Tips for Powerful Professional Presentations Organize your entire presentation around a theme to unify the different elements and to make it more memorable for your audience: Cooking Example Driving ExampleCooking ExampleDriving Example Emphasize theory for an academic audience and practice for a professional audience, but both audiences love a good balance of each Bridge ExampleBridge Example Never use font smaller than 24-point Limit the amount of text you use on each slide Use a single, large, intriguing image on each slide: or Give credit in the lower, right-hand corner of the slide for the images (18-point font is okay for that) Think of something participants can DO during the presentation and insert one of those activities about every 3 slides (think-pair-share, sample classroom activity they will try, game they will play, etc.) Bridge Example (Activities are in parentheses)Bridge Example (Activities are in parentheses) Give participants time to share ideas with one another More Examples: If you plan to use multimedia, save the PowerPoint and all related media in the same folder What follows is a template for a 15-slide presentation

Title of Presentation Your Name Your Institution Your address Name of Conference, Date Image: Name of Photographer

Who am I? Photo of presenters Information about you that helps establish your background, experience, or expertise as a presenter or regarding the topic Relevant information that helps the audience understand the context for your presentation, such as: Type of school where you teach (suburban, urban, Title 1, lots of parental support, etc.) Courses you teach (dual language immersion, Spanish 1, AP, IB, etc.) Types of students you teach (at-risk, gifted, high achievers, special needs) Image: Name of Photographer

Who are you? This slide should remind you to gather information from the audience about: Languages they teach Levels they teach Prior knowledge they have about your topic Stand if you have planned a lesson around culture before Stand if you have tried project-based language learning before Stand if you have used a particular technological tool before Reasons for attending your presentation Call them out and have the audience stand or move if it applies to them If you only have two or three participants in your session, you can ask each one to talk for a few minutes about what they hope to learn You can also have them fill out index cards with their reason for attending or a burning question they have and then look at the cards while they are doing a think-pair-share about something Image: Name of Photographer

I can... Define the key concept that drives this presentation. Identify, examine, or experiment with some pedagogical practice. Integrate whatever the approach is in order to strengthen learners’ target language proficiency (or whatever skill you are targeting). Image: Name of Photographer

Agenda for the Presentation Bulleted agenda of the key segments that will be included in the presentation. Here is a sample agenda: Introductions What?: Definition of the Concept Why?: Rationale for the Approach How?: Research-based Strategies for Implementing the Approach Classroom Examples (Sample student work, photos, or videos) Culturally Authentic Resources Q & A Session Evaluation Image: Name of Photographer

Introduction to the Issue, Problem, or Need What is the issue, problem, or need your presentation will address? Why is it important to consider this? How do you recommend that it be addressed? Image: Name of Photographer

Theoretical Background/Research Slide Give background on the problem or cite promising ideas for addressing the problem with bullet points 75% of teachers leave the profession within the first 3 years (Citation, date) Experienced teachers are not necessarily professionally engaged (Citation, date) Teachers who actively participate in conferences and share ideas using technological tools are less likely to leave (Citation, date) Etc. Image: Name of Photographer

Practical Solution You Propose What are you proposing that teachers should do about this problem? What key issues should teachers keep in mind as they consider your proposal? Explain any clarifications that the audience might need in order to understand what you plan to present next (for example, the difference between a topic and a theme, or the difference between differentiated instruction and differentiated learning, or the difference between typical classroom projects and a project-based language learning approach) Image: Name of Photographer

Step-by-Step Instructions for Implementation What steps do you recommend that the audience take in order to implement your approach? Put each step on a separate slide. Include items like: Assignment Sheets Scaffolding Worksheets Screenshots or Video of Resources, Technological Tools, or Websites You Used Sample Student Work (Photos, Screenshots, or Videos) Assessment Tools Image: Name of Photographer

Additional Resources List additional resources such as blogs, community organizations, professional reading, resource books, sources for free materials, technological tools, or websites that were helpful to you Image: Name of Photographer

Questions This slide should remind you to save time for questions from the audience. You may also want to insert this same slide at strategic points throughout the middle of the presentation as well. Image: Name of Photographer

Conclusion Inspirational image or quote or meme that ends the session on a note which inspires the audience to want to take action on what you have presented Image: Name of Photographer

For questions, contact: Title of Presentation Your Name Your Institution Your address Name of Conference, Date Image: Name of Photographer

Credits Cite each image, quote, or resource you used in the presentation Lastname, Firstname. (Date). Title of article, book, image, or resource. Title of Journal or Website. Retrieved from Montgomery, Cherice. (2015). Template for a conference presentation. LanguageLinks2006. Retrieved from

Title of Presentation by Cherice Montgomery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License To view a copy of this license, visit or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Creative Commons License