Modern Languages Blog

This one is related to points four and five. First, if you don’t want to be a slide slave, don’t put up everything you actually wanted to say. Second, if you’re getting kids to make up slides and you do not want them to copy and paste half of Google and present it as their own work, get them to use less text on screen.

How? Use 400pt text.

OK, maybe you can get away with 72pt, but make the text BIG. One of the educational consultants at Promethean, Ros Walker, was recently told by her optician that many, many more parents were bringing in their children for new glasses, but nothing was wrong with their eyesight. In fact, the teachers at school had been using text that was far too small on screen. Many say that 18pt text is the minimum for a PowerPoint. That might be true if the image is spread across the entire wall. But in a crowded classroom with a small interactive whiteboard the projector is normally too close to the board to create a large enough image. Keep that size about 72pt. and limit what you put on one slide.

What you have to say might be important, but say it. Nothing is so important that it should make your slide’s text fall below 72 pt. Just remember that if it does, and no-one can actually read anything clearly, your text may be breaking the back of the point you are trying to make.

Give it a go. What’s the effect on your audience?
Did they need to know all the personal pronouns to be able to make up their first past tense?
Did they need to copy eight new words from the board at once, all at different speeds?
Or were they happy to concentrate on copying three or four words well?

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