Rehearsing and Delivering Our Speech Projects

EQ: Why and how a writer prepares for a speech. Delivering an original speech. Common Core Standard:

• Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
• Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

Well, that's why we're doing this. But how do we get better at speaking in public? Watch these brief videos, take notes in your journal, then prepare your speeches for our performances today.

• Public Speaking Tips
• Body Posture
• be a confident speaker

You have the rest of period 3 to rehearse. During period 4 we will come back to 238 and perform/evaluate our performers! Please:

• Volunteer
• Turn in your speech after you perform. I need a copy to grade you.
• Deliver your speech: keeping in mind the tips we have covered in class!
• While the performer delivers his/her speech, please evaluate the speaker on the rubric.
• Turn in your rubric at the end of class today for each speaker!

NOTE: If you did not deliver your speech today, you will deliver your speech Thursday. Please make sure you are prepared to speak on Thursday!

HOMEWORK: Rehearse! Prepare your public speech!

Preparing Your Speech; Tips for Rehearsing

Please watch the following two videos. Be prepared to discuss what you've learned with a partner after viewing.

Tips for Rehearsing Your Speech

• Presentation Skill Tips
• Speech Rehearsal Tips

In the lab, please print out a copy of your speech (you should have finished it by now). Get into a small group of 2-3 people. Find a space in one of the two rooms and read/perform your speech for your audience.

In about twenty minutes, I will ask you to change/shift groups. Please go to your new groups and read/perform your speech.

After another twenty minutes we will switch again. Read or perform your speech as many times as possible.

With the last 20 minutes please prepare your speech for performance Tuesday.

To do this, follow these procedures:

1. Cut out your speech and adhere or fix it to index cards. 
2. Memorize your key points or topic sentences.
3. Mark, underline, highlight important details in your speech.
4. Rehearse your speech. Go over and over it so that you are comfortable with what you have to say and how you transition between each speaker.
5. Volunteers will go first, then random selection.  

REMEMBER: Effective performance is based on a few things:

• 1. Preparation (rehearsal) -- knowing what you are saying and why.
• 2. Voice (how you sound: volume, pacing, pitch, tone, elocution, and appropriateness of voice)
• 3. Character (how you portray a character both vocally and physically)
• 4. Energy
• 5. Making choices. A good performer makes deliberate choices about voice, character, energy, tone, and rehearses these choices to deliver a solid performance.

HOMEWORK: Rehearse your speech for your performance Tuesday. Be prepared to deliver your speech next class!

Wait Until Dark Field Trip

We are attending a field trip to Geva to see Wait Until Dark. If you have been left behind, please use the time to catch up on your creative writing classes.

HOMEWORK: None.

Public Speaking; Conclusions

After completing and discussing our notes from last class, please return to the lab to fine-tune and polish your speech. Please be prepared to print out and share your speech with others as you begin practicing for your performance.

Once you are done writing your speech, find at least 2 other students and share your speech with them by "performing it" to them. Each person you share with should provide commentary on your worksheet. Turn in your worksheet with your partners' comments to me along with a draft of your speech at the end of class today.

A few tips on writing conclusions:

• A summary is a popular method for closing a speech. Usually, in a summary you want to restate your purpose or thesis and cover the MAIN points of your speech. "As you can see...", "In summary...", "To conclude...", "It is important to remember...", etc.
• Your conclusion may also create a strong anecdote (story), analogy, or simile. You can use this in combination with the summary ending style: "As you can see, X is to Y, as [topic] is to [main point]", or "Like X is to Y, it is important to remember that...", etc.
• An emotionally charged or idealized statement may be a great way to end your speech.
• Leave your audience with a startling or effective image.
• You may conclude your speech with a call to action. Ex. "Let us not just sit here listening to this speech, but take these points and do something valuable with them...", "As I conclude my speech, I want to urge all of you to...", "Act now!"
• It is polite to thank the audience at the conclusion of your speech.

How to Write a Speech Conclusion

HOMEWORK: Complete your draft of your speech and be prepared to work and rehearse it Friday. Next class, please come directly down to the commons 3rd period to attend our field trip to Geva. Please bring a bagged lunch and dress appropriately for walking to the theater.

Guest Speaker; Benefits of Speaking Publicly

We have a guest speaker today from Geva. Please welcome her and participate in the workshop.

EQ: Why learn to publicly speak?

• Oral communication skills are useful (and required) in public and business careers.
• Getting hired requires you to speak effectively and skillfully to others.
• Learning the process of creating and delivering a speech gives a person more confidence.
• Learning to write and deliver speeches helps develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.
• Learning to write and deliver speeches helps a person build better verbal and nonverbal skills.
• Public speaking skills help you communicate and influence your world.
• Public speaking builds leadership skills.
• Delivering a speech helps you overcome a fear of public speaking.

Toastmasters Video

Want to compete in speaking? Talk to Ms. Gamzon about joining the speech and debate club.

Last class you were asked to:

1. identify a subject on which to write a speech.
2. identify a PURPOSE for your speech (do you want to inform, persuade, or entertain?)
3. create a THESIS for your speech
4. research your topic/subject and support your thesis
5. write an outline for your speech
6. write the first draft of a speech

Before we go any further, please watch this video on the subject:
How to Write an Effective Speech

When we write a speech prepare to do a little research on your topic. Make sure you write down and note the source (title, webpage, author, etc.) so that you can refer back to it. You MUST give credit to ideas that are not yours! This is citation, and is expected in formal, academic, and non-fiction writing.

Ideas on how to create an effective opening introduction:

• How to gain the audiences attention, arouse interest, and excite the curiosity of your listeners:
• Refer to the purpose. Why are you speaking? 
• Compliment the audience (if appropriate)
• Open with a story or anecdote
• Refer to current events or a recent incident familiar to your audience
• Use a quotation and a brief explanation how the quote connects to your topic/subject
• Open with a creative idea or striking statement that makes listeners curious
• Ask a pertinent and challenging RHETORICAL question. (Don't expect your audience to answer!)
• Combine these techniques in various ways.

With time remaining today, please go to the lab and polish your introduction.

HOMEWORK: Please read the handout materials/packet for the play Wait Until Dark. Make sure you turn in your permission slips to attend the field trip by tomorrow: Friday, September 19! If you have not written a first draft of a speech, please complete this assignment for next class. We will be writing conclusions, practicing and workshopping our speeches next class!

Workshop/Peer Review; Introductory Speech Prep

EQ: After our workshop, we are going to brainstorm topics for a speech, create a thesis for our speech, and begin writing our speech in the lab.

Watch this video about Picking a Public Speech Topic.

This morning, please return to your sharing/workshop groups and finish your peer reviews.

When you have finished, please brainstorm some topics for a speech. Refer to the chapter handout on Preparing a Speech.

• From your list, choose 3 of the best topics. For each of these three topics, list possible sources of information you could explore.
• Consider which topics would require you to do the most research? The least? 
• Estimate how many minutes you would need to adequately and creatively speak to an audience about the topics you chose. Our speech will be short this time (about 1-4 minutes).
• Narrow your topic(s) until you have a specific THESIS. 
• Write a thesis for each of your 3 chosen speech topics. 
• Pair up with a partner and share your thesis topics with him/her. Offer feedback to your partner.
• Choose your best topic and thesis. 
• Determine your purpose. What are you trying to accomplish with this speech? Are you giving information, persuading us to think differently, or entertaining us?
• Persuasive speeches motivate people to change a behavior or ideology
• Informative speeches provide accurate and supported information to an audience
• Entertainment speeches seek to entertain an audience to make them feel, laugh, or cry
• Create an outline and plan what your topic sentences will cover in each paragraph.
• In your introduction, your THESIS is your first point.
• In your body, each topic sentence (the first sentence in the paragraph) should clearly state what your paragraph will cover. The rest of the paragraph are the details of that topic sentence.
• In your conclusion, consider the purpose of this speech: are you informing us, entertaining us, or persuading us? Explain WHY and HOW your thesis is important to us, as an audience.
• NOTE: See the handout sample of how to create an outline. You may also check here.
• Begin writing a short speech (about 1 full page to 2 pages in length--double spaced). 

REMEMBER: to include a HOOK! Your speech should have a beginning (introduction), middle (body), and end (conclusion).

HOMEWORK: None. If you did not reach your writing quota for the day (about 1-2 pages), please complete your work at home and bring it to our next class to work with.

Peer Review for Baseline Story; Prep for Speech

We will meet in the lab. Please take 10-15 minutes in the beginning of class to put the finishing touches on your stories. You should have completed your stories as homework from last class!

• Check your grammar. Before you print out copies to read to your small groups (see below) please look over your work and correct any mistakes or errors you find. Have a friend or neighbor help you edit if needed.
• Make sure you have given your story a title. If you cannot think of a title, then name the story the same name as your protagonist.
• Begin your story with an effective hook! See post below for details on how to create a hook. Your first sentence (paragraph, really) should be interesting enough to draw your reader into the story. 

After the 10-15 minute prep time, please complete the Peer Review Handout as the author. Get into the following groups and share your story with your partners. Your partner should complete the "peer review" section of the handout. You will turn in this sheet and a copy of your story to me after completing this assignment.

Groups:

• Emily, Alexander, Karina, Ellie 
• Jocelyn, Frank, Alexis, Isabella
• Liana, Carina, Isiah
• Nasmere, Kyra, Serita
• Tamaron, Azana, Dan'nae
• Thalia, Samuel, Yanira

With time remaining in the lab:
Begin working on your homework. The homework will deal with our next project: an original speech!

• Complete "choosing a topic" on page 12.
• Complete the activity on page 15 about the "main purpose" of the speech.
• Create a thesis for your speech. Your thesis should be a 1-sentence statement about what you will write a speech about: "This speech is about..." then get rid of the "this speech is about" phrase.

HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter on "Building a Speech". In your journal, brainstorm or list ideas to write a speech about. 

Fiction Baseline Project

Please take a look at this video today before you begin brainstorming or coming up with an idea for your writing project.

• Rick Riordan's Advice to Young Writers

WRITING TASK: You will use your interview notes to create a fictional character and place that character (based on your original partner) into your story. If you need a second interview with your original partner, go ahead and spend a few minutes asking him/her follow up questions. Take notes. 

You may change any detail as you see fit, but try to justify your change. For example, you may change a character's setting (where they grew up) or an event in his/her life, but the character should have something similar to the original source material. If you interviewed a girl who plays sports, perhaps your protagonist of your fantasy story is a girl (or was once a girl who is now grown up) who stays physically active. How you deal with the details is up to your imagination. Avoid discarding details just because you can't think of an idea. Put the "creative" in creative writing!

THE RULES: Your story can follow any genre (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western, romance, realism, action, comedy, etc.) Want to write about teenage vampires? Go ahead! Choose a genre or topic that you are interested in. This helps a writer write a story successfully. Your genre should follow the standard rules for that genre. For example, if you are writing a high fantasy, the use of magic is perfectly allowed, but we often don't expect magic and dragons in contemporary realism. You might even create monsters for your protagonist to defeat out of the challenges or problems your peer told you about in his/her interview. Above all, show me that you can write a creative story. I am also looking at effort, so if you don't get it right, don't sweat it--writing can be hard, but you SHOULD be spending your time in the lab writing. I DO have my senses, after all.

Your story should be relatively short (approx. 2-5 pages, double spaced). You can always add to the draft later. When you have completed your first draft, please title your story, put your standard heading on the top left (or right) and proofread your work for spelling/grammar errors. When satisfied that this is your 'best' work, please create a title for your story, print, and turn in. This assignment is due at the BEGINNING of next class. You should aim to write at least 1 page per class period.

Remember that a hook works just as well for a story as it does for a speech. Revise your opening sentence of your story to HOOK your reader. Be creative to grab our attention!

Please refer to the following rubric for this project.

Project Rubric:

9-10: story is imaginative, clever, well written, grammatically sound (almost completely free of proofreading, mechanical or spelling errors), story uses effective dialogue and effective description, story has an interesting theme, character is based on original peer interview in some clever and creative way. Story is turned in on time and fits in the 3-5 page range, properly formatted. Story has a clever and creative title. 

8: story is mostly well written, with some gaps or weaknesses, but nothing that makes reading the story laborious or difficult. Story is mostly grammatically sound (some errors) but nothing that gets in the way of comprehension. Story has some dialogue and description, but work is not as compelling as scores of 9-10. Character is based on original peer interview in some way. Story is turned in on time and fits in the 2-5 page range, properly formatted. Story has a title. 

7: story is completed, turned in on time, but lacks the imagination and creativity of scores of 8-10. Some moments of storytelling, but story may need more plot development, conflict, character development, or attention to detail and specifics. Story might have dialogue or description, but this is relatively uninteresting, or weakly presented by the author. Character is dubiously based on details from an interview or original source, but this is not clear, or the character is too similar to the source material as to be mistaken for the peer interviewed. Story may be late (missed deadline), and is on the shorter less developed side between 1 full page to 2 full pages in length. Work may have formatting errors. Story has a title. 

5-6: story is as 7 above, but may be very late, or there are so many grammar and development or writing problems that makes comprehension difficult for a typical reader. Work is carelessly or hastily done. Student spent more time off-task in the lab than working on this project. Story lacks a title. 

0: story or project not turned in.

HOMEWORK: None. If you did not complete your story draft today in the lab, please complete it and be prepared to turn in the draft at the BEGINNING of class on Friday.

Introductory Speech Exercise

INSTRUCTIONS: Your short introductory speech should reveal something about the nature or character of the person you interviewed. When asked, please introduce your partner to the rest of the class. You may use your notes to help guide you, but try not to simply read off of your notes. Try to remember what your partner told you, then report this to us.

• Before you present your speech (all students are required to try this!), prepare your notes by adding a short introduction sentence. 
• Speeches usually open with an interesting statement or lead-in. This is called The Hook. 
• Begin your introductory speech with a clever hook or attention-grabber. Write an interesting opening line for your speech to introduce your partner.
• When called, please stand up and introduce your partner. You may use your notes if you get stuck, but try to also "talk" to us. No one likes to be "read" to. 
• As a class politely listen to each speech. Listening is an important element in the communication process. It is extremely rude to chat, ignore, or otherwise distract a speaker. Please be courteous in this class. As the class rule states: Respect all NOUNS (that includes you and me and each other).

When called, please come up to the front of the room and introduce your partner. You may use your notes if you get stuck, but try to "talk" to us. No one likes to be "read" to. As a class, politely listen to each speech. Listening is an important element in the communication process. It is extremely rude to chat, ignore, or otherwise distract a speaker. Please be courteous in this class. As class rules state: Respect all NOUNS (that includes you and me and each other).

Effective Elements of a Speech include:

• Volume
• Pace
• Pitch or tone of voice
• Language or imagery
• Organization
• Creativity
• Confidence (ethos)
• Body posture/Facial expressions/Gestures/Eye contact

While listening to a speech, a listener should:

• Pay attention
• Make eye contact with the speaker
• Be courteous and polite
• Avoid interruptions
• Listen (not just hear)

After all students have given their speech, please listen for further instructions for our next writing task.

THE TASK: You will use your interview notes to create a fictional character and place that character (based on your original partner) into your story. 

THE RULES: Your story can follow any genre (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western, romance, realistic, action, comedy, etc.) Want to write about teenage vampires? Go ahead! Choose a genre or topic that you are interested in. This helps a writer write a story successfully.

Your story should be relatively short (approx. 2-5 pages, double spaced). You can always add to the draft later. When you have completed your first draft, please title your story, put your standard heading on the top left (or right) and proofread your work for spelling/grammar errors. When satisfied that this is your 'best' work, please print and turn in. This assignment is not due yet. You should aim to write at least 1 page per class period.

Remember that a hook works just as well for a story as it does for a speech. Revise your opening sentence of your story to HOOK your reader. Be creative to grab our attention!

Welcome: The Introductory Interview

Welcome class of 2018!

This morning, after our course criteria discussion, complete this in-class activity: 

With a partner, discuss and create: 

A. a list of ways in which humans communicate (humans communicate through...) 

B. Reasons why humans communicate

This begins our first step as creative writing majors. It is important for us to examine how and why (and when), as human beings, we decide to communicate. Of course, communicating through writing is only one way we, as humans, communicate with one another. This course will cover areas of communication, the communication process, techniques of effective communication, along with performance skills, public speaking, and various writing projects (fiction, poetry, scripts, personal narrative, essays, etc.) If you go on to study the arts, literature, political science, divinity, history, business, advertising, marketing, teaching, law, journalism, communication, or media, you will definitely need a basic understanding of these concepts.

Conversation is one of the most obvious processes of communication. Today you are going to "interview" a class member, then introduce this person to the rest of the class. The notes you take on your index card(s) will also be used to create a "fictional" character based on a real person during our next class. More information about that assignment will be discussed next class.

Activity:

1. Please follow my verbal directions to choose a partner for this exercise.

2. Once you have a partner, take 5 minutes to ask any of the following questions (see below) and record what your partner says on your index card. 

TIP: Don't worry about long quotes or trying to write down everything your partner says. Instead, jot down only the KEY POINTS of what your partner discussed. Try effective listening techniques to comprehend what your partner is saying. Synthesize or summarize these key points when you deliver your short introductory speech. 

3. At the end of 5 minutes, switch places and take another 5 minutes to be interviewed by your partner.

4. When time is up (about 10 minutes total) you will be asked to quickly organize your notes and give an extemporaneous speech introducing your partner to the rest of the class.

Sample Questions to ask (use 1 or 2 of these if you have no better ideas):

A. How were you shaped by your environment or cultural background as you grew up? 

B. Name a friend, relative, or childhood friend or hero figure that had an impact (positive or negative) on your life. Describe how this person influenced you. 

C. Describe a personal experience that had a major impact on your life and/or creating the person that you are today. 

D. What activities or hobbies or interests bring pleasure and meaning to your life? 

E. Name a goal that you have set for yourself. How are you going to achieve that goal? 

F. What value or philosophical belief do you hold dear? Why do you hold this belief or value so highly? How does it affect your life? 

G. Any other question you wish to ask within the time limit of this exercise.  

Again, please note:     

You do not have to write down everything your partner says. Part of communication is listening to what is being said, then remembering and retelling what you heard in your own way. Use your notes and ask follow-up questions to develop your partner's answers. (see below)   

5. Keep your notes for the next writing assignment (more details to follow). 

INSTRUCTIONS: Your short introductory speech should reveal something about the nature or character of the person you interviewed. When asked, please introduce your partner to the rest of the class. You may use your notes to help guide you, but try not to simply read off of your notes. Try to remember what your partner told you, then report this to us.

• Before you present your speech (all students are required to try this!), prepare your notes by adding a short introduction sentence. 
• Speeches usually open with an interesting statement or lead-in. This is called The Hook. 
• Begin your introductory speech with a clever hook or attention-grabber. Write an interesting opening line for your speech to introduce your partner.
• When called, please stand up and introduce your partner. You may use your notes if you get stuck, but try to also "talk" to us. No one likes to be "read" to. 
• As a class politely listen to each speech. Listening is an important element in the communication process. It is extremely rude to chat, ignore, or otherwise distract a speaker. Please be courteous in this class. As the class rule states: Respect all NOUNS (that includes you and me and each other).

We will conclude any speeches not delivered on Monday. This assignment is worth participation credit.

If we happen to finish early, we'll head next door to the lab to begin a writing assignment.

HOMEWORK: None. Please show your parents your course criteria sheet! Complete field trip forms, etc.