DP1 Students: IA Engagements!

Practice, Practice, Practice!

IMPORTANT NOTE

I am not allowed to watch you practice or give you feedback on your presentations as you practice. This is a weird IB rule that doesn't 100% make sense, but it is what it is.

However, there's nothing that says YOU can't watch each other and give feedback. I strongly advise you to do that. Be as prepared to give as you are to receive.

Things to work on

Consider your tone

Your tone should be somewhat formal. Not like at a funeral! Or like a world leader giving a speech. Keep in mind that you are well-informed on your topic and you are speaking to a similarly well-informed audience (the examiner.)

You want to be closer to the "serious" side of thing; more formal than casual; A LOT more respectful than irreverent (me making jokes about Eric Chu = irreverent); and somewhere in between enthusiastic and matter-of-fact. Some topics are not... a good fit for too much enthusiasm ("Whoo!!!! The increasing use of sexual violence in civil conflict!!!! Yeah yeah yeah yeah YEAAAAAHHHHH!") while being too matter-of-fact is like being in Economics class. BOOOOORING.

Posture

We all have different body language, and our body language DOES have the potential to influence how people see us and perceive us.

Here, consider your body language to be the physical version of your tone. You don't want to rock back and forth, or slouch. Be mindful of what you do with your hands.

Stand up (somewhat) straight, your body should be "open" facing the camera (see the image above for a depiction of open and closed body language.)

Your enunciation and pronunciation

Obviously, you want to be able to say things correctly. So, you should practice the most important (or difficult) words in your presentation. Don't talk for ten minutes about President Vladmir PUDDING. Pay special attention to people's names, country names, city names, etc. When we record the presentation, if you make a small mistake don't worry about it; there is an expectation that these presentations have a few flubs, since we only get to record it ONCE.

Enunciation is about making sure that you can be clearly heard and understood. Some people tend to mumble, some people tend to talk quickly (👀Valencia👀). Focusing on enunciation helps you say words (and syllables) clearly and intelligibly (in a way that can be easily understood by an audience.) Enunciation can also help you emphasize certain words in a sentence, so your speech is not flat. Down below you'll find some tongue twisters (tricky speaking exercises) to practice. They are meant to be very frustrating 😈

(A note about "accents" - don't worry about whether or not you have one. IB is an international curriculum, the examiners come from countries all over the world. WE ALL HAVE ACCENTS. YOU DO. I DO. TR. SEB DOES ("Really!?") MY OWN ACCENT IS FAIRLY "THICK." PEOPLE FROM MY HOMETOWN OFTEN SAY WORDS THAT DO NOT EXIST, LIKE 'YOUSE' INSTEAD OF 'YOU ALL.' Nobody's going to judge you based on your accent. Pronunciation and enunciation are separate things.)

Speaking with notes, what to do with your arms

First off, you should have notes. Soon, it would be a good idea to start making those.

You must not have a script! You must not memorize a script (the examiner will be able to tell, and they will still count that as a script.)

For that reason, you should avoid using A4 paper as your notes. The best notes are notecards. Handwritten, cut up, placed in order. These are things that can easily be read and moved around (without making the noise of ruffling papers) and it's hard to fill them up with a lot of words, so you're less likely to fall into the trap of reading directly from your notes.

Your notecards should absolutely include...

Any statistics you may be using -- it's important to get those exactly right!
Any word-for-word quotes you want to use (along with where the quote came from, who wrote/said it, so you can give proper credit.)
Bullet point details; notes written in shorthand (not full sentences -- this makes it so that you are speaking naturally, rather than reading.)

If you're going to watch each other practice, it's worth considering these things for the other person!

Tongue Twisters

These can be helpful as warm-up activities. There are shorter and longer ones.

If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?

Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.

Green glass globes glow greenly.

Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat. (Repeat many times)

One-one was a race horse. Two-two was one too. One-one won one race. Two-two won one too.

He threw three free throws.

The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.

I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen.

The ones below are useful for practice enunciation AND considering which words need to be emphasized in order to make the idea clear...

I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought I thought.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?

Betty bought butter but the butter was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to make the bitter butter better.

“Surely Sylvia swims!” shrieked Sammy surprised. “Someone should show Sylvia some strokes so she shall not sink.”

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

I am a mother pheasant plucker! I pluck mother pheasants! I am the finest mother pheasant plucker that ever plucked a mother pheasant! (If you make a mistake on this one, you might end up saying...)

How to begin practicing your presentation?

Well, if you dive in all at once, you're going to have a bad time! It'll be a ten-minute mess and you'll likely be dejected and unhappy. So, break the presentation down into chunks!

Think about "workshopping" sections of your presentation. This means that you practice the introduction, or a "body" point, or your conclusion wrap-up until you feel comfortable with them, then try putting the whole thing together.

Time yourself!

We have a HARD ten-minute time limit. I will keep recording as long as you are talking, but the examiner will stop the video exactly ten minutes after you begin the presentation.

Edit and revise as you go!

The beautiful thing about not being "wedded" to a script is that you have the freedom to cut, revise, edit, rework, move around, etc.

As you "workshop" each section of your presentation, play around with things a bit.

Analysis > Description

Are you making a point? Is that point the focus of what you're talking about?

Do you have an argument? Are you exploring a counter-argument or a different viewpoint or perspective?

Are you using key concepts? Making connections to the global challenge?

Sometimes, it's easy to lose sight of this stuff. Especially as you watch other people, look for this! Someone else may notice something that you miss. Record yourself, then take a break and watch your own video back (it helps to have "fresh" eyes, so the break can be useful.)

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