Ten Tips for Creating Effective Slideshows for Students and Teachers

Young students need guidance as they learn to create presentations. When left to their own devices they often create presentations that are chaotic assaults on the senses. Too many fonts, colors, pictures, and animations take away from the content of the presentation and detract from the presenter's message. 

Use this rubric and the other resources below as you teach your students these ten tips for creating effective slideshows.

1. Choose fonts to convey your meaning

Fonts, like images, can connect with the viewer's emotions and activate mental associations. Choose the right font to match the topic you are presenting. 

Use this short video to introduce the concept to your students.

2. Limit the number of fonts you use

A graphic designer would tell you to use only two fonts. The font used for the majority of text should be plain and readable. The second font is for headings. It can be more expressive and should be bigger and bolder. Of course, artists always allow for exceptions and love breaking rules, but do so with intention.

Use this handout with your students.

3. Choose a theme or create your own cohesive color scheme

Both Google Slides and Powerpoint have built-in themes. With my young students I usually ask them to choose an existing theme and trust the designer. However, you may wish to have students select their own color scheme. Make sure they understand that keeping it simple is the key! The color scheme should be consistent throughout the entire presentation. All headings should match in color, all body text should match in color, and the slide background should remain the same throughout the presentation.

4. Choose layouts that keep your text boxes consistent

My most frequently used slide layout in Google Slides is Title and two Columns. I choose one of the two columns to write in and delete the text box in the other column. Then, I include a single picture in the blank space. Using this workflow provides consistency with the size and placement of textboxes between slides.

Similarly, you could also choose the One column text slide. However, I find the column to be too thin.

5. Use one image per slide in a presentation

Why one picture? We want our viewers focused on the content of our presentation. Too many pictures distracts the viewer from your message. Choose a single image that will capture their attention and will serve as a memory aide for your most important point.

I discourage my elementary students from using their image as a background and writing on top of it. They typically are not able to do this effectively.

6. Follow copyright laws and create proper citations

Many states have standards that require students to be able to find images for their work that have the proper copyright permissions. They also need to create citations to give the owner credit. Where I live, the 2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards require students to achieve this by the end of grade 5. Teachers in grades 3 and up should be helping students on their way to achieving this standard.

Use the resources below to teach students all they need to know about finding images for their work and generating proper citations.

• Using Insert Image in G Suite for Education Lesson Plan
• Video Library for Creating Citations on Google Docs Learning Center
• Best Practices for Attribution by Creative Commons
• Creativity, Copyright and Fair Use Video by Common Sense Media
• A Creator's Rights and Responsibilities Lesson by Common Sense Media
• Filtering Google Image Search Results to Show Pictures with the Proper Permissions
• CC Search
• Sites with CC0 pictures (no citation required): Pixabay | Pexels | Pxhere

7. Keep text to a minimum

Turn on your bullet points and remind yourself that you are writing a list that includes only the most important words on your topic. If you need more text for yourself as the presenter then make use of the speaker notes instead. 

Limit the words to only those that could be used as a memory aide for your viewer. Your audience cannot simultaneously read long strings of text and listen to you.

8. Be intentional with your slide layout choices

This goes back to trusting the designers who provided you with the default options. Not everything a presenter conveys needs a bulleted list. If you have a number you want to use to get your audience's attention choose the Big number layout. If your main point can be conveyed in image alone then choose Blank. If it helps the viewer understand better to have text with your image then choose Caption. Certain types of information are conveyed best with particular slide layouts. 

9. Go easy with transitions and animations

...or leave them out entirely. Nothing takes away from the message and breaks the flow of a presentation more than waiting for every single item on a slide to finish their animation. Children need a lot of guidance with this. At most I allow my students to choose a single slide transition that must be used consistently throughout the entire presentation.

10. Organize your slides in a meaningful way

Like organizing an essay, student presenters need to keep like ideas together and start broad before getting in to specific details. Depending on the topic of the presentation there may be other factors to consider when deciding on organization, such as organizing events by time.

Image by 200 Degrees from Pixabay