It works every time. I put the students in groups of four and get them to select one of the topics we've covered during the semester to prepare a group presentation. Then I ask who are the three most confident people in the group at giving a presentation.

I tell them that those three (the most confident) are now responsible for coaching colleague number four to give the presentation they are about to prepare. One coach is to have overall responsibility for making sure the presentation has a good structure, another for the language and the other for their colleague's interaction with audience.

I then sit back and watch as they work together to prepare the fourth member of the group - who begins by being terrified and hugely reluctant to do it. I watch myself and the semester's preparation I've given the students being re-enacted as they write, encourage and enthuse to get the fourth member to give a good presentation.

In their preparations I direct any suggestions I have to the responsible coach, not to the member who is going to present.

It always comes together and the fourth member gives the presentation to beams of pride from the other members of the group and lots of clapping. When I give my comments I direct them to the three coaches - "you were responsible for the language, you could have prepared him better with his pronunciation of the word success", "you were responsible for the structure - what happened to her conclusion?" etc.

One day I'd like to develop the idea of evaluating students on how well they manage to coach each other.

Categories: Productions, Reflections
Tags: oralpresentations, evaluation