Show children videos of great oral performances and analyze why they work. Examples include famous speeches by politicians, such as Martin Luther King (I have a dream) and John F Kennedy's speeches in Berlin and during the Cuban missile crisis. Richard Nixon's resignation speech is another good example. Discuss the speeches' content as well as body language and the quality and tone of the orators' voices.
Teach children effective strategies when giving an oral presentation such as the use of judicious repetition to get a point across. Each presentation should have an interesting opener, develop logically and have an effective ending. Point out other strategies to engage an audience such as maintaining eye contact, having good posture and projecting your voice adequately.
Teach or review a range of planning techniques, such as mind maps, to plan the presentation. That way, students will be able to plan the flow of the presentation and identify any holes that need to be plugged. Students need to learn that they must understand the material thoroughly so that they can explain it to an audience.
Introduce drama games and improvisation to bolster students' confidence and enable them to tackle a presentation calmly. For instance, ask students to role play different family members and give them a specific situation to play out, such as an argument about chores.
Ask children to work in small groups for their first oral presentation. Give them a specific topic and a suggested audience. For example, ask students to prepare a five-minute persuasive talk to a suggested audience of teenagers on reasons to have a school uniform policy. (Ref. 1) Give students adequate time for planning. Allow the group to choose roles. A group could decide that each member will speak on the topic for a minute or, alternatively, one person could perform most of the presentation while the others contribute a sentence each.
Devote a series of lessons to individual oral presentations. Give students precise instructions about length, whether audio-visual materials are allowed and whether they should use props.
Ask the class to make notes on each person's presentations and to list three positive and three negative points. After each presentation, ask a few students for their thoughts on content, confidence, diction and body language. Have a short class discussion.