Going Public With Speaking Skills

Who hit the mute button on public speaking in the English classroom? Seems there?s less and less of it, and when teachers do send their students to the front of the class, they quickly give up the practice for the very reasons they should be redoubling their efforts ? the students? propensity for whispering, mumbling, fidgeting, forgetting what to say, and stringing together unconscious fillers like ?um,? ?uh,? ?and,? ?so,? ?then,? and (Odin help us) ?like.?

It?s, like, maddening.

The problem, of course, is hours in the day. That and the big elbows that reading and writing throw around. One occasionally nudges out the other, but these two monsters consume the lion?s (and a few tigers?) share of our planning, executing, and correcting time. This in a society that values well-spoken workers and citizens above all else. This in a society that hires people based mostly on their ability to communicate effectively in a long and often multi-stepped interview process. This in a society that prizes men and women who can stand before a large group of their peers (superiors, underlings, etc.) and inform, persuade, lead.

Of course, as English teachers, we are not solely to blame for this oversight, we are just primarily to blame. Public speaking should be going on in all the content areas. But we?re busy (and shall be for many years) just trying to get our fellow content-area teachers to incorporate more reading and writing work in their classrooms, never mind public speaking.

Go ahead and say it: ?If I hear, ?That?s the English teachers? job!? one more time, I?m going to scream!? Screaming is good. Screaming is healthy. Just not in school, thank you. In school, you remain cool.

Anyway, our English Department, already test driving?academic conversations and learning how students can engage in what one of our 7th grade teachers likes to call ?smart talk,? is now turning its gaze on public speaking. Demosthenes, where have you been all these years? And what?s that in your mouth?

We could say that we agreed on this of our own accord, but it helps to say that speaking (and listening) are sitting front and center in the new Common Core as well. (See Speaking and Listening Standards Numbers 4, 5, and 6.)

For guidance, a recent release with sound, basic advice is Erik Palmer?s Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking To All Students. The two key sections in the book are ?Building a Speech? and ?Performing a Speech.? In the former, Palmer devotes a chapter each to audience, content, organization, visual aids, and appearance. In the latter, he focuses on what he calls ?pvlegs? or ?six-trait speaking?: poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures, and speed. You can read more at Palmer?s website.

At the end of each chapter, Palmer offers practical ideas for each skill. For instance, in the ?Poise? chapter, we have the idea of two-minute impromptu speeches on topics that students choose because they are familiar with them. Tape each speech, review it, and watch for unconscious habits, such as the ?um, uh, like? affliction, the shifting of weight from one leg to another, and the smoothing of hair (to name only a few).

For voice drills, Palmer recommends technology, specifically the many free podcast programs on the web that can record students? voices and help with enunciation. Life? This chapter is devoted to the passion students seem to lose once they enter the ?Front of the Room Triangle? (about as desirable as Bermuda?s). This is actually fun. Students can go up before the class, draw written quips from a box (e.g. ?Don?t do that to your sister.?) and then say them in different ways, varying intonation and emphasis. Another idea is for students to read a conversation between two characters, adopting different voices for each.

In the eye contact section, one idea of Palmer?s I like is throwing a short, silly speech on the whiteboard or Smartboard up front, having the student speaker stand in the back where she can see it, then having the entire class turn to face her. Now she must read the speech while her eyes constantly jump from screen or board to different eyes in the room. When she?s done, every student who got eye contact raises his or her hand. (Of course, as is true with all speech activities, this will only work in a room where the teacher not only demands but commands complete respect between students as they are learning to speak.)

Gestures? Yes, you can play back recorded speeches of students with no sound to emphasize the value of gestures (or the misfortune when you have complete lack of same). You can also give students lines that lend themselves to gestures. Palmer suggests, ?This affects everyone!?, ?We have to stop right now!?, and, ?They were huge ? bigger than a car, even bigger than a house. Suddenly, there were three more of them. My heart started beating so fast I thought it was going to burst. I looked around for a place to hide. The killer hamburgers were after me.?

Sometimes we forget what killer hamburgers can do for a lesson.

And finally, for speed (or what we like to call ?pace?), give students a script and have them purposely read it as fast as possible while still being understandable. Now have them read it like the words are doing the breaststroke through a morass of molasses. The exaggerated differences should be amusing, not serious. To GET serious, have them read it at a normal pace ? relaxed, with pauses where they think it might be appropriate to use them marked in advance. Show them that slowing down and speeding up can be an effective tool, but not when a speaker is unconsciously speeding or (less likely) slowing down. It?s similar to fragments in writing ? great strategy when it?s consciously executed for a reason, disaster when it?s done unawares.

The operative words with all of this? Fun first. The more students partake of these entertaining drills, the more used to the front of the room they become. Half the issue is how infrequently we assign public speaking. If it happens all of once a year, students naturally freeze up like it?s a final exam. In their place, wouldn?t you?

And how many of YOU have a fear of speaking in public if ?public? is defined as a vast number of adults, peers, or, say, the school board? It?s amazing. More enlightening still is the number of teachers who once had a fear of public speaking in their youth. I count myself as one of them. Now? Now you can?t shut me up.

See what practice gets you??

Source: http://kenc.edublogs.org/2012/03/20/going-public-with-speaking-skills/

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