English · Year 2 · The Art of the Oral Story · Term 3

Using Visuals in Oral Presentations

Incorporating simple visual aids to enhance oral storytelling or presentations.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9E2LY07

About This Topic

In Year 2 English, using visuals in oral presentations guides students to incorporate simple aids such as drawings, photos, or objects to support their storytelling or information sharing. This aligns with AC9E2LY07, where students create multimodal presentations that combine spoken language with visuals for clarity and engagement. Children answer key questions like what pictures best show story events, how visuals aid audience understanding, and how to create or select aids that match their message.

This topic builds essential speaking and listening skills, including audience awareness and purposeful planning. Students learn to choose visuals that highlight main ideas, sequence events, or evoke emotions, connecting to unit work on oral stories. It fosters visual literacy and boosts confidence by making presentations more structured and interactive.

Active learning benefits this topic greatly because students gain skills through hands-on creation and immediate peer feedback. When they draw visuals, select props, and rehearse in pairs or groups, they see real-time effects on listener comprehension. This trial-and-error process makes abstract concepts concrete, encourages reflection, and ensures lasting retention of effective presentation strategies.

Key Questions

1. What kinds of pictures or objects could you show when telling a story or sharing information?
2. How does showing a picture help your audience understand what you are talking about?
3. Can you make a simple drawing or bring an object to help explain your presentation?

Learning Objectives

• Identify simple visual aids that can support an oral presentation.
• Explain how a chosen visual aid clarifies a specific point in a story or presentation.
• Create a simple visual aid, such as a drawing or a prop, to accompany an oral presentation.
• Demonstrate the use of a visual aid during a short oral presentation to enhance audience understanding.

Before You Start

Sharing Ideas Orally

Why: Students need to be able to speak clearly and share information before they can add visual aids to support their message.

Basic Drawing Skills

Why: Students should have some familiarity with drawing simple shapes and figures to create their own visual aids.

Key Vocabulary

Visual Aid	An object or picture that you can see, used to help explain something when you are speaking.
Audience	The people who are listening to your presentation or story.
Clarify	To make something easier to understand by explaining it more clearly.
Prop	An object that you use when you are telling a story or giving a presentation to help make it more interesting or clear.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Visuals replace the need to speak clearly.

What to Teach Instead

Visuals support spoken words but do not stand alone; students must explain connections. Pair practice reveals this as partners ask questions, prompting clearer verbal descriptions. Active sharing builds balanced multimodal skills.

Common Misconception

Any picture or object works for any story.

What to Teach Instead

Visuals must directly relate to content for audience understanding. Group selection tasks show mismatches cause confusion, while peer votes guide relevant choices. Hands-on trials reinforce purposeful matching.

Common Misconception

My words alone are enough; visuals distract.

What to Teach Instead

Relevant visuals enhance focus and memory for listeners. Whole-class shares demonstrate improved engagement, with audience feedback highlighting benefits. Rehearsal activities shift this view through direct experience.

Active Learning Ideas

Pairs Practice: Visual Story Pair-Up

Pair students and provide a simple story prompt. Each draws one visual aid to support a key part, then presents it to their partner who signals understanding with thumbs up or down. Partners switch roles and discuss improvements.

20 min·Pairs

Small Groups: Prop Selection Challenge

In small groups, students retell a familiar story and hunt classroom objects or quick sketches as props. Groups rehearse together, vote on best matches, and present one to the class with feedback.

30 min·Small Groups

Whole Class: Visual Presentation Carousel

Students prepare a personal story with one visual aid. Form a circle where each shares briefly; audience notes what the visual clarified. Teacher facilitates quick reflections after every three shares.

40 min·Whole Class

Individual: Draw-and-Rehearse Stations

At stations, students draw visuals for their own short presentation on a class theme. They rehearse alone using a mirror or recorder, then self-assess if the visual matches their words.

25 min·Individual

Real-World Connections

• Museum curators often use artifacts and photographs as visual aids when giving tours or lectures to help visitors understand historical periods or scientific concepts.
• Tour guides at landmarks like the Sydney Opera House use maps, models, and photos to illustrate the building's history and design to tourists from around the world.
• Children's book authors and illustrators collaborate to create picture books where the images are as important as the words for telling the story and engaging young readers.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

Ask students to hold up one finger if a picture helps explain a story, and two fingers if it makes it confusing. Then, ask them to point to the part of the picture that helped them understand.

Exit Ticket

Provide students with a slip of paper. Ask them to draw one simple picture that could help explain their favorite animal. They should write one sentence explaining why they chose that picture.

Peer Assessment

In pairs, students practice telling a short part of a story using a simple drawing. Their partner listens and then answers: 'What did the drawing help you understand better?' and 'Was the drawing easy to see?'

Frequently Asked Questions

How do visuals improve Year 2 oral presentations?

Visuals clarify key ideas, sequence events, and engage audiences, making stories easier to follow. For Year 2 students, simple drawings or objects reduce cognitive load during speaking, build confidence, and align with AC9E2LY07 multimodal requirements. Peer feedback during practice shows instant gains in comprehension and expression.

What simple visuals suit Year 2 storytelling?

Use student drawings, printed photos, classroom objects like toys or fabrics, or basic props. Focus on one or two per presentation tied to main events or characters. These keep preparation quick and age-appropriate, helping children see direct links between visuals and narrative without overwhelming production.

Why is active learning effective for teaching visuals in presentations?

Active learning lets Year 2 students create, test, and refine visuals through pairs or groups, providing hands-on experience with audience reactions. Rehearsals offer immediate feedback, turning theory into skill. This approach builds confidence, reveals misconceptions like irrelevant aids, and ensures transferable strategies for future speaking tasks.

How to assess visuals in Year 2 oral presentations?

Observe if visuals match content, enhance understanding, and are used purposefully during delivery. Use checklists for relevance and audience response, plus student self-reflections on what helped listeners. Align with AC9E2LY07 by noting multimodal integration in rubrics, celebrating growth in planning and execution.