Project-based Learning Strategies
Overview
ACTION-PERFORMANCES
Communication Options
Effective communicators can provide some form of performance where the
presenters actively do something to communicate important ideas; effective
communication actively involves the audience in various ways throughout a
presentation, and important key ideas can be communicated by creating
experiences associated with them. Probably the most common (and boring!)
action performance is the oral report. However, there are a variety of active
ways students can use communicate ideas during a presentation. A few of
these are described below.
Oral report
Students should be encouraged to use basic effective oral communication
strategies when they present an oral -report. For example, the team should
provide an advance organizer at the beginning of the presentation as well as
a post-organizer at the end.
Titanic
example:
To provide an advance organizer, students might activate audience”
background knowledge by asking them to raise their hands if they saw the
movie, ‘Titanic.’ They would then provide an overview of what will happen
during the presentation, such the order of planned events. This would be
followed by various team members making their portion of the presentation.
To provide closure, the team might ask the audience to identify ideas they
heard that were different from what they originally knew about the Titanic.
Dramatization of an event
As part of their presentation, students can present a mini-play depicting
something important about their topic. If students choose not to actually write
a script for their dramatization, they should be strongly encouraged to at least
develop a story-line of key ideas and the order and manner in which they will
be communicated during the mini-play.
© 2000 Edwin S. Ellis
Masterminds, LLC
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Project-based Learning Strategies
Overview
Titanic
example:
The team might act out an argument between a member of the crew and a
lower-class male passenger who is trying to convince the crew member to
allow him on to one of the lifeboats.
Dramatization of a commercial
Similar to designing a poster, students can design a commercial to
communicate an important idea, and then act it during their presentation. If
they do not write a script, be sure to ensure that the team at least develops a
story-line for the key ideas to be presented in the commercial.
Titanic
example:
The team might act out a commercial where the White Star Line is trying to
convince people to continue to travel on their ships after the Titanic sank!
Charade
For the game of charades to be successful, the participants must have
background knowledge of the concept being signaled. For example, if a
participant is trying to communicate ‘ameba’ during a charades game, but
none of the other participants know what an ameba is, then the game
obviously wont be too successful. Thus, if charades is to be used as a
communication tool during a presentation, the team should first teach the
audience about the key ideas to establish a knowledge base, and then later,
as an activity, use the charades game to depict key ideas from the
presentation and have to audience try to guess which idea is being signaled.
Titanic
example:
Toward the end of their presentation, the Titanic team might charade key
ideas associated with “Lessons learned from the Titanic disaster” (i.e., don’t
trust technology too much -- you must still use common sense; don’t
compromise safety for profit; problems with the society class system, etc. )
portion of their earlier presentation.
© 2000 Edwin S. Ellis
Masterminds, LLC
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Project-based Learning Strategies
Overview
Explanation/Demonstration
Demonstrations of how something works or how to perform a process can
be an effective communication tool. If demonstrating a process that involves a
series of steps, providing the audience with a set of written instructions (i.e.,
Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, etc.) improves the audience’s comprehension of the
steps.
Titanic
example:
The team might demonstrate how to plot latitude and longitude coordinates of
approximately where the ship sank on a chart.
Live or video recording of an interview
Interviews of individuals who have unique knowledge or experience related to
a key idea can be a very effective communication tool during a presentation.
If the expert is not available to participate in a “live” interview during the
presentation, video- or audio-recordings of the interview can be created and
then played during the presentation.
Titanic
example:
The team might video record an interview with someone from the Coast
Guard to find out what kinds of safety regulations currently exist for
passenger cruise ships.
Interview simulation
An interview of someone with unique knowledge or experience can be
simulated either live via role-playing, or video-recorded. For example, an
interview with an historical figure might be simulated. To effectively simulate
an interview, the team should identify in advance the key ideas to be
communicated during the interview, and then develop a story-line for it.
© 2000 Edwin S. Ellis
Masterminds, LLC
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Project-based Learning Strategies
Overview
Titanic
example:
The team might simulate an interview that takes place with the captain of the
Titanic on the day before it set sail.
Simulation activity
Audience experiences can also be designed to simulate a real-life
Titanic
example:
phenomena associated with key ideas of the presentation. \
To illustrate just how cold the ocean was, the team can add ice to a bucket of
water as they measure its temperature. When the water in the bucket
matches that of the North Atlantic, audience participants can then put their
arms in the bucket and see how long they can leave them there. To
communicate how many people the life boats could carry, the team might
outline the actual size of a lifeboat on the floor and then have the audience
see how many can fit inside the area (no standing allowed!).
Movement
Planned movement (i.e., dancing, walking in a specific pattern, arranging and
moving bodies in specific ways, etc.) can also be an effective way to
communicate ideas. Movement can be used to communicate emotions as
well as events.
Titanic
example:
To communicate the great sense of loss experienced by families of Titanic
victims, the team might create a ‘They Dance Alone’ movement. This dance
might demonstrate widows and children dancing with invisible “ghost”
partners set to some very sad music.
Music
Music can also greatly enhance a presentation. Music can be selected and
played for the audience that communicates a particular mood or emotion or
© 2000 Edwin S. Ellis
Masterminds, LLC
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Project-based Learning Strategies
Overview
serves as a metaphor for an event. The team can also select music illustrative
of a particular time period and play it in the background as other components
of the presentation are made. Likewise, the playing of particular musical
instruments can be demonstrated if it ties in with a key idea of the
presentation.
Titanic
example:
During their presentation, the Titanic team might play in the background
recordings of the music played by the orchestra as the ship was sinking (i.e.,
‘Closer Walk with Thee’).
HOME – PRESENTATION OPTIONS
© 2000 Edwin S. Ellis
Masterminds, LLC
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