Planning Your Slide Show
If you've ever heard the quote, "those who fail to plan, plan to fail," then you'll know how important this step is in creating an original, informative and entertaining slide show.
There are a series of steps you will need to take to create your slide show.
Click on the image to view an enlarged FlashPaper version. Also, check out the additional information below the image.
Selecting A Topic
Your slide show could be about almost anything, but your teacher might want you to focus on a specific topic or range of topics.
- How to do something (detailed instructions of a process)
- An educational theme (may or may not be school related)
- You and/or your family
- Virtual vacation (exploring a place you'd like to travel to)
- Other topics with the permission of your teacher (check first)
Having Your Topic Approved
To make sure that you're on the right track, you need to check with your teacher once you have picked a topic. Depending on what you've picked and how you plan to cover your topic you will get one of three reactions.
Sorry, you need a new topic. Some ideas, no matter how great, just aren't for school. Or, you aren't in the range of topics your teacher assigned. | |
Well, perhaps... but you might need to change things a bit. It could be that you need a different perspective on the topic or some other tweak. | |
You're good to go. Your topic is fine and you're ready to move on to the next steps. |
Researching Your Story
To learn about using the Internet as a research tool, check out the Internet research tutorial. Your work will be assessed with the assumption that you applied the techniques presented there.
Building Up Your Slide Show
Follow the steps above to develop your slide show. Compare a slide show that has all the text and images to one that has everything but is missing the last half of the slides. By adding all the elements in order, your slide show will always be watchable and complete even if you ran out of time before you added the sound or transitions.
Timing Your Slide Show
Your show should be able to run on its own. Once you start the show (i.e. hitting F5 on the keyboard), all other events should be automatically timed to occur. Be sure to give the audience time to take everything in. If you can read aloud the contents of a slide, then it is probably timed correctly.
PowerPoint Tutorials
Don't forget to check out the PowerPoint tutorial section for more information about creating slide shows.