Microsoft PowerPoint: Callouts for Dialogs

Details

Activity Description

Students practice question formation and use the Internet, as needed, to write dialogs and enter their dialogs on PowerPoint slides in call-outs with photos. In the samples provided, students practiced typical job interview questions and answers (Example Document - Job Interview Project) and embedded questions (Example Document - Ask a Famous Person Interview Project), using the Internet to find answers. However, students could be assigned to write dialogs around themes (favorites - foods, hobbies, sports, TV shows, movies, etc.), grammar structures (verb tenses), a problem/scenario, or target vocabulary.

Preparation

1. Plan a lesson in which dialogs will be used.
2. Check that PowerPoint is installed on the computers students will use.
3. Familiarize yourself with the method for inserting callouts/speech and thought bubbles in Microsoft PowerPoint.
4. Create a sample/model project.
5. Decide if you will have students work on the project individually or in pairs. For students who are novice computer users and/or are reluctant to use technology, if may be beneficial to have students work in pairs so that they can help each other.

How-To

1. Explain the dialog project to students.
2. Provide students with the parameters of the writing assignment (topic or theme, number of lines, required vocabulary or grammar to use) and show a sample you have created.
3. Individually or in pairs, have students write their dialogs.
4. Collect the dialogs and provide written or oral feedback for revisions, editing, corrections.
5. Demonstrate how to create a PowerPoint using a design, title slide, inserting images or photos, and inserting callouts. (If you need a instructions, see the Teacher's Tips section below.)
6. Have students save their PowerPoint files and e-mail them to you, or save on a USB (a.k.a. thumb drive) device.
7. Have students present their dialogs in class by projecting them from the instructor's computer. Open the PowerPoint file and select the Slide Show tab - From Beginning.

Teacher Tips

• To insert a call-out in PowerPoint, select the Insert tab. Select Shapes and scroll to the bottom in the Callouts section. Select the call-out style you prefer. The cursor will become a plus sign (+). Position the cursor where you want the callout to appear, then click, hold the mouse button down, and drag it until the callout is the size you want. Begin typing the text you want in the callout. Do not click somewhere else on the slide first. The callout can be resized by dragging from a corner, just as you do an image. (If you do accidentally click somewhere else, you can also right-click (on a PC) on the callout and select Edit text. You can then type inside the callout. For more help visit the Office Help page .
• Rather than re-insert /Content/images/teachingWithTechnology/photos and callouts on each PowerPoint slide, do this one time and duplicate the slide (right-click on the slide in the left slide viewing panel and select Duplicate Slide.) This will save considerable time. For more help visit the Office Help page .

More Ways

• Other project ideas for using callouts in PowerPoint include introducing oneself, introducing a classmate, practicing the U.S. Citizenship interview questions.

Program Areas

• ESL: English as a Second Language

Levels

• Beginning High
• Intermediate Low
• Intermediate High
• Advanced

Documents

• Talking to A Famous Person.ppt - Sample Ask a Famous Person Interview Project
• Interview Project.ppt - Sample Job Interview Project

Tags