SL.6.5: Using Multimedia and Visual Displays to Clarify a Presentation
In plain English: SL.6.5 is the Common Core grade 6 ELA standard that asks students to include multimedia components, such as graphics, images, music and sound, and visual displays in their presentations to clarify information. Each chart, picture or clip should make an idea easier for listeners to understand, not just decorate the talk. It builds on SL.5.5 and leads to SL.7.5.
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy · Domain: Speaking and Listening Standards · Cluster: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas · Official standard
Students learn to add multimedia and visual displays to a presentation for one reason: to clarify information, which means to make it easier for listeners to understand. A multimedia component is anything besides the speaker's voice that listeners see or hear, and SL.6.5 names four examples: graphics (charts, diagrams, maps), images (photos and pictures), music and sound. A visual display is something listeners look at, such as a poster, a chart on the board, a slide or a model. The test for every one is the same: does it help listeners understand something that words alone would make hard?
The page cannot play sound or show slides, so students work from transcripts written for this page, with every media element described in brackets. In Model Presentation A, a sixth grader explains Morse code with a photo, a recording of beeps and a poster drawn to scale, plus one choice that gets in the way. Pairs then plan media for a field trip talk that has none. In Independent Practice, students judge the choices in Model Presentation B, a student council proposal, on their own. For homework they plan, make and present their own media. Students make or describe their own images, charts and sounds; the lesson embeds no outside media.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Explain what multimedia components (graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays are, and what it means for them to clarify information
Decide which piece of information in a talk is hard to understand from words alone, and choose a component that makes it clear
Judge whether a component in a presentation clarifies information or distracts from it, and suggest a fix
Make a simple visual display, such as a chart drawn to scale, and introduce it in a presentation so that listeners know what to notice
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Including multimedia components and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance main ideas or themes SL.5.5
Drawing and reading scaled bar graphs 3.MD.B.3
Recognizing and generating equivalent fractions 4.NF.A.1
"Explain to your partner, using words only, what a spiral staircase looks like. Then explain it again, drawing its shape in the air with your finger. Which explanation did your partner understand faster, and why?"
Take three or four answers. Pairs usually find that the finger drawing helped, because a shape is hard to put into words. That is the idea behind SL.6.5: presenters add something to see or hear when it makes information clearer than words alone. Tell students that today they will test every chart, picture and sound with one question: does it clarify?
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Part 1: The words of the standard. Give students the table below to keep.
The words of SL.6.5
Term
What it means
Example
Multimedia component
Something besides the speaker's voice that listeners see or hear during a talk
A photo on a slide, a recording, a chart
Graphic
A drawing that shows information: a chart, a graph, a diagram, a map or a timeline
A bar chart of survey results
Image
A photo or picture of a real thing
A photo of the machine you are explaining
Music
A piece of music played or performed during the talk
Playing the same tune slowly and then quickly to show what tempo (speed) means
Sound
A recording or live sound that is not music
The call of a bird, a machine's noise, a signal
Visual display
Something listeners look at: a poster, a slide, a chart on the board, a model or a real object
A poster drawn to scale on grid paper
Clarify
Make information easier to understand
A map clarifies a route better than a list of turns
Part 2: A model presentation. Read Model Presentation A aloud. Act out the bracketed notes: hold up a picture, beep the SOS pattern with your voice or clap it (short, short, short; long, long, long; short, short, short), and hum loudly during paragraph 4 so students feel how hard it is to hear the dates. Then give out copies of Diagram 1, which is Imani's poster, and a simple chart of the Morse code alphabet for each desk.
1[Slide 1: a photo Imani took of a brass telegraph key in a glass case at the Brookside History Museum, with a ruler lying beside it.] Good morning. Before phones and the Internet, people sent messages across the country in seconds with a small machine like this one. It is called a telegraph key. As you can see from the ruler, it is only about as long as my hand. The operator pressed it down to send a signal along a wire. My report explains Morse code, the system people used to turn those signals into letters.
2[Sound: Imani plays a recording she made on a keyboard app: three short beeps, three long beeps, three short beeps.] That is the most famous message in Morse code. Every letter is made of short signals, called dots, and long signals, called dashes. You just heard S, O, S: three dots, three dashes, three dots. Ships used SOS to call for help.
3[Visual display: Imani uncovers a poster she drew to scale on grid paper, with a colored block for each dot and dash. It is Diagram 1 on this page.] Here is the rule that makes the beeps readable. A dot lasts one unit of time. A dash lasts three units. Inside a letter, you leave one unit of silence between signals, and between letters you leave three. Look at the S and the O. They have the same number of signals, but the O lasts more than twice as long.
4[Music: an upbeat song with no words plays under Slide 2, a timeline from 1830 to 1900. Two students in the back ask Imani what year she said.] Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail worked on the code in the 1830s. In 1844, Morse sent a message on a new telegraph line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
5[Slide 3: two large letters, E and T, each with its code under it.] Here is a clever part. E is used more than any other letter in English, so it got the shortest code of all: one dot. T got one dash.
6[Slide 4: "-. .. -.-. . .--- --- -..." in large type, with the words "Can you read this?"] Use my poster and the code chart on your desk to decode this message. Thank you.
Written for this page (the student, class and museum are invented; the facts about Morse code are real), Model Presentation A: Dots and Dashes, How Morse Code Works (a report with media cues). Original passage written for this page.
Part 3: Test each component. Work through the four examples below with the class. For each one, ask the same two questions: What information does it clarify? and Could listeners understand that from her words alone?
An image that clarifies (Model Presentation A, paragraph 1)
What does the photo of the telegraph key clarify, and why does Imani put a ruler beside it?
Result: The photo shows what a telegraph key looks like, which most sixth graders have never seen. The ruler clarifies its size, and Imani points listeners to it: "As you can see from the ruler, it is only about as long as my hand." A photo with nothing to compare it to could make the key look any size.
A sound that clarifies (paragraph 2)
Why is the recording of the beeps better than just saying "three short, three long, three short"?
Result: Listeners hear the difference between a dot and a dash for themselves, and hear that the message has a pattern. The sound clarifies the key idea of the talk, short signals and long signals, and Imani explains it right after the beeps stop, so listeners know what they just heard.
A graphic and visual display that clarifies (paragraph 3 and Diagram 1)
What does Imani's poster show that her words would make hard to follow?
Result: The timing rule has four numbers (1 unit for a dot, 3 for a dash, 1 unit of silence inside a letter, 3 between letters). Said aloud, they blur together. Drawn to scale, one square per unit, the poster lets listeners count: the S lasts 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5 units and the O lasts 3 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 3 = 11 units, more than twice as long. In paragraph 6, the poster also lets the class decode a message themselves.
Music that does not clarify (paragraph 4)
What goes wrong in paragraph 4, and how should Imani fix it?
Result: The song does not explain anything about Morse code, and it plays while she gives the key dates, so two students cannot hear the year. The music competes with the information instead of clarifying it. Fix: cut the music and let the timeline show the dates 1830s and 1844 in large type while she says them. Music belongs in a talk only when the music itself is information, for example in a talk about how tempo changes a song.
Wrap up. Ask: "Which of Imani's components would you keep if you could keep only one, and why?" Many students choose the poster, because it clarifies the rule that makes the whole code work. Point out that Imani talks about every component while it is on screen: she tells listeners what to look at or listen for, then what it means.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Pairs read Draft Talk C, a field trip plan with no media at all. Listeners would have to remember a route, a meeting place, a rotation order, a signal and three clock times. Each pair finds the three pieces of information that are hardest to understand from words alone and plans one component for each: what it is, whether it is a graphic, an image, a sound or music, and what it clarifies. Pairs draw at least one of their components on grid paper.
1Good morning, everyone. On Friday, our class is walking to Oak Grove Park for our science field trip. Here is the plan.
2We leave from the front steps at 9:15. We walk two blocks north on Elm Street, turn right on Third Avenue, walk one more block, and cross at the light by the public library, where a crossing guard will be waiting. The park entrance is across the street from the library, next to the big red slide.
3At the park, there are three stations: the pond, the rock garden and the tall grass. Each group starts at the station written on its card, spends 25 minutes there, and then moves to the next station in this order: pond, rock garden, tall grass, and back to the pond.
4When Mr. Castellano blows his whistle two short times, it means stop what you are doing and walk to the picnic shelter. Lunch is at the shelter at 11:00, and we walk back to school at 11:45.
Written for this page (the class, teacher, park and streets are invented), Draft Talk C: The Walk to Oak Grove Park (a field trip plan with no media yet). Original passage written for this page.
One possible media plan for Draft Talk C (share after pairs finish)
Information in the talk
Component
What it clarifies
The route (paragraph 2)
Graphic: a simple map from the front steps to the park, with the turn and the crossing marked
Where to turn and cross, which a list of streets makes hard to picture
The meeting place (paragraph 2)
Image: a photo of the park entrance and the red slide
What the entrance looks like, so no one walks past it
The station order (paragraph 3)
Visual display: a circle drawn on the board with arrows from pond to rock garden to tall grass
That the order loops, so every group visits every station
The signal (paragraph 4)
Sound: Mr. Castellano blows the whistle two short times during the talk
Exactly what the signal sounds like, so students know it when they hear it
Debrief. Ask two pairs to present their plan. Then ask: "Which information did you decide did not need a component?" The times (9:15, 11:00 and 11:45) are easy to hear and could go on one small slide or the board, but they don't need a picture. Adding a component to everything makes a talk cluttered; the goal is to clarify the hard parts.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students read Model Presentation B on their own, a sixth grader's proposal to the student council with five slides, two recordings and one song. They mark each component with a check if it clarifies information and an X if it does not, then work alone on the quiz. Questions 1-9 and 15 are about Model Presentation B, questions 12 and 16 use Diagrams 1 and 2, and the rest ask students to use the standard in new situations.
1[Slide 1: the title, "A Softer Sound Between Classes," in large letters, with Rafael's name and grade under it.] Good afternoon, student council. I'm Rafael Ortiz, and I'm in sixth grade. Seven times every school day, a bell rings to end a class period. I'm here to propose that Cedar Hills Middle School switch from the bell to a three-note chime.
2[Sound: Rafael plays a three-second recording he made of the bell in the hallway outside Room 12. Then he plays a three-second recording of the chime, which Mrs. Okonjo in the main office played for him on the school's sound system.] That was the bell. And this is the chime. Both last three seconds, and both can be heard in every classroom. But the chime doesn't make you jump out of your seat.
3[Slide 2: a bar chart titled "Which sound do you prefer?" with three bars labeled Chime 96, Bell 38 and No preference 16. Under the title: "150 students in grades 6-8, surveyed at lunch after hearing both sounds." It is Diagram 2 on this page.] Last week, the council's survey team played both sounds for 150 students at lunch. The chime bar is the tallest. 96 students, almost two out of three, chose the chime.
4[Slide 3: all 41 written comments from the survey, in small type that fills the whole slide.] Students also wrote comments. Here they are. [Rafael reads the first two comments aloud.] And there are a lot more, as you can see.
5[Music: a popular song plays loudly from the classroom speaker while Slide 4 appears: a photo of the sound system's control panel in the main office, with a red circle around a switch labeled "Chime."] So here's the best part. Mrs. Okonjo showed me that our system already has a chime setting. Switching would cost the school nothing. [Two council members ask Rafael to repeat what the switch would cost.]
6[Slide 5: one sentence in large type: "Try the chime for two weeks, then vote."] My proposal is simple. Let's try the chime for two weeks. Then the council can survey students again and vote. Thank you.
Written for this page (the student, school, office manager and survey data are invented), Model Presentation B: A Softer Sound Between Classes (a proposal to the student council, with media cues). Original passage written for this page.
Closure5 minutes
Exit ticket: "Think of a presentation you will give this year. Name one piece of information in it that is hard to understand from words alone, and the graphic, image, music or sound you would use to clarify it."
Teacher note. The students, schools, museum, survey and people in the three talks are invented. The facts about Morse code in Model Presentation A are real: Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed the code in the 1830s, and Morse sent a message from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore in 1844. The timing rule and the SOS signal belong to International Morse code, the version used worldwide today; the 1844 message used an earlier American version in which some letters were different. The decoding message in paragraph 6 reads "NICE JOB." Ask students to make their own photos, charts, drawings and recordings, or to use only images and sounds your school allows, and to say where each one came from.
Homework. Students plan, make and present their own media for a two-minute talk. Show them the directions and the rubric before they leave.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a planning frame with three columns: "The hard part to understand," "What I will show or play," and "What I will say about it"
Start with one component only, a hand-drawn chart or a photo, and practice the sentence that introduces it: "Look at ... . It shows ... ."
Let students point to a printed copy of Diagram 1 or Diagram 2 while a partner reads the matching paragraph aloud
For Advanced Students
Design one more slide for Model Presentation B that clarifies how the two-week trial and the second survey would work, and write what Rafael should say while it is on screen
Plan the same Morse code talk twice, once for second graders and once for a museum audience, and explain which components change and why
Preview SL.7.5: choose the one most important point in Model Presentation B and design a component that makes it stand out
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Look for components chosen for the hardest part of the information, not for decoration: a chart for numbers, a map for a route, a photo for something listeners have never seen, a recording for a sound. Listen for how students use each one: do they tell listeners what to look at or listen for, and what it means? Watch for slides full of text that the speaker reads aloud, background music that covers the speaker's words, images that are only decoration, and charts with no labels or numbers. A quick test is to ask a listener what the component showed; if they can't say, it did not clarify.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Which Component Clarifies?
12 minPairs
Pairs match 6 information cards with the media card that would clarify each one best. Two of the 8 media cards clarify nothing, and pairs must explain why.
The 6 Information Cards
Card 1: The walking route from our school to the public library
Card 2: What a monarch butterfly caterpillar looks like
Card 3: How our class's reading minutes changed over four weeks (invented: 320, 410, 385 and 460 minutes)
Card 4: How a major chord and a minor chord sound different
Card 5: The call a barred owl makes at night
Card 6: The steps for folding a paper cup
The 8 Media Cards
A: A map with the route drawn in color
B: A photo you took at a nature center
C: A bar graph drawn on grid paper
D: A short piece you play on a keyboard
E: A recording of a sound
F: Numbered drawings, one for each step
G: Background music under the whole talk
H: A slide with every fact in a long paragraph
Procedure
Lay out all 14 cards; match each information card with one media card
For each match, finish the sentence "This clarifies ... because ..."
Set aside the two media cards that clarify nothing, and write why
Compare with another pair and discuss any card you matched differently
Discussion Questions
Card 5 could also be clarified with a photo of the owl. Why is a sound better for this card?
When could music (card D) be the right choice, and when is it only decoration (card G)?
2
Sketch It to Scale
15 minPairs
Each pair turns a data card into a bar chart drawn to scale on grid paper, then explains the finding twice, once without the chart and once with it.
Card B: Pages read by one class: week 1, 1,240 pages; week 2, 1,510 pages; week 3, 1,875 pages
Card C: How 60 students get to school: bus 27, car 18, walking 10, bike 5
Procedure
Choose a scale so the tallest bar fits on the paper (for example, 1 square = 10 cans)
Draw and label each bar, write its number on top, and give the chart a title
Partner 1 explains the finding to another pair using words only; the listeners write down the finding
Partner 2 explains it again while pointing to the chart; the listeners write the finding again and compare
Discussion Questions
What did the chart let listeners see at once that the spoken numbers did not?
What did the speaker have to say about the chart so that it clarified the finding?
Modification for Large Classes
Give two pairs the same card and have them compare the scales they chose and whether both charts are drawn correctly.
3
Media Mix Gallery Talk
15 minGroups of 4
Groups prepare a one-minute talk on a topic card with one visual display they make and one sound or music component they perform or record themselves. Then groups rotate and present.
The Topic Cards
How to find your pulse at your wrist and count your heartbeats
How a drum beat keeps a marching band together
What our school sounds like at 7:30 in the morning and at 3:00 in the afternoon
How to sort trash, recycling and compost in our cafeteria
Procedure
Decide the one idea listeners would find hardest to understand from words alone
Make one visual display on poster paper (a chart, map, diagram or labeled drawing)
Plan one sound or music component: clap or drum a beat, hum, or record a short sound on a school device
Present to another group, which uses a checklist: What did each component clarify? Did the speaker tell us what to notice?
Variation for Online Classes
Students hold their poster up to the camera or share a photo of it, and play or perform the sound with the microphone on. Listeners type in the chat what each component clarified.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Imani's Poster, Morse Code Timing to Scale
The poster from Model Presentation A, paragraph 3, drawn to scale: each square is one unit of time, and a filled square is a signal. It shows the rule of International Morse code (a dot lasts 1 unit, a dash 3; 1 unit of silence inside a letter, 3 between letters) for the SOS signal. Use it in Direct Instruction.
Diagram 2: Rafael's Survey Chart
Slide 2 of Model Presentation B, drawn to scale from the invented survey: the number of students who chose each answer after hearing both sounds. Use it with the quiz in Independent Practice.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
SL.6.5 Homework: Add Media That Clarifies
Directions: Choose a topic you can explain in about two minutes, such as a hobby, a game, a place you know well or something you learned in another class. Plan the talk, make or describe your own media for it, and present it to a family member or friend. Use only photos, drawings, charts and recordings you make yourself. Write your answers in complete sentences.
Part 1: Find the Hard Parts (Problems 1-2)
Write your topic and your main point in one or two sentences. Then list the two pieces of information in your talk that would be hardest for a listener to understand from words alone, and explain why each is hard.
Make a media plan with one row for each hard part: the component you will use (graphic, image, music, sound or visual display), what it will clarify, and the moment in the talk when it appears.
Part 2: Make Your Media (Problems 3-4)
Make one visual display by hand: a chart drawn to scale from numbers you collect, a map, or a labeled diagram. Give it a title and labels. Attach it or describe it in detail.
Plan one image, sound or music component that you make yourself (a photo you take, a sound you record or perform, or a tune you play or hum). Describe it and write the two sentences you will say to introduce it and explain what it shows.
Part 3: Present and Check (Problems 5-6)
Give your talk with your components. Afterward, ask your listener: "What did each thing I showed or played help you understand?" Write down what your listener said for each component.
In three or four sentences, reflect: which component clarified the most, and how do you know? Which one would you change or cut next time, and why?
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Choosing What to Clarify
Two hard parts named, with clear reasons they are hard to understand from words alone
One hard part, or reasons that are vague
No hard parts named
Media Plan
Each component fits its information and appears at the right moment
A component is decorative or mistimed
No plan
Made Media
A labeled visual display (to scale if it is a chart) and an introduced image, sound or music component
One component missing, unlabeled or not introduced
No media made
Presentation and Reflection
Listener feedback recorded for each component, with a specific reflection
Feedback recorded but reflection general
Talk not presented
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 1-9 and 15 are about Model Presentation B in the Independent Practice phase of the lesson plan. Question 12 uses Diagram 1 and question 16 uses Diagram 2. The students, schools and survey data are invented. The other questions ask you to use the standard in new situations. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 2 of Model Presentation B, what information do the two recordings clarify?
Answer: B
Rafael plays the bell and then the chime, so listeners hear the difference for themselves before he explains it: "the chime doesn't make you jump out of your seat." No words could show that as well. Choice A is information he says in paragraph 1, and no recording is needed for it. Choice C comes in paragraph 5, not from the recordings. Choice D is not in the talk; Mrs. Okonjo played the chime, but that is not information the sound clarifies.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why does the bar chart on Slide 2 (Diagram 2) clarify the survey results?
Answer: C
Bars drawn to scale make the comparison visible: the chime bar is much taller than the other two, and the labels give the exact counts. Choice A is decoration, not clarity. Choice B is wrong; the chart shows counts, not names. Choice D misreads how the chart works: Rafael still tells listeners what to notice ("The chime bar is the tallest").
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Math connection (an extension beyond SL.6.5): Rafael says that 96 of the 150 students, "almost two out of three," chose the chime. Which fraction in simplest form equals 96/150?
Answer: A
Divide the numerator and denominator by 6: 96/150 = 16/25, which is 64/100, a little less than 2/3 (about 67/100). So "almost two out of three" is fair. Choice B takes Rafael's rounded words as the exact fraction. Choice C treats 96 as if it were out of 100 (96/100 = 24/25). Choice D is the fraction who did not choose the chime: 150 - 96 = 54, and 54/150 = 9/25.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why does Rafael's chart say "150 students in grades 6-8, surveyed at lunch after hearing both sounds" under the title?
Answer: D
The line explains where the numbers came from: 150 students from all three grades, who heard both sounds before choosing. That clarifies what 96, 38 and 16 stand for. Choice A treats length as the goal. Choice B misreads the line: 150 students were surveyed, not the whole school. Choice C picks up the word "lunch" but misses the point; no time is given.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What is the main problem with Slide 3 in paragraph 4?
Answer: A
A slide filled with small type can't be read from a seat, and Rafael reads only two comments and says "there are a lot more." Listeners learn nothing from the slide itself. Choice B is not in the talk; the comments came from the survey. Choice C gets the fix backward: music would add a distraction. Choice D misreads the order; the recordings come earlier, in paragraph 2.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which change would make Slide 3 clarify information?
Answer: B
A few short, readable comments show listeners why students prefer the chime, and Rafael can say how many comments gave the same reason. Choice A makes the reading problem worse. Choice C would take several minutes and still would not help listeners see the reasons. Choice D shows the team but clarifies nothing about the comments.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why is the song in paragraph 5 a poor choice?
Answer: C
The song adds no information and covers Rafael's most important point; two council members have to ask him to repeat the cost. Choice A is not in the talk. Choice B overcorrects: music can clarify when the music itself is the information. Choice D misreads the song's job; it was never meant to show the chime.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What does the photo on Slide 4 clarify?
Answer: D
The red circle around the switch labeled "Chime" shows listeners the evidence for Rafael's point that the system "already has a chime setting" and that switching "would cost the school nothing." Choice A is wrong; the photo shows the control panel, not a person. Choice B is about sound, which a photo cannot show; the recordings in paragraph 2 do that job. Choice C is what the chart on Slide 2 shows.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why does Rafael play the two sounds (paragraph 2) before he shows the survey results (paragraph 3)?
Answer: A
The surveyed students chose after hearing both sounds, so the council needs the same experience to understand the results. Choice B invents a rule; Slide 1 is already a visual. Choice C treats length as a reason for order. Choice D is not in the talk.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student is explaining how to tie a square knot. Which component would clarify her steps best?
Answer: C
The steps are a series of shapes and movements, which are hard to follow from words alone. Numbered drawings let listeners see each step in order. Choice A adds sound that shows nothing. Choice B is an image connected to knots, but it does not show how to tie one. Choice D is a slide full of text about a different topic.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student's report says that snowy tree crickets chirp faster when the air is warmer. Which multimedia component would clarify this finding best?
Answer: D
The finding is about how the chirping sounds, so listeners should hear the slow and fast chirps side by side. Choice A shows what the cricket looks like, not how fast it chirps. Choice B adds music that clarifies nothing about the finding. Choice C is text that tells listeners nothing new.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use the rule on Imani's poster (Diagram 1). In Morse code, the letter K is dash, dot, dash. How many units of time does K last?
Answer: B
Signals: 3 + 1 + 3 = 7 units. Silence inside the letter: two gaps of 1 unit each. Total: 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 3 = 9 units. Choice A forgets the silences inside the letter. Choice C adds the 3-unit silence that comes after a letter, which is not part of the letter itself (9 + 3 = 12). Choice D uses the 3-unit silence between letters for the gaps inside the letter (3 + 3 + 1 + 3 + 3 = 13).
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which presentation uses music to clarify information?
Answer: A
In choice A, the music is the information: listeners hear how the two instruments sound different, which words like "higher" and "deeper" can only hint at. In choices B and D, the music only runs underneath the talk, and in D it competes with the speaker's explanation of the chart. Choice C uses music to celebrate, not to clarify.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student wants to show how the number of books her school library lent changed each month from September to May. Which graphic would clarify this best?
Answer: B
A change over time is easiest to see on a line graph: listeners can spot rises and drops at a glance. Choice A is an image of the library, but it shows one moment, not a change. Choice C is far too much detail and shows no totals. Choice D is decoration.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Rewrite paragraph 4 of Model Presentation B so that Slide 3 clarifies information. Describe the new slide, then write the two or three sentences Rafael would say while it is on screen.
Model answer: New slide: the title "Why students chose the chime" and three short comments in large type: "The bell makes me jump," "The chime is still loud enough to hear," and "The bell hurts my ears." Rafael says: "Students also wrote comments. Here are three that give the reasons many students wrote. Notice that nobody said the chime was too quiet to hear." Rubric: full credit for a readable slide with a few short comments or a grouping of reasons, plus sentences that tell listeners what to notice; partial credit for a better slide with no explanation, or an explanation with the same unreadable slide; no credit for keeping all 41 comments in small type.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Using Diagram 2, how many more students chose the chime than the bell? Write the sentence Rafael could say while pointing to the chart so that listeners notice this difference.
Model answer: 96 - 38 = 58 more students chose the chime. Rafael could say, "Look at the first two bars: 58 more students chose the chime than the bell, and the chime bar is more than twice as tall." (96 is more than 2 × 38 = 76.) Rubric: full credit for 58 and a sentence that points listeners to the bars and says what they show; partial credit for 58 with a sentence that does not refer to the chart, or a good sentence with a wrong difference; no credit for reading the three numbers without comparing them.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
A student plans a talk called "Our lunch tables need shade" with these components: (1) a photo she took of students squinting at the lunch tables in full sun, (2) a bar chart of how many students in her class choose the shaded tables and how many choose the sunny ones, (3) background music under the whole talk, and (4) a slide listing ten facts about water in small type. For each component, say whether she should keep, change or cut it, and why.
Model answer: (1) Keep the photo: it shows the problem, students squinting in the sun, more clearly than words. (2) Keep the bar chart, and make sure it has labels and numbers and that she says what it shows, because it clarifies how many students look for shade. (3) Cut the background music: it clarifies nothing and competes with her voice. (4) Change the slide to the one or two facts that support her point, in large type, or cut it; ten facts in small type can't be read. Rubric: full credit for a correct decision and reason for all four; partial credit for three; no credit for keeping everything or giving no reasons.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
A classmate is presenting "How to find the North Star." In the Northern Hemisphere, you can find it by following the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper's bowl, which point toward it. Plan one graphic and one other component for the talk, and say what each would clarify.
Model answer: Graphic: a star map drawn on the board with the Big Dipper, an arrow from the two stars at the end of the bowl, and the North Star labeled at the end of the arrow. It clarifies which two stars to use and which way to look, which is hard to explain in words. Image: a photo the classmate takes of the night sky from home, with the Big Dipper circled, so listeners see how it really looks, smaller and dimmer than on the map. Rubric: full credit for two fitting components with what each clarifies; partial credit for one; no credit for components that only decorate, such as space music.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Name a topic for a sixth-grade presentation in which a sound (not music) is the most important information. Describe a recording you could make yourself, and explain what listeners would understand from hearing it that they could not understand from your words alone.
Model answer: Topic: how to tell when a bicycle chain needs oil. I would record my bike's chain turning before and after I oil it, five seconds each. Listeners would hear the squeak and grinding in the first recording and the quiet in the second, so they would know exactly what sound to listen for on their own bikes. Words like "squeaky" can mean many different sounds. Rubric: full credit for a topic where the sound is the information, a recording the student can make, and a clear reason; partial credit for two of the three; no credit for a sound used only as a sound effect or decoration.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
A student has made this bar chart (invented data): "Average minutes of homework per night: grade 6, 45; grade 7, 60; grade 8, 70." Write what she should say while the chart is on screen, in three parts: introduce the chart, point out what to notice, and say what it means.
Model answer: Introduce: "This chart shows the average number of minutes of homework students in each grade do per night." Notice: "Look at how each bar is taller than the one before it: from 45 minutes in grade 6 to 70 in grade 8." Meaning: "So homework time grows every year in middle school, by 25 minutes in all, and sixth graders should start building a homework routine now." Rubric: full credit for all three parts with numbers read correctly from the chart; partial credit for two parts; no credit for reading the numbers without explaining the chart.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does SL.6.5 mean?
SL.6.5 means that sixth graders add multimedia and visual displays to their presentations to make information clearer. Multimedia components include graphics, images, music and sound; visual displays include posters, slides, charts and models. "SL" stands for Speaking and Listening, and "5" is the fifth standard in that strand for grade 6.
What counts as a multimedia component or a visual display?
Almost anything besides the speaker's voice that listeners see or hear. The standard names graphics (charts, diagrams, maps, timelines), images (photos and pictures), music and sound. A visual display can be as simple as a chart drawn on the board, a poster on grid paper or a real object held up for the class. None of them needs a computer.
What does "clarify information" mean in SL.6.5?
It means making information easier to understand. A component clarifies when listeners understand something with it that they would struggle to understand from words alone: numbers compared in a chart, a route on a map, an object in a photo, a sound in a recording. If a listener can't say what a component showed, it did not clarify anything.
How is SL.6.5 different from SL.5.5 and SL.7.5?
The purpose changes. In grade 5, students add multimedia when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes. In grade 6, the purpose is to clarify information. In grade 7, students use multimedia and visual displays to clarify claims and findings and to emphasize salient (the most important) points.
Does a grade 6 presentation need slides to meet SL.6.5?
No. A hand-drawn chart, a poster, a map on the board, a real object or a sound the student performs all count. Slides are one tool; what matters is that each component clarifies something.
Is background music a good idea in a presentation?
Usually not. Music that runs under the talk rarely clarifies anything and can cover the speaker's words, as it does in both model presentations on this page. Music works when the music itself is the information, for example in a talk about tempo (how fast a piece is played).
Why shouldn't students read their slides aloud?
Because a slide full of words makes listeners read and listen at the same time, and they usually do neither well. Use a slide for what spoken words can't do: show a picture, a chart or a map. The speaker's job is to tell listeners what to notice on it.
Can students use images and music they find online?
Follow your school's rules. Many teachers ask students to make their own photos, drawings, charts and recordings, which also teaches them to think about what each component must show. If a student uses someone else's image or sound, it should be one the school allows, and the student should say where it came from.
How do teachers grade SL.6.5?
Grade the choices and how they are used, not how fancy the media look. Ask: did the student pick the hardest information to clarify, does each component fit that information, is it readable and labeled, and did the student introduce it and explain what it shows? Asking a listener what each component showed is a quick check. The homework rubric on this page shows one way to score it.
How can students practice SL.6.5 at home or in an online class?
At home, a student can draw a chart of something they count, take a photo of something they want to explain, or record a sound, then present to a family member and ask what each component helped them understand. Online, students can hold posters up to the camera, share their screen, or play a sound through the microphone, and listeners can type what each one clarified.
07
Related Standards
6 standards
These standards connect to SL.6.5: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
SL.5.5Prerequisite
Include multimedia and visual displays when appropriate to enhance main ideas or themes
Lesson coming soon
Alongside
SL.6.4Parallel
Present claims and findings in logical order with pertinent details, speaking clearly
