Lesson 4 - The Alphabet of Nations Presentation

The presentation I created was about countries around the world.  It began with an engaging song by the music group, They Might Be Giants.  The name of the song is the Alphabet of Nations.  In the song, country names are sung in order of the alphabet based on their names such as, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Dominica, and so on.  The names of a few of the countries appear on the slide in coordination with the music.  Next, the presentation displays a map of the continents.  Then, I created a slide for most of the continents and identified where the countries in the song were located on the continent.  These slides included a map of the continent and a bold red square that faded onto the screen locating the corresponding country. 

The next slide clarifies the assignment details which is a group assignment.  The last few slides provide an example for the assignment so the expectations are clear.  For extra credit, the student groups can memorize and sing the song to their classmates.

I am not teaching so I presented my work to my children.  My daughter is 10 years old and my son is 7 years old.  They both said they learned something new about the United States, which was in the assignment example.  I am encouraged the presentation may be an effective tool for learning.  My daughter explained she enjoyed how I mixed the presentation information with the music.  My son’s favorite aspect was that I separated the continent maps onto individual slides.

I am most proud of integrating the music into the presentation.  I have seen a few presentations that include audio.  However, from my experience, this is the least common feature presentations include.  It is a ‘productivity tool’ that I did not know how to use previously but I’ve been wanting to learn.  The addition of audio to the presentation effectively communicates the information to students with various learning styles.  Also, I’m proud of adding music to the presentation because it attracted the attention of the students, a.k.a. my kids.  Then, this helped to keep them engaged with the presentation.  It made them curious about the content. 

Also, I liked the idea of the extra credit assignment.  For extra credit, the student groups can memorize the song and sing it to the class.  Although this is not specific to the presentation itself, I think it is an assignment component that expands addressing the individual learning needs of the students.  The idea focuses on building social skills.  It also engages students with learning difficulties focused in other aspects of the assignment. 

The most difficult aspect of the presentation was, since I’m not teaching, visualizing how it may fit into a lesson plan.  I think the presentation lacked focus of purpose.  It was not exactly a learning tool specifically, for instance a lesson plan on the continents.  I suppose it was a creative way to present a lesson plan assignment.  Therefore, it presumes the students have learned about the continents.  The assignment is an opportunity for them to strengthen that knowledge and drill deeper. 

Another aspect I would alter is technical.  The song is very fast.  I would slow the song or edit it into parts to coordinate with different slides in the presentation.  These are more technology skills I need to learn. 

It was a good experience creating this presentation.  I read in the literature the benefits of presentations in education for students and teachers such as, creating group projects, presenting science reports, add variety to classroom presentations, and present information in an organized way.  However, the challenge and concern of losing the content with the bells and whistles was clear to me.  I wish I had a more objective audience for feedback to improve my presentation though.  My children did not have any suggestions for alterations.  I admit, I am suspicious their desire to please their mom is a more likely explanation than the quality of my presentation.