Recently, our homeschool group has been exploring a new aspect of presentation skills – hosting a guest speaker. We’re using a template I developed which can be adapted for any youth gathering with a guest speaker. A link to the PDF for the template is provided at the bottom of this post.
With coronavirus restrictions, we’re holding our group meetings online. This includes our current service-learning effort, The Pretty Big Pollinator Project. It’s a student-initiated, student-led project that follows the guidelines of Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program.
Currently, we are centering our efforts on the website the students developed. Our weekly meetings focus on student involvement and include their reports on our website blog posts, social media engagement, and a discussion of project ideas and goals. It’s been working well, both as a way for the students to connect with each other and also as a means to work on presentation skills.
When we began inviting outside speakers to our meetings, it seemed a natural fit to have our students learn the etiquette of interacting with a guest presenter. This includes a preliminary meeting, facilitating the speaker’s appearance at our group meeting, and followup after the meeting.
The overriding goal of this exercise is to help the student feel confident in their skills in hosting a guest speaker. The speaker and all other adults attending, including you, should be on board with this goal. It’s empowering for the students and gives them an excellent life skill.
Here’s an overview of the process:
Initial Contact Along with introducing our group and purpose, I talk to the guest about our goal of helping the students learn how to introduce a speaker and moderate part of an online meeting. Again, it’s important that the guest speaker is aware of this goal and supports it.
Student Preparation I talk to the student and provide them with a format to follow.
Guest Speaker Preliminary Meeting We schedule a planning meeting for the student and the guest speaker. I attend only to facilitate as needed.
Group Meeting The student follows a format for introducing the speaker, facilitating their talk, and then closing. The goal is to have the student successfully lead with minimal or no input from others.
Followup The student e-mails a thank-you to the guest speaker and writes a a written report summarizing the information for a website blog post.
Here are the forms to help guide you through this process:
Included are notes to adapt for in-person meetings as well.
This format has provided a wonderful method to boost our students confidence and skills while connecting with supportive adults in our community and beyond. I hope you’re able to use it with equal success and enjoyment.
