Action Tips: Give a Class Presentation about Your Cause

Presenting to your homeroom or your class doesn't have to cause you stress (I mean, you're too young to be pulling out your hair!). Put together an amazing presentation using the following steps.

Step 1

Find an audience. Is it for a school assignment? Then it will probably for your classmates and teacher. Not for a school assignment? Find a teacher that will let you spend some time in class telling students about your cause and why it’s important to them.

Step 2

Find facts. What do you want to tell them about? One of the best things for you to include are facts that will shock and surprise them – it will definitely make them listen and remember your presentation for a long time. Some info to include:

• What’s the history behind the cause? For example, if the cause is Darfur, where is Darfur, who’s fighting and why.
• How many people have been affected?
• Why is this cause important?
• Anything else that surprised (or horrified) you
• What has been done to try and solve the problem

Step 3

Put together an awesome presentation. Find photos and put them on a large poster, and include a good amount (but not too much!) text. Five pages of 10-point Times New Roman text won’t grab anyone’s attention. Put shocking facts in big, bold letters, like this. Do a lot of talking too. You don’t want to be reading directly off your Powerpoint when you're talking to the class.

Step 4

Give them something! Who doesn’t love giveaways? Okay, so maybe it will just be a piece of paper, but hey, anything to get the message across! Give them a list of great resources to check out for more information; list organizations they can donate to or websites that run campaigns around your cause. And don’t forget to tell them about Do Something and direct them to our website.

Step 5

Do it again. See if other classes will let you come in and give your short presentation. If your teacher has a few classes, see if you can come in during those classes and present to different groups of students.

Step 6

Leave your info out in the open for others to see. See if you can leave your poster up in the classroom, in the library, or anywhere else where people can stop and check it out.