how to make a presentation about a historical figure

Blue Book Diaries

Notes on History Teaching by Jonathan W. Wilson

PowerPoint Basics for Historians: Part 1

Part 1: Design Fundamentals

This is the first installment of a series designed to help historians use Microsoft PowerPoint effectively in the classroom. (You may want to read the series introduction first.)

Today, I’m writing about the big picture of PowerPoint design. This post is about how to set up a slideshow to communicate in the classroom (or conference hall) clearly and effectively. It’s not really about the technology, per se—at this stage, we’re just talking about how to build a visual communication element into a history talk.

As you design your presentation, you should keep three core principles in mind:

When I was in college, you sometimes knew when an enthusiastic professor had just switched from overhead projector transparencies to PowerPoint. His or her slides would be full of clip art, bouncing and flying effects, elaborate transition animations, and garish colors. It was endearing—the first time. But that was another technological age. To impress the jaded young snapchatters in your classroom today, you need a different approach. You need to begin with restraint.

Simple Text

The single most effective thing you can do to make your slides better? Delete things.

Every time I teach a lesson with previously used PowerPoint slides, I cut things. Topics I’m now confident I will remember to discuss. Excess words. Complete sentences that can be single words or short phrases. Supporting points I can extract and place on their own slides. Ideas that could be better expressed through a quick class discussion.

The most common complaint about professors who use PowerPoint is that we just stand in class and read our slides aloud. The easiest solution to this problem is astonishingly effective: Leave things out. You want to leave things unsaid on your slides so that you can say them in person. Don’t make slides that could replace you.

A Restrained Palette

A few colors go a long way. Typically, excluding images, I think you need only about four colors or shades in your presentation: a very light color (or white), a fairly dark color (or black), something in between (to be used less often), and maybe a special highlight color (to be used sparingly).

When choosing these colors, keep a few things in mind. First, they will show up differently on different screens, especially when you move the presentation from your computer monitor to a projector screen. Very subtle differences of hue or shade will be lost in the typical classroom.

Your beautiful forest green may just look black. Your warm sky blue may look purplish. Your cheerful orange may disappear completely into the white background behind it, leaving audience members squinting like spotters trying to find airplanes in a summer sky. For the sake of people in the back row, be a little unsubtle with your colors.

Another reason for this: You want to choose colors that will provide crisp contrast—especially if your presentation involves much text.

The cruelest thing I ever did with PowerPoint was a presentation I delivered in an early-morning economics class. I placed all my text—walls and mountains of it, since I lacked confidence—in dark green on a dusty green background. I suppose I was going for a currency theme (my topic was the collapse of the Thai baht in 1997), but maybe I was just feeling vindictive. The green fog on all my slides put everyone but the professor to sleep—including me.

It was a really good talk otherwise.

Clean Slides

“Cleanness” in visual design is about the empty space. A clean house has empty counters, floors swept free of debris, furniture you can sit on. It’s a space where whatever thing is in front of you has your full attention. A clean PowerPoint slide has plenty of empty space around the words—or if it displays an image, it isn’t cluttered unnecessarily with other images or words.

Why does this matter to the teacher? It matters because attention is always about empty (or “negative”) space. You don’t want your audience’s gaze roaming randomly all over the slide; you want it focused on exactly what your students need to see at a given time.

In practice, this means you should avoid using most pre-made PowerPoint templates or backgrounds, which fill the screen with unnecessary decorative elements. You should also maintain healthy margins around any text you use. And don’t put too much of anything on one slide.

Consistency

Consistency matters because inconsistencies are distracting. The mind treats new patterns as puzzles to solve instead of paying attention to what you want it to see. A slide presentation full of randomly different typefaces, sizes, and colors sends the audience’s attention in all different directions trying to figure out the patterns.

Of course, some variety is good—even necessary to keep the audience awake. But consistency doesn’t mean sameness. You want variations on a clear theme.

When the size or style of your text changes suddenly, it should mean your text is up to something unusual. When you insert a picture where normally there isn’t one, it should mean the picture is significant. Conversely, when things look similar in different places in your slideshow, they should probably be doing similar things: the same typeface, for example, might always be used to set aside a keyword your students will need to define later.

The audience unconsciously uses your design choices to save time when deciphering what you mean. Inconsistency wastes time and thus makes comprehension harder.

There’s another reason some teachers can’t resist the temptation to read their slides verbatim. They think the main purpose of PowerPoint is to make information easier to memorize. That notion is deadly to the history teacher.

It’s surprisingly easy to forget this, but you should be using PowerPoint the same way you should be using any other medium: to persuade. You aren’t pouring information into passive students; you’re trying to get them to change their own thinking.

Maybe you don’t need the reminder. But either way, how can you use PowerPoint in a rhetorically effective way? How can PowerPoint make the argument of a lecture stronger? Here are a few ways.

The most obvious (and sophisticated) rhetorical advantage of PowerPoint is that it can display actual pieces of historical evidence while you talk.

Sometimes you can do this with images—either as illustrations of points you’re making yourself, or as primary sources to pause over with your students, breaking up your lecture with discussion. Either approach can have a powerful effect on your audience.

You can also do this with quotations and citations. In effect, PowerPoint slides can serve as “footnotes” to your lecture. You don’t need to read aloud what such slides say, at least not in full; it’s usually enough to make them visible. By displaying them, you are proving to your students that a snippet quotation has a fuller context, or that you know where your information is coming from, while providing the option of exploring the source in greater depth if students have questions or concerns.

Visualization

Another key advantage of PowerPoint: It can help students imagine things they haven’t seen before.

Remember, as a trained historian who was probably interested in history from a young age, you have a vast bank of mental images that your students don’t have yet. A lot of lecturers take these images for granted when they speak—assuming that students will somehow magically know what a ziggurat is, or what a Mary Wollstonecraft might be, or what a struggle session was like during the Cultural Revolution.

For your students, these mental images are not mere decoration for historical facts. They are crucial for understanding what the heck you’re talking about.

However imperfectly, students have to be able to imagine the scenes you’re implicitly describing. Their ability to do this is critical to the success of your argument. Unless students can visualize a scene (whatever that means for them), they have no way to assess the mechanics or the power relationships or, ultimately, the plausibility of what you’re claiming.

So when you build a PowerPoint presentation, you want to fill it with materials that students can use to help visualize what you’re talking about.

Highlighting

A third way PowerPoint can strengthen your argument is by showing its structure, and especially by highlighting important points. Presenters and students alike can easily get lost in the branching trails and undergrowth of a lecture. PowerPoint can provide breadcrumbs back to the main trail or identify landmarks by which to orient yourself. This is not only a matter of organizing the lecture for narrative purposes; it also makes your central claims and use of evidence more comprehensible.

This brings me to a final fundamental principle of PowerPoint design.

I think of a PowerPoint presentation as a storyboard rather than an outline. As the lecture unfolds around it, the PowerPoint presentation is a sequence of impressions, not paragraphs. These impressions are representations of ideas, not the ideas themselves.

As an impression, each frame in your storyboard sequence should connect to the next one according to the logic of drama—the way one scene gives way to another in a film.

Some of what I’m tempted to say about that is too complicated for this post. It touches on the design of the lecture itself. But let me put it this way.

If you treated each PowerPoint slide as a paragraph, you’d be constructing the argument of your lecture in a way that would feel fundamentally unnatural and stilted in the classroom. A lecture—even if you transcribe it word for word—shouldn’t flow like a written essay. (Not an academic essay, anyway.) Neither should the PowerPoint slides playing behind it.

The lecture is an oral and visual experience. Like other oral and visual experiences, it should have digressions, pauses and intensifications, and an overall sense of movement through time and space. Your slides are a storyboard helping you and your audience move through time along with your subject matter.

If you, when speaking informally with your friends about the subject of your lecture, would be likely to include an interjection or illustration of some kind at a certain point in the lecture, then consider making a slide for it. If you need to explain the stakes of your topic, or set a scene, or pose a riddle, consider making a slide for it. If you want to slow down to talk about the life story of a certain key character, consider making a slide for it. If you’ve introduced an unusual word and you need to make sure your students understand how historians use it, consider making a slide for it.

The connections among slides that flow this way aren’t always obvious. So to make sure the lecture flows well in practice, I write brief notes for myself—not visible to the audience—explaining what the transition should be like after each slide. If I’ve been talking about a social problem and then want to introduce a character on the next slide, for example, I write myself a note, usually something like TRANS.: We can see the problem clearly in the life of …

This way, the flow of my storyboard becomes the visual backbone of a compelling oral story.

There is no single correct way to design a PowerPoint slideshow. After all, sometimes you may use PowerPoint to display large amounts of text; sometimes you will show only images; sometimes you may use a single slide as a background for a whole talk. Sometimes you will want to strategically break the design rules you’ve been following previously. The principles in this post, however, are widely applicable.

My next post in this series will be shorter and more concrete: In a few days, I plan to examine some simple ways to ensure a smooth experience when you’re actually showing PowerPoint slides to an audience.

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3 thoughts on “PowerPoint Basics for Historians: Part 1”

[…] in my first post, I’ll begin with a few fundamental […]

[…] the previous post in this series, I discussed three key design […]

Under the topic of “flow,” I like to ensure that whatever image I’m showing fits with what I’m talking about, and not what I was talking about two minutes ago. If that means repeating a more general slide, so be it. Duplicating a digital slide doesn’t cost extra.

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PRESERVING HISTORY

How to digitally archive and share historical photographs, documents, and audio recordings.

Chapter 8. Creating Historical Slide Shows

Key Points.

·         Slide shows can provide a multimedia experience that is very effective for telling an historical story.

·         Zooming and panning photograph images can bring out historically significant information and make a slide show more dynamic.

·         Audio for slide shows can include narrative about the story or about the content of individual photographs, historical music that sets an appropriate emotional tone, and sound effects relevant for a photograph.

·         Slides with text can provide information about the story.

·         Captions on photograph images can identify key people and events, and note significant details that might be overlooked. This type of information is important for an historical slide show.

·         The display of slides and the type and duration of transitions between slides for an historical slide show for diverse audiences should be simple and consistent, and done in a way that older people can absorb the information.

·         An interesting historical slide show for general audiences will usually be 20 minutes or less. Five to fifteen minutes may be optimal.

·         For the slide show output video, optimal display size, format, and data rate are very different for a DVD, for the internet, and for playing on a computer.

Digital slide shows are one of the most effective ways to present historical information. History is about stories and telling a story is a natural part of a slideshow. As described in earlier chapters, the theme or story may be the story of a person’s life, the story of a couple, the story of a period in a person’s life, or the story of a particular event, building, or piece of land. Challenges and difficulties are part of a good story, including when the difficulty did not have an ideal outcome.

A slide show is a multimedia experience that has a much greater impact than the images or audio alone. The photographs in a slide show illustrate the story. Audio and/or text in the slide show can explain the context or story of the photographs and describe the relationships among photographs. Music can reflect the historical period and set an emotional tone for understanding and experiencing the events being described. Certain details in a photograph can be emphasized by zooming in to enlarge the image, while also maintaining the relationship with the rest of the photograph.

8.1 Basic Guidelines for Historical Slide Shows

Historical slide shows have some basic differences from the slide shows that are usually described in books and tutorials. The most common topics for slide shows are social events, particularly weddings. The primary goal for these slide shows is to provide memories of the event for those who attended the event. Paul Schmidt (2011) notes in his book on slide shows that wedding slide shows usually are intended to appeal to the bride and to the bride’s father. On the other hand, historical slide shows are intended for much more diverse audiences and should provide information and experiences for people who do not have direct experience or knowledge of the original situation.

The techniques recommended for slide shows about recent social events are often not optimal for historical slide shows. More information about the context and story is needed for historical slide shows and more time to absorb the information in each image. Details in the background of a photograph often have valuable information for an historical slide show, but that is rarely the case for a slide show about a recent event.

Some basic suggestions for developing historical slide shows for general use are given below.

·         Identify the theme or story for the slide show. A slide show with a theme or story is much more meaningful than simply displaying a group of unrelated old photographs.

·         Make the style of presentation and timing suitable for the range of intended viewers. Older people need more time to absorb the information.

·         For general audiences, make the display of slides and transition between slides simple and consistent. When people are very interested in images and information that are not familiar to them, it is distracting to display the images as flying, rotating, and/or flipping.

·         Emphasize background details when they have interesting historical information.

·         Keep the content of displayed text concise and the format consistent. Reading text takes time and effort. Only words that convey useful meaning relevant for the theme or story of the slide show should be included.

·         Provide information that will be useful for future generations, such as identifying key people and key events in photographs.

·         Keep the slide show short. In most cases, an interesting historical slide show for general audiences will be 20 minutes or less. Five to fifteen minutes may be optimal depending on the topic of the slide show.

·         Slide shows played on TVs may have the edges cut off. Keep important content, particularly text, in a safe zone away from the edges.

Information can be presented in a slide show as audio narrative or as text on slides. Many historical slide shows have both. In general, audio narrative is more professional, but requires significant planning, effort, and expertise. Text on slides is much easier, particularly when revisions are made. The key point is to provide the historical information in some form. Those who appreciate the information are unlikely to complain about the mode of presentation.

There is virtually no limit to the amount of time and effort that can be devoted to artistic expression and finessing of slide shows. At some point the show has to be declared “good enough.” The discussion in this chapter focuses on clear presentation of historical information with little discussion of artistic details. This is not intended to discourage those who have more artistic interests. Those with the time and talent are encouraged to develop slide shows that utilize their abilities. The recommendations in this chapter are more suggestions for a starting point rather than rigid rules. However, if artistic expression is given a significantly higher priority than historical information, the slide show becomes outside the intended purposes of this book.

My personal reaction to the widely available special effects that make images fly, flip, and spin is that they are often an attempt to compensate for a lack of interesting content in a slide show. If the viewers are interested in and concentrating on the content of the slide show, the special effects are distracting. At the same time, the special effects may have value if a slide show is prepared primarily for an audience with limited interest, such as children or young people with relatively little interest in history. For general audiences, my impression is that the special effects do more harm than good and a simple consistent presentation is optimal.

8.2 Slide Show Software

Slide show software should have certain features for historical uses. The duration of display should be adjustable for each image individually. The software should be able to zoom in to enlarge and focus on part of an image, and pan or move across the enlarged image. The speed of these motions should be adjustable. The software should also allow text to be displayed including title slides, information slides, and information displayed on a picture. Different output formats should be available, including for display on a computer, on TVs using DVDs, and on the internet. Numerous slide show programs are available, but many do not have all the needed features.

The Guidance on Using Slide Show Software at http://archivehistory.jeksite.com/chapters/slideshow.htm describes specific slide show software and how to implement the suggestions in this chapter.

8.3 Global Slide Show Settings

One key setting that applies to the entire slide show is the background. The slide show background is displayed around a photograph image when the image does not completely fill the frame. The images in an historical slide show usually have a wide variety of sizes and shapes and the background appears on many slides. This is a different situation than photographs of a recent event taken specifically for a slide show. I prefer a dark gray background such as red, green, and blue each set to 60. The background is a matter of artistic preference and other choices are certainly valid. The background used for an individual slide usually can be changed as part of the slide properties.

Another key setting is the aspect ratio, or the rectangular shape of the display device. The main choice is between 4:3 which is a better fit for older TVs and older computer screens, and 16:9 which is a better fit for wide screen TVs and wide screen computer screens.

At the time of this writing, the 4:3 aspect ratio appears preferable for historical slide shows. Most historical photographs are not wide screen in shape and fit the 4:3 aspect ratio better than 16:9. The extra width of the 16:9 display could be used for text on some slides, but will probably not be useful on many slides. In addition, most wide screen TVs will display the 4:3 aspect ratio well, whereas most TVs with 4:3 screens either shrink or cutoff wide screen videos. The 4:3 aspect ratio appears preferable unless the extra room with the 16:9 aspect ratio will be used.

One safe strategy would be to make two versions of the slide show, one for each aspect ratio. That often requires significant additional work because text and features may shift when the aspect ratio is changed. Custom aspect ratios may also be applied and are useful for the rare case that a slide show will be played only on one device or screen.

8.4 Images for Slide Shows

High resolution images are needed for clear display of images with substantial zooming. Some slide show software has limits on the formats and resolutions that can be used.

The images in a slide show generally need less preparation for presentation than images that are printed. A slide is displayed for a limited time and usually with limited resolution. More importantly, the images in a slide show are presented in context of a multimedia story. Defects are much less likely to be noticed under these conditions. The methods for preparing images described in Chapter 5 may be useful for correcting severe defects or defects that manifest significantly when part of a slide is greatly enlarged.

8.5 Timing of Slide Display

The transition between slides must be considered in the total duration of display for a slide. Slides typically fade from one slide to another over a period of 1 to 3 seconds. If the transition between slides is 2 seconds and the basic display is 3 seconds the total duration will be 2 seconds of the slide fading in, 3 seconds of display, and 2 seconds of the slide fading out as the next slide fades in. The image is actually visible for about half of the time for the fade-in and fade-out.

Transition times of 2 seconds and basic display times of 3 seconds often work well for simple images. Longer display times are better for images with multiple people or with text. Transition times of 2.5 or 3.0 seconds may be appropriate for a slide show that is intended to be slow and thoughtful. Transition times of 1 second work well for transitions to a slide with only text. As discussed in a later section, the times for transitions and basic display must also be adapted to match the audio.

Although many different types of transitions between slides are possible, simple fading is usually best for historical slide shows. More distinct transitions may be appropriate to emphasize something unusual or humorous, but these will usually be rare. Keep in mind that the purpose of the slide show is usually to provide historical information, not demonstrate the special effects available with slide show software.

8.5 Slide Motion

Zooming and panning photographs greatly enhance historical slide shows. The value of these methods was widely recognized from their use in the historical videos by Ken Burns, particularly his series on the Civil War. In addition to bringing out details in the photographs that might otherwise go unnoticed, the sense of motion enlivens the slide show and can be coordinated with audio.

One common strategy is to display a full photograph and then slowly zoom in to focus on a close-up of a person or an object. If there are other points of interest, the display can slowly move across the enlarged photograph. Signs on a wall or objects in the background are often of significant historical interest. An alternative strategy is to start by displaying a greatly enlarged small area of the photograph, such as a person or even the hands or feet of a person. Then the display slowly moves across the photograph to reveal other content close-up and/or slowly zooms out to reveal the full photograph.

Zooming and panning provide virtually unlimited opportunity for creatively bringing out historical information in a photograph. For example, opening a slide with a close-up of the hands or feet of a person can be very effective for certain historical images.

Simple motion on a slide is implemented by specifying the part of the image that is displayed at the start of the motion, the part of the image that is displayed at the end of the motion, and the duration of the motion. The slide show software handles the continuous display of movement from the start to the end in the specified time period. A more complex sequence of motion is handled by combining a series of steps with each step having start and end points.

For example, a photograph of a man and wife standing by their house in the distance with children playing off to the side could be displayed with 5 motion steps. The slide would open by displaying the full photograph for 2 seconds. For this step the start and end displays are both the full photograph and the time period is 2 seconds. The next step would be to zoom in on the man and wife. For this step, the start display is the full photograph as before and the end display is the close-up of the man and wife. The time for the zooming movement might be 4 seconds. The next step is to display the close-up of the man and wife for 3 seconds. The start and end displays are both the close-up of the man and wife. The next step is to slowly move the display to the children. The start display for this step is the close-up of the man and wife and the end display is the close-up of the children. The time for the motion could be 3 seconds. The last step is to hold the display of the children for 3 seconds. The start and end displays for this step are both the close-up of the children. The 5 steps for display and movement for the photograph would take a total of 15 seconds. The simplest movement for a photograph typically is hold–zoom–hold and requires 9 seconds or longer.

Duplicate Slides with Simple Slide Show Software

Simpler slide show software can perform one simple motion step on a slide and requires multiple duplicate slides for a more complex motion sequence. For the example given above, each of the 5 steps would be done with a separate copy of the image as a separate slide.

The transition time between the slides in the motion sequence is set to zero. If the transition time between slides in a motion sequence is not set to zero, a jump or fuzziness will usually occur during the motion. The type of transition usually does not matter if the time is set to zero.

Keyframes with More Advanced Slide Show Software

With more advanced slide show software a complex motion sequence can be handled within one slide. A keyframe or keypoint can be defined at any point during the display of the slide. The keyframe defines a point that is the end point for one motion step and the start point for another motion step. This strategy has many advantages, including that the end position of one step is automatically the start position of the next step and the entire motion sequence can be previewed on one slide. Of course the effort and complexity of making many duplicate slides and setting transition times to zero are also avoided.

8.6 Slides with Only Text

Slides that have only text can be used for titles or section breaks and to present information about the theme or story of the slide show. As described in later sections, text or captions can also be displayed on slides of photographs to identify people and provide information such as dates and locations. Slide show software usually has basic capabilities for presenting text, but more stylistic text slides would need to be created with other software and incorporated into the slide show as image files.

My experience has been that two to four lines of text with four or five words per line works well for a slide with only text. The time to read text varies greatly among people, particularly when both younger and older people view a slide. Two or three slides with a smaller amount of text on each will maintain a better sense of flow and have larger, easier-to-read print than one slide with a large amount of text. The text should be very concise and contain information that relates to the theme or story of the slide show. Minimum display times that I have used were 3 seconds for 2 lines of text, 5 seconds for 3 lines of text, 7 seconds for 4 lines of text, and 9 seconds for 5 lines of text. Longer display times were sometimes used and may be needed to coordinate with the audio. A good practice is to have the slide show reviewed by someone who is not familiar with the content and who reads at a slow to moderate rate.

The font type, size, and color and the background color are matters of personal preference. The text in slide shows is usually most clear and readable if the font is optimized for display on electronic screens rather than for printing on paper. This is particularly true for slide shows that may be played on a wide variety of TVs and computers. Fonts optimized for electronic display include Arial, Lucinda Sans, and Verdana. These fonts are in the sans serif category, which has simple letters with all parts of the letter the same thicknesses. Georgia and Bookman Old Style have more style and also work well with display screens. Outlines and drop shadows can usually be applied to the font. A white font with a black outline is common and easy to read. A medium gray background can be used such as red, green, and blue all set to 100. The font size is usually about 16 points for a slide show on DVD. An alternative that I have used is a blue font with red, green, and blue set to 0, 0, 200 and no outline, and a light gray background such as red, green, and blue all set to 200. However, many other options for font and background properties can be used. A photograph image can also be used as the background for text slides. I prefer to have the text fade in and out rather than appear and disappear suddenly.

8.7 Captions on Images

Captions on photograph images can identify people or objects in the image, or provide information about the location, date, or occasion for an image. A simple caption such as “New Years 1946” can provide important context for a photograph. Captions can also be used to point out significant details that might be overlooked. For example, “Leg brace for polio” was displayed near the metal brace at a boy’s ankle that would rarely have been noticed without the caption. Seeing the leg brace was very meaningful for the boy’s grandchildren many decades later.

Captions should be handled in a way that enhances the information in the photograph rather than clutters or detracts from the photograph. One useful strategy is to display captions for only part of the time that the photograph is displayed. Sequences of captions that are coordinated with zooming and panning can guide the viewer and avoid a sense of cluttered information overload. For example, when a slide display is slowly panning across a person in a group of people, the person’s name could briefly appear and then fade away. This identifies the person, but also allows the person to be viewed without the caption.

Captions that are placed on a photograph image are difficult to read unless they stand out from the image. In some cases, an area with uniform color and texture can be used as background for a caption and simple letters would be easy to read. If the image does not fill the full frame, a section of the slide background can be used for text. However, in many cases a caption will be most appropriate in an area with shapes and colors that would make simple letters difficult to read.

 The most reliable method for presenting captions in a photograph image is to provide a background for the captions. With this strategy the captions can be handled consistently under any circumstances. The same fonts and background colors that were described above for slides with text only can be use for captions on images. The methods for creating the letters are the same; however, the captions are placed on a photograph image rather than on a slide that is a uniform background color.

For a caption that is a simple name or date, a 1-second display time with 1-second transitions in and out provide a reasonable minimum display time. The image can be displayed without the caption before and/or after the caption is displayed. Longer display times for a caption would be appropriate when more information is displayed. Transition times of less than .7 seconds are overly abrupt for my preferences.

Captions that have the same location and style throughout the slide show have a more professional appearance and are more efficiently created. Putting captions on a standard strip in the lower part of an image is common. However, for historical photographs a fixed location for captions is often not optimal for identifying people or pointing out details of interest.

Sketching a plan for the motion and captions can be very useful when a slide has several motion steps and several captions. The most efficient process is to include any time needed for captions when setting the initial motion effects. The usual sequence is to set the motion effects and then set the captions. However, if the background for captions has a fixed location and size, the background would be set before the captions.

8.8 Reusable Effects

If certain types of motion, captions, and/or backgrounds are used with different slides and in different slide shows, slide show software often has mechanisms such as templates or styles that allow reuse of the effects. A template or style can be applied to a slide and then modified for alignment and timing for the particular slide. These reusable effects can be very useful when similar effects are frequently utilized.

8.9 Transitions between Black and White and Color

Color and black and white photographs were both taken throughout the mid 1900s. Slides in chronological order during this period will tend to switch back and forth between color and grayscale. A grayscale slide that follows a color slide tends to be distracting. A color slide that follows a grayscale slide is more acceptable.

Ideally a slide show would have one transition from black and white to color and that would occur at a significant section break in the slide show. Of course, this ideal may not be possible. One option is to try to find applicable black and white photographs that can be used before the transition to color in the slide show. Another option is to make black and white photographs by converting color images to grayscale. Whether this type of conversion would be considered an unacceptable loss of historical information would need to be determined for the particular project. If a black and white photograph would be used if it were available, then converting color to grayscale may be a reasonable option.

When a slide show does have one transition from black and white to color, a distinct type of slide transition will usually be appropriate at that point. One option that works well is to make a slide that is simply a solid black background and have the last grayscale image fade into this black slide. The black slide then fades into the color image. Of course another color could be used rather than black. Another option is to use a color adjustment to make the first color slide initially display as grayscale and then have the color emerge in the slide.

8.10 Audio in Slide Shows

The audio in slide shows can include music, spoken words, and sound effects. Music sets the emotional tone and energy level for a slide show. The impact of a set of slides can be dramatically different with different background music. Spoken words can provide historical information, including information that is too complex or detailed to put as text on slides. Sound effects such as sounds from horses, automobiles, busy streets, or natural areas can add a dimension of realism to the slide show. Sound effects can be obtained from various sources on the internet. Libraries of clips are increasingly offered with audio editing software such as “Resource Central” with Adobe Audition.

The ideal music for an historical slide show would be representative of the music for the time period being presented, as well as setting an appropriate emotional tone. The content, timing, and transitions for slides should be consistent with the emotional tone and energy of the music. Longer transitions between slides are usually appropriate for slower music.

As discussed in Chapter 9, a special synchronization or synch license is needed to legally use copyrighted music in a slide show. Music on a CD or downloaded from the internet normally does not include authorization to use the music in a slide show or video. Synch licenses for popular music in the U.S. are typically too expensive and too much effort for a small project. Alternatives and risks are described in Chapter 9.

Narration that provides information or a story that pertains to several slides is effective. Reading excerpts from personal letters or documents created during the time period can be interesting. Narration can also point out or explain the content of an individual slide. Methods for recording narration for slide shows are described in Chapter 6. Slide show software often has the capability to record voice; however, the methods in Chapter 6 will usually provide higher quality recordings.

Adjustments and enhancements to audio for slide shows can be done with audio editing software as described in Chapter 7. Slide show software is typically limited to adjusting the overall volume of a sound track and making the sound fade out. More sophisticated methods such as noise reduction and applying a dynamic processor to make the sound loudness more uniform must be done with audio editing software.

The basic strategy for coordinating slides and audio is to first develop the slide display for a section of the slide show and then compare the total time for the slides with the time for the associated sound track. If a musical sound track is longer than the slide display, the music can usually be shortened by simply fading out to match the slide display. Alternatively, the time for display of the slides can be increased. If the slide display is longer than the music, additional music may be needed. Other music could be added or audio editing software can be used to add a repetition of a section of the music. There are fewer options when the audio is voice. When the sound track is longer than the slide display, the timing of the slides can be expanded. If the slide display is longer, then additional audio will be needed. Reducing the display time for slides is usually the least desirable option because that would compromise the impact of the images.

8.11 Video Output for a Slide Show

The output of a slide show is a video file that can be played on a TV, computer, or other video device. There are a wide range of options for video output, including many different formats and different settings for each format. Video files suitable for use on the internet typically have lower quality and smaller display size.

Video files must use extremely compressed formats to obtain manageable file sizes. Uncompressed video files are not feasible for routine use because a very large number of images must be stored and processed. For example, a DVD displays about 30 images in a second, which requires about 18,000 images in 10 minutes. Rendering is the process of creating the thousands or tens of thousands of images required for the video output of a slide show.

New and modified formats for video files are continually being developed. I am not confident that any current video formats will be reliably accessible 50 years in the future. Major changes in video formats are highly likely.

It is important that re-encoding of video be kept to a minimum to avoid the degradation from compression. Video authoring software traditionally implements an overlay of instructions for displaying video files and menus without re-encoding the video. On the other hand, video editing software typically makes changes to the video that require re-encoding. Authoring is preferred over editing if video quality is to be maintained. However, most video authoring software re-encodes files that need to have the play time changed and transcodes files that are not in the specific format used for DVDs.

The Guidance on Using Slide Show Software at http://archivehistory.jeksite.com/chapters/slideshow.htm provides more detailed and quantitative information and recommendations based on specific slide show software.

Menus for Slide Shows

A menu at the beginning of an historical slide show can be very useful because it allows people to go directly to a selected section. This is particularly useful for longer slide shows. Slide show software often has significant limitations for developing menus for the output video. For historical slide shows with several sections or chapters it may be easier to use video authoring software to make the menu. Video files in the format needed for a DVD can be created with slide show software and these files are input into the video authoring software. I use TMPGEnc Authoring Works for video authoring. Adobe Encore is more advanced authoring software.

Slide Show Output for DVDs

DVDs currently provide the most diversely accessible output format for slide shows. The quality of the display is significantly better than the typical video on the internet; however, it is significantly lower than the quality that can be displayed on a computer or on high definition TV.

My usual practice is to create DVD compatible video files from slide show software, use video authoring software to create the menu and files for a DVD, and actually burn the DVD with Nero Burning ROM. This has several advantages. Video authoring software typically has more flexibility in creating menus than slideshow software, including defining menu items for sections within one video file or within one slide show. My experience has been that Nero is more reliable at burning DVDs than slide show software. Nero also allows additional files to be added to the DVD and provides good control and organization for the additional files. These additional files can be very useful for distributing historical information. In addition, Nero can save the full specifications for burning a DVD, including the additional files. This is very useful when more copies are made later after the details of the burning specifications have been forgotten.

The additional files put on a DVD can include a video file that plays much better on a computer than the basic DVD video plays. These files are described in the next section.

Slide Show Output for Computers

Slide shows that are output specifically for playing on a computer can have significantly better quality than a DVD video and a significantly smaller file. The standard resolution for a DVD video is 720 x 480 pixels while most computer screens are at least 1024 x 768 pixels and the great majority of newer screens have much higher resolution.  For an aspect ratio of 4:3, dimensions of 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 960 pixels are frequently suggested for slide shows and provide good results for a variety of computers. For an aspect ratio of 16:9, 1024 x 576 and 1280 x 720 pixels are common, but 1408 x 792 and 1600 x 900 could also be used. 

In addition to higher resolution, a video file for a computer will be progressive rather than interlaced . Interlaced video displays every other line of an image in two passes and was developed for TVs with picture tubes. It is the standard for TV but often displays as soft or fuzzy on a computer. Computers use a progressive display that displays every line in one pass.

Two general strategies for playing slide shows on a computer are described in this section. These strategies assume that the slide show files are on a disk drive or device directly connected to the computer. The more challenging methods for displaying slide shows over the internet are described in the next section. The discussion in this section assumes that a slide show will be played on a variety of computers. In the unusual case that an historical slide show is intended for playing on only one computer, the settings can be optimized specifically for that machine.

Executable Program Files

One strategy is to create executable program files that can be played on a computer. These files have the extension .exe and the slide show is played when the file is double clicked. These files are much smaller than video files because the rendering of the slide show to video is done when the program files are executed. The executable file contains (a) the images and audio used in the slide show, (b) the specifications for the slide show, and (c) programming to generate the video from the images and specification. The file is usually much smaller than a video file because the thousands or tens of thousands of images needed for video are not stored in the file. The executable file for one eight minute slide show was about 35 Mbytes and a corresponding video file with the same resolution was about 577 Mbytes.

High Quality Video Files

The second strategy for playing a slide show on a computer is to make a high quality video file with a resolution significantly higher than for a DVD. In addition to computers, video files often can be played on other devices such as electronic picture frames. High quality video files require large files and high data rates that can overload some computers or devices. The safest strategy for a video file that will be played on a variety of computers is to use the smallest file size and data rate that provide adequate display. The most reliable format for high quality video that may be played on a variety of computers is currently MPEG 2, although MPEG4 has also become widely accepted and compatible.

Slide Show Output for the Internet

Making slide shows available on the internet can provide the largest audience but can also present the greatest challenges. Putting a slide show on the internet in low quality video that is widely accessible is easy. It is also easy to put a better quality video on the internet, but accessibility will be limited to those with fast connection speeds and video quality may still be moderate. Trying to find the optimal balance between video quality and accessibility requires knowledge of the rapidly changing technology for viewing video on the internet. Keeping up with the latest technology in this dynamic environment and balancing the benefits of new technology with the wider accessibility of older technology requires specialized expertise.

The goal in this section is to note the general strategies that are currently available for playing slide shows on the internet. The details for placing slide shows on the internet and expertise about the current state of the art will need to be obtained from other sources. In general, one of the best strategies when possible is to offer two or more versions of the slide show that have different degrees of video quality and associated internet requirements.

Slide shows primarily intended for use on the internet can be developed to minimize the adverse effects of poor video quality. Choppy motion is a conspicuous manifestation of low data rates. Zooming and panning can be kept to a minimum and made slower in a slide show for the internet. Also the letters in text can be made larger to compensate for small displays. Unfortunately, these methods significantly compromise functions that are very useful for historical slide shows.

The easiest way to get a slide show on the internet is to put it on a video internet site such as YouTube or Vimeo, and/or on a social media site such as Facebook. These sites require little expertise about the internet and video. They handle a range of video quality and frequently upgrade their capabilities.

For those who want to put a slide show on their own website, Flash video and the MPEG4 format are commonly used. The settings for the Flash option include the size of the display window and the video bit rate, which ranges from very slow to moderately fast broadband internet access. Flash video with low bit rates usually produce very poor results for historical slide shows. Putting an option on the website for higher quality video for those with faster internet connections can be very useful with Flash video.

Schmidt, Paul, 2011. Secrets of ProShow Experts: The Official Guide to Creating your Best Slide Shows with ProShow Gold and Producer . Published by Course Technology in Boston, MA.

[Version of 9/21/2013]

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Chapter Contents

Chapters in the book.

Introduction: Background, Purpose, and Example Archive Projects

1. Basic Principles of Archiving Photographs and Documents

2. Good and Best Practices for Making Digital Images

3. Setting Tone and Color in Master Images

4. Documentation for Historical Images

5. Preparation and Display of Historical Photographs and Documents

6. Good and Best Practices for Making Audio Recordings

7. Preparation and Presentation of Historical Audio Recordings

8. Historical Slide Shows

9. Copyrights and Other Legal Rights

A. Practical Color Management

B. Overview of Scanning Software

C. Effective Resolution of Scanners

D. Using Copy Stands with Cameras

E. Batch Processing of Images

Other Resources

Guidance on Using Scanning Software

Guidance on Using Slide Show Software

Downloads and Links

Order Book

This website and book were developed by Jim Kennedy.

© 2012, 2013 James E. Kennedy

• All templates

History Presentation Template

AI generated Pitch Deck 🤖

Perfect for: historians, history teachers, history speakers, history professors, timelines in powerpoint

Telling a story verbally is one of the most ancient art forms. It has been an inherent part of humanity since the beginning of times. Interestingly, this old capability has become an enormously important quality for different current uses. As well, recent studies and technological advances have put into our general knowledge vast amounts of data that can help us tell the story of human beings.

What is a History Powerpoint  Template?

History has a magical sense, which transports us to ancient or older times where we can only imagine how life was different to what we see today. It doesn´t matter if you need to speak about recent events or whatever happened before the birth of civilization, being able to create an excellently balanced powerpoint presentation is imperative. It might even be the difference between great storytelling and just set up the stage for random pieces of information.

This presentation template will allow a diverse group of people take advantage of the enticing historical information. It has been created not only with text and image information but also data related to each timeline. This might be of great help for creating presentations that respond to academic or industry-specific needs.

The approach for this template is action-inspiring and allows not only speakers but also the audience to see a new de of history they might have missed before.

What should a History Powerpoint Presentation include?

A summary of main information aspects to be shared can be a high starting point. It can also include crucial points of data that can create interest in the period you will be showcasing.

You can provide a general view of what was the current situation at that point and what was influencing change. This would include relevant events, with different types of historical events reviews, and even the changes that happened per period.

Make sure you also include several types of timeline versions that can provide insights on regards of problems and needs for each period. Don't underestimate all kinds of graphs and tables to provide the most significant amount of information.

Which information can you include in a History Powerpoint Template?

Your history timeline in powerpoint can be much more than that by including:

● Significant data that can not only provide a timely development of history but as well numbers for a more robust presentation.   ● Graphics of different kinds that can be more enticing and creative around the historical storytelling you are providing.   ● Provide robust summaries for each term to ensure that there is a clear understanding of the highlights of all the narration. ● Include relevant quotes that represent the views of historians or famous historical figures.

Your timeline narration can be as compelling and surprising to your audience as you allow it to be. Make sure not to stay focus just on images or text but improve this information by making all data available to improve the understanding history. Finally, go ahead and make your history powerpoint presentation the most memorable part.

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Cassandra Good

Historian of american politics, gender & culture, historical figure presentations.

This semester in my upper-level early national and Jacksonian US class (1790-1848), I tried out an alternative to a short paper: oral presentations on historical figures which focused in on one primary source by that figure. Students chose from a list of figures I provided that would mesh well with the reading for that week, and I gave a sample presentation early in the semester to model what I was looking for. To encourage students to take notes, I gave them notetaking worksheets and explained that they could bring these to the midterm and final. They would serve as cheat sheets for short answer questions asking them what selected pairs of figures would discuss. You can skip down to the prompt , or read about pluses and minuses first.

Some big advantages of this kind of project: -it’s student-centered learning–not just a buzzword, but something the students specifically said they liked -gives students a stake in the work–some of them got really excited about the people they researched -encourages independent research and analysis of primary sources -builds public speaking skills -less grading–I filled out a rubric as they spoke and just made a few additional notes before giving a grade -created a very successful set of exam questions which drew out thoughtful and creative replies

Some challenges: -getting students to use books and scholarly articles; perhaps setting a required number would help -students often found great images of historical documents online, but if the transcription wasn’t posted with the images, they didn’t do good research to find it (esp. if it was only available in a book) -they generally copied the format of my sample talk -the biggest miss was on the supplemental images, objects or documents–they would show images, often from later eras, as illustrations but failed to analyze them

Assignment Prompt

For this assignment, you will choose one historical figure from the list of options for your chosen date and find one primary source document by or about that person. You will then craft an oral presentation that connects the person and source to that week’s theme.

Your presentation must include:

• Brief background on the life and significance of the historical figure
• One primary source document, a copy of which you can post digitally or hand out paper copies
• Two supplementary images, objects, or documents
• Analysis of your source and supplementary items in connection to the theme and reading for that week
• Visuals of some sort, via handouts or digital presentation
• Bibliography of web and scholarly sources

The presentation can take any form you would like: a powerpoint with a talk; an historical reenactment; a short film or media presentation. You may work individually or in pairs. Individual presentations should last 7-10 minutes, while those crafted by a pair should be 15 minutes.

A list of websites and databases which will be useful for locating primary sources is available on Canvas. Cite all sources. Your biography should draw from reputable scholarly sources; do not rely on websites.

You will also take notes on each presentation on a worksheet, which you will be able to bring with you to the midterm and final.

I scored the presentations based on the following:

• Presentation
• Visual Aids
• Organization
• Primary Sources and Supplements
• Knowledge of Content

Figures as options, by week :

4: Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr 5: Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Judith Sargent Murray, Phyllis Wheatley 6: James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Tecumseh 8: Nat Turner, Harriet Jacobs, William Lloyd Garrison 10: Joseph Smith, Charles Finney, John Jacob Astor, Robert Fulton 11: Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Margaret Eaton, John Ross (cherokee chief) 13: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Peabody, Emily Dickinson

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• Presentations

25 Best Free PowerPoint PPT History Presentation Templates for 2024

History repeats itself, so humans make it a point to always look to the past, hoping to learn from it. Are you searching for a history PowerPoint template to showcase historical content? We've got a selection of PPT templates for you!

Your history PPT template doesn't need to be a blast from the past. Use a modern and creative pre-built template to create the best possible presentation. A pre-built template will also allow you to avoid starting your desk from scratch. 

In this article, we'll take a look at loads of history presentation templates. We'll start with Envato Elements' premium history PowerPoint templates and GraphicRiver's history-themed PPT templates . And then, we'll explore 25 PowerPoint history templates free to download. 

Let's dive right in and find that perfect history PPT template!

Top Premium History PowerPoint Templates on Envato Elements for 2024 (Unlimited Use)

You've got the crucial task of presenting to an audience. Getting your hands on a suitable template is that critical first step. It could make or break your presentation. Take your time at this early stage and ensure you're best equipped to impress your audience.   

An Envato Elements subscription is an investment that helps improve any creative projects. Enjoy unlimited access to millions of creative assets with an active Envato Elements subscription. 

Pre-built PPT templates help you work around your limited skills and create like a pro. Best of all you don't have to spend too much time designing. Work smart and get a good head start on your projects by leaving the designing to the experts. 

Working with free history PowerPoint template backgrounds can get risky. Be aware of potential limitations and figure out if you're able to deal with them. Issues to watch out for: 

• only a background image
• limited features and having to spend a lot of time on design
• used by many others and lacks uniqueness 
• not a modern design

Do you want to test out premium templates before signing up for Envato Elements? Check out GraphicRiver's selection of best PowerPoint templates for history presentations . Test out any premium trending PPT templates with its pay-per-download model. We'll take a look at some top options from GraphicRiver in the next section. 

5 Best Premium History PowerPoint Templates on Envato Elements & GraphicRiver (for 2024)

Here are five of the best PowerPoint templates for history presentations that are trending now:

1. Diurna - Monochrome PowerPoint Template

This monochrome template helps you create a historic newspaper-style presentation. Lay out all your content and create presentations like a pro with Diurna. It's got loads of premium features like:

• infographics
• section breaks
• animated slides, and more

2. Forkisa - History PowerPoint Template

Forkisa comes with 30 unique PowerPoint slides with a high-quality handcrafted design. It's perfect for presentations that have a lot of historic images to display. Museums, businesses, or teachers who need to create a history-themed deck will find this template helpful. 

3. History PowerPoint Template

This minimalistic template has a modern fashion feel to it. Include your history-related content. Notice how this contemporary in-trend template transforms to fit it. That's the beauty of a premium minimalistic modern template. It works well for just about any topic or industry. 

4. Timeline Infographic History PPT Template

This timeline template is a game changer! It comes with over 40 slides, 49 color schemes, and animated timeline versions. Best of all, this template will equip you with horizontal and vertical templates to help you create any historical presentation.

5. Family Book - History PPT Template

Research into any family's history and display its genealogy with this premium template. Family Book comes with 16 unique fully animated slides, five color schemes, and background color versions. Preserve the history of any family with style! 

25 Top Free PowerPoint PPT History Presentation Templates Designs to Download for 2024

Did you know about Envato's monthly free offerings? It's an opportunity for anyone new to premium creative files to give it a try—at no cost. 

Here's the deal:

• Envato Elements offer 12 hand-selected creative files every month. These are files like presentations, fonts, videos, and more. Create a free account to download this month's free premium files now.  
• Envato Market offers seven new freebies every month. Website templates, WP plugins, graphics, music tracks, and more are yours to enjoy. Log in to Envato Market to get t his month's handpicked premium freebies .

It's time to dive into our selection of 25 free PowerPoint templates for history found on the internet:

1. Timeline - Free PowerPoint Templates for History

This is a single slide history PPT template free download with a horizontal timeline that covers five years. 

2. Free Famous Event in History Presentation

This is a dark blue history PPT template free download with white fonts and graphics. This template works well for historical reports or school projects.

3. Free Women's History Month Presentation

This PowerPoint history template is free to download. It comes with a line illustration of a women's face, a plant, and other abstract elements. It uses earthy tones. 

4. Free Black History Month Presentation

This template uses a colorful African motif against a contrasting background. 

5. Free Native American Heritage Month Presentation

This is a history PPT template free download that uses geometric Native American design motifs. 

6. State History Report - Free History PowerPoint Template Background

This template comes with a light background color. It's got navy and black fonts that stand out well. 

7. Timeline - PowerPoint History Template Free to Download

This is another single slide history PPT template free download with a horizontal timeline. It covers five-periods.

8. Free Irish American Heritage Month Presentation

This uses the Irish flag colors. Students creating a report on Irish American history can use this history PPT template free download.

9. Free Italian American Heritage Month Presentation

This template comes with the Italian flag colors—green, white, and red. Use it if you're a student who needs to commemorate Italian American Heritage Month. 

10. Free History Education PowerPoint Template

This history PPT template free downloads main image is a lush green grass with a historical building against a blue sky.

11. Free Day in History PowerPoint Timeline Template

This uses a free timeline generator. It's a simple timeline to present happenings of a single day on a slide. 

12. Free Periods in European History PowerPoint Timeline

This history PPT template free download is a vertical timeline, and it looks like a Gantt chart.

13. Socrates - Free History PowerPoint Template Backgrounds

Socrates is a Greek philosopher from the 5th century BCE. This template has an image of his statue and some ancient Greek buildings. 

14. Knight - PowerPoint History Template Free to Download

This template was made with warriors, wars, knights, history, battles, and education in mind. 

15. Free History Book PowerPoint Template

This uses shades of blue with an image of a book. The idea behind this is, a book is an essential element to recording the history of humanity.

16. Free Egyptian Historical Slide PowerPoint Template

This history PPT template free download uses an illustration of a camel, cactus, and a couple of pyramids. Anyone can use this template for anything relating to Egypt.  

17. Old World Map - Free Best PowerPoint Template for History Presentations

The main image of this history PPT template free download is a line world map on an old textured and colored paper.

18. Free Egyptian Pyramid Symbol PowerPoint Template

This template comes with a deep purplish-red background and an image of a pharaoh with floral elements. 

19. Free Vertical History PowerPoint Diagram

This vertical timeline uses the years to visualize the flow of time. 

20. Line Belt History PowerPoint Diagram

This uses a line belt and circles. It's a multicolored timeline and makes use of icons.

21. Flat Medical Icon - Free History PowerPoint Template Backgrounds

This template comes with one cover and two internal slides. It's got black fonts on a white background

22. Free Black History Month Template  

This history PPT template free download helps you create a Black History Month presentation with zero budget. Choose between a PowerPoint template or a Google Slides theme. 

23. Civilization -  Free Best PowerPoint Template for History Presentations  

Civilization comes with a sepia tone and uses an image of the Colosseum from Italy. This template can work on Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 and 2010. 

24. Queen - PowerPoint History Template Free to Download

This royal history PPT template free download is for students needing to present about the historic royals. It's got a red background with gold and black elements.  

25. Crown - Free PowerPoint Template for History

This has a crown image with bokeh background. This template is also for historic royal presentations by students.  

How to Edit Your History PowerPoint Template Quickly

Now that you've got your history PowerPoint template, you're ready to customize it. To help guide you thorough the customization process, we put together a simple tutorial that you can follow. 

For this tutorial, I'll be using the premium template, Forkisa .

This history PowerPoint template features a beautiful design and contains thirty unique slides. The history template ppt is fully editable uses free fonts. 

You can follow these steps for your own history PowerPoint presentation: 

1. Choose Your Slides

The first step in creating the ideal presentation is to pick the slides that work for your particular presentation. The premium history PowerPoint templates come with many slides. Not all of them will work for your presentation. Simply delete the ones you don't want to use and duplicate the ones that you want to use for more than one slide.

2. Paste in Your Text

Next, we'll add in our content.

Once you've got your text copied, double-click the text place holders on each slide and paste in your text.

3. Add in Your Images

As mentioned, history PowerPoint presentations work best with images. Most premium templates make it easy for you to add in your images.

In Forkisa, there are image placeholders. All you need to do is click the image icons. This opens up your computer folders where you can select the image that you want to add to that specific slide. 

4. Resize Elements

Once we've added in all our content, we may want to resize our elements. The images and text we've added may alter the design based on their size. So resizing may be necessary to bring the design back into balance.

To resize an element, click and drag the corner of your text and images. You can then resize your elements to where you see appropriate.

5. Add Transitions

Transitions are the final step of the editing process. They help add a professional touch to your presentations.

To add in transitions, click the Transitions tab on the top menu header. A menu bar pops up with all the transitions available to you. To preview each transition, click the Preview option on the far left hand corner of the header. Once you find the transition you like for the slide, click the specific transition and it'll be applied.

Let's now go over a few quick design tips.

5 Quick PowerPoint PPT History Presentation Slide Design Tips for 2024

Many little tips can assist you in creating impactful presentations each time. Here are five quick tips to get you on the right path:

1. Have a Mix of Dark and Light Solid Color Slides

Gone are the days where all slides in a deck had the same background color. Mix up or alternate the background colors between solid colors dark and light. It helps each slide look different and creates engaging visual effects. 

2. Add Animations to Timelines

Use animations to bring your presentation to life. Get your hands on a premium template that's got all these infographic animations taken care of. Animation helps you add sections of an infographic into the slides as you present them. This makes it easier for your audience to follow your presentation. 

Check out this tutorial to learn more about how to animate a chart: 

3. Leave Plenty of White Space

White space is unused space in a slide—not always white. Give each element on your slide enough importance by giving it ample white space. Stay away from too many images, graphics, and text on a slide to help your audience stay focused.

4. Keep It Fun With Audio and YouTube Videos

History can be a challenging subject to present. Keep things fun and engaging by using resources available online. Include a five minute audio or video to explain a complicated topic better. 

Learn how to add audio and YouTube videos in PowerPoint with these tutorials:

5. Use High-Quality Historic Graphics

Visuals are the primary design element and the focal point of slides. So, you must use appropriate photos or graphics to draw attention. 

Once you sign up for Envato Elements, you'll get unlimited access to over a million high-quality historic-themed graphics and stock photos . Use these visual assets to add that extra spice to your presentation.  

Top 5 Trends For History PowerPoint Templates

When delivering history PowerPoint presentations, it's important to keep your design up to date. To help you create a modern presentation, we've detailed the top five design trends for history PowerPoint templates:

1. Include Image Slides

Pictures are the number one way to add interest to your presentation. History PowerPoint presentations will allow you to add many images. You can dedicate whole slides for a collage of images. 

2. Use Infographics

History presentations by nature can be quite dry. Infographics really add another layer of interest to your presentations. They'll keep your audience engaged. Use infographics that help illustrate your slides content the best.

3. Showcase Timelines

Timelines are essential when you're giving a history PowerPoint presentation. Vertical and horizontal timelines work well here. You can even stretch out the timeline to many slides if there are a lot of important dates. 

4. Black & White

A black and white color scheme can work incredibly well for your history PPT template. They always look stylish and will highlight your history slides. You can even have your images be black and white as well. This will give your slides an older type vibe to them, which is desirable with history PowerPoint presentations. 

5. Use Creative Fonts

Creative fonts add more interest to your history PowerPoint templates. They give your slides a more historical feel to them and help you tell are more compelling story. Any font that looks like it's antiquated will work here. 

Need even more history template PPT? Be sure to check out the next section!

Discover More Top PowerPoint Presentation Theme Designs

Discover multipurpose PowerPoint templates that you can use for your upcoming history presentation. A good PPT template will be professional, modern, minimal, clean, and versatile enough. 

Check out the templates from these articles:

5 Benefits of Using the Best PowerPoint Presentation Templates With Pro Designs (In 2024)

Are you unsure whether you should grab a premium template, hire a graphic designer, or design your presentation yourself?

We've compiled five compelling reasons for you to simply get a premium PowerPoint template to create a great PowerPoint presentation: 

• You've got a pro presentation. The premium templates are designed by professionals. You'll always be putting your best foot forward in your presentations with a premium template.
• You save money. Hiring a graphic designer is incredibly expensive. Premium templates are a fraction of the cost and will deliver the same great quality. 
• You save yourself the headache. Designing your PowerPoint yourself is a huge time commitment. If you aren't a professional graphic designer, you might not even create an adequate design. Premium templates put a professional design in your hands right from the start. 
• You can create unique presentations. The premium template designs have plenty of creative designs. This will help trigger new ideas that you can put into your presentation. 
• You're in control. All the pro templates are fully customizable. You can change every aspect of the design that you see fit. That way you won't have to give up any control of the design. 

Benefits of Envato Elements (The Power of Unlimited Use)

Envato Elements is a unique service. It's a flat-rate subscription that includes thousands of great PPT templates for a single flat-rate price.

Sign up for Envato Elements. You'll get access to thousands of unlimited use graphics and templates. Choose from web themes to  presentation templates , and more—all for one low price. 

Common PowerPoint Questions Answered (FAQ)

Still learning Microsoft PowerPoint? You might have questions about how to work with your history PowerPoint template file in the app. Let's look at five of the most common questions and help you learn the solution to each of them: 

1. Is There a Free Version of PowerPoint?

Yes, there is! There's an online version that's free to use. But the online version doesn't have the full functionality that the full version has. To find out about those differences, check out the article below:

2. Can You Print Out Your Slides?

PowerPoint makes it very easy to print out your slides. With history template PPTs, you'll often need to print out your templates. This makes it essential to know how to do this. You can find a complete guide on how to print out your slides below: 

3. Can You Create a PowerPoint Presentation Quickly? 

Absolutely! PowerPoint presentations can be made in a blink of an eye. The Slide Master is your best friend when trying to put together a presentation quickly. For more information on how to edit templates quickly, view this article:

4. Can You Make Your Own Customizations in PowerPoint?

 PowerPoint is a very in depth piece of software. It allows you to edit every aspect of your slides. Whether you use a template or not, you'll have complete control over your presentation. For more details on how to edit your slides, view this article.

5. How Can You Share Your Presentations on Zoom?

At some point, you may have to give your PowerPoint over Zoom. It'll be essential for you to understand how to make this work. Don't worry. We've got an in depth Zoom guide for you to check out below:

Let's now take a look at how you can make exceptional PowerPoints.

Learn More About Making Great PowerPoint Presentations in 2024

How to Use PowerPoint (Ultimate Tutorial Guide) is a valuable guide for creating presentations. It's a compilation of PPT-themed how-to tutorials. This guide will help you improve your presentation decks step-by-step. 

Here are three sample tutorials:

Get a Premium History PowerPoint Template Now!

Do you urgently need the best PowerPoint templates for history presentations ? Head on over to Envato Elements. Download and use any history PowerPoint templates (or any other creative assets) with an active monthly subscription. 

But, if you need to test it out first before signing up, check out GraphicRiver's collection of PowerPoint templates for history presentations . Also, have a look at the weekly latest new designs for inspiration.

There are loads of premium options out there for you. It takes time to find the perfect template design for your history presentation. So, it's time to get started. 

Subscribe to Envato Elements today and start creating!

Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Daniel Strongin . Daniel   is a freelance instructor for Envato Tuts+.

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How to Do Research Into a Historical Figure

Last Updated: February 26, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by Emily Listmann, MA . Emily Listmann is a Private Tutor and Life Coach in Santa Cruz, California. In 2018, she founded Mindful & Well, a natural healing and wellness coaching service. She has worked as a Social Studies Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and an SAT Prep Teacher. She received her MA in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 2014. Emily also received her Wellness Coach Certificate from Cornell University and completed the Mindfulness Training by Mindful Schools. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 12,819 times.

Researching a historical figure involves looking for primary sources that were written by that person, like autobiographies and memoirs. Primary sources can also include observations that figure made about their world. In addition to reading what they wrote or said firsthand, it’s also important to find secondary sources, or things other people said about them. These can include people who lived at the same time as the figure you’re interested in, or scholars who have studied them more recently. Between the internet and your local library or university, it’s easy to find plenty of information about the figure you’re interested in, whether you’re doing research for a class or just for fun.

Searching for Information Online

• In addition, you can find audio, video, software, archived webpages, digital images, and other cultural artifacts from recent history.
• You can find the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/ .

• If you’re living outside the U.S., you can search for the website of your nation’s archives for more information about what records and documents are available and how to access them.
• You can find the US Library Congress website at https://www.loc.gov/ .
• You can find the US National Archives website at https://www.archives.gov/ .

• For example, there are particular encyclopedias that offer information on art and artists, different ones for philosophers, for political figures, and so on.
• Check out your local university library’s website for lists of reliable encyclopedias and databases organized by subject. [4] X Research source
• You can also look at a university’s history department website for links to online resources that are useful for historical research, as well as for guidelines with more helpful tips about conducting research. [5] X Research source
• If you’re a student, you will most likely have access to a wide variety of online databases and encyclopedia. If you’re not a student, you’ll still be able to access many open-access resources, and you’ll be able to find titles of sources that might be helpful.
• Consult a librarian if you find a title that you can’t access but seems important for your research.

• For example, if you’re researching Pablo Picasso, a simple Google search will return far too many results, and many will be unreliable. Once you’ve learned even a little bit about him, you can use an online archive or art database to search for his most famous paintings.
• Once you know the titles of some of his paintings, you can find out which museum collections they belong to, and find more information about the individual artwork and the artistic movements it represents at the museum’s website.
• Each step in the process will help you refine your search terms, helping you track down better and better sources.
• Be careful when using regular search engines or Wikipedia. Both can give you some basic information and can help you refine the search terms you use on more specialized databases. Looking at the sources referenced on Wikipedia pages can also be helpful, but neither regular search engines or Wikipedia on their own are reliable for serious scholarly research.

Using and Evaluating the Best Sources

• For example, if you're researching Thomas Jefferson, pay attention to how his writings communicate which values he thought most important to establishing the United States. Pay attention to repeated words or phrases, and notice when he discusses people from his era and from farther back in the past. Take note of those people and ideas he discusses most favorably.
• If you're evaluating something someone else wrote about your historical figure, ask what kind of argument the writer is trying to make. Are they celebrating the figure, is their tone negative, or is the account objective and balanced? Why did the author take the time to write the article or book you're reading?
• Sometimes, what someone chooses not to include in a piece of writing is more revealing than what’s actually included. Familiarize yourself with your historical figure's timeline, and look for key events they didn't discuss in a memoir.

• Autobiographies and memoirs, which are what your historical person wrote about their own life, are important examples of primary sources.
• You should absolutely read autobiographies and memoirs, but remember that they are first-person accounts. These can sometimes less reliable and less objective than biographies written by an outside observer or scholar about your historical figure.

• Look to historical timelines in encyclopedias or textbooks to get an idea of important events that happened during your figure’s life or around the place where they lived.

• If you've found a solid academic article about your historical figure, check its endnotes for a good, authoritative list of resources. Cross-checking to find which sources cite each other is an easy way to build up a list of books and articles that scholars find most valuable.
• Remember to consider why the author has written the source. Find a key sentence, or thesis, that states what an article's argument is. Read and understand a book's introduction to see if the author has sketched their book's arguments.

Getting Help at Your Local Library or University

• Your local library is typically the best place to look for newspaper archives for your city or state.
• Many university libraries also have links to archived American periodicals, including major newspapers. These can be helpful when researching a specific event that might have involved your historical figure. [8] X Research source
• Most libraries now offer easy-to-use searchable databases, but consult your local librarian if you need help tracking down an archival periodical.

• Try saying, "Hello, I'm doing some research on Pablo Picasso, and I was hoping you could show me how to search the library for an art history text book about modern art."
• Ask the librarian if they have knowledge about your historical figure or their historical era. Ask them, "Would you happen to have any expertise or interest in Thomas Jefferson, or maybe you might know of someone on staff who does? If so, maybe you could help me go with the most authoritative sources?"
• A local librarian might also be able to put you in touch with nearby scholars or historians with expertise on the figure you’re researching. Ask them if they have any contacts who are professors or teachers in the relevant field.

• The department website will most likely list faculty emails, or a general email for the department. Write a quick email and say, "Hi there, I've been conducting research on Pablo Picasso and saw that you teach a class at the university about him. I have some questions about some letters and journal entries he wrote, and am curious about how these personal experiences might have influenced his painting.
• Ask in your email, "I would so appreciate a conversation if you're available, and hope you might be able to point me in the direction of a good source on how his life events found their way into his art."
• Try to demonstrate that you've already done a little reading by asking specific questions about particular events or theories involving your historical figure.
• Ask if it’s okay to visit during their office hours, if they might have time to answer some questions over a coffee, or if asking them questions via phone or email would be best.
• Even though professors and other local experts can be busy, they’re generally eager to talk about the people or topics they’ve study. Whether you’re a student or not, they will most likely be excited to hear that someone has a deep interest in their area of specialty.

• Check out course listings to see if any are dedicated to your specific figure. Enroll in individual courses for credit, or audit them if getting course credit isn’t important. Consult your local institution’s website for more specific information on admissions, enrollment, and auditing classes.
• If there are no classes that focus on your historical person, then look for survey classes that deal with the figure’s time period or whatever relevant historical movements that involve them.
• Getting in touch with the professor and asking them to sit in on a particular class session or two can help you save money and time.
• For example, if you’re not interested in or don’t have time for an entire course on early twentieth-century art, but know there will be a couple lectures on Picasso, ask the professor teaching the course if it’s possible to sit in on the lecture. Get in touch with professors or students in your social network who might be knowledgeable about classes that deal with your area of research interest.

Expert Q&A

• After you research a historical figure, apply what you've learned by doing a project about the person. For example, you could write a piece of historical fiction about the person, or create a timeline of their life. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• When you're researching a historical figure, also do some research about the time period and events that the person lived through. Understanding the world and culture the person lived in can help you better understand them. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• When researching a historical figure always say where you got your information from. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://archive.org
• ↑ https://www.loc.gov/
• ↑ https://www.archives.gov/
• ↑ http://guides.library.harvard.edu/sb.php ?
• ↑ http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/history/resources/links.html
• ↑ http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/may98/effective-use-of-search-engines-5987
• ↑ https://library.uncw.edu/guides/finding_primary_sources

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Home — Blog — Topic Ideas — Captivating History Presentation Ideas to Engage Your Audience

Captivating History Presentation Ideas to Engage Your Audience

Introduction

When it comes to delivering a history presentation, incorporating creative and engaging ideas can make all the difference in captivating your audience. Whether it's a school project, a celebration of Black History Month , Women's History Month, or simply showcasing your family's legacy, we have compiled a list of exciting history presentation ideas that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. Let's dive into the fascinating world of historical storytelling!

• Incorporate Multimedia Elements: Enhance your history presentation with multimedia elements such as images, videos, and audio clips. Visual aids not only make your presentation visually appealing but also help reinforce the historical context, making the information easier to remember. (Reference: University of Michigan - Center for Research on Learning and Teaching )
• Interactive Timeline: Create an interactive timeline that showcases key events, significant figures, and historical milestones. You can use digital tools or traditional poster boards to present the timeline, allowing your audience to visualize the chronological progression of historical events. (Reference: Education World - Interactive Timelines: A Powerful Tool for Student Projects )
• Role-Play and Reenactment: Bring history to life by incorporating role-play and reenactment. Encourage your classmates or family members to portray historical figures and act out important scenes, making the presentation immersive and memorable. (Reference: Scholastic - Teach the Way They Learn: Role-Playing as a Teaching Tool )
• Historical Artifacts Display: If possible, include authentic or replicas of historical artifacts related to your topic. For example, if you are looking for black history month presentation ideas, you can display items that represent the culture and accomplishments of prominent African American figures throughout history. (Link: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)
• Personal Connections: For family history presentation ideas, use personal stories and anecdotes to connect emotionally with your audience. By sharing family traditions, tales of resilience, and ancestral accomplishments, you can have a fascinating and touching experience. (Reference: FamilySearch - Connecting Generations: Capturing Stories and Memories )
• Engaging Quizzes and Games: Incorporate quizzes, trivia, or interactive games to make the presentation enjoyable and educational. Challenge your audience's knowledge of historical facts and events while fostering a fun learning environment. (Reference: TeachHub - Using Quizzes in the Classroom )
• Creative Storytelling: Craft your history presentation as a compelling narrative. By storytelling, you can unfold the historical events in a way that captures the attention of your audience, leaving them eager to learn more. (Reference: TED-Ed - The Art of Storytelling )
• Collaborative Projects: If you need middle school history presentation ideas, consider teaming up with classmates for collaborative projects. Working together can encourage creativity and allow you to delve deeper into different aspects of the story. In addition, such experience can be useful for many high school students, since admissions committees often pay attention to the experience of applicants in joint research work when entering colleges. (Reference: Ed utopia - The Power of Project-Based Learning )
• Diversity and Inclusion: When discussing women's history month presentation ideas, you can celebrate the contributions of women from different walks of life and cultures. Highlight their achievements in various fields by raising awareness and recognizing the role of women in history. (Reference: National Women's History Museum )
• Embrace Technology: Explore the use of modern technology like augmented reality or virtual reality to create an immersive historical experience. This cutting-edge approach can transport your audience to significant historical moments. (Reference: EdSurge - Augmented Reality in Education: Bringing Learning to Life )

By incorporating these history presentation ideas, you can transform a traditional lecture into an engaging and memorable experience. Whether you're celebrating historical milestones, family heritage, or the achievements of underrepresented groups, these creative approaches will undoubtedly make your presentation stand out and leave a lasting impact on your audience. Happy presenting!

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GOAL: The point of your talk is to share your research paper’s thesis and your arguments in support of it. Obviously, you cannot discuss everything that your paper covers – just as you cannot discuss everything in your paper that your research uncovers.

THE CRITERIA FOR THE PRESENTATION:

• clarity of thesis
• organization and development of the argument
• introduction, argument’s main points, and conclusion
• historical detail and accuracy
• delivery (eye contact, posture, movements, voice, pronunciation, grammar)
• adherence to the time limit

THE INTRODUCTION:

• The presentation must have a clear introduction that explains what your talk will be about. It should make clear how your talk will be organized and your main points.
• It is almost impossible for an introduction to be too explicit in its explanation of your topic, thesis, and organization. Do not be afraid to list, for instance, the four main points of your argument.

THE BODY OF THE PRESENTATION:

• The supporting arguments for the thesis presented in your introduction must be clearly organized and carefully and explicitly (if briefly) explained.
• Assume that your audience is smart, but completely unfamiliar with your topic. Remember that your listeners cannot “reread” your talk in order to understand parts that you do not make clear.
• The audience has only your quickly passing spoken words to help understand your presentation, so your organization and your explanations must be more explicit than in your paper and must use organization and content appropriate to a talk, not to a paper.
• For example, explain in your introduction that you will discuss four points; list them. As you reach each during your talk, announce that you are now on point one. “Too obvious” is not a phrase often associated with oral presentations.

THE CONCLUSION:

• You should reiterate the key points of your presentation.
• You should discuss the direction that future research should take.
• You should come up with a clear, structured ending.

VISUAL AIDS:

Do not forget that what is clear and simple to you will likely be complex and confusing to your audience; your audience may benefit from a visual aid.

Use visual aids or handouts to illustrate your points—or perhaps use the blackboard, either at the outset for reference or during the talk for explanation/emphasis.  [This visual aid could just be a map, chronology, picture or photograph of the person/topic/event being studied.]  Bear in mind, however, these points:

• Make sure all aids looked “professional.”  Sloppy, marginally relevant, materials are worse than none at all.
• If handouts (or other visual aids) are not brief and easy to read, your audience will be reading rather than listening.
• Never use a visual aid without telling listeners when to refer to it (e.g., “As you can see on the handout” and “As the diagram on the board demonstrates”). A quick nod in the direction of the board or at a handout is not sufficient.
• If you do use PowerPoint, remember that it should augment your presentation, not BE the presentation.
• Do a practice run in the room with the computer ahead of time.
• Bring the presentation on multiple formats (CD-ROM, USB Flash Key, email attachment).

OTHER SUGGESTIONS:

• Do not write out your presentation verbatim. You should use carefully constructed note cards. Many professors will require you to turn the note cards in immediately after your talk.
• If the classroom is available–as it usually is on weekends and most evenings–use it for practice sessions.
• You should take advantage of the various resources that the  Speaking Center  can provide.
• You will feel more nervous that you look.
• Remember that you have an understanding audience, one that is going through the same things you are.
• Also remember that this assignment is a learning exercise; you are NOT expected to be flawless; you are expected to be new at this process. In other words, this presentation is no different from your graded written assignments. It is a learning exercise to help you do better in future presentations.

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Current AMA: Dr. Maurice J Casey

The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive, or they will be removed.

What makes a good history presentation?

I have my first real presentation on a historical topic this Thursday (specifically the depiction of the Galatians in books 37 and 38 of Livy). Regardless of the subject, this has led me to the question: what makes a good presentation to each of you? What can a presenter do to make you want to hear what he or she has to say, even if you know nothing about the topic? Conversely, what is it that just bores you to tears and makes you wait for the talk to be over?

Personally, I find presentations impossible to follow and essentially pointless if I don't have at least a fundamental grasp of the basics of what is being discussed. As a listener I like to approach presentations quite critically and decide for myself whether I agree or disagree with the presenter's conclusions; but if I'm not provided with a clear introduction to the topic, I can get lost in arguments and details pretty quickly.

What about you? How do you think someone can make a presentation on history more accessible and interesting?

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How to Give a Twenty Minute Oral Presentation

Getting organized….

• Organize your major points on a page or a page and a half of paper.
• Type all quotations (or xerox them) on separate pieces of paper so you can find them at the appropriate time.
• Prepare a transparency or multiple copies for the class if you have special maps, a chronology, technical terms, or illustrations that everyone should see.

When you begin…

• Start out with a strong, clear thesis of what your presentation is all about.
• Make sure you have a limited number of major points which you stress, and illustrate.
• Have a sense of how long you will take by practicing before a mirror or an available roommate.

As you start to write…

• Remember that you will know more than you put down on paper. Try for a limit of ten pages (which is more difficult than fifty!).
• Begin with a substantive statement of the topic/problem you are dealing with.
• End with a summary, with questions that are left unanswered, with a new thought that you would like to pursue. The end of your paper should be as strong and interesting as the beginning.
• Use standard footnote procedures. Jacques Barzun and Henry Graffís The Modern Researcher or Kate Turabianís Manual will serve as references. You may use anthropological style (Author, year of publication: page number) if you organize your bibliography properly: Author. Year. Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.
• Footnotes and bibliography may be at the end; however, footnotes that explain something in the text should be at the bottom of that page. So, if the major notes are at the end, and something in the text needs explaining, use a symbol in the text, * for instance, and place the explanation at the bottom of the page.
• Proofread. No “A” paper can be sloppy, full of typos and misspellings.

– Eleanor Zelliot

See also: How to Lead a Class Discussion

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Teaching Resources

How to Teach Historical Figures: A Step-by-Step Guide

History is not just a collection of dates, events, and facts. It’s a story of people, their struggles, achievements, and impact on the world. Historical figures are the central characters of this story, whose contributions have shaped our society and culture. Teaching kids about historical figures is a great way to connect them to the past, give them role models to look up to, and help them develop a love for history. However, teaching kids about historical figures can be challenging, especially if they are too young to understand complex ideas and concepts. In this blog post, we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to teach historical figures to kids in a fun and engaging way.

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Choose the Historical Figure

The first step in teaching kids about historical figures is to choose an appropriate figure that interests them. You can ask them what kind of person they would like to learn about, or you can introduce them to some famous historical figures and let them choose. Make sure that the figure you choose is appropriate for the age and maturity level of the child. You can use books, online resources, videos, and podcasts to find information on historical figures.

Introduce the Historical Figure

Once you have chosen the historical figures, you need to introduce them to the child. You can start with some basic information like their name, where and when they lived, and what they are famous for. Use pictures, videos, and stories to engage the child and make the learning process fun. You can also use props like costumes and artifacts to create a more realistic and immersive experience.

Discuss the Historical Figure’s Contributions

The next step is to discuss the historical figure’s contributions to society and culture. This is where you can discuss the impact they had on their time and how their work has influenced the world. You can use examples, stories, and games to help the child understand complex ideas and concepts. For example, if you are teaching about Abraham Lincoln, you can discuss the Emancipation Proclamation and its impact on slavery in the United States.

Connect the Historical Figure to the Child’s Life

The final step is to connect the historical figure to the child’s life. This is where you can discuss how the figure’s contributions have affected the child’s life and how they can apply the lessons they have learned to their own lives. You can also discuss how the historical figure faced challenges and overcame them, and how the child can do the same in their own life. This will help the child understand the relevance of history and feel more connected to it.

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If you’re short on time or want some  ready-made lesson plans , check out our  social studies curriculum . It’s a great way to add social studies to your class without all the hassle.

How to teach historical figures to kids

Finding fun ways to teach historical figures to kids is important to their education and personal growth. Following these steps can make the learning process fun, engaging, and relevant to the child’s life. Remember to choose appropriate historical figures, use engaging tools and resources, and connect the lessons to the child’s life. By doing this, you will help the child develop a love for history and a respect for the contributions of historical figures.

For More Ideas, Visit These Posts!

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Biography of a Historical Figure

In this activity, activity overview, template and class instructions, more storyboard that activities, this activity is part of many teacher guides, use this lesson plan with your class.

Not only is creating a poster fun, it's also a helpful way for students to highlight the most important aspects of a historical figure alongside visuals. Biography posters can be used as final assessments or to supplement a further research and presentation project. This project does require students to do additional research, but is easy to fit into any history unit!

Using one of the templates or starting from scratch on the poster layout, students will build up a profile of their chosen figure. Depending on requirements or complexity, students can add timelines to their posters. However, the wide variety of characters, scenes, and items makes it very easy for students to customize their project to fit any guidelines.

Find more biography poster templates to add to this assignment if desired!

(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)

Student Instructions

Create a biography poster detailing the life of your chosen or assigned historical figure.

• Gather important facts & information about your figure.
• Click "Start Assignment".
• Select appropriate scenes, characters, textables, & other items to create your poster.

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 6-12

Difficulty Level 3 (Developing to Mastery)

Type of Assignment Individual

Type of Activity: Biographies

(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric .)

How to Assess Biographical Profiles for Historical Understanding

Introduction to assessment criteria.

Begin the lesson by introducing students to the assessment criteria for evaluating biographical profiles for historical understanding. Explain that they will be learning how to assess the completeness, accuracy, and depth of biographical profiles.

Discussion and Analysis

Guide students in a discussion and analysis of the assessment criteria: Completeness: Discuss what makes a biographical profile complete, including the inclusion of key life events, contributions, and historical context. Provide examples of thorough and incomplete profiles. Accuracy: Emphasize the importance of accurate historical facts and details. Discuss how students can verify the accuracy of their sources and information. Depth: Explore the concept of depth in biographical profiles, including the depth of analysis, insights, and connections made to the historical context. Show examples of profiles with varying levels of depth.

Applying Assessment Criteria

Engage students in applying the assessment criteria to evaluate sample biographical profiles: Provide Sample Profiles: Distribute or display sample biographical profiles of historical figures, some meeting the criteria effectively and others with room for improvement. Group Assessment: Divide students into small groups and assign each group a sample profile to evaluate using the assessment criteria. Group Discussion: Encourage group discussions where students share their evaluations and discuss what aspects of the profiles met the criteria and what could be enhanced.

Self-Assessment and Peer Review

Conclude the lesson by having students engage in self-assessment and peer review: Self-Assessment: Ask students to revisit their own biographical profiles of historical figures and use the assessment criteria to evaluate their work objectively. Peer Review: Pair students to exchange their profiles and provide constructive feedback to each other based on the assessment criteria. Reflection: Facilitate a class discussion where students reflect on the assessment process, share insights gained, and discuss how they can apply the criteria to improve their future biographical profiles.

Frequently Asked Questions about History - Biography Poster

How do i choose a historical figure for my biography project.

Choosing a historical figure for your biography project involves several considerations. First, select someone who genuinely interests you. A personal connection to the subject can make the research and presentation process more engaging. Second, think about the availability of research materials. Ensure there is enough credible information about the figure to create a comprehensive biography. Finally, consider the figure's significance and impact on history. Focus on individuals who played pivotal roles, made groundbreaking contributions, or left a lasting legacy. By combining personal interest with research feasibility and historical importance, you can make an informed choice for your biography project.

How can storyboards enhance the presentation of a historical figure's life in a biography project?

Storyboards serve as powerful visual aids that can significantly enhance the presentation of a historical figure's life in a biography project. They provide a structured and visually engaging way to organize key events, milestones, and accomplishments in a chronological sequence. Storyboards allow you to incorporate images, illustrations, and captions to complement your written content, making the biography more engaging and accessible to your audience. The visual nature of storyboards can help convey the historical figure's story more effectively, making it easier for viewers to connect with and remember the information presented. This visual storytelling approach can make your biography project more captivating and memorable.

Are there specific storyboard templates or formats tailored for creating biographical storyboards?

Yes, there are various storyboard templates and formats available that can be adapted for creating biographical storyboards. Many online platforms and software tools offer customizable templates designed for educational purposes. These templates often include sections for images, captions, and text, making it easier to structure your biography visually. Additionally, you can create your own custom storyboard layout by dividing your presentation into key sections or chapters, each dedicated to different aspects of your historical figure's life. Regardless of the format you choose, it's important to ensure that your storyboard flows logically and effectively conveys the story of the individual you're profiling. Tailoring the format to suit your project's specific needs can make your biographical storyboard a compelling and informative visual resource.

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