Critical Thinking, Language and Literacies (CTLL) María del Pilar Fernández Pedraza Chía, Colombia April 22nd, 2017 SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES TO FOSTER SELF-DIRECTED LANGUAGE LEARNING IN COLOMBIA -DIAGNOSING THE CURRENT STATUS IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS-

Agenda Guidelines to deliver presentations and participate in academic conferences. Construction of arguments in analytical papers. Text analysis II Peerfeedback on paper I

Task 1: Oral presentation challenges 1. Please, read the given challenges and classify them in different categories based on what you think they have in common. 2. What do you consider is the greatest challenge when preparing and delivering a presentation?

Basic rules of good presentations “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” Neil Thomas Learning about the environment Planning the presentation. Delivering your presentation Occasion: Type of event, aim, time Location: place, size of the rooms. Audience: size, what they know about the topic, their attitudes, what they want to know, what you want them to know Objectives: SMART Plan framework: How the message need to be sent. Visual aids Verbal and non-verbal skills Know your material Express confidence

Planning the presentation Introduction or beginning Attention grabber Objectives Outline or agenda Relevance Body or middle Main points Organizational pattern Evidence or examples Graphs Conclusion or end Summary Conclusions - objectives Ask for action High note Questions

Good visual aids Appropriate Clear Consistent Dynamic

How to structure your slides? Use key concepts only. Avoid verbosity. Include animation, but do not overuse it. Add graphs more than simple charts. Prepared them with professionalism. Allow enough time to assimilate the information, but do not leave a visual aid for too long.

Bad slide structure The main point to remember when constructing presentation slides is to make use of plenty of white space. This means that there should almost be more space than words on each slide. The slide should provide enough information to make sense, but not so much that the text covers the whole slide. You do not want the audience to be reading your slides – you want them to listen to you. Your audience has not made the effort to attend your presentation in order to read information which could have been handed out to them instead. (Gillett, Hammond, & Martala , 2009, p. 245).

What about fonts? Be consistent with the text size. Use different fonts sizes only to distinguish principal and secondary points. Use standard fonts (Arial or Times News Roma). Do not include difficult fonts to read. Small fonts do not allow your audience to understand the content.

Colors and background Use simple, but attractive backgrounds (light colors). The background needs to be consistent throughout the whole presentation. Choose a text color that does not clash with the background. Change color only when you want to emphasize a key aspect.

Structure Grammar should be the same Each clause begins with a verb “analyze the environment, consider options, select the information” Each item is a noun “audience, time, location” Each item begins with an adjective “appropriate type, consistent design, dynamic tools”

Illustrations

Basic rules of good presentations “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” Neil Thomas Learning about the environment Planning the presentation. Delivering your presentation Occasion: Type of event, aim, time Location: place, size of the rooms. Audience: size, what they know about the topic, their attitudes, what they want to know, what you want them to know Objectives: SMART Plan framework: How the message need to be sent. Visual aids: Match them to words Verbal and non-verbal skills Know your material Express confidence

Encouraging participation from the audience Questions Brainstorming “Think-pair-share” Small groups activities Pre or post testing

Task 3: TEDTalk Watch the video and take notes on the following aspects: What did you think of this speech? What are the best aspects of it? How could this speech have been made even better? Answer these questions keeping in mind the rubric on the next slide. https://www.ted.com/playlists/125/tv_special_ted_talks_educatio Bill Gates Teachers need real feedback

Presentation rubric Taken from: Bienvenu, S. (2000). The presentation skills workshop : Helping people create and deliver great presentations. New York, NY: AMACOM.

What to keep in mind in a presentation? Keep your audience engaged. Include visual aids when necessary. Beginnings and endings are really important. Make sophisticated and clear points. Let your reader know where you are in the presentation.

Why is it important to participate in academic events? To promote professional development experience. To build a bridge between research and application. To gain insights regarding the topic and the research process.

International academic conferences Please, go to the link and find information regarding upcoming academic events. Include: Institution: Theme of the conference: Call for papers: General guidelines: https://goo.gl/Xao20h

Reviewing Thesis statement Makes a disputable claim. Tells how the topic under discussion is interpreted. Mentions any objection to the claim Shows the road the text will follow.

What do body paragraphs do? (Taylor, 2009) Extend your answer by discussing the necessary arguments to make your point. Clarify the arguments and their relevance to the main claim. Verify a generalization by providing evidence. Illustrate a point with concrete examples. Enhance the value of what you are claiming. Evaluate the strength of any counter-arguments.

Common difficulties when writing body paragraphs Changing your mind about the claim or answer. Getting stuck. Writing too much. Connecting all what you have read Writing too little. Extending your answer - comprehensiveness (sufficient reading) Elaborating your point – discussing particular implications

Arguments and premises Claim Argument 1 Premise 1 Premise 2 Argument 2

References Bienvenu, S. (2000). The presentation skills workshop : Helping people create and deliver great presentations. New York, NY: AMACOM. Collins, J. (2004). Education techniques for lifelong learning giving a PowerPoint presentation: The art of communicating effectively. Radiographics : a review publication of the Radiological Society of North America, 24(4), pp.1185-92 . http://dx.doi.org/0.1148/rg.244035179 Gillett, A., Hammond, A., & Martala, M. (2009). Successful academic writing. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education. Mertler, C. (2006). Action research: Teachers as researchers in the classroom. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Taylor, G. (2009). A student’s writing guide: How to plan and write successful essays. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.