JESSICA SHIPMAN

Joni Dunlap
Creative Design for Instructional Materials
09/22/2010

P R O J E C T : P R E S E N TAT I O N M A K E O V E R
Overview: This PowerPoint was originally used as a supplement for an informational lecture
about the United States just before the Civil War.  It was used in a classroom setting to give a visual
representation of a verbal lecture. It was used for eleventh grade high school students in a
classroom setting.  After I have revised this presentation it will be used as a stand alone
instructional aid that students can access at any time on the school website to learn and relearn
the circumstances that directly led to secession and the American Civil War. The focus of this
presentation is going to change from a teacher centered informational presentation on the events
leading to Civil War to an instructional presentation that will aid students in linking historical events
in a logical manner to solve problems.  This presentation as it currently stands is in need of
makeover because there is far too much information on every page and it does not teach students
how to do anything, except be passive bystanders to information that the teacher deems
important.

Audience: My audience is a group of students.  These students will all be in 11th grade.  Most of
these students will prefer to see and hear the lesson, but all of them will prefer to discover the
information through interaction.  This is a group of 24 students there are probably each of the
personality types in this room.  My presentation will attempt to hit every personality type so that
each student is having her needs met.

Learning objectives and assessment: I want students to be able to map out cause and
consequence.  I want them to be able to look at an event in history and be able to explain why
and how the event happened and what it might cause in the future.  Specifically I want them to be
able to look at the Antebellum period and be able to describe how the events interact, how the
events came to be, and predict what those events will lead to throughout the course of the civil
war. I also want them to be able to evaluate whether the tensions caused by secession still
reverberate into today’s society. I want the students to synthesize what they know about race
relations today and be able to tie that knowledge back to the antebellum period. Additionally I
want them to keep this information in mind as we continue to move through the semester and
encounter other events such as the Civil Rights Movement. To assess this they could map a specific
person’s experience from Antebellum through Civil War in a Digital Story.  They cold do a graphic
organizer to show cause and consequence. They could create their own graphic organizer and then
have their peers fill it in to show cause and consequence. If students can successfully link events to
past and future through these assessments I will know that they have met this objective.

Problem/solution: My audience quite often falls into the habit of passivity.  There is quite often a
culture, especially in high school students, to come to class absorb information passively, study for
the test, and then regurgitate information.  Once the regurgitation is over there is no nutritional
value to the information anymore (to continue with the kind of gross metaphor). Passivity does not
create learning.  This presentation will allow students to be active participants in the information,
and they will not only be getting information, but they will be learning how to do something as
well, which requires even more participation.

Evidence: I need to include a clear link between events and show them how to link events so
that they can link events later in the presentation.  I did this with the slide at the beginning with the
pictures of the events that I then included throughout the presentation. I added this slide again at
the end of the presentation with additional information so that they could see the link between
events at the beginning of the presentation, throughout the meat of the presentation, and at the
end.

Anecdotes: The whole story of the Antebellum is an Anecdote. It is finding the specific small
stories throughout the period that have a link, a cause and a consequence that tie the Anecdotes
together. I have used in this presentation the Anecdote of the Missouri Compromise and the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Anecdote of how that caused Bleeding Kansas and the rise of John
Brown, which led to the fist fight in the senate where Sumner gets beat with a cane, to the
Anecdote of the Dred Scott Case and how monumental that was in shifting the balance of power
and was a huge cause of Secession. I used the Anecdote of the rise of Abraham Lincoln and how
he changes American Politics forever and how his eventual Presidential election is the straw that
breaks the camel’s back and is the eventual last cause of Secession. All of these small stories work
together to create a structure of a bigger story and helps students to link together causes and
consequences in history.

Sequencing:

Situation: This presentation is designed to discuss the cause and consequence of historical events
during the Antebellum Period.

Complication 1:
Students don’t think history has anything to do with their lives

Resolution 1:
Students will have to link historical events together, and then they will be asked to evaluate
whether what they have learned has anything to do with current race relations.

Example 1:
Students will be able to learn about and the Antebellum period as a time where race relations and
the political importance of slavery severed the nation in two. They will be able to look at examples
like the Dred Scott case and Harpers Ferry and they will be asked to evaluate whether they
believe anything has changed in the status of the relationship between blacks and whites today.
They will be asked to evaluate any ongoing race problems that they have encountered personally,
or any they believe to exist.

Complication 2:
Students just want to learn what they need to know for a test so they get a good grade and forget
Resolution 2 :
Students will have to learn the skill of linking events. If students can learn to predict future events
based on how events in the past have gone they are more likely to remember information past the
test. When it comes to building knowledge and schema skills are far more important than
information.

Example 2:
The presentation is structured in such a way that all the anecdotes are linked together to make a
larger picture. Each event is accompanied by either “Cause” or “Consequence”. At the beginning
of the presentation they see a series of pictures that capture several large events during the
Antebellum Period but they are not yet linked. Throughout the presentation these pictures are
shown again with “Cause” or “Consequence” and all are anecdotes to the larger picture of
Secession and eventual Civil War. At the end of the presentation the slide with the pictures is seen
again with arrows suggesting the links of Cause and Consequence reinforcing the idea that all of
these stories are linked. The links and stories will reinforce the skill of linking together cause and
consequence and will hopefully lead to a deeper understanding of not just the Antebellum Period
but of how all of history is linked.

Specific design decisions:

Decision 1: Simplicity
My first design decision that is a dramatic change from the original content is simplicity. I have
taken slides with 60 or more words on each and reduced it to 10 or less words in most cases. In
the original presentation I was guilty of “Burying the Lead” (Heath and Heath, 2008, 31-32). I had
let the most important parts of the story get buried in details that were very distracting. That
many details were probably overwhelming to my students and they were most likely paralyzed by
the amount of information I was asking them to learn. When push comes to shove this probably
led them to “irrational decision making” when it comes to studying for the test, or trying to draw
any useful information out of the presentation (Heath and Heath, 2008, 34-37). In addition by
creating a more simple design, and breaking down the content into profound compactness I am
better able to tap into the knowledge base of my students and the ideas of the presentation, and
the skills that I am offering up for them to learn become more “sticky” (Heath and Heath, 2008,
52).

Decision 2: Purpose
When I looked at my original presentation I could not tell where I wanted my students to go. If I
couldn’t figure out where I was leading them, how were they ever supposed to figure out where to
go. With the revision of the presentation, I have given the presentation a purpose. I have outlined
in the first 4 slides what my “Commander’s Intent” is. My new purpose the direction I want my
students to go is that “every event has a cause and a consequence”. This is a clear statement to my
students that they should be looking throughout the presentation to link events through cause and
consequence. The “Commander’s Intent” is signal for my students to start generating, on their own
the link between events that eventually cause other events so that they can learn a skill rather than
just absorbing information. The “CI” gives my students free reign to start thinking on their own
(Heath and Heath, 2008, 26). As a result of this simple change students behavior is altered from
passive absorber to active thinker, learner, and participant (Heath and Heath, 2008, 8).

Decision 3: Emotion
My original presentation had the emotional appeal of a soda cracker. It was white, full of
information, and often times the visuals were a distraction rather than adding to the overall
emotional feel of the presentation, if there was one. In this presentation I have attempted to add
images and words that appeal to the emotions throughout the presentation. At the beginning of
the presentation I use gruesome images from the American Civil War in addition to a simple quote
from Abraham Lincoln to be emotionally arousing, because the entire presentation is better
remembered if the learner is emotionally stimulated (Medina, 2008, 79). In addition adding images
such as the confederate flag, scarred slaves, and burning buildings to build emotional arousal allows
my students to get the gist of the situation, to understand the broad connection between events
and understand their cause and consequence. The emotional images reinforce my commander’s
intent and the simplicity of the presentation (Medina, 2008, 83). I am making the ideas of cause and
consequence in regards to the Antebellum period stick to their brains by making the presentation
elicit emotional response. Pictures of dead soldiers, Abraham Lincoln, and the Confederate Flag all
elicit some form of emotional response and makes the students care about the subject (Heath and
Heath, 2008, 17-18)

Decision 4: Visual Interest

My original presentation was about as bland as a PowerPoint gets. Very few images, way too many
words and no consideration of the elements of design. Because the brain is what sees and it bases
the input it is getting from the eyes on past information it is more likely that the brain will recall
images far more readily than it will recall words. Therefore the more visual the input the more
likely the presentation will be recalled (Medina, 2008, 233). As a result of this information I have
completely revamped the visual stimulation of my presentation. Every slide has some kind of visual
Stimuli on it. There are only a small few slides with no pictures, and where there are no pictures
the text is visually interesting and makes an impact. In most cases I made the image bleed off the
side of the slide making the picture the main focus of the information and the text a supplement.
This makes the picture, and therefore the idea bigger than it really is (Reynolds, 2010, 100). In
addition to adding pictures I have also significantly reduced the amount of words on a slide. I am
exercising restraint in order to bring out the complexity of the events. The restraint that I am
bringing to the slides allows the learner to more fully grasp small pieces of information and link
them rather than trying to cram in multiple details (Reynolds, 2010, 17).

Decision 5: Audience Based

The original presentation was based solely on what information I thought was important for my
students in the way that I would prefer it to be given to me. If you didn’t notice there was a lot of
“I” and “Me” in that previous statement. A major design change in this presentation is that the
students will be able to use this presentation, and understand its implications without me having to
say a word. It has become an Audience Based presentation rather than an instructor based
presentation. An important part of designing and audience based presentation is understanding
the audience. In a room full of 24 students there is a little bit of every personality type. As a result
of this I have had to make the presentation accessible for many different personality types. I will
provide this presentation in advance via the school website or our own class wiki for all of the
introverts. The presentation allows for plenty of room for questions and discussion for extraverts.
All relevant facts for linking events via cause and consequence are available and easy to see in the
presentation for the sensors. An overview at the beginning of the presentation that includes the
Commander’s Intent is available for the Intuitors. The benefits and principles of learning this
information is available in that it links the past events to current understanding of a societal
problem for the Thinkers. The implications of the Antebellum period on multiple groups of people
including, slaves, politicians, ordinary people and soldiers, are clear for the Feelers. The conclusion
of the Antebellum period and its implications are clear in the first three slides with the introduction
of “we cannot escape history” paired with battlefield pictures for the Judgers. Alternatives to the
information are that each event has its own unique effect on the events before and after it. The
alternative is in the cause and consequence for the Perceivers (Abela, 2008, 21)

Peer review results:

I asked each of the following questions because I wanted to make sure that the intent that I had for
this presentation was being met. I wanted to make sure that my intentions were clear and that the
presentation was useful and hit the mark. In the future I will probably change question two to
which did you find the least visually interesting because as the results stand now, I can’t really use
them to revise my presentation or make it better.
Questions:
1. What do you think my Commander’s Intent is?
2. Which slides do you think are the most visually interesting? Why?
3. Which Slides need more information?
4. Do you feel as though this presentation is more informational or more instructional?
5. On a scale of 1-5, 1 Being bored out of your mind, 5 being so interested you wanted more how
would you rate this presentation?

Responses:

Questions 1:

To get the audience to realize that there are oftentimes unforeseen consequences to an action

There is a consequence to every action, whether you agree or disagree.

Question 2:

35, shows how torn the United States is.

39, if the words were not there you know what is meant by the confederate flag.
37 & 38 as the text does all the talking and it is very easy to read and understand what you want the
viewer to recall/learn.

Question 3:

The slides where the historical events are used. I admit I recall some of the names but the details escape
me and I was a little lost as to the meaningfulness of some of the events cited.
11, not sure if you are suppose to be able to read the boxes. Otherwise, I think the information is perfect. 

Question 4:

To me this is more informational, I learned new information about that era.

I would say the presentation leans on the informational side as I’m not quite sure if this would result in a
behavioral change for me after viewing.

Question 5:

I would say 4. The images pulled me in and I found myself wanting to see what was on the next slide
and how it related to the cause/consequence.

Overall I really liked the imagery you used and it drives the point of each topic, I find myself
remembering the images (vs the words or phrases).

4- Loved the images you used, then added a new dimension to the story being told.

Jessica, I enjoyed your presentation. One suggestion, some of the slide the image was two dark and the
words were hard to read.

The responses that I will use the most were mostly color and visual changes. I will probably go
back to slide 11 and change the image to a darker font so it is more readable. I find the
informational vs instructional question very interesting because my purpose was to move away
from informational to more instructional. I feel as though compared to the original presentation
that I have done that but when the content drives the instruction it is hard to move completely
away from informational. I noticed in one of the responses that the reviewer didn’t feel as though
it would result in a behavioral change. I think this is a result of her behavior on a day to day basis
being different than that of a high school student. I think it would be more beneficial to have a
review from not just peers but students to get the full effect of the change in presentation. I will
probably not use the feedback in question 3 regarding “the slides with the historical events”. All the
slides had historical events so without a more specific response it is hard for me to fix this concern.
Bibliography:

Abela, A. (2008). Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication that Drives Action.
Washington D.C.: Pfeiffer.

Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2007). Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. New York:
Random House.

Medina, J. (2009). Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.
Chicago: Pear Press.

Reynolds, G. (2010). Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance
Your Presentations (Paperback). Berkeley: New Riders.
Appendix:

Abela Worksheets
Worksheet A.1a. Audience Personality Type

Audience




Personality Type




High School Juniors, American Studies Class Introvert, Extravert, Sensor, Intuitor, Thinker,
Feeler, Judger, Perceiver

Worksheet A.1b. Audience Personality Implications

Instructional Product (presentation or job aid) Implications

• Provide Presentation in Advance

• Provide for Questions and Discussion

• All relevant facts included

• Overview is provided upfront

• Identify purpose and principles of the presentation

• Make implications clear for all involved

• Conclusions are presented at the beginning

• Alternatives are clear

Worksheet A.2. From-To Think-Do Matrix

From
Think “The teacher provides the
information and I am just a passive
information absorber”
Do Take notes as the instructor tells
them what is important and then
regurgitate that information on a test
and then forget the information
To
“I am an active learner, capable of thinking through
events and linking them together to predict or make
sense of future events. I am a participant in my own
learning”
Learn the skill of linking cause and consequence in
an effort to predict and understand future events.
Worksheet A.3. Audience Problem
The problem that my Audience has is that they are too often caught in a culture of passivity. They have
learned their whole lives that in order to succeed at school all they must do is come, take notes, take a test,
and go home. This is not learning, and it certainly does not allow the concepts and the importance of
history to permeate into their lives. History offers so many lessons about how to learn from our successes
and mistakes and to not repeat them. These lessons are so often lost on our students because we are
offering them too much detail.

Worksheet A.4. Spectrum of Solution Contributions

Students Students see Students use the Students start

Recognize a need their role in presentation to linking other
for History Learning link events events in history
Worksheet A.5. Solution Evaluation
Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4
Presentation Old Worksheet and Lecture with no visual
Evaluation Criteria Makeover Presentation Textbook aid
Students can Yes, the Yes, the Maybe, if they read Maybe, after the first
describe Antebellum presentation allows presentation thoroughly and 5 minutes, but
Events for this allows for this didn’t just attempt probably not
to fill in the blanks tomorrow
Students can Yes, this is very No, the old Maybe, the No, it would be hard
describe Cause and clear presentation textbook may for students to
Consequence doesn’t address cover some of this concentrate on the
this but not explicitly details and the cause
and consequence
with no visuals
Students are able to Yes, the No, this is not Maybe, but not No, it would be hard
link antebellum presentation is very addressed in the completely for students to
events together clear on this presentation concentrate on the
using cause and details and the cause
consequence and consequence
with no visuals
Students understand Yes, this is in the No, the No, this is not No, it would be hard
how antebellum presentation and presentation included in the for students to
events link to would be goes no further textbook concentrate on the
current societal something we than the history information details and the cause
issues discuss further as a it presents and consequence
result of the with no visuals
presentation
Worksheet A.6. List of Evidence
Evidence

• Compromise of 1850 (Consequence)

• Kansas Nebraska Act (Cause)

• Bleeding Kansas (Consequence)

• Lecompton Constitution (Cause and Consequence)

• Potowotamie Creek Massacre (Consequence)

• Rise of the Republican Party (Cause and Consequence)

• Dred Scott Decision (Cause)

• Rise of Abraham Lincoln (Cause)

• John Brown and Harpers Ferry (Cause and Consequence)

• The election of 1860 (Cause)

• Secession (Consequence)
Worksheet A.7 Stakeholder Analysis

Who will be impacted My Students Me Other Teachers

by the success or failure
of this instructional
product?
What is their role in the They will use this I will create the product They may use this
success or failure of this product and attempt to and revise it if not product if I find it
instructional product? learn from it successful successful
How will they be They will be able to I will be able to use this They will be able to use
impacted if the achieve learning product again to impact this product and this
instructional product is a objectives and utilize the more lives idea of simplicity of
success (i.e., learners lessons of history in design and audience
achieve learning their everyday lives focused presentation in
objectives)? their own classrooms
How will they be They will have wasted I will have to recreate They will not be able to
impacted if the time and energy trying this presentation in use this product
instructional product is a to figure out what they order to meet the
failure (i.e., learners do were supposed to learn learning objectives
not achieve learning
objectives)?