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10 - 11 years

Ideas to help your child practise their literacy skills - with you, and online

Developed in partnership with Education Services Australia

The Australian Curriculum sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life. Skills in the Year 5-6 curriculum include:

planning, researching and rehearsing presentations
delivering presentations.

It’s easy to help your child practise this skill as part of everyday life – just use these simple ideas.

Practice presenting

Your child will need to give class presentations throughout their school years, so it’s a great idea to give them opportunities to practise this important skill in front of a supportive family audience. Unless they’re practising a talk for school, let your child decide how formal or informal to make the presentation, and how much time to spend on it – even an impromptu speech with no preparation is valuable practice.

If your child decides to make it more formal, help them think about questions such as:

who is your audience, and what will interest them?
what is your main theme?
what content do you want to include?
what language is appropriate (and inappropriate)?
would support material be useful – e.g. a slideshow of family photos, a video clip, music?

If your child already has a topic for school, focus on that. If not, let your child choose the topic. If they are struggling for ideas, you could suggest a presentation on someone in the family, a family holiday, or their favourite actor/singer/athlete.

If you ever have to give a speech at a family occasion, ask your child to help you put it together. It’s great role modelling, and you might be surprised at how helpful your child can be with refining your speech, creating slideshows and listening to you practise. If appropriate, you could even invite your child to give part of the speech – they’re sure to be a hit with the crowd!