What are the 5 best presentation techniques to hold students’ attention?
As a teacher, one of the crucial tasks is holding students’ attention. When your presentations are lecture-centric, you will have difficulty getting attention from your students. Failing to hold students’ attention means your students aren’t learning correctly from you.
Don’t worry; there are various techniques you can use to make your presentations interactive and gain students’ interest. Here are the five best techniques:
1. Storytelling
One of the best presentation techniques you can utilize is storytelling. According to a study,storytelling has been known to increase audience retention by up to 26%. You will note a huge difference when you explain any concept theoretically or through storytelling. The best thing about storytelling is it will help your students relate to the subject matter. You can discuss the main concepts and then ask students to come up with a personal example. When any person relates to a particular subject matter, explaining the concept gets easier.
2. Add some humor
Adding humor when giving a presentation is another excellent method to hold students’ attention. As a teacher, humor can be an excellent tool for connecting with your students and energize them. Rather than simply explaining the topic to your students, adding some humor can help your students remember what you have explained. Apart from this, it will also build a good impression as a teacher.
3. Polls, surveys, and quizzes
Another fantastic way to make your presentations interactive and hold your students’ attention is by using polls, surveys, and quizzes. Depending on the topic you are teaching, you can use polls, surveys, or quizzes. Among these three, the quiz is an excellent way to test a student’s knowledge quickly. If you teach your students online, you need to use the right software for polls, surveys, and quizzes. One such classroom management software is Google Classroom.
4. Games
When giving a presentation, make sure it doesn’t seem boring. This strategy won’t let your presentation get boring. You can energize the mood of your students with some games. Adding some games to your presentation can make the session interactive and fun. This presentation technique will turn passive listeners into active participants. You can play games like Pictionary, Jeopardy, Casino, and Bingo. If you are teaching online, you can take digital games like Kahoot and ClassCraft.
5. Surprise your students
You can surprise your students by making some bold statements when giving the presentation. During the presentation, you can tell surprising facts and shocking stats. Bold statements, stats, and facts will make your students know more about what you are talking about. With this strategy, your passive listener students would also be curious to know more about the stats and facts you have said. To compile all the information & data correctly and make it visual, you can create an infographic.
These are the five best presentation strategies you can leverage for making your presentations interactive and engaging. The secret of holding students’ attention is by bringing interactive components in the presentation.