Preparation for Presentation

Your Preparation Task For The Symposium:

Before your presentation day, complete the following:

1. Write your full presentation outline — not a script, but a structured set of notes covering your opening thesis, three evidence points with explanations, your counterargument response, and your conclusion. This outline should fit on one page.
2. Practice your presentation at least twice before delivering it. Time yourself. If you are significantly over or under 10 minutes, adjust.
3. Prepare three questions you think your audience might ask. Write brief notes on how you would answer each one. This is not to script your answers — it is to make sure you have thought through the likely challenges to your argument.
4. Complete your exhibition board. Display it somewhere visible before your presentation day so you can check it with fresh eyes.

Parent-Teacher Note:

Your role on presentation day is threefold. First, be a genuine audience — listen attentively and respond honestly. Second, ask at least three real questions during the Q&A. Not softballs. Questions that genuinely probe the argument, challenge the evidence, or push into territory the presentation did not fully cover. Your student has been preparing for this. They can handle serious questions, and serious questions will produce better learning than reassuring ones. Third, complete the peer review rubric yourself — or guide your student through the self-evaluation rubric — with the same honesty you would want from a teacher. A rubric completed with inflated scores to spare feelings does not serve your student. Honest, specific feedback does.