Fine feathers make fine birds - the art of self-presentation

Workshops/Lesson Title : Fine feathers make fine birds – the art of self-presentation.

Developed by: Magdalena Majewska-Chudzik, Beata Dec,

Szkoła Podstawowa nr 4 w Łęcznej

Lesson scripts for vocational guidance program:

Magdalena Majewska-Chudzik, Beata Dec,

Poland Country: Poland

Students’ Age: 14-15 Grade: 8th

Time needed: 60 min

Field: Career guidance

Main focus:

The student develops the ability of effective self-presentation.

Educational Objectives:

Students will:

• be able to explain the concept of self-presentation,
• be able to list three principles of effective communication and selfpresentation,
• be able to give examples of situations in which the skill of self-presentation is used,
• understand the importance of non-verbal communication, knows that gestures, facial expressions, vocal pitches and outfit are important in communicating with others;
• be able to analyse the speech of another person's body;
• knows how to apply the basic principles of non-verbal communication for one's own needs.

Description of the activities:

1. Introduction to the classes. Students enter the room and take their seats on chairs arranged in a circle in the middle of the room. Before the teacher presents the subject, he or she gives the students information about communication. To hinder the understanding of her/his the message the teacher deliberately covers her/his mouth, says very quietly, quickly and vaguely:
Interpersonal communication is the process by which the sender of a message transmits specific content to the recipient.
Then the teacher asks the students what they understood. When they say little then he/she asks why and what should be changed to be understood better. The teacher repeats the sentence, this time speaking loud and clear. He/She gives the students the subject of the classes. Explains that: Communicating with other people is not easy, and as you can see that there are a lot of mistakes that, despite knowing what we want to say and being right, the mistakes make it impossible for us to pass on our knowledge, opinions or stories. The teacher repeats the sentence, this time speaking loud and clear. He/She gives the students the subject of the classes. Explains that: Communicating with other people is not easy, and as you can see that there are a lot of mistakes that, despite knowing what we want to say and being right, the mistakes make it impossible for us to pass on our knowledge, opinions or stories.

2. Film The teacher plays a film

with a mini lecture for students, which is given by a psychotherapist. After watching the film, he/she talks with the students. He/she asks them to exchange situations in which they happen to present themselves, their knowledge, opinions or views and the difficulties associated with such situations. He/she explains that during the classes they will learn the rules of effective self-presentation and presents them three principles of effective selfpresentation (multimedia presentation).

3. Working in groups The teacher divides the class participants into 5 groups. Each group is asked to prepare a short presentation on how to behave in a given situation:

• group 1: you are going to convince the headmaster to organize a disco
• group 2: you apply for a job as a volunteer in a foundation helping the homeless
• group 3: you will lead the certificate gala at the end of the school year
• group 4: you are going to convince your friend to go skiing together
• group 5: you answer at the blackboard; the semester assessment depends on how you answer the question given by a teacher.

In particular, each group should be ask to:
• indication of the appropriate behaviour;
• indication of behaviours to be avoided;
• describing the most appropriate outfit;
• describe an outfit which is not appropriate.

The teacher asks subsequent groups to present the results of their work and encourages other participants of the class to share their comments and comments.

As auxiliary questions:

• Which situation is the most casual and requires the most natural way to behave?
• Which situation is potentially the most stressful and requires careful planning of every detail?
• Is a very elegant and formal outfit always an advantage?
In what situations can it be an obstacle?
• How can we try not to show a lack of knowledge after each other?
• Why does the behaviour pattern mean that despite convincing arguments, we will not be able to convince the interlocutor?
• Does our trust arouse a person who seems unconvinced himself to what he/she says?

4. Worksheets - analysis of gestures, facial expressions and ways of behaving on the basis of photography.

The teacher divides the participants into two-person teams. Each group receives a job card (attachment worksheet). The teacher asks participants to familiarize themselves with the content of the task and then displays further photographs (multimedia presentation). After the presentation, he gives the groups about 2-3 minutes to complete the task. Then he asks you to read the individual solutions, possibly returns to selected photos that raise doubts. The key to the appropriate solution of the task is not to enforce the answer from the key, but first of all to convince the participants of the classes to independently analyse the behaviour styles of the person presented in the pictures.

5. Errors made by speakers Each student receives on the sheet a description of one behaviour, way of speaking or gestures of people during public speaking. The participants' task is to decide if they favour a good reception of the speech or are a mistake. Students make a decision in turn, justify it and place cards on the side of right or wrong behaviours. At the end of the tutorial, the teacher displays a slide from the presentation that allows students to verify the correctness of their answers.

6. Summary of classes.

Educational Materials to be used:

The materials needed for classes:

• A multimedia presentation and 3-5 minutes movie,
• Work cards
• Cards with examples of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour during self-presentation.

Arrangement of space: chairs set in a circle.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoC-lzreiuJDgSWxQIkovrKeMV4M?e=ONwb72

Evaluation:

Evaluation sheet:

1. Was the topic of the workshop interesting for you?
2. Have you been involved in the work of the group?
3. Did participation in the workshop increase your knowledge about self-presentation?
4. Did you learn, thanks to the workshops, how to use non-verbal communication during self-presentation?
5. Will the knowledge, acquired by you during the workshop, be useful in the future?

-Definitely yes
-Rather yes
-Difficult to say
-Rather no
-Definitely no

Sources:

 https://edukacjamedialna.edu.pl/lekcje/mowa-bez-slow/#pomysl-na-lekcje
 https://www.scenariuszelekcji.edu.pl/scenariusz/jak-skutecznie-zaprezentowac-siebie/zobacz