Strong presentation skills are essential for success in today’s business world. Whether pitching an idea, sharing research, leading a meeting, or even engaging on social media, the ability to communicate effectively is invaluable.
As high school business and marketing teachers, you have the opportunity to help your students develop these essential skills as part of their professional toolkit. From low-stakes activities to formal presentations, here are ways to build presentation skills in your classroom.
Low-Stakes Opportunities to Practice Presentation Skills
Start by offering low-stakes opportunities for students to share aloud. A less formal setting reduces intimidation and allows students to focus on developing skills without the pressure of a significant grade impacting their performance.
- Current Events: Have students research a topic, complete a worksheet (check out this free article review form), and then share their findings with the class.
- Role-Playing: Students put into action a topic you’re working on in class, such as a mock sales pitch, job interview, or meeting. Role-playing allows them to explore a professional role and practice communication skills. Try out the Business Meeting Role-Play Simulation for an example.
- Jigsaw Method: In this collaborative learning method, students research a topic and then teach a group about their findings. Try it out with the Motivational Techniques Activity and Project.
- Gallery Walks: After a gallery walk or chat station activity, have students stop at a station and share their classmates’ answers/ responses. Since students aren’t necessarily sharing their own work, this can feel less personal but still gives them practice speaking in front of the class. Try the Marketing Functions Sorting Activity, Gallery Walk, and Case Study.
- Bellringers: Something as simple as a bellringer can be a great way to give students experience sharing their answers with the class. After students have had time to answer the question, call on a student to share their response. You can find various bellringer sets here.
- Discussion Questions: Don’t use bellringers? Any discussion question serves the same purpose. To help relieve pressure, give students a question and allow them time to formulate a response before asking them to respond. You can also allow them to pair and share with a partner before discussing the response as a class. Check out the Business Finance Case Study Activity for a ready-to-use case study with discussion questions.
- Guided Research: Provide basic questions or prompts and have your students research a topic. Then, get your students to share their findings. Here are a few examples:
Try incorporating frequent low-stakes presentation opportunities into your class to develop these skills.
Formal Presentation Opportunities
As students become more comfortable with informal speaking introduce more formal presentations to build their confidence and polish their skills.
1. Research Projects: A research project is a deep dive into a particular topic. Students become experts on their assigned topic and prepare some sort of deliverable based on their research.
Have your students present their findings to the class with these resources:
- Factors of Production and Economic Indicators Country Research Project
- Social Responsibility Research Project and Reflection
2. Sales Pitches: Have students create and present a sales pitch for a new product or service. A sales pitch can use various persuasive techniques to enhance the message. Try the Persuasion Strategies for Selling Activities and Project to teach your students these skills and the Marketing Career Fair Project for practice.
3. Elevator Pitches: An elevator pitch is a brief introduction to yourself, an idea, or a product that can be delivered in the amount of time it would take to ride an elevator. The goal is to capture your audience’s attention and spark their interest in about 30 to 60 seconds. With this option, give students time to prepare and practice before sharing.
You can try an elevator pitch with the Be an Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch and Business Card project.
4. Capstone Project Showcase: End the semester with a capstone project where students formally present their cumulative work. A capstone project showcase could be a startup pitch or a comprehensive marketing plan.
Here are a few examples:
You must provide clear expectations for your students when executing more formal opportunities. I like to do this by providing a project requirements section in the project instructions to specify what students should do.
If your students do not have prior presentation experience, directly teaching presentation skills can also be helpful. Here are a few presentation skills you don’t want your students to miss.
Key Presentation Skills to Focus On
When teaching presentation skills, encourage students to focus on the following key areas:
1. Verbal Communication: Do you have students who spend all day talking to friends, but when asked to speak to a group, you can hardly hear them? Verbal communication requires practice and emphasis on clarity, volume, tone, and pacing to ensure the audience understands the message. Students should practice speaking slowly and enunciating words. Remind students to speak as though they’re talking to the person in the last row.
2. Nonverbal Communication: Sometimes, we forget that our body language, such as posture, gestures, and facial expressions, tells a story. These nonverbals reinforce or detract from the message we want to share. Teach students the importance of maintaining eye contact and using open, confident gestures.
3. Organization: A well-structured presentation is easier to follow and more persuasive. To help with organization, you can incorporate planning worksheets, require drafts to be submitted, or provide specific content requirements.
4. Audience Engagement: A common area where students struggle is engagement. They tend to stand up and list the required content but neglect to include components that engage the audience, such as storytelling, humor, or thought-provoking questions, to make their presentation memorable. One way to help students remember these key aspects is to incorporate them into your project instructions by requiring a hook, questions throughout, or another element. You can also remind students while they create a pitch or presentation. Capturing and maintaining the audience’s attention is key to a successful presentation.
5. Visual Aids: Teach students to design simple, professional slides or visuals that enhance their message without overwhelming the audience. This includes selecting a template or theme for the slides to use throughout, cohesive fonts and colors, and appropriate images. Also, remind students to limit the amount of text per slide and select a font size that can be read in the back of the room. Visual aids should complement, not distract from, the presentation.
6. Confidence: Encourage students to practice, rehearse, and seek feedback. Students tend to produce better presentations when they are more familiar with the content and have spent more time practicing and reviewing the work. Students will also grow more confident with more speaking experience.
Supporting Student Growth
Presentation skills require time and practice. You can support your students by giving them frequent opportunities to share aloud, teaching presentation skills, and celebrating their progress. By providing informal and formal opportunities, students will develop the presentation skills needed to succeed in and out of the classroom.
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