Sabrina Dostie
At Dalton Academy, educators love to use different methods to teach and evaluate their students. They strive to create mind-opening experiences in order to awaken a student's motivation to learn and develop skills at a higher level.
In the past few weeks, the English Liberal Arts (ELA) educators have been exploring the “PechaKucha Presentation” as a way to assess student work while preparing students to become better public speakers. If you are not familiar with the “PechaKucha Presentation”, it is a method that "utilizes imagery and efficient use of spoken words to create a seamless, memorable, meaningful and concise presentation". It is a presentation technique where 20 images are presented and the speaker has 20 seconds per slide to express his/her ideas. The PechaKucha technique was designed and patented by architects in Tokyo in 2003. It gained so much recognition in the last decade that there are now PechaKucha Nights happening in hundreds of cities around the world. The PechaKucha Nights are organized to help professionals share their creative projects and work.
In the first week of April, the 10th-grade ELA students were required to prepare a PechaKucha presentation demonstrating their understanding of dystopian literature. The students engaged with their audience and spoke for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds without looking at their notes. The PechaKucha presentation taught students to be more concise when speaking in front of people. The method was also good for the students who watched their peers present, as it forced them to be more active listeners.
With the 20x20 format, students generated creative and entertaining presentations! The 10th-grade ELA students embraced the challenge and stepped outside of their comfort zones producing excellent work. At Dalton, we value the ability to do things differently. New learning experiences are a way for students to test themselves and improve their overall skillsets.
To know more about PechaKucha: