My students in China love the idea of being a tour guide. Each year we receive several offers from students to “Come to my hometown– I’ll be your tour guide.” So when I was assigned to teach the culture of English speaking countries and wanted to get students involved, I decided to give them an assignment in which they worked in groups or individually to guide us around some famous attractions from each of the countries we’d be covering during the term. Students usually give their presentations throughout the term after we study the country they are responsible for. Below are the instructions I gave them and then PDFs of the sign-up sheet and notes pages I gave students to help them take important notes during their classmates’ presentations.
Instructions:
This term, you will each make a presentation to help us learn more about famous places and animals in the countries we study. Please pay attention to the requirements for your presentations.
- You will work in a group of 1-2 people.
- Your presentation must be 5-10 minutes in length. If you work alone, your presentation should be about 5 minutes. If you work with a partner, it should be 10 minutes.
- You must make a PPT presentation with 8-10 slides (pages). You cannot have more than 10 slides.
- Your presentation should be mostly pictures. Words are boring. Pictures are interesting. Each slide can contain one simple sentence, with 10 words or less. You should also give the Chinese translation. You should not only read your PPT; you should read the PPT and then ALSO explain a little more.
- Your purpose is to teach your classmates. Your purpose is not to impress me. SO…. use words that your classmates can understand.
- If you want, you can include 1 video in your presentation. It must be less than 2 minutes, and it can be in English or Chinese.
- Each presentation should answer these questions:
- What is the name of the place or animal?
- What is it? (historical place, entertainment site, etc.)
- Why is it famous/important?
- Any amazing facts…
If you want, you may e-mail me your presentation 48 hours in advance to [insert e-mail address] for approval. If you don’t want to, that’s okay too.
Your presentation is worth 50 points.
- 15 points- following directions
- 20 points- interesting & understandable
- 15 points- quality content
PDFs for Sign-up Sheet and Student Notes Sheets/ Presentation Listening Guides
Click here to download the PDF file for student sign-ups and presentation notes (6 pages): Tour Guide Presentation
Here are some previews of the pages: