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Mother’s Day Activity: Presentation Tech Activity with Self-Advocacy Skills

Create a heart-warming Mother's Day keepsake for the 21st century mom!

Looking for a Mother’s Day activity to do with students? Create a heart-warming Mother’s Day keepsake for the 21st century mom! Support tech skills and encourage your students to be creative with this Mother’s Day Presentation activity. Use your preferred device and presentation software (Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Keynote) to complete this activity.

Since this is a spring activity, students should have already been introduced to creating simple presentations and should be able to complete their slide deck independently or with minimal assistance. (See Resources at the bottom of the post for information on how to create a presentation using a screen reader.)

All About My Mom Activity

Ask your students to obtain digital pictures of their mom. If desired, encourage the students to find or take pictures of their mom that are associated with the slide template below. Young students will create a slide deck about their mom using the All About My Mom template below:

Title Page: All About My Mom 

 Slide 1: My mom’s name is _____ .

Slide 2: My mom’s favorite thing to do is _____ .

Slide 3: Her job is _____ .

Slide 4: My mom always says ____ .

Slide 5: My favorite thing to do with my mom is ____ .

Slide 6: The funniest thing my mom did was ____ .

Slide 7: I love my mom more than _____ .

Slide 8: Love, ____ . (your name)

Depending on your student’s level, the All About My Mom presentation may include additional skills, such as adding bullet points. Example: List three things for Slide 2 and Slide 5. Here are some additional ideas:

Note: Remember, not every student will have a mom. Allow a student to choose a ‘mom-like’ person, grandma, aunt, or another important woman in the student’s life.

The All About My Mom slide deck can be text only for very young students (with one image on the title slide) or can include family images (photos) on each slide. If a student does not have family images available, try using stock images from the Internet. 

Older students can be more creative! Students can create their own slide deck instead of using the template above. Older students are expected to be able to create video clips and/or embed family video clips into their multimedia presentation. Use the additional skills listed above as possible guidelines for the older students’ presentation. Remember, students should be building tech skills, so include at least one new skill or more challenging skill!

Accessibility/Self-Advocacy

Students who are not able to see the slides should still create their deck independently; students should know how to add captions and/or organize their photos (see the P2T blog post, Tech Standards: Add Image Descriptions to iOS Photos) in order to identify which photo to embed into the presentation. Students should also know how to add image descriptions to their presentation. (See the P2T blog post, Tech Standards: Keynote Presentations with VoiceOver Activity Part 1.)

How do adults who are blind or visually impaired create professional presentations? They ask a peer to confirm the visual aspects of slide deck.

Is it ok for a student who is visually impaired to ask for help? Absolutely! Visually impaired students should be encouraged to ask a peer for sighted confirmation that the slide deck meets his/her requirements. The visually impaired student should be looking for specific information from the peer and should learn how to guide the peer – confirming that the slide deck is visually correct via a peer should begin with the first deck the student creates! Keep in mind that the questions asked may need to be more specific to guide younger students feedback and can be more general for older peers or peers who know how to provide confirmation. Here are some things that the VI student might ask:

Note: Keep in mind that the font size may need to be larger if the presentation is used in a virtual meeting or projected on the screen for the entire class. This activity is specifically designed to be for one person – Mom – and does not require large font.

Note: I recently participated in a virtual meeting with a blind professional who was showing a presentation. Unknowingly, on one slide, the font and the background were the same color, so the text was not visible, even though her screen reader read the text aloud. Just because the screen reader announces everything correctly does not necessarily mean that the slide is visually correct!

National Tech Standards Alignment

In recent discussions, some educators mentioned that they do not see a need for BLV students to learn to create presentations because presentations are visual in nature. Instead, these teachers are providing alternative activities when the gen ed class has a presentation assignment. However, presentations are very much a part of the 21st century; national tech standards require ALL students to have presentation skills and presentations are incorporated into K12, college and professional careers. Professionals use presentations regularly in their work day and they are expected to be able to navigate and present materials using presentations.

When should my student learn how to create presentations? According to the National Tech Standards Scope and Sequence:

Resources

By Diane Brauner

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