1. Year 8 Homework – Half Term 3 Your homework this half term is to organise a presentation that you will give to your classmates about a country of your choice. Please click on the buttons below to find out more information: The steps to speaking and listening success! FAQs Assessment

2. Frequently Asked Questions When will the presentations take place? The presentations will take place in the final week of the half term. Your teacher will give you a date and a time for your presentation. How long does the presentation have to be? The presentation should be no shorter than 2 minutes and no longer than 5 minutes. Why do we have to do a presentation? Being able to organise and present ideas is a very important skill to master. Not only will you be assessed on this for your GCSEs, but you will more than likely be required to make a presentation at some point in your lives, so this is excellent practise! Will we be assessed? Yes, you will be assessed. You will be given a level for your presentation and some tips on how to improve the next time you present. See the assessment page for more information. Can we read from a script? Reading from a script is not a good idea. You can have notes to help you to organise your ideas, but if you read from a script this will limit the amount of marks you can achieve and is not very interesting for the audience. Should we make a power point presentation? You can use a power point presentation to illustrate your ideas if you want to. You can also bring props in to make the presentation more interesting.

3. The Steps to Speaking and Listening Success 1)Choose a country that you would like to present on. You could choose a country that you already know a lot about or a country that you know nothing about. 2)Research some facts and opinions about the country. You could use the internet, the library, family, friends (or even your Geography books). 3)Create a bubble map with all your ideas. Try to group your points together. 4)Organise your ideas into bullet points. 5)Put together your power point presentation if you are planning to use one and/or collate props. 6)Practice talking about each of the bullet points. You could use your family or friends as your audience while you are practicing. Remember the more you practice, the more confident you will feel. Remember that you should vary your tone of voice and body language as well.tone of voice body language

4. Assessment

5. Verbal Features Make sure you speak clearly and loudly throughout your presentation so that everyone can hear you. Make sure you speak in standard English. There should be no slang words. Try not to giggle in your presentation. Try not to talk in monotone – this will make you sound robotic and is not interesting for the listener. Try to emphasise key words in your presentation by slowing down at important parts. Do not be afraid to pause to give the listeners time to digest what you have said.

6. Non-Verbal Features Look up and straight ahead. Avoid looking at the floor. This tells the listeners that you are not confident. Try not to hide behind your notes. Make sure your audience can see you. Try not to fidget – have a firm stance to show how confident you are. Look at your audience by sweeping your eyes across the room – avoid staring at people as this can make listeners uncomfortable. Use hand gestures to emphasise your points. This makes the presentation more interesting for the listeners. Do not be afraid of moving around at the front of the room. A talking statue is not engaging.