One Minute, One Visual
The same student gives the same 60-second talk twice — Talk A reads full sentences off the poster with its back half-turned; Talk B faces the room, runs the billboard rule (the visual shows what words can't), and lands an ending. Students diff the two transcripts, extract the rules — logical order, the delivery triad, the visual's real job, formal-but-alive register — then build and deliver their own minute with one visual.
Common Core standards covered
- SL.6.4Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
- SL.6.5Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.
- SL.6.6Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
Teacher-facing overview
Big idea: Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation; include multimedia components and visual displays to clarify information; adapt speech to contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated.
Student target: “I can plan and deliver a sixty-second presentation with a logical sequence, the delivery triad (eyes, volume, clarity), one billboard-rule visual, and formal-but-alive English.”
Success criteria: I can name what Talk A got wrong and what Talk B changed, with citations. · I can build a visual that shows what my words can't — not my sentences on paper. · I can sequence my minute so each idea stands on the last. · I can deliver with eyes up, back-row volume, and the ums cut.
Essential question
Same speaker, same topic, same sixty seconds — and Talk B is unrecognizably better. Every fix is visible in the transcripts. What are the rules, and can you run them on your own minute today?
Learning target: I can plan and deliver a sixty-second presentation with a logical sequence, the delivery triad (eyes, volume, clarity), one billboard-rule visual, and formal-but-alive English.
Success criteria
- I can name what Talk A got wrong and what Talk B changed, with citations.
- I can build a visual that shows what my words can't — not my sentences on paper.
- I can sequence my minute so each idea stands on the last.
- I can deliver with eyes up, back-row volume, and the ums cut.
Why this matters
SL.6.4–6 is where school meets the most common adult fear — speaking to a room — and Grade 6 is the year to install the mechanics before the fear calcifies. The A/B pair teaches by diff, the way the revision lesson did: same speaker, same content, so every improvement is attributable to a nameable rule rather than talent. The billboard rule is the highest-leverage fix in all of SL.6.5 — students who learn 'the visual shows what words can't' at eleven never become adults reading their slides to a trapped audience. And the sixty-second constraint is the kindness: a minute is survivable for the terrified, forces sequencing (no time for leftovers), and lets every student deliver twice in one class period.
Students should already be able to
- An owned topic — the explainer lesson's topic bank transfers directly; any student can also use the manhole facts as a fallback.
- Backed-claim habits from the discussion lesson carry into content choices.
- No presentation experience assumed — Talk A IS the no-experience baseline.
Where this shows up outside the classroom
Assessment plan
Formative — for feedback during the lesson
- Warm-up — the sentence-poster instinct surfaced.
- Diff table — five rules cited.
- Build circulation — billboard tests run live.
Summative — the graded evidence: Exit ticket (fix + justification + delta) plus the round-two delivery against the four-criterion rubric; the register switch and 90-second design rank as extension evidence.
The passage: “Talk A — the first try (transcript)”
An original transcript pair written for this lesson; Talk A is every first presentation, lovingly observed.
¶1 Talk A — transcript with stage directions. The speaker's topic: why manhole covers are round. Their poster says, in full sentences: 'Manhole covers are round because a round cover can never fall into its own hole. A square cover could fall in diagonally. Round covers can also be rolled.'
¶2 [Speaker walks up, turns to face the poster, back half-turned to the audience.] "Okay so um, my topic is manhole covers. [reading from the poster] 'Manhole covers are round because a round cover can never fall into its own hole. A square cover could fall in diagonally. Round covers can also be rolled.' [turns pages of notes] So yeah, that's basically it. They're round so they can't, like, fall in. Which is pretty cool I guess. [looks at teacher] Is that a minute? Okay um, also they're really heavy, I forget how heavy. So yeah. Manhole covers." [sits down]
The passage: “Talk B — the second try (transcript)”
The same minute, rebuilt.
🔒 This companion text — 2 numbered paragraphs — ships in the kit. See plans →
The task students work on
The class diffs Talk A against Talk B and extracts the five rules, then each student builds a minute-plan (hook, three-step sequence, planned last sentence) and one billboard-rule visual on paper. Delivery runs in trios — speaker, timer, scorer, rotating — with the delivery card as the rubric; each speaker delivers, takes one note, and delivers again. The second delivery is the graded one: the lesson's claim is that presenting is revisable, exactly like writing.
The A/B diff — what changed, rule by rule.
| Rule | Talk A's version (¶2) | Talk B's version (¶2) | Why B's works |
|---|---|---|---|
| The visual (billboard rule) | |||
| The order | |||
| The delivery triad | |||
| The register | |||
| The ending |
Anticipated student strategies
Diff first for the rules. The sentence-poster caught at build time with the billboard test. The second delivery is where the standard is actually met — plan the clock to protect it.
- Diff extraction. The student traces each Talk B improvement to a nameable rule.
Same muscle as the revision lesson's pass-tagging — attribution turns admiration into technique.
🔒 2 more anticipated strategies with select-and-sequence guidance are in the full lesson. See plans →
Lesson script
Most answers will be 'my main points' — the sentence-poster instinct, universal and about to be lovingly demolished. Don't correct yet; park the answers and promise a verdict. Frame the hour: one speaker, one topic, two tries — and every difference between them is a rule you can use in forty minutes.
Listen for: Leave it hanging; Talk A answers it the hard way.
Read Talk A aloud (hamming the mumble earns the room's laughter and lowers the stakes — A's failures are common property, not a person). Collect the catalogue: back turned, poster read aloud, filler, shrug-evaluation, forgotten fact, leftover order, no ending. Revisit the warm-up: the sentence-poster caused half of this — the poster made the speaker unnecessary, so the speaker had nothing to do but read it. Then Talk B: find every fix. Build the diff table rule by rule — billboard visual, the standing-on-each-other order, the triad, the register ('formal but alive' — no filler, but 'about two of me' stays), the planned ending. Land the pair's real claim: same speaker, same minute — the difference is rules, not talent.
- A's catalogue collected without mockery.
- B's fixes traced one-to-one.
- The thesis: rules, not talent.
Listen for: The circle and tilted square SHOW the geometry — same-width is almost impossible to say but instant to see; '250 lbs' hits as a figure. The visual does the eyes' work; the speaker does the ears'. That division is the billboard rule.
🔒 The remaining 4 steps — fully scripted with teacher-says lines, discourse questions, look-fors, and interventions — are in the full lesson. See plans →
Misconceptions and how to respond
- “Good presenters are just naturally confident.” Talk A and Talk B are the same person, sixty minutes apart. The difference is a fixed poster, a planned order, and a scripted ending — rules, all learnable in one class. Confidence is mostly what having a plan feels like from the inside.
- “The poster should have my main points so the audience can follow.” — the teacher response is in the full lesson.
- “Formal English means talking like a robot.” — the teacher response is in the full lesson.
- “If I know my stuff, I can wing the ending.” — the teacher response is in the full lesson.
🔒 Every misconception ships with a tested classroom response. See plans →
Scaffolded practice
The workbook follows gradual release rather than a page of blank prompts: 2 fully worked, 2 partially completed, then 4 independent.
- I doLiteral first — the diff. What did Talk B's poster remove, what did it add, and what job did that create for the speaker? Cite both ¶1s.
🔒 7 more prompts across all three release tiers are in the full lesson. See plans →
Worked solutions and scaffolds for every prompt are in the downloadable kit, included with membership. See plans and pricing.
Exit ticket
- One A→B fix, rule-named and cited.
🔒 2 more exit-ticket questions are in the full lesson. See plans →
Worked answers, the completed answer tables, and the scoring rubric are in the downloadable kit, included with membership. See plans and pricing.
Printable handouts in the kit
All handouts are in Printable_Handouts.pdf inside the kit download.
Materials and classroom resources
Student experience
Students enter through a low-floor prompt, build or sketch a model, test a strategy, revise their thinking, collaborate, and present a final solution. The task remains accessible while allowing for sophisticated reasoning.
Detailed facilitation notes
- Step 1: Read Talk A; diagnose everything wrong (there's a lot). Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
- Step 2: Read Talk B; extract the rules — order, delivery triad, billboard rule, register. Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
- Step 3: Build: the minute-plan and the one visual. Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
- Step 4: Deliver in trios; peer-score with the delivery card; iterate once. Ask: “What do you notice?”, “What could you try next?”, and “How can you prove that?”
Differentiation and inclusion
Support: Trios instead of whole-class delivery lowers stakes; scripts allowed but faces up. Extenders deliver twice — once to the class 'as a friend at lunch,' once formally — to make SL.6.6's register switch audible.
Language support: “I started by…”, “My model shows…”, and “I know my answer is reasonable because…”.
Extension: Require a second solution, alter a condition, or have students write a challenge for another group.
Accessibility: Manipulatives, enlarged visuals, oral response choices, partner reading, and reduced-copy student pages.
Assessment plan
Formative checks: Strategy choice, accuracy, representation, collaboration, and explanation.
End evidence: The A/B diff table, the minute-plan with a billboard-rule visual, and a delivered minute peer-scored on the triad.
Mastery: The student completes the task accurately and explains the strategy with limited prompting.