Let’s be honest. Most students hate doing speeches. They don’t like spending the time to write the speech, revise their work, or to present in front of their classmates who might bully them if they don’t pick a topic that’s popular, original, or cool.
Here’s is a few ideas:
- Prewriting: Using a class blog or website to generate ideas
You could use any blogging or website platform. You can create a post explaining speech topic guidelines and then invited students to leave a comment with their speech topic ideas. (As a teacher, you can always moderate student content before it goes live to the world. Or, maybe you have a private class website which is only accessible to your educational community.)
The technology will help because it was a quick and easy way to get 30 students to share all of their ideas simultaneously, instead of teaching it on flip-chart paper and students are sharing their topics one-by-one. Overall, the technology way was quicker and students didn’t lose interest.
- Writing a Speech: Using Google Docs to allow student revising, editing and feedback
- Practicing the Speech: Watching examples of Greatness
If you have access to a computer projector you can show a few videos of exceptional speakers.
Martin Luther King – Full Speech (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk).
- Practicing the Speeech: Using Video Feedback
Netbooks come with a webcam so students can practice in front of the webcam. It is pretty cool watching your entire class practicing their speech to their laptops. Using a projector to display an online stopwatch students started at the same time and felt confident to give their speech out loud masked under a crowd of voices. Students replayed their speeches with the volume muted so they could focus on their body language. Did they look confident? Did they make eye contact? Did they have dramatic flair?
Having said that, overall, students were becoming more interested in speech because the technology hooked them in a meaningful way.
