All Eyes on Me: Public Speaking in the Classroom

Many students today are completely comfortable interacting and sharing online. Although this is an important skill (and a skill we need to hone), it does not replace the importance of being able to speak comfortably in front of a real live audience. The anonymity of online interactions forms a stark contrast to the attention a live speaker receives from an audience. For many students, being in the front of the room alone as the focus of an entire classroom is a scary prospect. No matter how old your students are, you can help them improve their public speaking skills and help alleviate their fears.

There are some wonderful public speaking activities on the Gateway that you can use to teach effective public speaking techniques. Please look at Joann’s Picks this week as well as the resources posted daily on our Facebook and Twitter pages. These resources will be especially useful to language arts, English, or social studies teachers. To complement Joann’s featured resources and the other Gateway resources dedicated to teaching public speaking techniques, I decided to focus my column on integrating more opportunities for public speaking in your regular curriculum. Students can learn to be more comfortable in front of an audience if they get to practice doing it a lot. These ideas should be useful from kindergarten on, because it is never too early to let your students practice speaking in front of their peers.

A key issue to consider before you decide to include more public speaking in your class is: why is public speaking such an essential skill for students? How will they benefit by learning to speak well in front of an audience? I suggest having a brainstorming session about the topic with your students. If they discover the importance of speaking well, they will be more motivated to work to improve their own skills.

Why is it so nerve wracking to speak in front of an audience of peers? As a teacher, I have no problem talking in front of students, but my palms get sweaty thinking about talking in front of the parents at open house. This would be another good topic to discuss and brainstorm with your students.

The following list can help you start thinking of ways to easily implement public speaking within your regular lessons and activities. Please let us know if you have other activities that you use in your classroom. We love to hear from our readers!

Some ideas to try in the primary classroom:
- Do a weekly show-and-tell. You can fit this into your curriculum by having students relate their sharing to a topic of study.
- Choose a student to be a “guest teacher” each week. They will get practice talking in front of the class and they will have a chance to learn the material even more.
- Pass around a grab bag of items (the items may or may not be related to what you are studying in class). When it is their turn, the student will pull an item out of the bag and give a short impromptu speech about what the item is and what some of its uses could be. I like to give points for creativity on this activity. You don’t need different items for each student, just a weird assortment of things will do. It’s fun to put in strange kitchen gadgets, pictures of interesting inventions, and anything else you think the students might like.
- You may have an Odyssey of the Mind program at your school. The program challenges students with long term and spontaneous problems each year. You can use some of the ideas for verbal spontaneous problems in your classroom to help your students get comfortable speaking in front of each other and thinking on their toes. Here is an example of a problem, and there are many more on the site.

Some ideas to try in a secondary classroom: (Many of the primary ideas would work for secondary students as well.)

- A simple way to get students talking is by awarding participation points for answering questions and joining in discussions.
- Assign a presentation for a research project. Require a visual aid (such as a poster, powerpoint presentation, animoto video, etc.) For many students, the visual aid can be helpful for reducing their anxiety.
- If your students seem really uncomfortable in front of the class, start with a video presentation for one assignment and move on to more chances to actually stand up and speak in front of the class.
- Discuss what needs to be in a good presentation, and grade presentations with a rubric that your students help create.

Good luck, and happy speaking! We will see you soon on Facebook and Twitter.

James and the Giant Speech

When I was in fifth grade, my class had to orally present book projects to our classmates – and worse – the sixth grade class as well. This was really our first foray into delivering oral presentations, and it was nerve-wracking. We sat on the gym floor and nervously waited and watched as one by one we fidgeted and mumbled our way through our presentations, trying to ignore the smirks and stares from the sixth graders. I especially remember one boy, who was so nervous about presenting his favorite book, James and the Giant Peach, that he talked way too fast and repeatedly referred to it as “James and the Giant Speech.” While it was funny at the time, I think it aptly illustrates how stressful oral presentations can be.

Every few years, a well-publicized list of the top fears cited by the public is touted on various media outlets. Public speaking nearly always tops the list, followed by lesser fears such as the fear of heights, illness, flying, and even death. An old episode of Seinfeld once had Jerry point out that, since the fear of public speaking outweighs the fear of death for most people, the people delivering eulogies at funerals would apparently prefer to be in the casket, dead, rather than be speaking about the deceased.

Things on the public speaking front have vastly improved since I was in elementary school. Starting in preschool and kindergarten, students are prompted to publicly share weekend news and items of interest through show and tell or sharing times. Students at many schools also regularly take turns in reading the morning announcements, and many K-12 class projects now include a public presentation component. The goal is clear: If students can become comfortable with public speaking at a young age, they are less likely to experience anxiety when presenting or speaking up in class in the future. The benefits of being at ease when speaking in public are many. Teachers cite increased student self-esteem and confidence, as well as the ability to demonstrate leadership, critical thinking, and preparation skills.

There are many ways to incorporate public speaking into the curriculum through the use of plays, classroom skits, role-playing, reviews, debates, the sharing of current events, science experiment debriefings, and other ideas. For homeschooled students, opportunities for public speaking can present more of a challenge. In such cases, local or regional homeschool groups can meet for student debates and presentations. If homeschool groups aren’t available, many students find opportunities for public speaking through their local churches or other places of worship (weekly readings, etc.), community theater, leading book discussions at the local library, and other ideas.

My picks this week offer resources on incorporating public speaking into the curriculum and honing student public speaking skills. As always, I’ll be featuring many additional lessons, activities, and other resources on public speaking throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Peggy and I are also interested to hear from you regarding what types of lessons you’d like to see featured in our columns here on The Gateway. Don’t be shy – drop us a note on our Facebook, Twitter, or blog pages and let us know.


Daily Book Boosts
http://www.thegateway.org/viewFullButton.gif
Subjects: English Language Arts, Public Speaking
Grade: 3-5
Each day at the end of their independent reading time, students give Book Boosts, which are one-minute raves about books they've read. These Book Boosts are easy ways to suggest a multitude of titles to students, and they act as a way for students to have something to think about as they read. It’s also a great way to get students used to getting up and speaking in front of their peers. This activity is a product of ReadWriteThink, which offers free reading and language arts lesson plans. Each lesson is peer-reviewed by teachers and members of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). This lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA Content Standards.


Impromptu Speeches
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-04-04.7841259439
Subjects: English, Public Speaking
Grade: 9-12
An impromptu speech is delivered without preparation or thought ahead of time. In this lesson, students will hone their quick-thinking skills as they formulate an impromptu speech about a given topic. This lesson was produced by Scholastic, publishers of trade books and educational titles, as well as lessons, teaching resources, and other products.


How to Teach Students to Present an Oral Report
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-04-04.7419507271
Subjects: English Language Arts, Public Speaking, Research Skills
Grade: 6
In this lesson, students will recognize how to research and present an oral report. Students learn about ways to capture their audience’s attention, report organization, and ways to support their main points. This lesson is offered by Hot Chalk, a free online learning management system designed specifically for K-12 educators. Hot Chalk also offers free lesson plans and educational activities for teachers and students.

~Joann's Picks - 4/22/2011~