Statesmanship Club: Public Speaking | American Youth Leadership ...

?The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.? ~Roscoe Drummond
Sometimes our imagination of standing in public and speaking is a lot worse than reality. The saying goes that most people would rather be in the casket at a funeral than delivering the eulogy. The truth is that just like reading, or learning a sport, or anything else, PRACTICE is what makes things easier. When teaching public speaking, you don?t need to give lecture after lecture on form, style, stance, etc. with one or two culminating speeches given by the students. Instead, give short lecture time on one or two skills and then let the students practice. Every student needs to practice, not just the ones jumping out of their chairs.

I have taken classes and workshops to improve my own skills and have tried different methods in teaching public speaking with my own students. I would like to share some of the things I have found to be very helpful. First, variety in topics and trying different delivery styles has been very helpful for me and for my students in finding what works best for each of us and what we are most comfortable with.

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As a general rule, we keep most of our speeches to a two-minute time limit. I do this so that all students have a chance to speak every week. At first, two-minutes seem difficult for some students to fill, but by the end of a few months, students are having a hard time keeping their speeches to just two minutes. The two-minute time limit also helps them to really narrow down what their message is. The Gettysburg Address was only 2 min 10 seconds long, yet very profound because it had a message.

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Another general rule, we don?t use paper. When the students have speeches to prepare ahead of time, I encourage them to write it out or make an outline, but since the speeches are only two minutes long, I tell them there is no reading. They can use a small note card if absolutely necessary. I also tell them not to memorize a speech word for word. They need to know it well so it flows, but not memorize it because when you memorize and then get nervous, you could forget the last half of the speech. It is much easier to just have a card with some bullet points.

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We usually start with subjects everyone is familiar with: themselves. Students can deliver a variety of topics about themselves from what their favorite activities are, and why, to describing their last family vacation. Starting with these type subjects makes everyone feel more at ease and draws the students closer together as they get to know each other. This really helps to build a safe environment for students to experiment with getting out of their comfort zones. These subjects also help students get familiar with storytelling, a valuable skill for an orator.

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So keeping the lectures short, I usually start with a simple speech format of three parts for an informative speech: Intro (get attention-?tell us what you?re going to say), body (say it), conclusion (tell us what you said). Then they have a week to go home and choose something to inform us about. I let them choose the topic since they really need to know what they are talking about in order to give an informative speech. Then we start the next week with their speeches, give feedback, and then move on to another short lecture expanding on the format (or introducing a different format such as a persuasive speech would have) to talk about various ways to do just the introduction part of the speech- perhaps give them some examples. Then make the assignment for the following week?s speech. They can choose their topic, but they need to begin with a quote, a very short story, a statistic, etc. You may want to have them practice telling a joke and learning timing in class. You can just hand out jokes and have them read them ahead and then try to deliver them. Jokes are something that are difficult for many people.

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A fun way to learn how to put feeling into what they are saying is to have the students choose an emotion out of a hat and then repeat the abc?s or a short nursery rhyme using that emotion and see if the audience can guess what the emotion is. If this is too intimidating for some, you could have two or more students do the same emotion at the same time just saying the rhyme in unison.

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I like to vary?things between prepared speeches they bring to class and impromptu speeches they only have a few minutes to prepare. The impromptu speeches can be fun to play the snap game with once the students are familiar enough with each other to have it be more fun and nerve racking. The snap game is played by dividing the group in half (teams A & B). A member of team A chooses two or three impromptu topics out of a hat putting the two s/he does not want back in. S/he then has 3 minutes to prepare a speech. At the end of the three minutes a member of team B makes their impromptu topic choice and leaves the room to prepare. Team A member then gives their impromptu speech to team B. Team B listens carefully to the speech and snaps every time they hear a filler word such as ?uuh or ?umm or ?like? etc. The teacher keeps track of how many snaps (and if they are warranted). The score is then given to Team A. Then everything is repeated for Team B. At the end of everyone giving a speech, the team with the lowest score wins!

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Here are a few ideas for impromptu topics: Tell us your favorite fable; Tell us about your last trip to the dentist; which is better? Peanut butter or lunch meat?; Tell us about your favorite hero; Should teens be given a bedtime?; What is your favorite book and why?; Should the amount of TV watching in a home be limited?; Which is more enjoyable, watching a play or being in a play?; Wheat or white?; What is the worst book you ever read?; Which would you prefer to go barefoot in, grass or mud?; Tell us about your last trip to a store; which is more enjoyable, doing math or writing an essay?

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When they have something to prepare at home, I usually let them choose the topic with some restrictions such as?prepare a speech to teach us how to do something (this is great if you are teaching how to use props in a speech); prepare a speech about a career you are interested in pursuing; prepare a speech about one of your heroes; prepare a speech to persuade us to do something; prepare a speech to sell us a product. The possibilities are endless.

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I have now given you a few of the ideas that I have tried and found to be helpful. Please feel free to share your ideas on this blog too. I would love to hear from you. When we all pool our ideas it makes for a great community and everyone benefits.

Thank you!

Renae Dyer

Source: http://ayli.org/2012/08/06/statesmanship-club-public-speaking/

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