Part 1, the presentation, is the section many students prepare lengthily for and yet still find extremely difficult. Why? Because there so much you can say, but don’t know HOW to say.

In this blog we cover some ways to structure your Planning Sheet and your Presentation so you can focus on improving your ideas and conversational fluency, NOT worry about whether you included what you needed to include.

The Planning Sheet

Many students prepare for the presentation but not for the planning sheet.

For Ab initio and SL students, there is 15 minutes planning time and 20 minutes for HL students. If this section is the same regardless of the image, then optimising your time here is CRUCIAL.

Working out a structure that works for you – i.e. something that allows you to maximise the information you can gather from the image and form analysis on – will significantly improve the quality of your presentation.

Basic IB Individual Oral Planning Sheet Structure

INTRODUCTION: SAS + Theme

Given the difficulty and limited time of the IO, students often forget to mention the focal point of the image. Sometimes, they even forget to mention what is happening in the image.

By including Subject-Action-Setting (SAS), it’s highly unlikely you’ll miss anything majorly important, thus enabling to you to analyse further details later on.

It is important to also mention the theme (which will be provided to you) here and WHY the image is related (briefly) to said theme. This will create a nice foundation for the juicy analysis to come.

THEMES AND TOPICS + Vocab

This section is particularly useful when scrambling for ideas mid-sentence as well as for idea-formation.

Here you should aim to write down key vocab and any themes that you think the picture contains. This can be pretty far-fetched so long as you can justify how those themes or ideas relate to the image.

Working out what vocabulary you may need not only forces you to remember real-world examples that may also be relevant (whether that be from your own research or from class) but it also helps remember any vocab associated with those examples!

IMPLICATIONS

This section is probably THE most important (though all sections are arguably equally important).

If you remember from earlier, one of the main purposes of the IO is to test your ability to think critically and globally and through your ability to ‘compare and contrast’. Without answering atleast some of the prompts in this section, it may be very difficult to score – even – mediocrely in the IO.

This section also requires the most creative thinking.

Start with a theme and real-world example and keep asking WHY.

E.g. Robot cutting vegetables in the kitchen ➡ WHY ➡ could be useful for families, elderly, those with disabilities ➡ WHY ➡ more economical, doesn’t require human assistance.

Then add an ALSO + AND/HOWEVER to seamlessly link to a compare and contrast.

ALSO, Japan has an aging population ➡ HOWEVER, Australia does not.

ALSO, I haven’t seen these types of robots in Australia ➡ HOWEVER, I have seen robot waiters here.

Make sure to bring it back to a global implication with a THEREFORE. 

THEREFORE, I think robot technology can be really useful as it can help those with young children, the elderly, or the disabled, and Australia should consider implementing these kinds of robots too (or smth like that!)

Basic IB Individual Oral Structure

The IO itself does not have NOR require a rigid structure. Hence, you should aim to develop your ideas through the notes from your planning sheet before your presentation but not worry about the structure of how you will say those ideas.

The latter becomes a judge of your Japanese communication skills and hence, should be developed separately through regular conversation practice.

However, we understand just how much students love STRUCTURE and so we’ve prepared the below guide.

Introduction:

SAS + Theme

Analysis points:

1. Broad statement この写真に 写って（うつって）いるのは。。。。です。
2. Example from picture
3. Link to theme/concept (food, identity, family, education, experience, etc)
4. (Expand)
5. Link to Australia/you.
6. Repeat steps 2-5.

Conclusion:

A concluding sentence summarising what you already spoken about regarding ‘implications’ of the image.

Wanna keep learning more?