Component Parts of an Effective Explanation • Instructions! Instructions! • It’s all about your delivery! • Tips and Strategies • Resources

  3. What makes an effective explanation? • WRITE down five points which you believe contribute to an effective explanation. • Compare your list with a peer. How do they compare? Explain why you choose the items you selected – particularly the ones where you differ. • Choose your top two items and record on the white board. If your top two are already listed, star (*) those items and add another item to the list in its place.

  4. Effective Explanations: Preparation, Preparation, Preparation! CONTENT and ORGANIZATION + DELIVERY, AUDIENCE, and CONTEXT EFFECTIVE EXPLANATION

  5. It’s all in the delivery!BORING • All the planning in the world cannot replace a poor presentation! • BORING!

  6. Planning Considerations • Things to think about: • Audience • Setting • Context • Content • Delivery

  7. Your Audience • What assumptions, if any, can you make about what they already know? • TIP: test for understanding via a quiz? • What level are you teaching/presenting to? (e.g., 1st vs. 4th year students | discipline colleagues)? Complexity implications? • TIP: move from simple to complex, anchor explanation with examples/visuals, scaffold student learning by chunking information into logical parts • What’s in it for them? • TIP: Relate the content of your talk to your audience’s frame of reference/mindset/worldview.

  8. The Setting • In what setting will you be presenting (e.g., tiered lecture hall, case room, seminar)? • How will the physical setting impact your delivery/presentation? • How will the physical setting impact the tone of your delivery? Formal/Informal?

  9. Context • What is the occasion for your talk? What is its purpose? • Conference presentation? • Group presentation? • Lecture? • Guest speaker engagement? • Other?

  10. Content • Less is more • organize your explanation around two or three key points • Account for audience in your planning. For example, organize your talk: • simple to complex • concrete to abstract • specific to general • familiar to unfamiliar • chronological • in process order

  11. Content (cont’d) • Structure your explanation • What is the main topic? Subject of interest? • What are the key issues/points to be addressed? • What is the context of /bigger picture for your talk? • How does it relate to your audience frame of reference? • How are the key points of your talk connected? What’s the relationship between them?

  12. Delivery • What will you do to grab audience attention at the start of your talk? • What cues will you provide to signal transitions? Importance/complexity of topic? • What technologies/aids will you incorporate to enhance your presentation? • Is a demonstration appropriate? • What approach are you most comfortable with in your delivery (e.g., formal lecture, informal lecture, mixed mode lecture)? • How (if) will you involve the audience?

  13. Instructions, Instructions • Based on the materials available, prepare a set of instructions explaining how to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich. • Materials: • Jar of p-butter, jar of jam, plate, knife, loaf of bread, napkin

  14. TEST: Is your explanation…..? • purposeful – WHY are we spending time on this? • useful – why do we NEED to understand this, in order to develop what skill? • relevant – who CARES? What is the issue or pay-off? • illustrated – several specific EXAMPLES and analogies, and (sometimes) comparisons from popular culture • adapted and simplified to LEARNER’S perspective or level • memorable – imprinted by some vivid ASSOCIATION, such as an intriguing example, anecdote, or fun class exercise • recursive – continuously REINFORCED and practised • enthusiastic – infectious personal ZEST for the subject’s challenges • verified – watch the faces in the room (are they getting it?), ask good questions, offer practice problems or analogies

  15. Basically • Tell them what you’re going to tell them. • Tell them. • Tell them what you’ve told them!

  16. Resources • Lecturing Effectively in the University Classroomhttp://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/lecturing_effectively.html • Tools for Teaching, 2003 by Barbara Davishttp://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/teaching.html (select chapters online) • Classroom Communication, 1989 edited by R.A. Neff and M. Weimer(new edition available soon) • Giving Explanations to Studentshttp://www.ust.hk/celt/ta/taguide/skills/explain.htm

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