Digital Presentation Skills

Overview

In this lesson, students build on prior lessons in the unit “Engaging Texts and Expressions” by planning and producing a short, engaging multimodal digital presentation for a narrative purpose. They will practise selecting language, voice features, and multimodal elements to suit an audience.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• plan a short multimodal presentation that shares key ideas from a narrative
• select and use vocabulary, sentence structures, and literary devices to support meaning and effect
• choose features of voice (tone, volume, pitch, pace) and simple visuals to engage an audience
• rehearse, present, and respond respectfully using discussion skills

Success criteria

Students can:

• create a simple presentation structure (beginning, key events, closing) that matches the audience and purpose
• use at least two language devices (e.g., metaphor, personification, simile) and explain their effect
• speak clearly with intentional voice features and pace during a 1–2 minute presentation
• add at least two multimodal supports (e.g., images, captions, transitions) that help the audience understand

Curriculum links

• Literacy: plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations, selecting language features, visual features, and features of voice to suit audience and purpose
• Literacy: use interaction skills to support or challenge ideas during discussion about presentations
• Literacy: use comprehension strategies to interpret and evaluate ideas in texts when making choices for presentation content
• Literature: analyse how language features and literary devices create tone and meaning
• Language: explain how text structures and language features vary depending on purpose, including hybrids (e.g., slides plus spoken narration)

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 0–4 min · Warm-up: audience goal Teacher shows a single example slide (title + one image + one caption) and states the audience (e.g., “Year 8 students who haven’t read the story”). Students quickly jot: “What should they understand by the end?”
2. 4–10 min · Direct teach: how multimodal choices support narrative Teacher models a mini-checklist: presentation structure, language devices, voice features, and visuals that clarify meaning. Students highlight in their notes where they will include each element in their own presentation.
3. 10–18 min · Create: slide skeleton + key lines Teacher provides a template: 3 slides (Start, Turning Point, Closing) with space for (a) one sentence of narration per slide and (b) one image/caption per slide. Students type or write their narration lines, ensuring at least two literary devices appear across the slides.
4. 18–24 min · Rehearse: voice + timing Teacher plays a short timing cue (e.g., 90 seconds) and demonstrates voice choices for tone (calm/urgent), plus pace (slow at key moment). Students rehearse once silently, then once out loud while checking their pace and clarity.
5. 24–29 min · Present + respond Student delivers a 1–2 minute presentation to the teacher (acting as the audience). Teacher asks two quick response prompts: “What effect did the language device create?” and “Which slide helped most and why?”
6. 29–30 min · Exit check Student completes a 2-question exit ticket: (1) One language device I used and its effect, (2) One visual/caption choice and how it supported understanding.

Resources

• Device with presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint, Google Slides, or an offline equivalent)
• Student template: 3-slide narrative structure (Start, Turning Point, Closing)
• Notes sheet for: audience + purpose + tone words
• Timer or stopwatch
• Example slide (prepared by teacher)
• Headphones (optional) for quiet rehearsing
• Marking checklist (student-friendly)

Assessment

• Teacher formative observation during creation and rehearsal: identification of narrative structure, presence of literary devices, and clarity of planned narration lines
• Teacher formative feedback during the presentation: effectiveness of voice features and whether visuals/captions support audience understanding
• Exit ticket review to confirm language device effect and multimodal support choice

Differentiation

• Support: provide sentence starters for narration lines (e.g., “At first…”, “Then everything changed when…”, “In the end, the lesson was…”), plus a word bank for tone (tense, hopeful, reflective) and device prompts (simile/metaphor/personification)
• Support: offer a ready-made visual set (3–5 images) related to common narrative themes so the student can focus on language and voice choices
• Extension: if the student finishes early, challenge them to add one additional device or switch the tone by changing one sentence pattern (e.g., from passive to active) and note the effect
• EAL/SEN considerations: allow planning via speech-to-text or drawing captions; permit rehearsing with shorter lines before building to full sentences