“There is not a better book on teaching speaking than this one.

I’ve
been using PVLEGS for over a decade and it never gets old. Get
this book.”
—Dave Stuart Jr., high school teacher
and author of The Will to Learn

“Well Spoken is an essential guide for educators aiming to cultivate

confident and capable speakers. Erik demonstrates that speaking
skills can and should be taught. The second edition brings his ideas
alive in the new digital age where these skills are even more valuable.”
—Russell Findlay, CEO of Speakers Trust,
the UK’s largest dedicated public speaking charity

“Erik Palmer’s PVLEGS should be the cornerstone to every school’s

curriculum. Students in today’s world need specific and guided
coaching on how to look up and connect with the world around
them, so they can present themselves for success.
I have been integrating Erik’s books into my ELA & Drama
curriculum for over twelve years, and I have seen measurable and
meaningful success in thousands of middle school and high school
students. Whether it be with an elbow partner or an assembly,
Palmer’s books provide concrete scaffolding on how we should
speak aloud. When students apply the PVLEGS, they face the
common fear of public speaking and say, ‘Let’s dance.’”
—Alyssa Brumbaugh, middle school and drama teacher

“Clearly written and full of numerous effective strategies, Well Spoken

offers invaluable advice and tools for teachers who recognize the
importance of teaching the art of speech.”
—Kelly Gallagher, teacher, author, speaker, coach
WELL
SPOKEN
 WELL
SPOKEN
TEACHING SPEAKING TO ALL STUDENTS
SECOND EDITION

ERIK PALMER
Designed cover image: © Getty Images

Second edition published 2025

by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2025 Erik Palmer

The right of Erik Palmer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered

trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.

First edition published by Stenhouse 2011

ISBN: 978-1-032-75757-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-48191-1 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003481911

Typeset in Farnham
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
 TO YOU, THE READER:
For recognizing the importance of speaking and
for committing to giving every child an effective voice
 CONTENTS

Foreword������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xi
Acknowledgments��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xiii
Preface to the Second Edition�������������������������������������������������������������������� xv

PART I: THE ART OF SPEAKING���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1

Chapter 1: Can We Talk?����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3
Chapter 2: Effective Communication����������������������������������������������������������������� 13

PART II: BUILDING A SPEECH���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19

Chapter 3: Audience: Understanding the Listeners�������������������������������������� 21
Chapter 4: Content: Making the Message Valuable�������������������������������������29
Chapter 5: Organization: Making the Speech Easy to Follow�������������������37
Chapter 6: Visual Aids: Enhancing the Words���������������������������������������������� 51
Chapter 7: Appearance: Dressing for the Occasion�������������������������������������� 55

PART III: PERFORMING A SPEECH������������������������������������������������������������������������� 59

Chapter 8: P oise: Appearing Calm and Confident�����������������������������������������65
Chapter 9: Voice: Making Every Word Heard����������������������������������������������� 75
Chapter 10: Life: Putting Passion Into the Voice������������������������������������������79
Chapter 11: Eye Contact: Engaging Each Listener����������������������������������������85
Chapter 12: Gestures: Matching Motions to Words�������������������������������������93
Chapter 13: Speed: Pacing for a P owerful Performance�����������������������������99

PART IV: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE���������������������������������������������������� 105

Chapter 14: Every Day Through the End of the Year�������������������������������� 107
Chapter 15: Evaluating Speeches�����������������������������������������������������������������������117
Chapter 16: Speaking Activities Across the Curriculum��������������������������� 135

PART V: SPEAKING DIGITALLY������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 149

Chapter 17: Building Digital Talks������������������������������������������������������������������� 151
Chapter 18: Performing for Virtual Audiences�������������������������������������������� 163

IX
 CONTENTS

Chapter 19: Evaluating Digital Talks��������������������������������������������������������������171

Chapter 20: Digital Speaking Activities Across the Curriculum�������������191

Afterword���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������199
Appendix: Frequently Asked Questions����������������������������������������������������201
References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������211

X
FOREWORD
By Kelly Gallagher

I n this Age of Testing, there is often a disconnect between what

students need to learn and what students are actually being taught.
Multiple-choice assessments have driven deeper reading out of
our classrooms, and writing has been pushed to the back burner.
But of all the language arts, there is one that has been especially
shortchanged by this adherence to state testing: the art of speak-
ing. This vital life skill has been all but ignored in many classrooms
simply because the ability to give an effective speech is not tested
on most state assessments.
Veering away from teaching students how to speak effectively
does not bode well for our children. Students sitting in our class-
rooms today will soon enter a world where virtually every business
survey emphasizes the importance of verbal communication skills—
a world where one’s ability to present, perform, and persuade will
prove more important than ever. Clearly, for the next generation of
students, speaking well is a foundational skill.
In Well Spoken, Erik Palmer recognizes and addresses the funda-
mental difference between talking and speaking. All of our students
know how to talk; unfortunately, very few of them know how to speak.
If our students are going to become effective speakers, they need us—
their teachers—to teach them the art of speech. This is where Well
Spoken excels. Clearly written and full of numerous effective strate-
gies, Well Spoken offers invaluable advice and tools for teachers who
recognize the importance of teaching the art of speech.
Palmer’s approach to teaching speech mirrors what we know
about effective teaching of the writing process. He begins by teaching
his students the importance of understanding purpose and audience
and how these two elements play an integral part in crafting a speech.
In subsequent chapters, Palmer offers numerous helpful tips, includ-
ing how to start speeches with “attention-holding elements” (hooks),

XI
 F ore w ord

how to help a student organize a speech into a coherent sequence,

how to craft effective transitions, and how to leave listeners with a
powerful conclusion.
Well Spoken is more than a guide for helping students write better
speeches. It also contains many practical ideas for teaching students
how to deliver better speeches. As Palmer notes, “How a speech is
performed may be more important than how it is built.” With this
in mind, Well Spoken offers excellent strategies to help students be
poised, capture the right tone and voice, achieve the right kind of eye
contact, and be aware of how one’s appearance and actions affect a
speech.
After reading Well Spoken, I am motivated to give the teaching
of speech a more prominent place in my classroom. I am especially
grateful for Palmer’s insightful work and his concrete steps to help
me become a better speech teacher. If, like me, you are striving to pre-
pare your students for the demands of the real world, I’m certain you
will recognize the significance and value of Palmer’s ideas and strate-
gies and will be energized to include them in your teaching repertoire.

XII
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

H ow did I get here?

That is the question that started the acknowledg-
ments of the first edition. I don’t ask myself that often,
even though I often end up someplace quite different than originally
planned. Originally, I asked the question, “How did I end up writing
a book?” which led me to acknowledge many people who led me to
write that first edition.
I mentioned Judi Herm, who wanted me to take my strategies for
teaching speaking to the school her sons attended. Midge Kral worked
at that school and was an enthusiastic fan of what I did, and Midge
introduced me to Sue Lubeck. Sue, now deceased, owned an inde-
pendent bookstore, The Bookies, saw the first version of the book,
and put in a word for me with Philippa Stratton, then the owner of
Stenhouse Publishing. I am certainly still extremely appreciative of
the support of all of them and their part in that circuitous route to
getting the first edition published.
Likewise, I am still indebted to Kelly Gaskill, then an administra-
tor for a school district in Colorado Springs, who hired me to train
teachers at the summer institute and wondered if there was a book
about teaching speaking (There wasn’t!), and Deb Fine, who showed
me how to write and self-publish the book that Sue Lubeck saw. And,
of course, Holly Holland, an editor at Stenhouse at that time, deserves
acknowledgment. She offered consistently brilliant advice that
improved my writing, made Well Spoken so much better, and remains
so important to this work.
How did I end up writing a second edition? The path is equally cir-
cuitous, with a new list of people to thank. Stefani Roth, who I knew
from her role as the publisher of two books of mine from a different
company, happened to come to Stenhouse. She loved the idea of a sec-
ond edition and championed the idea. But Stenhouse was purchased

XIII
 A ckno w ledgments

by Taylor & Francis! Now what? Stefani told me to contact Lauren

Davis, the Education Publisher of Taylor & Francis. Lauren was sup-
portive and enthusiastic and moved the project forward. She passed
the torch to Kassia Wedekind, who edited the new text. Not only
did Kassia give wonderful advice to make my writing better, but her
positivity and praise made finishing the second edition so much fun.
Thank you, Stefani, Lauren, and Kassia.
I still have to acknowledge my sons, Greg and Ross. They were the
test cases. They took the lessons I taught them and proved beyond
any doubt that my approach to teaching speaking works. In many
realms—theatrical performance, speech contests, interviews, cor-
porate event management, wedding officiant, social occasions—they
have had enormous success. I could not be more proud of them.
And what is it worth to have someone who totally believes in you?
Many times have I heard, “You should do that. You would be great at
it!” when I thought of moving into a new venture. My wife, Anne, has
always been encouraging and uplifting, from that first book, Well Spo-
ken, to the six that have followed it. She is a powerful person, and that
power inspires me. Thank you, Anne.

XIV
PREFACE TO THE SECOND
EDITION

I n the years since the publication of the first edition of Well Spoken,
I have been gratified to see how the ideas in the book have helped
so many teachers and, by extension, students. The frameworks
introduced about how to build an effective talk and how to deliver
that talk powerfully have stood the test of time. Readers of the first
edition will notice no changes in those frameworks. They will notice
other changes, though, some subtle and one obvious.
First, the subtle. Do you remember iChat? It’s gone now, and so is
the reference to it that I made in the first edition. The iChat tool has
been replaced with a reference to another tool which may also disap-
pear one day. Such is the nature of rapidly changing technology. Still,
this edition updates some little things to reflect changes in the last
decade.
Additionally, readers will discover that the phrase “public speak-
ing” has all but disappeared in this text. I mentioned in the first edi-
tion that the frameworks and lessons I shared applied to all speaking,
but I didn’t stress that point enough. I want students to be better
speakers one-to-one, in small groups, in front of larger audiences,
informally, formally, in-person, via digital tools, or whenever they
find themselves talking. “Public speaking” suggests skills that should
be trotted out once a year for the big biography presentation or mock
trial or whatever, but I want the skills shared in this book to be used
every day. Most students will not be frequent “public” speakers, but
all will need oral communication skills for diverse situations.
A final subtle difference is adding language to make clear that the
frameworks make all students better speakers. The book is not cul-
ture-specific. The skills of good speaking are demonstrated by effec-
tive communicators in any language, any dialect.
And the obvious difference? The inclusion of chapters applying
the frameworks when using the digital tools that have exploded onto

XV
 P reface to the S econd E dition

the scene in recent years. I mentioned some types of digital speak-

ing in the first edition (e.g., podcasts, audio recordings), but we are
in a world now where oral communication is showcased every-
where. I didn’t foresee that all students would be using Zoom, that all
devices would include free face-to-face communication tools such as
FaceTime and Skype, or that everyone would make audio and video
recordings with smartphones. I didn’t foresee that many well-inten-
tioned teachers would make attempts to embrace podcasting and
video tools only to find that their efforts have fallen flat when student
recordings were mediocre or worse. Finally, I didn’t foresee that so
many of us would put the tool first—not realizing that we must first
teach students how to develop the verbal skills needed to use these
tools well and make listening to the podcasts worthwhile. Preparing
a talk for a small screen and a small speaker is a bit different than
preparing a talk for the class or the school assembly. A performance
for the camera is more demanding than a performance in person. I
added content in this second edition to address those differences. The
elements of building a talk and performing still apply but with some
slightly different considerations. The new chapters will enable you
to help students be well spoken and impressive when using digital
media, too.
Let’s give all students an effective voice no matter how they choose
to share it.

XVI
 PA RT I
THE ART OF SPEAKING

Speaking well really is an art, though most of us have been

speaking since we were young children. Carefully choosing
our words, organizing our ideas so they are easy to follow,
captivating an audience by employing effective gestures, or
pacing our speech for emphasis—these are the building blocks
of good speaking. Every student can learn them, practice them,
and perform them. But first, they need conscientious teachers
who will show them how.
That’s where you come in.
CHAPTER 1:

Can We Talk?

W hat percentage of communication is oral, and what per-

centage is written?
Think about your typical day. Start at your home.
How often do you communicate with people around you in writing?
As a parent, are you handing notes to your children? E-mailing them?
Texting them? Occasionally, perhaps, but overwhelmingly, you are
talking to them. Are you using paper and pencil to communicate with
your spouse or roommate? Maybe you leave a note on the counter as
a reminder to take out the garbage, but when the discussion shifts to
whose turn it is and who took it out last week, you talk.
And when you get to school, how do you interact with coworkers
and teammates? Yes, you can use Schoology to ask them a quick ques-
tion, but the vast majority of your interaction is verbal. You tell stories
about what happened that was of interest in your classroom today,
you discuss team plans for the future, and you ask your colleagues
about their home lives. How do you interact with the principal? If you
write an e-mail to an administrator, isn’t it often a request for a face-
to-face meeting? And what about your students’ families? They want
to talk to you. Send a note sometime and suggest that you don’t need to
meet them and would rather handle things with e-mail. Imagine the
response. Your students’ parents want to hear your voice, in person
or digitally.
Step back in time. How did you select your partner? After many
long conversations, right? How did you get your job? A résumé might
have gotten you in the door, but an interview most likely got you the

3
 Well S poken

job. Your ability to speak well (or at least better than the other people
applying) was crucial to getting hired. How many other significant
events in your life can you think of in which your ability to speak well
mattered? A wedding toast? A eulogy? Inspiring the tee ball team you
got conned into coaching? If these events haven’t occurred yet in your
life, they will. There are many, many opportunities for meaningful
speeches in a normal life. Simply put, oral communication is our pre-
dominant way of communicating.

LET’S STOP SQUEEZING OUT SPEAKING

Now, let me make a radical statement: the mission of education should
not be to make students better at school but rather to prepare them
for life. As schools focus on high-stakes testing, there is a tendency
to forget that mission and to see the test as the ultimate outcome of
our instruction. As a result, many important parts of a well-rounded
education that do not directly contribute to the test score can end
up on the cutting room floor, including art, music, physical educa-
tion, home economics, health, and civics. Another skill commonly
sacrificed is speaking.
When I wrote the first edition of this book, there was some evi-
dence that the atmosphere was changing. Colorado, my home state,
revised its state standards in 2010. The 1995 standard “Reading and
Writing” became “Reading, Writing, and Communicating,” and “Oral
Expression” was the first thing mentioned under the standard. The
Common Core State Standards Initiative suggested adopting the
standard “Speaking and Listening.” More than forty states adopted
the Common Core Standards by the end of 2010, and though Com-
mon Core Standards have fallen on tough times, most states still have
standards that include speaking and listening. Some school districts
added formal speaking assessments to the curriculum, though such
districts are still the exception, not the rule. I believe that, to a large
extent, these changes were driven by a new concern for workplace
readiness and a desire to think beyond the classroom and beyond the
high-stakes test. That concern still exists. Life readiness increasingly
involves being able to communicate verbally using all the tools that
showcase speaking.

4
 C hapter 1 : C an We T alk ?

While speaking skills may have been somewhat underemphasized

in schools, they have not been underemphasized in the real world.
Look at the business section of your local bookstore. There are many,
many books on the shelves about speaking; some focus on general
presentation skills, some on specific skills like closing the deal, some
on overcoming fear, and some on speaking in social settings. All of
them recognize the importance of being well spoken.
Speaking well enables us to communicate clearly with cowork-
ers and avoid misunderstandings on the job. Speaking well ena-
bles us to feel more confident and more able to convey our ideas
convincingly. I recall a conversation with our school psychologist,
who told me that she felt my opinions had more power than those
of my colleagues because I spoke so well. (She didn’t say my opin-
ions were better. They just seemed better, which I suppose is still
a compliment.) Speaking well enables us to be more impressive
over the telephone, in video conferences, and via Skype, FaceTime,
and Zoom. Speaking well makes us better advocates, whether for a
political cause, for getting an aging adult the health care they need,
or for any number of other things. Speaking well is crucial to pro-
fessional promotion. No CEO of a corporation can lead without
strong oral communication. No attorney can persuade a jury, no
politician can be elected, and no coach can motivate a team without
strong speaking skills. Even in professions that we don’t think of
as highly verbal, oral communication matters. Wouldn’t you prefer
to do business with an electrician who speaks well? A landscaper?
A hairdresser?
Why not make clear to students how important speaking is to pro-
fessional and life success? Students often believe that what we teach
in school has no relevance to their lives in the “real world,” and to
a large extent, they may be right. We talk about student voice but
shortchange the most important meaning of the word voice. Give stu-
dents the voice they need to be better at expressing displeasure with a
new rule at school, to be more persuasive in sharing opinions, and to
be really listened to by adults, then point out that people who speak
well have more professional and social success in life than people
who don’t. That’s relevance.

5
 Well S poken

Every year, the National Association of Colleges and Employ-

ers (NACE) surveys employers to see what qualities they want
most from college students they are considering for employment.
Employers responding to NACE’s Job Outlook 2011 survey sug-
gest that “New college graduates looking to crack the still-tight job
market need to hone their verbal communication skills . . . verbal
communication skills topped the list of ‘soft’ skills they seek in new
college graduates looking to join their organizations” (National
Association of Colleges and Employers 2010). Strong work ethic,
teamwork skills, analytical skills, and initiative, though all critical
skills, followed verbal communication in importance. The Job Out-
look 2024 still has communication at the top of the list of competen-
cies employers seek and notes that only half of college graduates
are proficient at that competency (National Association of Colleges
and Employers 2023). If students master speaking, their chances of
success increase dramatically, but we are not adequately preparing
them.
Further support for the value of speaking skills comes from a
study of 104 Silicon Valley employers. Silicon Valley is the home of
many of America’s high-tech firms, and you might expect that they
would place a high value on math and engineering skills, right? Com-
pany representatives were asked several questions about desired
qualities in prospective employees. The question “What additional
business communication skills would you like to see in your recent
college graduate new hires?” produced interesting results:

Employers sought improved oral presentation skills more frequently

than they did written skills. Their comments expressed a need
for stronger skills in public speaking, enhanced interpersonal
skills, increased confidence, and improved interviewing skills.
Several wrote that students needed more presentation skills,
highlighting the ability to use software tools like PowerPoint.
This was surprising, because the popular press talks more
about a lack of writing skills among college graduates than
about insufficient oral skills.
(Stevens 2005, 7; emphasis added)

6
 C hapter 1 : C an We T alk ?

Since that study, new technology, hybrid workplaces, and multi-

national businesses have increased the emphasis on oral communica-
tion even more. This led George Anders, a senior editor at LinkedIn,
to say, “What we’re seeing now is much more of a demand for oral
communication rather than written communication. That has big
implications in our educational system” (2019). Oral communication
is the way we connect and the way we show what we know.
On a personal note, my former student Kelly affirmed my belief in
the value of teaching speaking. She looked me up twenty-one years
after being in my middle school English class. She wanted to tell me
about her marriage and her master’s degree, and she wanted to let me
know that I had influenced her more than any other teacher. Kelly
took me out to dinner and told me that she believed that what I taught
her in my English class was more responsible for her success than
anything else she had learned. Of course, I was curious. Was it allit-
eration? The plot line diagram? Identifying main characters? Writing
topic sentences? No, Kelly said the most vital skill she had learned
from me was how to speak well and be comfortable in front of people.
Let me be clear: I am not saying that we should forget about all those
other critical language skills. But while those are all essential, Kelly
picked speaking skills as the most important.

“LIKE, WE KNOW THEY CAN, LIKE, TALK, BUT HOW DO

I TEACH THEM TO SPEAK?”
Consider that teachers spend untold hours showing students how
to communicate through writing. We have specific lessons about
comma usage, capitalization, word choice, topic sentences, fragments
and run-ons, and so on, as we should. But speaking? Well, we might
have one required speech during the year that we grade based on a
rubric that mentions eye contact. In my experience, however, very
few teachers specifically teach the skills needed to make that speech
more successful. After the speech, we might give some comments as
feedback, but that’s about it, right? Where are the specific lessons
about how to use emphatic and descriptive hand gestures, how to
design a talk for the audience, or how to adjust pacing for emphasis?

7
 Well S poken

All students can talk (sometimes we need to ask them to stop!),

and, therefore, teachers often assume they don’t need to offer instruc-
tion in verbal communication. But listen to what they say: “I’m all
like, whoa, what is that about, but he is like, whatever, I don’t know
what you mean, so I, like, get all mad and ready to, like, leave but sud-
denly he, like, changes, right?”
Yes, I am exaggerating somewhat here. We know that kids come to
school with some useful speaking skills. We have been impressed by
the expressions and gestures as a story from home gets shared with
us, and we can think of times when the excitement came through as
a student told us about an event outside of class. But I know that if
you listen with new ears and listen critically, you will admit that book
shares and poetry recitations can be painful to sit through, and stu-
dent podcasts can make three minutes seem like an eternity. Are you
impressed by most of the student talk in your class? Could your stu-
dents benefit from some more instruction?
Imagine walking into a ninth-grade English class to observe the
teacher. As you enter, the teacher informs you that he will not be
teaching writing this year because the students already know how to
write. The teacher can prove this and show you the “What I did this
summer” paragraphs, text messages, and social media posts. That
seems absurd, doesn’t it? It is equally absurd when you imagine the
teacher saying this about speaking: “I will not be teaching speaking
this year because my students already know how to speak.” Students
need direct instruction to help them speak effectively, just as they
need direct instruction to learn how to write effectively.

THE PARTS OF A SPEECH

Perhaps I have persuaded you that developing effective speaking
skills is worth more time than it usually receives in classrooms,
but there is still the issue of how to teach speaking. That is where
this book comes in. Effective speaking involves specific skills. This
book explains those skills and how to teach them. I have not writ-
ten a workbook full of handouts to give to students. Books like that
already exist, and to find them, you may want to check the teacher’s
helper store in your community. Such workbooks leave something

8
 C hapter 1 : C an We T alk ?

to be desired, however. Yes, they include speaking activities and

attractive reproducible worksheets, but they offer little or no direc-
tion about how to prepare students to perform the activities. This
book provides a framework for teaching speaking and ensuring that
students understand what the workbooks are talking about.
I developed the ideas in this book during twenty-one years as a
classroom teacher—primarily as an English teacher, but I also taught
math, science, and civics—and during ten years as an educational
consultant. I have worked directly with thousands of students and
have taught teachers across America and around the world how to
teach speaking skills to students.
But education was my second career. I started in the business
world as the manager of a commodity brokerage firm, and oral com-
munication was a crucial part of the job. My speaking ability helped
me become the national sales leader for my firm. When I moved
to the classroom, I incorporated speaking activities in all the sub-
jects I taught. I discovered that the skills described by the acronym
PVLEGS (poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures, and speed), which I
discuss in Part III, provided students of all ages with a simple way to
grasp the elements of effective speaking. In addition, middle and high
school students gained the confidence and skills to be highly success-
ful in speaking contests sponsored by groups such as the Optimist
Club and DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America). And, of
course, like Kelly, former students would mention that the concepts
worked in later life, too.
My hope was that this book would be useful for all teachers, from
elementary grades through high school. After getting calls from uni-
versities and the largest association of adult trainers, I realized the
application was even larger. Even so, the examples tend to be from
the middle school level for two reasons: that is where most of my
personal teaching experience occurred, and middle school level con-
cepts and activities can usually be modified to suit other levels. After
reading in Chapter 5 about the organization component of building a
speech, the second-grade teacher may decide to ignore the transitions
part and focus on having students grasp the need for an introduction,
body, and conclusion (a beginning, middle, and end in second-grade

9
 Well S poken

language). The high school teacher may gloss over the basic format
of a speech and teach a lesson about using sophisticated transitions.
After reading in Chapter 13 about the speed component of perform-
ing a speech, the elementary teacher may focus only on the need to
avoid speaking too fast, whereas the high school teacher can work on
developing dramatic pauses.
The book is also intended to be useful for those who work with
students in after-school clubs. DECA, FBLA (Future Business Lead-
ers of America), Robotics, Odyssey of the Mind, and more all have
opportunities for students to showcase their oral skills. In many com-
petitions, judges base their decision on who has the better presenta-
tion, not on who has the better product.

YOU CAN DO THIS!

Have you ever been amazed that, after something was pointed out
to you, you hadn’t thought of it before? There may be moments like
that as you read this book. “Of course! Why didn’t I teach them
that?” There will be some speaking components that you knew in
the back of your mind but never consciously thought about and some
speaking skills that you assumed everyone already knew. What I
hope to do is make the art of speaking understandable and make
your teaching of speaking purposeful.
Let me emphasize two important points. First, when I men-
tion speaking throughout the book, I am not referring only to a
formal presentation in front of a large audience. I resist using the
term “public speaking” not only because it has such a negative
­connotation—“public speaking is the number one fear of adults!”—
but also because the term is too limiting. Speaking encompasses
a wide variety of genres, from interviews, discussions, debates,
toasts, stage presentations, answering questions in class, negotiat-
ing business deals, all the way up to standing on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial in front of half a million people. In other words, I
am referring to all the forms of speaking beyond casual banter with
friends. The elements of speaking I share in this book are involved
in all of those situations.

10
 C hapter 1 : C an We T alk ?

Second, you don’t have to be a master orator to teach speaking. You

simply have to understand how master orators create their magic,
and you have to be willing to commit to improving the oral commu-
nication skills of your students. But you may find after reading this
book that you have become a better speaker, too, and back-to-school
night will never frighten or intimidate you again.

11
CHAPTER 2:

Effective Communication

Take a look at the following two essays.

Sample Essay 1

Climate change is happening. It used to be called

global warming. Every year, average temperatures are
higher. This is because fossil fuels are being burned
which puts bad gases into the air. For these reasons,
I think we should ban fossil fuels.
Sample Essay 2

climate change is extremely complex. wile it is true that

the earth is warming it may be do to alot of different
reasons one reason is certainly green house gases from coal
and oil emmission. But as societys grow more energy is
used. the economy is based on fossil fuel and we cant just
shut down every business. There is no way wind solar and
atomic can provide for the demands of industrial nations
and thrid world nations dont want to be held back, they
need fossil fuel.

13
 Well S poken

What grade would you give each essay? Essay 1 is perfectly capi-
talized, perfectly spelled, and perfectly punctuated. Should Essay 1
receive an A grade? Essay 2 is full of problems with capitalization,
spelling, and punctuation. Should that paper get an F? Most of us
would have a hard time accepting those grades. Essay 1 indicates very
little understanding of the problems involved in the climate change
debate. Does that mean it deserves an F? Essay 2 demonstrates a bet-
ter understanding of the problem, but does it deserve an A? Again,
most of us would say no.
Years ago, teachers were making decisions exactly like this. They
assessed a piece of writing with only one grade. Maybe both essays
would get a C, albeit for very different reasons. At some point, teach-
ers realized that writing is a collection of various parts, which means
that a single grade is not always useful. Rather, we must examine the
parts. Content, word choice, sentence structure, writing conventions,
paragraphing, organization, and perhaps other traits must be ana-
lyzed separately.
Look back at the two essays. If we graded each essay based on two
aspects of writing, Essay 1 would get top marks for writing conven-
tions but low marks for content. Essay 2 would get the reverse. The
grades entered in the grade book might end up being the same, but if
the teacher explained how the two aspects of writing were assessed,
the students would have an understanding of what the grades repre-
sented. With specific writing traits delineated, the authors can focus
on areas of strength and weakness.
A multiple-trait framework was a great advancement in writing
instruction. Effective speaking is also a collection of various parts, so
let me suggest a multiple-trait framework for speaking. A new way of
looking at oral communication will make it easier to teach the skills
involved and will make it easier for students to become competent
communicators.
In Figure 2.1, you will see a rubric currently used by a prominent
school district near my home.

14
 C hapter 2 : E ffective C ommunication

FIGURE 2.1: GENERIC RUBRIC FOR SPEAKING ACT IVIT IES

Advanced

• The student delivers the speech effectively to inform, explain,

demonstrate, or persuade.
• The student organizes the formal speech using an introduc-
tion, body, and conclusion with transitions and well-integrated
evidence.
• Subject, vocabulary, and delivery are adapted effectively to the
audience and the occasion.

Proficient

• The student delivers the speech appropriately to inform,

explain, demonstrate, or persuade.
• The student organizes the formal speech using an introduction,
body, and conclusion with transitions and evidence.
• Subject, vocabulary, and delivery are adapted appropriately to
the audience and the occasion.

Basic

• The student delivers the speech to inform, explain, demon-

strate, or persuade.
• The student organizes the formal speech using a beginning,
middle, and end.
• The student’s vocabulary and delivery convey the message.

Pre-Basic

• The student attempts to inform, explain, demonstrate, or per-

suade through a formal speech.
• Organization of the speech lacks a beginning, middle, and/
or end.

I will comment much more extensively on rubrics in Chapter 15.

Here, I want to focus on the elements of effective speaking. According
to the rubric in Figure 2.1, an advanced speaker “effectively” deliv-
ers the speech, but a proficient speaker “appropriately” delivers the
speech. Is this a useful distinction? I am not sure that a student would

15
 Well S poken

know what distinguishes effective subject, vocabulary, and delivery

from appropriate subject, vocabulary, and delivery. The advanced
speech has “well-integrated evidence,” but the proficient only has
“evidence.” Again, I am not sure a student will understand the dif-
ference. Unfortunately, we often give rubrics to our students with
descriptors that make little sense to them.
Focusing more specifically on our purpose in this book, this rubric
doesn’t accurately reflect the components of a good speech. Subject,
vocabulary, and delivery are lumped together in one bullet point.
Those are radically different things. Think back to the sample essays
about climate change and imagine grading them using a rubric bullet
point that includes “content and punctuation are appropriate for the
purpose.” It seems absurd now, in the multiple-trait writing world, to
put those together, and it is equally absurd to group subject, vocabu-
lary, and delivery in a rubric meant to evaluate speaking skills. Deliv-
ery alone has several components. The solution is to break the art
of speaking into meaningful pieces and to develop a multiple-trait
framework for oral communication.
All speaking can be divided into two distinct categories: building
a speech and performing a speech. Building refers to everything you
do before you open your mouth. Performing refers to the things you do
as you are speaking. The distinction is crucial to understanding how to
speak effectively, yet we often miss the distinction. Most of us realize
that presidents have speechwriters. Most of us know there are screen-
writers and playwrights who compose the lines actors deliver. Most of
us realize that some person has written the news that the newscaster
reads off the teleprompter. Obviously, these written words are only
the beginning. After that, someone must perform the speech, deliver
the lines, or read aloud the news. The performing talent is very differ-
ent than the writing talent. The person who builds the speech for the
president or the newscaster might have a very difficult time perform-
ing the speech himself or herself. Conversely, though the newscaster
might look good and sound good, he or she may be a terrible writer,
just as the actor who can beautifully deliver the lines may have no
ability to write a script.

16
 C hapter 2 : E ffective C ommunication

We may have realized intuitively that these two parts of speaking

are distinct, but we may not have paid close attention to the distinc-
tion. Look back at the speaking rubric in Figure 2.1. Does the rubric
indicate an understanding of the two main components of speaking,
building a speech and performing it? Unfortunately, no. Our first job
is to clarify the difference between building and performing.
You will have students who are great at building a speech and
dreadful at performing it. You will have students who are masterful
performers but whose messages are shallow or uninteresting. These
situations should come as no surprise. They are no different than
having a student who can spell perfectly but who shows weak word
choice or having a student with sophisticated content in his or her
writing but a limited ability to spell. We won’t succeed at teaching
students well until we can be specific about which skills need to be
improved.
One final note: While I use the word “speech,” realize that build-
ing and performing are part of all talks, not just the big talks we think
of as speeches. We give thought to what we want to say before meet-
ing a parent at conference time, and we worry about how well we will
be able to deliver the message; we stress about what to say to a team-
mate who isn’t doing their share, and we are careful as we speak not
to let our emotions take over. “Speeches” may be quite small.

17
 PA RT II
BUILDING A SPEECH

Before I open my mouth to speak, there are several things I need to

do. I refer to these preparatory tasks as the “building a speech” stage.
Obviously, I must have something to say. If I want my comments
to be worth listening to, I have to choose the most effective words.
But because speakers are also seen, building a good speech involves
more than just assembling words. I break the process into five parts:

Audience: Understanding the Listeners

Content: Making the Message Valuable
Organization: Making the Speech Easy to Follow
Visual Aids: Enhancing the Words
Appearance: Dressing for the Occasion

Each of these parts is important. It may seem daunting to have five

new skills to teach, but some of the elements overlap with the ele-
ments of building an effective piece of writing. And for those of you
who are worried about the state assessment, this is the first of many
times that I will point out: teaching speaking reinforces teaching writing.
CHAPTER 3:

Audience: Understanding
the Listeners

D o you speak the same way in your classroom as you do in

the teachers’ lounge? You probably would not still have
your job if you did. If you were asked to give a five-minute
speech on student behavior, wouldn’t your first question be, “For
whom?” For new teachers? For the PTO? For students in your class?
For the comedy club? It makes a difference. At some level, we all
know that speech must be adjusted to suit the situation.
Students do not have a hard time grasping this concept. Your stu-
dents will readily admit that the language they use with Grandma
is different from the language they use with their friends. Most are
sophisticated enough to know that you “work” Dad differently than
you “work” Mom. Intuitively, they understand that the audience we
are addressing affects our speech. Therefore, the first part of building
a speech involves purposefully analyzing the audience.
Consider the questions in Figure 3.1.

FIGURE 3.1: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE BEFORE YOU SPEAK

Professional speakers typically ask these questions before they
speak:

What is the average age of the audience members?

What is the age range?
What percentage is male, and what percentage is female?

21
 Well S poken

What is the educational level of the audience?

What does the audience already know about the topic?
What does the audience want from the speech?
What are the interests of the audience?
What are the biases of the audience?

Let me interject a short story. I was asked to give an after-dinner

speech to students who had just completed their apprenticeships
and were becoming journeymen electricians. I was quite good at pre-
paring to speak to eighth-grade students in class, parents at school
functions, and teachers at in-service trainings, but journeymen elec-
tricians? I sent the set of questions in Figure 3.1 to the director of the
school and found out that the average age of the audience members
was about thirty-five, but the age range was twenty-five to forty. That
made it clear to me that I should not refer to things that baby boomers
would know about the 1960s, nor should I refer to current teen pop
culture. The audience was 60 percent male and 40 percent female.
The audience members had high school diplomas but not college
degrees, and most had completed four years of electrical instruction.
Knowing this, I could adjust my vocabulary as well as research some-
thing about electricians so I could speak more knowledgeably about
their field.
It was crucial to know what the audience wanted from my speech.
Was I supposed to merely entertain? Was I supposed to offer congrat-
ulations? Advice? Finally, I found out from the “interests” question
that these were all union members. Most had young children, and
many loved tinkering with and talking about cars. I’m sure you can
see how that information would help me craft a speech specifically
for this audience. You build a very different speech about electricity if
your audience is a class of fourth graders than you do for graduates of
the Electrical Apprenticeship and Training Committee. I never think
of making a presentation as a professional speaker without collecting
the answers to those questions and more about the audience.
Such questions don’t just apply to after-dinner speeches. It is
important to let students know that to connect with any audience,
even an audience of only one person, they must understand the

22
 C hapter 3 : A udience : U nderstanding the L isteners

individuals’ backgrounds. Teach students that analyzing the audi-

ence is a lifelong skill. Before a job interview, they will want to know
something about the people they will encounter in the interview and
the products the company makes. Before a sales presentation, they
will want to have a customer profile to discover what the customer
needs or wants. Before they meet their future in-laws, they will want
to prepare by asking their fiancé good background questions in order
to avoid the fate of any previous suitors.
Analyzing the audience is valuable in classroom settings as well.
The simplest question is, Who is the audience for the speech? Invariably,
students giving a speech look primarily at the teacher. Most likely,
students were never instructed about the audience they were sup-
posed to be addressing. If you assign an oral book report, who is sup-
posed to listen? Just you, the teacher? If you are the only one grading
a speech and the only one whose attention matters, you are wasting
the time of the other twenty-nine students in the classroom. Please
don’t assign a speech that has no value to the listeners and requires
no evaluation from them. (See Chapter 15 for more about student
evaluation.) At a minimum, students should understand that they
must design the speech for their peers, not just for you.
Beyond that, the list of questions about the audience for a class
presentation will differ only slightly from those in Figure 3.1. In a
classroom, the questions may seem easy to answer. For example, to
answer the first four questions in Figure 3.1, we know that the audi-
ence members are all thirteen years old with a seventh-grade edu-
cation and are evenly split between males and females. But those
answers, while simple, have important implications. What is appro-
priate content for thirteen-year-olds in a school? Some parts of some
topics may not be suitable for that age group. The sex education
instruction in a fifth grade class, for instance, is not the same as in
a health class in eleventh grade, and it may be important to discuss
with students the need to be appropriate for the age level.
The remaining questions in Figure 3.1 are also vital for effec-
tive communication. What does the audience already know about
the topic? If the class has spent six weeks studying biomes, I can
make some assumptions about background knowledge as I prepare

23
 Well S poken

a presentation of my desert diorama. I won’t need to define what a

biome is, nor will I need to explain many of the terms I use (e.g., eco-
system). Students should also ask themselves what the class wants
from the speech. Do they need general information or specific infor-
mation about a small part of the topic? Should they be motivated to
act? If so, the speech must be persuasive, not just informational. Do
they want to know how the topic will affect their lives? Then, the rel-
evant impact will be more important than the random facts that fill
many student speeches. Finally, it’s important for students to think
carefully about the interests of students in the audience. These inter-
ests probably include social media, cell phones, friends, text mes-
sages, shopping, and sports, to name a few. They all have the potential
to link the content of the speech to the interests of the audience. If
students want to connect with an audience (and they do want to con-
nect with the audience), they must search for ways to relate the topic
to the interests of the audience so they can earn and hold their atten-
tion. Student speakers can’t make those references unless they take
the time to learn about the audience.

HOW AUDIENCE ANALYSIS AFFECTS CLASS PRESENTATIONS

Imagine the following situation: In Classroom A, an eighth-grade
civics teacher tells students they will have to research a landmark
Supreme Court case and give a speech about the case in class. He tells
the students the speeches have to be five minutes long but doesn’t
give much more guidance than that. Can you predict what will hap-
pen? The students will dutifully look up information, copy it, give a
speech full of words they don’t understand, and look at their notes
and occasionally at the teacher during the speech. Their classmates
will be bored to tears.
In Classroom B, an eighth-grade civics teacher tells students they
will have to research a landmark Supreme Court case and give a
speech about the case to the class. Further, the teacher helps the stu-
dents analyze the audience. She explains that the listeners are thir-
teen years old with no law school experience, so language has to
be seriously modified between the research stage and the speaking
stage. She explains that the audience is unfamiliar with history, so

24
 C hapter 3 : A udience : U nderstanding the L isteners

context events must be explained. The teacher reminds students that

because the class has been studying the court system for four weeks,
they can assume that their classmates already know many things
about the topic. It will not be necessary to explain how a case gets to
the Supreme Court, for example. The teacher suggests that the audi-
ence only has a slight interest in the case students are going to pre-
sent. They will only start to care if they know how the case affects
their lives.
For instance, in a case about illegal search and seizure, the
teacher suggests posing a question about whether it should be legal
for the principal to take a student’s cell phone and look at the text
messages. The teacher builds into the rubric a category for “audi-
ence” and explains to the students that they will be scored on how
well they gear the speech toward the audience. The speeches in
Classroom B will be significantly more successful than the speeches
in Classroom A.
You can easily see what made the speeches in Classroom B more
successful. The teacher was explicit about how to analyze the audi-
ence. She helped students think of the key characteristics of the
audience, gave specific advice to assist the students in making adjust-
ments, and provided an example to demonstrate how to fit a speech
to the class. You need to go through a similar process every time you
give an assignment that requires oral communication.
The process of audience analysis gets quicker after the initial intro-
duction of the concept. For example, the next time Teacher B prepares
students for a speech assignment, she may only briefly remind them
how to analyze their audience: “Tomorrow, we will have our discus-
sion on the novel. Remember during the discussion that the audience
is the class, not me. Think of all we discussed before the Supreme
Court speeches. Think of the qualities of your audience and gear your
discussion comments toward the audience.”
To help students become more adept at analyzing audiences, I rec-
ommend that at some point during the school year, you change the
audience for students’ speaking. You might have class buddies from
another grade listen. Perhaps you invite parents to attend a poetry
café or to judge the science fair presentations. In every instance,

25
 Well S poken

remind students that analyzing the audience is a skill they will need
for their entire lives.

DISCUSSION IDEAS
1. Ask students to compare and contrast how they speak to their
peers and to their parents. Ask questions like these: What
changes as the audience shifts? Do you speak differently to Dad than
you do to Mom? How and why? You might share some examples
from your own life, such as how and why teachers speak dif-
ferently in the teacher’s lounge than they do in the classroom.
2. Create several hypothetical audiences. Tell students they
will be speaking about the daily class schedules to a group of
incoming students, the drama club comedy night, the build-
ing administrators, or whatever else you may come up with.
Ask them to consider what adjustments they would make to
speeches directed at such diverse audiences. Ask, for example,
How should a speech to the principal differ from a speech to class-
mates at comedy night? The first might discuss adding more time
between classes, while the latter might recount crazy things
witnessed as students rush to get from one room to the next.
3. With students, look at real-life situations, such as the following
candidate debate in front of a national television audience:

MODERATOR: The national debt is now at X trillion dollars. What

will you do about this problem?

CANDIDATE A: As a percentage of GDP, the debt is at its highest

ratio since 1945. The ratio has doubled in the last two years
alone. Annual deficits have ballooned from 200 billion to 1.7
trillion since 1992. Raising marginal tax rates and decreasing
the rate of growth of entitlements is our only option.

CANDIDATE B:Well, as I look at this great country, I see the blue

Pacific Ocean to the west and the bustling cities on the Atlan-
tic Ocean to the east. In between is the greatest country on

26
 C hapter 3 : A udience : U nderstanding the L isteners

the face of the Earth. We have a great history. We have great

people. No problem is too big for us. We can solve the deficit
problem.

Pose these questions: What does Candidate A believe about the audi-
ence? (The electorate is, by and large, logical and interested in facts
and details.) What does Candidate B believe about the audience? (The
electorate is emotional and prefers generalities to specifics.) Which
one is correct about this audience? Would your opinion change if the debate
was in front of the American Economics Association?
As you can see, real-life examples can bring up engaging dis-
cussions as students attempt to delineate the audience and its
implications.

27
CHAPTER 4:

Content: Making the

Message Valuable

T
1.
here are six basic questions that will guide students in
their search for appropriate content:

What is the purpose of the speech?

2. What content is required?
3. What is the engaging content?
4. What content should be clarified for my specific audience?
5. What connectors should be included to hook the audience
members?
6. What content should be excluded?

Let’s take a look at what we need to teach so that students can use
these questions to build a successful speech.

THE PURPOSE
Now that I understand the audience, what do I say to them? Begin by
thinking about the purpose of the speech. In school settings, almost
all speeches assigned are informational speeches. The students are
supposed to teach us about the contents of a book (book report),
explain the features of a biome (presenting the biome diorama to
us), share the essential developments in the world of politics (cur-
rent events newscast), and so on.
As teachers, we are often reluctant to allow anything in our classes
that does not impart information. This is unfortunate. Students may
29
 Well S poken

grow from thinking differently, and a speech with a divergent pur-

pose could fuel that growth. Assigning a speech with the purpose of
entertaining expands students’ minds, allows a range of students to
shine, and improves the classroom atmosphere. All of those objec-
tives are important. Whatever the purpose of the speech you assign,
be sure you share the goal with students. Don’t assume they will intu-
itively understand.

THE REQUIRED CONTENT

For the most part, teachers specify the content of the speech. We tell
students that, at a minimum, the book report must include the genre
of the book, the main characters, the plot, and so on. The speech
about a Supreme Court case must include the date of the case, the
decision, why the case was important, and a quotation from the
majority opinion. Notice the use of the phrase “at a minimum.” We
need to make clear that content guidelines are just that, guidelines.
Although the speech must include those things, including only those
things will not be sufficient. All speeches must also include interest-
ing content and attention-holding elements.
When I was in the classroom, students would sometimes give
what I referred to as the “checklist speech.” They dutifully told me
the name and date of a Supreme Court case, for example, and read a
quote from the majority opinion. They checked off all the minimum
requirements. Such speeches were completely forgettable, and listen-
ers had a hard time paying attention. To avoid these situations, we
must discuss ways to make content engaging.

CHOOSING ENGAGING CONTENT

It all starts with this truth: if you want the audience to be interested
in what you are saying, you need to be interested in what you are
saying. It is amazing how many students miss this point. No student
will succeed unless he or she cares about the content. I have had stu-
dents complain that the topic was assigned to them and that they
weren’t interested in it. I never accepted that excuse. There are fas-
cinating details to share about the Supreme Court, the desert biome,
Tom Sawyer, current events, or any other assigned topic. It is the

30
 C hapter 4 : C ontent : M aking the M essage V aluable

speaker’s job to find the engaging and intriguing information. Not

all information is equal. Some facts will resonate, and some will be
forgotten. Have students consider questions like these: What content
is essential for the audience? What content would be meaningful for this
audience? For the most part, the speaker has the same background
as audience members when we are in the school setting. We can ask
students, If you were listening to this speech, would you be interested and
engaged? This is a point that has to be made before the speech is built.

CLARIFIERS
Remind students that the reason we initially gather information about
the audience is to make it possible to tailor the content of the speech
specifically to that group. In some cases, we need to clarify content.
Maybe we need to define some words that this group would not be
familiar with. Maybe we need to explain the context of some events.
A speech that mentions Vietnam War protests has little value for
students who are unfamiliar with the Vietnam War and the feelings it
generated among Americans. Remind students to ask themselves, What
do I need to explain to ensure that the listeners understand the meaning?

CONNECTORS
Speeches are most effective if the listeners believe the speech was
designed specifically for them. Think of the example from Chapter
3 about the Supreme Court speech on search and seizure. Students
are familiar with cell phones. To connect the case to their experi-
ence, the teacher suggested using a cell phone analogy. She wanted
the speaker to make a reference to something in the audience’s cul-
ture. Another way to connect is to use an anecdote about a person
the audience can relate to or a person they know. Speakers should
use their knowledge of the audience to find the connectors that will
bridge the gap between their topics and the lives of the listeners.

WHAT TO EXCLUDE
The content of a speech should be guided not only by what needs
to be included but also by what needs to be excluded. Students often
struggle to sort essential information from nonessential information.

31
 Well S poken

In the sample Supreme Court speech assignment, is it important

that the case was decided on February 12, 1964? Would we be satis-
fied knowing only that it was decided in 1964? Do we need to know
the names of all the justices who voted for the decision? You might
say, “Obviously not,” but this detail may not be obvious to your stu-
dents. “The Court granted certiorari on April 11.” “Certiorari”? Who
knows what that means? And if you do know, do you care what date
it was? Yes, the information was on the website you looked at, but
that doesn’t mean it has value in your speech.
There is another kind of nonessential content, something I call a
“verbal virus.” Unfortunately, verbal viruses seem to spread. Phrases
such as “you know,” “right?,” “know what I’m sayin’?,” and the ubiq-
uitous “like” infect speaking. How many times have you heard these
empty phrases?

He was, like, all upset that they didn’t, like, read him his rights,
you know, so he, like, goes to court, and they’re all, yes, you
gotta let him know.

I want to tell you about the deficit, right? We owe, like, trillions
of dollars, right? We need to do something, right?

You’ve heard such blather too many times, right? Yet teachers
almost never specifically explain the importance of eliminating these
viruses from the content of a speech. Although it is true that these
words will probably not be written in the text of a speech, we still
must caution students about adding them to an oral presentation.
These viruses are in a different category than the nervous tics such as
“um” and “uh,” which I will discuss later. The verbal viruses aren’t the
result of nerves but rather of fashion: it is just the cool way to speak
at the moment. You should certainly correct students whose language
was too casual for a formal talk, just as you teach that research papers
require a different language than stories do. Similarly, you must also
correct students who improperly use “like.” It is not sufficient to note
a comment on the score sheet after the speech. The teaching is needed
before the speech.

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 C hapter 4 : C ontent : M aking the M essage V aluable

ORGANIZING THE ESSENTIALS

Now that we’ve examined the importance of teaching students to
answer the six questions about content, let’s look at how one of
my students answered those questions for a particular speech.
In this example, the student has outlined content for a speech on
a Supreme Court case about educating the children of undocu-
mented workers.

1. What is the purpose of the speech?

To inform classmates about a major Supreme Court decision and
explain how it affects their lives today.
2. What content is required?
a. Name of case: Plyler v. Doe
b. Date of case: 1982
c. Decision of case: States must give free public education to ille-
gal immigrant children because the Fourteenth Amendment says
“all persons” must receive “equal protection under the law.” The
amendment does not say “all citizens,” and illegal immigrants
are persons.
d. Why the decision was important: There are twelve million
illegal immigrants in America and lots of money is spent on
them.
e. Quote from the decision: “Education has a fundamental role
in maintaining the fabric of our society. We cannot ignore the
significant social costs borne by our Nation when select groups
are denied the means to absorb the values and skills upon which
our social order rests.”
3. What is the engaging content?
With the money Texas could save if they didn’t have to educate ille-
gal aliens, they could buy every legal student a new MacBook each
year. They could buy 30 million fifty-inch TVs, one for every resi-
dent of Texas. They could build 200 new high schools a year. They
could hire 130,000 new teachers.
4. What content should be clarified?
The Fourteenth Amendment needs to be explained. Its original pur-
pose and the time frame in which it was adopted are important.

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 Well S poken

5. What connectors should be included?

Our state has a lot of illegal immigrants.
Our parents pay taxes to the school district, and their money goes to
educate illegal immigrants.
Our class sizes are bigger because of money spent on illegal immi-
grants instead of more teachers, and by spending money on illegal
immigrants, we have less money for new computers and textbooks.
When you get a job, you will pay taxes that go to educate illegal
immigrants.
6. What content should be excluded?
Specific names: the names of all the justices, attorneys
Specific dates: months and days
Lower court decisions
Legal terms, unless they are important and explained
Verbal virus “like,” which I say a lot

We always ask students to prewrite before they begin a writing

assignment, so it should not be thought of as unusual to require some
preparatory steps before they deliver a speech. This is a way to use
speaking assignments to reinforce writing instruction. Ask students
to write out the answers to the six questions about content and sub-
mit them to you for approval. With these answers in hand, each stu-
dent can begin to build something more than the “checklist” speech.
Caution: Your job at this point is to help your students build the
best possible talk to share their ideas, even if you don’t agree with
those ideas. We live in a world full of divisive issues, and I, for exam-
ple, could not avoid ideas that may be upsetting to some and teach
American politics. You don’t get to the Supreme Court with cases
that have universal agreement. And this talk did cause some upset.
I include it here because the fact that it got strong reactions indicates
how well it was created. You need to decide what is appropriate for
your class. I want to give students the toughness to listen to all ideas
and the verbal skills needed to respond effectively. Rather than cen-
sor ideas up front, I hope you allow time for vigorous discussion and
debate after the talk.

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DISCUSSION IDEAS
1. Discuss with students a hypothetical speech about the school
lunchroom. First, have students imagine that the purpose is to
inform the audience about nutrition in the cafeteria foods. Ask,
How does that control content? Next, have the students imagine
that the purpose is to entertain. Ask, How does that change the
content? What will be in the first speech? What will be in the second
speech?
2. Ask several students to give a short, impromptu speech about
a simple topic, such as a favorite activity or favorite movie.
(Be sure to create an atmosphere that demands tolerance,
encourages bravery, and fosters the ability to laugh at oneself.
Impromptu speeches are difficult, and students will make mis-
takes. I discuss more about class atmosphere in Chapter 8.)
After the speech, ask the class to discuss the verbal viruses:
How many times did you hear “like,” “you know,” or “okay”?
3. Have students imagine a hypothetical topic, such as “Caring
for Dogs,” and have them assume the audience is a group of
first graders. Ask, What should be included in the speech to con-
nect to that audience? Then, have students assume the audience
is a group of veterinarians. Ask, What would that speech include?
What would be included in the first-grader speech that would be left
out of the veterinarians’ speech? What would you include for the
doctors that you would not include for six-year-olds?
4. Discuss adding content to make a speech interesting. Use ques-
tions like these: What could be added to a speech about the Inter-
national Space Station to make it interesting to our class? What
would you have to include in a speech about national health care to
hold the attention of the class?

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CHAPTER 5:

Organization: Making the

Speech Easy to Follow

A n old cliché found in nearly every book about public speak-

ing gives this advice to speakers: Tell your audience what
you’re going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you
told them.
That is the most common organizational form. For example:

Today, I will tell you the three reasons why I love cats, I will tell
you how to care for a cat, and I will show you pictures of my cat
doing funny things.

The first reason why I love cats is . . . The second reason I love
cats is . . . The third reason I love cats is . . .

To care for cats, remember that cats need fresh water every day.
Also, . . .

And, finally, here is a picture of my cat stuck in the handle of the

grocery bag . . .

So now you know why I love cats, how to care for cats, and the
funny things they do.

The formula is based on a simple truth: people do not listen well.

To aid listeners, speakers have to make very clear what the audience

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will need to listen for during the speech, and speakers need to remind
the audience immediately about what they have just heard in order to
reinforce the message. That formula is a very good starting place for
your class instruction about organizing a speech. The formula also
makes clear that a speech needs an introduction, body, and conclu-
sion. But building a truly powerful speech takes more.

GRABBER OPENINGS
Often, students start a speech with, “Hi, my name is Skippy,
and I am going to tell you about my book, The Gospel According
to Larry.”
“Hi, my name is . . .” is a terrible way to start a speech. It is unac-
ceptable, even if a speech is designed to introduce the speaker. For
example, I watched elementary students give brown bag speeches at
the beginning of the school year as a way of introducing themselves to
their classmates. The speeches involved paper lunch bags with items
inside that represented important things in each student’s life: a pic-
ture of the family dog, a mini soccer ball to represent a favorite sport,
a controller for a favorite gaming system, and so on. It may seem
acceptable to have students introduce themselves at the beginning of
the brown bag speech and similar speeches, but even then, more is
required.
A speech should start with an opening that grabs the audience’s
attention and makes the listeners want to hear more. The open-
ing should be smooth, short, and dynamic. All audiences will give
the speaker a moment of attention out of curiosity. Speakers have
to take that initial curiosity and convert it to longer-term interest.
They must wake up the audience. Engage them. Do something to
ensure that the audience will stay with them for more than the
opening minute.
There are several ways speakers can grab the attention of the
audience:

The challenge. For example:

Today, I am going to ask you to do something very difficult, but it
is something that will change the world.

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The provocative question. For example:

What would you do if you had no money and your family was
starving? Would robbery be justified?

The powerful quote. A relevant quotation from a renowned

person can be effective. The quote loses impact, however, if the
audience does not know the author of the quote and does not
recognize the author as an authority in the area.

The surprising statistic. For example:

The average Internet user spends fewer than ten seconds on a
webpage before moving on.

The unusual fact. For example:

There is a garbage patch the size of Texas floating in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean. It is made up of plastic and debris that has
been caught in currents in the ocean.

The poignant story. Sometimes, a powerful and touching

personal story can be used to tug at the heartstrings of the
audience. This makes the subsequent factual presentation more
engaging.

The unexpected. For example:

I have been multitasking for my entire life. I am always doing
several things at once: texting, listening to music, surfing the
Web, homework. I believe multitasking has ruined my brain.

The teaser. For example:

Three minutes from now, I will tell you something that you will
never forget as long as you live. (Of course, the speaker will have
to deliver as promised.)

Why not brainstorm ideas with your students and model grabber
openings?

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For the brown bag speech:

(Pulling out a mini soccer ball.) I live for this! I am a soccer

maniac. Forget school. Let’s play soccer! My name is Mateo, and
I want to tell you about myself.

Do you know what is in this bag? Me! I am in there. I am Naomi,

and this is my life.

For the Larry oral book report:

How many of you use some social media site? Instagram?

Snapchat? Have you ever lied on a post you made for the app?
You don’t have to answer that, but Josh, the main character in
my book, lied. A lot.

They own you. You wear what they want you to wear, you eat
what they tell you to eat, and you watch what they want you to
watch. Corporations like Nike, McDonald’s, and Apple control
you. Larry knows that.

What would you change about yourself if you could? Want to be

taller? Thinner? Richer? Better at math? Better at some sport?
Want to start your life over and rebuild yourself? Well, that is
exactly what Josh did. He is the main character of The Gospel
According to Larry.

It is always useful to ask the speechwriter to trade places, men-

tally, with the listener. Ask students to consider this question: If you
heard that opening, would you be interested?

ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES
Certainly, the outline of a speech has to include the key information
and the required elements (as we discussed in Chapter 4). As we build
a speech, we also need to ask what the basic method of organizing
that information will be. There are a few basic structures:

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• chronological/sequential,
• problem and solution,
• compare and contrast,
• topical,
• geographical, and
• order of importance.

Chronological/Sequential Organization
For an oral book report, the speech most likely will flow chronologi-
cally. The beginning of the speech will include what happened first
in the book, and the end will discuss what happened at the end. A
speech about the Civil War will also most likely be in chronologi-
cal order, moving from events that occurred in 1861 to events that
occurred in 1862 and so on. Filling in the outline is easy for this sort
of speech:

1. 1861, causes of the war

a. states’ rights
b. expansion of slavery
2. Early battles
3. Gettysburg and other major battles

Problem and Solution Organization

Some speeches don’t follow a timeline. Often, teachers assign a problem
and solution speech. In these assignments, students are supposed
to research an issue affecting us and propose solutions. Generally,
they should organize the speech by explaining the problem and then
introducing the solutions. A student discussing acid rain, for exam-
ple, would define acid rain, explain its causes, discuss its impact,
and then offer ideas for stopping the causes and/or alleviating the
damages of acid rain.

Compare and Contrast Organization

A compare and contrast speech forces a different organizational struc-
ture. Usually, a list of similarities is followed by a list of differences.
In a language arts class, a student might be asked to compare two

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characters in a story. In a civics class, a student might be asked to

do a presentation about two different bills proposed in Congress for
solving the deficit problem. Instead of describing all the details of
one and then describing all the details of the other, it would be easier
to group the similarities and differences. For the civics assignment,
the speech might look like this:

The House bill is in some ways like the Senate bill. Both bills
have the goal of balancing the budget. The bill in the House
says . . . and the Senate bill says . . . Second, both bills want to
cut spending on social programs. The House bill says Medicare
and Social Security would be . . . and the Senate bill has almost
the exact same language. Finally, both bills want to maintain
spending for defense. The House version says defense spending
should increase by . . .

There are some big differences, though. The bill in the House of
Representatives proposes cutting taxes. The Senate bill proposes
raising taxes on the wealthiest . . .

Topical Organization
Topical speeches ask the speaker to focus on ideas that are some-
how related. For example, a speaker might describe skills that
students might need for success in the future. They could begin
with a discussion of collaboration skills, move to a discussion of
Internet literacy skills, and then continue with a discussion of Web
publishing skills, communication skills, and so on. No particular
order works best.

Geographical Organization
Speeches can be organized geographically if the topic lends itself
to this. A student might first speak about the northeast part of the
country, then the east, and then the southeast; or speak about the
animals of the desert, then move to the plains; or speak about the com-
mittee rooms and what happens there and then talk about the floor
of the entire legislative chamber. With geographically organized

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speeches, the listener visualizes the locations and mentally organ-

izes the information.

Order of Importance Organization

Persuasive speeches have the goal of moving the audience to some
conclusion. The speaker presents a series of ideas that compels listen-
ers to agree with him. For example, if a student wants to persuade
the class to sign a petition to change the menu choices in the school
cafeteria, they might first list all the reasons he could think of that
would persuade students to sign the petition. Once they had the list,
they would whittle it down to the three best reasons and decide which
of the three is the most persuasive and which is the least persuasive.
Three is the magic number in persuasive speeches. Listeners can-
not hold many ideas in their heads at one time, and including more
than three reasons will increase forgetfulness and decrease effective-
ness. The standard way of organizing persuasive speeches is to open
with what you believe is your second best idea, continue with your
third best idea, and save the best argument for last. Why? The last
words you say are freshest in the minds of the listeners and easiest
to recall. Because of initial curiosity (and a grabber opening), the first
words you say will be more memorable, too. This is another time stu-
dents can make good use of the audience analysis: What would this
group think is the best argument, the most persuasive? That will be
the last point made.
Oddly, a humorous speech is similar in structure to a persuasive
speech. To move the audience to laughter, speakers should open with
their second funniest line or story. Save the best for last.

SIGNPOSTS
All speeches, no matter the type, require skillful transitions between
ideas. I have had success using the term signposts in discussing tran-
sitions with students. Here is the analogy: Take a drive down any
interstate highway. You are continually met by large, green signs:
“Kalamazoo 47 miles,” “Kalamazoo 32 miles,” “Kalamazoo 16 miles,”
“Kalamazoo 2 miles,” “Kalamazoo next 4 exits.” At no time are you
unaware of your location or goal. That’s what signposts do: they tell

43
 Well S poken

you where you are and where you are going. Signposts in a speech
should do the same thing. Recall the basic formula for organizing a
speech (tell the audience what you’re going to tell them; tell them;
then tell them what you told them). This is really a way of using
signposts to let your audience know where you are going, where
you are, and where you have been.
Often, students resist the idea of including such obvious markers.
They think it is awkward to insert signposts. The truth is, though,
that most people listen less well than they read, and a speaker must
be overly clear in order to be followed well. Listeners get more out of
a speech if they have specific signposts along the way.
At the basic level, signposts are numeric:

You have just been diagnosed with a serious disease. Because

your father lost his job, your family has no health insurance.
What happens? If you live in America, you die. If you live in the
Netherlands, you live. Today, I want to give you three reasons
why we need national health care. First, there are . . . Second,
too many . . .

Although the preceding speech is not sophisticated, it includes

well-marked reasons that are easy to recall at the end of the speech.
The listener knows from the outset to be looking for three reasons
and does not need to wonder if what he or she just heard was one of
the reasons.
At a more advanced level, signposts, like transitions in writing,
become more fluid:

You have just been diagnosed with a serious disease. Because

your father lost his job, your family has no health insurance.
What happens? If you live in America, you die. If you live in the
Netherlands, you live. Today, I want to give you three reasons
why we need national health care. Let’s begin by looking at the
number of . . . I want to move on to another important argument
. . . I believe my final point will persuade those of you who
remain unsure . . .

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POWERFUL CLOSING
Once students finish the body of the speech, they have to build a
conclusion. I have heard far too many student speeches end with,
“And that’s my speech.” Ugh. That’s why we need to help students
figure out how to end a speech. Recall the basic format for any speech.
One option for a conclusion is to “tell them what you told them.”
The speaker simply reiterates or highlights the main points. This
option should be familiar from writing lessons. Like the concluding
sentence of a paragraph or the concluding paragraph of an essay,
this kind of speech ending is summative:

To conclude, I want to review my three reasons for national

health care: to eliminate waste and save money, to help the
poor, and to save lives. Now you understand.

At a more advanced level, the speaker may want to leave listeners

with one memorable thought—one key unforgettable concept:

Though I have presented four reasons for national health care,

I want you to focus on this one idea: A child somewhere in
America will die today due to a lack of health care. A child will
die. Can you live with that?

In some instances, a call to action is required:

We cannot sit back and let innocent people die. You must tell
your parents to call their congressional representatives. You
must join organizations that support health care reform. You
must do what you can to end the deaths.

In addition, think back to the previous suggestions for grabber

openings. Those techniques can be used to craft powerful closings
as well. A challenge, a quotation, or a poignant story can effectively
wrap up a speech, engaging listeners until the very end. Under no
circumstances should a speech just stop—but students won’t know
that unless we specifically instruct them.

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BRINGING TOGETHER THE CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION

Reflecting on all the parts of the speech, we can now go back and
expand the list of questions we asked students to think about in
Chapter 4. Indeed, you may want to require a writing assignment,
such as an outline or brief answers to questions, at this point in the
process. The completed assignment for my student’s speech in the
last chapter looked like this:

1. What opening will you use?

There are twelve million illegal immigrants in our country. That’s
larger than the populations of forty-four states. Twelve million
criminals. They all get free health care and schooling because of the
Supreme Court case I will present today.
2. What kind of organization will you use?
Chronological: the situation that led to the case; the decision of the
case; how the decision affected Texas afterward; what the decision
means today.
3. What is the purpose of the speech?
To inform classmates about a major Supreme Court decision and
explain how it affects their lives today.
4. What content is required?
a. Name of case: Plyler v. Doe
b. Date of case: 1982
c. Decision of case: States must give free public education to ille-
gal immigrant children because the Fourteenth Amendment says,
“all persons” must receive “equal protection under the law.” The
amendment does not say “all citizens,” and illegal immigrants
are persons.
d. Why the decision was important: There are twelve million
illegal immigrants in America and lots of money is spent on
them.
e. Quote from the decision: “Education has a fundamental role
in maintaining the fabric of our society. We cannot ignore the
significant social costs borne by our Nation when select groups
are denied the means to absorb the values and skills upon which
our social order rests.”

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5. What is the engaging content?

With the money Texas could save if they didn’t have to educate ille-
gal aliens, they could buy every legal student a new MacBook each
year. They could buy 30 million fifty-inch TVs, one for every resi-
dent of Texas. They could build 200 new high schools a year. They
could hire 130,000 new teachers.
6. What signposts will you use?
a. To begin, let me explain what was happening in Texas that led to
the lawsuit . . .
b. Now that you know the situation, here is what happened in the
Court . . .
c. That’s what the Court said. What did it mean to Texas? . . .
d. So that is what it meant and how it affected Texas. But it also
affects us . . .
7. What content should be clarified?
The Fourteenth Amendment needs to be explained. Its original pur-
pose and the timeframe in which it was adopted are important.
8. What connectors should be included?
a. Our state has a lot of illegal immigrants.
b. Our parents pay taxes to the school district, and their money
goes to educate illegal immigrants.
c. Our class sizes are bigger because of money spent on illegal immi-
grants instead of more teachers, and by spending money on illegal
immigrants, we have less money for new computers and textbooks.
d. When you get a job, you will pay taxes that go to educate illegal
immigrants.
9. What content should be excluded?
a. Specific names: the names of all the justices, attorneys
b. Specific dates: months and days
c. Lower court decisions
d. Legal terms, unless they are important and explained
e. Verbal virus “like,” which I say a lot
10. How will you end the speech?
Twelve million. Remember? Twelve million criminals. They aren’t in
jail; they are in our schools. They aren’t being deported; they are in
our hospitals. All because of the decision in Plyler v. Doe.

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Clearly, it is a very powerful speech and an example of what students

can do with specific instruction.
A student with a different opinion could build an equally powerful
speech by changing the language—undocumented workers instead
of illegal immigrants (a rhetoric lesson for upper grades)—and by
changing sections 1, 5, 8, and 10:

1. What opening will you use?

A five-year-old child heads off to school for the first time. He is nerv-
ous but excited, knowing that a world of learning awaits. But he is
turned away at the school doors. Why? Because his loving ­parents
wanted a better life for him, a life they never had, they came into
this country without permission, so he is not a citizen. Thanks
to the Supreme Court case I will present today, that will never
happen again.
5. What is the engaging content?
Our nation was founded by immigrants, and immigrants have
joined together to make our country great. Undocumented workers
contribute over $150 billion to our economy every year and have led
to the creation of eight million jobs. Even so, this is not about money
but about human beings. No child deserves to be deprived of the edu-
cation needed to thrive in our world.
8. What connectors should be included?
a. Our state has a lot of undocumented workers.
b. All of us have benefitted from the work undocumented workers
have done in so many industries and businesses.
c. Our taxes are smaller because undocumented workers pay into
the tax system more than they take out.
d. If the economy is strong, you will be more likely to get a job when
you graduate. Educated workers make our economy strong.
10. How will you end the speech?
If you had a chance to make life better for your child, would you
take that chance? Yes, of course you would. Could you look an inno-
cent child in the eye and say, “Your parents broke a rule to give
you a better life, so you must be punished for all time.”? Of course
not. If you had an opportunity to make the world better—educating

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children who might contribute to finding a cure for cancer or a

solution to our climate problems, for example—would you take that
opportunity? Of course, you would, and by supporting education for
all, you can contribute. Plyler v. Doe rocks!

An equally powerful speech. And that is the goal: giving all students
the ability to express their ideas effectively.
Don’t forget to point out that these content and organization sug-
gestions apply in all speaking situations. A great opening and closing
for the class discussion comment? Absolutely. Engaging content and
connectors when asking parents for a later curfew? “Good grades.
After-school activities. Part-time job. I do all of those well. Now, think
back to when you were my age. Remember how . . .” Preparing a video
to send to a prospective employer? Answering those ten questions
will improve the video’s reception. All talks improve with this kind
of thinking.

DISCUSSION IDEAS
1. Pose several topic ideas for class discussion. Have students
share ideas for openings by asking questions like these: How
can you introduce your classmate beyond saying, “Hi, this is
Jamal”? How would you open a speech about the book Elijah of
Buxton? How would you start a book report on the book Worser?
How could you grab the audience’s attention when you present
your desert biome diorama? If you want to persuade us that mul-
titasking is bad for students, what would be an effective opening
for that talk?
2. Teach a lesson about transitional phrases. Make a list of
options students can choose from:

For a chronological/sequential speech:

afterward, before, then, once, next, last, at last, at length, first,
second, (and so on), at first, formerly, rarely, usually, another,
finally, soon, meanwhile, afterward, generally, in order to, sub-
sequently, previously, in the meantime, immediately, eventu-
ally, concurrently, simultaneously

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For a compare and contrast speech:

on the contrary, contrarily, notwithstanding, but, however,
nevertheless, in spite of, in contrast, yet, on the one hand, on the
other hand, rather, or, nor, conversely, at the same time, while
this may be true

For a topical speech:

and, in addition to, furthermore, moreover, besides, too, also,
both, another, equally important, first, second, (and so on),
again, further, last, finally, not only, but also, as well as, in the
second place, next, likewise, similarly, in fact, as a result, con-
sequently, in the same way, for example, for instance, however,
thus, therefore, otherwise

3. Brainstorm endings as a class. Use actual topics from the class.

Use questions such as these: How could Kevin finish this speech?
What should Maria do to make her ending powerful?

50
CHAPTER 6:

Visual Aids: Enhancing

the Words

M any speakers like using visual aids. For the beginning

speaker, I recommend not using visual aids. Often, the
visual aid is merely something to hide behind. I think
students benefit more by being front and center.
In addition, visual aids can become a distraction in two significant
ways. First, preparing a visual aid takes focus away from preparing
the speech. Students typically spend a significant amount of time
preparing a PowerPoint presentation or poster and not enough time
building a meaningful speech. If I have allotted a week of prepara-
tion before a speech, I don’t want students spending six days tinker-
ing with font styles and background artwork. Second, visual aids can
distract the listener. Rather than focus on the speaker, the audience
focuses on the visual aid, and the speaker becomes subordinate to
the picture. Why would I want to build an attention-diverter into my
speech?
Having said that, I know teachers love to assign visual aids, so I
may not win the argument. Indeed, it would not be possible to give
some speeches without visual aids. Recall the brown bag speeches
mentioned on pages 38–40. The visual aids were necessary (and
adorable). Yet, as with every other aspect of speaking, students need
meaningful and specific instruction about using visual aids. Don’t
assume students know how to develop them. Too often, students copy
a diagram or picture straight from the one book they used. (Did I say

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book? That’s being overly optimistic! I meant straight from whatever

website they clicked on.) They often fail to analyze the appropriate-
ness of the image.

FOUR CRITERIA FOR VISUAL AIDS

Visual aids need to meet four criteria. They must be relevant, impor-
tant, accessible, and simple. Have you ever seen a speech where the
student brings in his Star Wars lightsaber and waves it around, say-
ing, “The Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms, and
that is what I am going to talk about today”? Unfortunately, I have.
No discussion of the Second Amendment has ever centered on light-
sabers. The toy is totally irrelevant. As a grabber, it probably does
get our attention, but it makes us think of Darth Vader or Kylo Ren
instead of the crucial constitutional issues.
In every speech, the visual aid should be based on the purpose of
the talk. If the speaker wants to argue against a broad interpretation
of the Second Amendment, a graph showing gun deaths in the United
States compared to gun deaths in other countries would be relevant.
If the speaker wants to inform us about the origins of the Second
Amendment, pictures of the Redcoats and Colonists with muskets
might be useful.
In addition to being relevant, visual aids should be important;
they are redundant if they merely repeat what the speaker says. A
poster that has bullet points of the four ways water gets polluted is
only marginally useful in a speech where the speaker has just told
us four ways water gets polluted. No visual aid should be presented
unless it illustrates something crucial that we would not otherwise
clearly understand. Visual aids should never be used as notes or as a
reminder for the speaker.
Imagine a student giving a speech about water pollution. She
brings in a picture of a river. Yes, the image may be relevant to the
topic, but is it important? Does it add significant information? A
picture of a river that shows various pollutants flowing into it from
sewage, fertilizer runoff, and industrial waste would be vital to our
understanding of the topic. When the student says that fertilizer
runoff from farms and golf courses gets into our rivers, the audience

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 C hapter 6 : V isual A ids : E nhancing the Words

probably doesn’t know exactly how that happens. She might say that
fertilizer concentration builds up and harms fish, but the audience
might not know how fertilizer can harm fish. What kind of visual
aid would help the audience understand how fertilizer gets from a
golf course into a river or how fertilizer kills fish? An effective visual
aid would be one that takes complex issues such as these and makes
them easy to understand.
Visual aids also need to be accessible in two senses, mentally
and visually. Think back to the analysis of the audience. If, for a
speech about water pollution, I bring in a complex flowchart show-
ing the chemical compounds in our water and how they got there,
it may be relevant and important, but it would not help fifth grad-
ers understand the problem. Something simpler would be far more
accessible to them. The visual aid must be on the same level as the
audience—it has to be mentally accessible. Being accessible also
includes being big enough, clear enough, vivid enough, and neat
enough to be seen by everyone in the audience. Are the words and
images just right for the size of the room? Do the colors work? Cer-
tainly, color is important to the impact of the visual aid, but fluo-
rescent hot pink may not be the best choice. Visual aids need to be
visually accessible.
That brings me to the final point: visual aids must be simple. Have
you been to a workshop where the speaker projects several slides
from a PowerPoint presentation, each with densely packed type, mul-
tiple bullet points, and complex flowcharts with arrows everywhere?
Not very effective, right? Years ago, I was introduced to the U.S. mili-
tary’s KISS principle, and I imagine you have heard of it also. One
version, “Keep it simple, stupid,” seems a bit harsh in the school set-
ting, but another version, “Keep it simple, students,” should be intro-
duced in our classrooms. For starters, students must be cautioned to
design, not decorate. A visual aid is not an art project but rather a tool
to enhance the listener’s understanding. A visual aid should contain
minimal text. A graph should be easy to follow. An on-point image
should replace text. The visual aid must make a strong positive con-
tribution to the speech and not distract audience members as they try
to decipher it.

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 Well S poken

FINAL THOUGHTS ON VISUAL AIDS

Everything I have described in Part II, “Building a Speech,” refers to
what is done before the speaker ever says a word. Let me offer one
bit of advice that relates to performing a speech, but that probably
should be mentioned as you explain visual aids to students. The
visual aid should not be unveiled until the precise moment that
the speaker wants the audience to focus on it. If a student displays
the image before she begins speaking, the audience members will be
distracted, wondering when the explanation of the picture will be
forthcoming. They will be guessing in their own minds about what
the picture means or what the speaker plans to do with it. Similarly,
as soon as the speaker finishes with the visual aid, she should remove
it from sight. If not, students in the audience will continue focusing
on the aid and not the speaker and side conversations discussing
the artistic merits of the aid will result.

DISCUSSION IDEAS
1. Discuss responses to these questions with students: What kind
of speech might require a visual aid? What would be the purpose of
the visual aid? To emphasize a key point? To wow the audience? To
clarify content? Speeches explaining processes, demonstrating
how to do something, or describing something that the audi-
ence needs to see pictured in order to understand would fit in
the last category. What might fit the first two purposes?
2. If you are making an assignment that requires a visual aid,
choose a sample topic and discuss with students the kinds of
visual aids that might be effective. For example, if you have
assigned a book share, use a book that students are famil-
iar with and brainstorm ideas of the sorts of visual aids that
would enhance a presentation on that book. This will model
the process for your students.

54
CHAPTER 7:

Appearance: Dressing
for the Occasion

I realize that appearance might at first seem to be an odd fit in

a section about building a speech. Let me explain my thought
process. As I mentioned, before a speaker ever utters a word,
they have to create the words that will be heard. They also have to
create the visuals that will be seen. One of those may be a visual
aid to increase the impact of the presentation. Another visual is the
speaker themself. They will be seen, and they will be judged before they
ever open their mouth. The speaker is, in a sense, a visual aid, too.
In some cases, teachers require a certain appearance. They might
ask students to dress as a character from a novel for a book report
or dress as a particular person from history for a biography presen-
tation. Obviously, in those situations, students will have to create a
costume to complete the building-the-speech stage. But even when
costumes are not required, students should consider their appear-
ance before they get to the podium.
A speaker must “build” an image to match the speech. You have
realized this from your personal experiences (which I encourage you
to share with your students). When you went to your job interview,
for example, you prepared by considering how to dress. You may
have sought advice: “Should I wear this?” “Is this too formal?” You
probably went through the same thoughts as you got ready for back-
to-school night. Let students know that you plan your appearance
when you plan your talks. Ask them to think about how a candidate

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 Well S poken

might choose an outfit for a campaign speech. For instance, what does
a male candidate wear for a speech at the Iowa Farm Bureau? Can
students visualize it? Sleeves rolled up, no tie, possibly a hat. What
does the candidate wear for a nationally televised debate? Probably
a white shirt, dark suit, and tie perfectly knotted. No speaker ignores
appearance.
There is no reason to prepare a great speech only to have it dimin-
ished by poor appearance. To begin with, suggest that students choose
their outfits to avoid annoying habits. (I will talk more about this in
Chapter 8, “Poise.”) Hooded sweatshirts are quite popular, but they
offer the potential for distraction. I have often seen students twirling
the strings of their hoodies. I have also watched them moving their
hands in their front pockets in ways that reminded me of a scene from
the movie Alien. Do you know the one I mean? An alien has inhabited
the body of one of the humans on the base, and after some wriggling,
the alien head bursts out of the human’s stomach. Don’t let your stu-
dents wear hoodies unless you caution them about the potential prob-
lems. I have watched students play with the cuff of a long sleeve and
retract their hands into the sleeve, only to make them reappear later.
Don’t let them wear overly long sleeves. Many students have hair-
styles in which half of their faces are covered by bangs. In addition to
hiding their faces from the audience (a bad idea), the hairstyle leads
to annoying head jerks as students try to get the hair off their faces
and out of their eyes. Inevitably, the hair slides back down, necessitat-
ing another head jerk . . . and another and another. Don’t let students
show up on performance day without a hair band or some way to
keep hair from being a distraction. Similarly, students with untucked
shirts are somehow compelled to tug continuously at the bottom of
their shirts. Don’t allow them to leave their shirts untucked. Bottom
line: the popular style in school at the moment may not be workable
on presentation day.
Beyond those specific changes to avoid annoying habits, I believe
that if you have a major presentation required in class, you must
require a major change in dress code. Students need to know that
what is acceptable on a normal day in class is not acceptable on the
day of a big presentation. I got very few complaints from students

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 C hapter 7 : A ppearance : D ressing for the O ccasion

when I required formal dress on presentation day. I explained that

by “formal,” I meant “the outfit you currently own that you think
makes you look the most professional.” When my sons were in mid-
dle school, they did not own a suit or a sports coat. For them, “formal”
was the best pair of khakis they owned and a neatly pressed oxford
shirt, which was a far cry from the jeans and T-shirts worn on a typi-
cal day. When I required formal dress for speeches, if you went out
into the hall between classes, you could see which students were
presenting that day. It was no big deal; it was just a fact of life in Mr.
Palmer’s classroom.
Changing the dress code changes the attitude of the speaker,
which, in turn, changes the audience’s perception of the speaker. Stu-
dents know that an outfit can affect the way you feel. They know that
clothes can make you feel confident and impressive. And they know
that how you dress affects people’s opinion of you. We absolutely do
judge a book by its cover. In the real world, you alter your appearance
to match the occasion. Why not have your students start practicing
that now?

FINAL COMMENTS ON BUILDING A SPEECH

It is rare to find an individual of any age who can speak brilliantly
off the cuff. Impromptu speaking is extremely difficult. Extempo-
raneous speaking involves at least a bit of warning and gives the
speaker time to jot down some notes, but it, too, is hard to master.
In my experience, most students are not successful if they just try
to wing it or rely on a brief outline. For these reasons, I recommend
that you require a written script. While you may treat the script as a
writing assignment and grade it as such, don’t feel compelled to do so.
I never had time to grade all the texts for all the speeches I assigned,
nor did I feel it was necessary. Students should create written texts
because they are crucial to delivering great speeches, and the focus
should be on the oral presentation, not the written work. I did ask to
see my students’ scripts before their presentations, but I looked for
the elements of building a speech, not mechanics, paragraphing, and
so on. You likely require a rough draft before a written assignment,
so insist on a rough draft before an important talk.

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 Well S poken

Although it is highly unlikely that students will deliver their

speeches exactly as written, they must nonetheless complete the writ-
ing. (In Chapter 11, I discuss using the text during the performance.)
Christopher Witt, a speech consultant and author of Real Leaders
Don’t Do PowerPoint (2009), has estimated that a five-minute speech
contains 750 words. That’s not an unreasonable amount of writing for
students. The text allows students to verify that they have all the ele-
ments they need, the text gives them confidence, and writing the text
helps them remember the speech come performance time. Studying
the text visually improves performing it orally.
You may think that most of what I have written in this section
applies only to a major presentation. Many teachers limit these to one
a year: the seven-minute speech about the research paper; the four-
minute opening statement for the formal debate; the culmination of
the storytelling unit; the explanation of the science project. Although
every talk may not require all of the writing that is needed to pull off
a major presentation, each speech does require thinking about all of
the elements of building a speech. Even a two-minute show-and-tell
speech should be built with the audience in mind, with appropriate
content that is well organized, with quality visual aids, and with con-
sideration of how to dress for the performance. Students need to get
in the habit of thinking about all of these elements every time they
plan to speak. I was amazed at the way even routine class discussions
improved by the end of the year in my classes when I reinforced this
kind of thinking about speaking. I knew that at the back of the stu-
dents’ minds, they were considering audience, content, organization,
and building a quality response to the discussion question. And I
knew they were also thinking about the other main part of speaking:
performing a speech.

58
 PA RT III
PERFORMING A
SPEECH

How a speech is performed may be more important than how it

is built. If the speaker cannot deliver the speech well, no one will
ever notice how well it was written. As Christopher Witt points out,
“Knowledge isn’t power; communicating knowledge is” (2009, 5).
The most brilliant ideas are worthless if the speaker can’t deliver
them. Let me give you two examples.
My children all graduated from the same high school. I heard
the principal speak more times than I can recall at back-to-school
nights, award ceremonies, PTO meetings, and other events. I almost
never paid attention to what he said in those speeches because I was
focused on his annoying habit of fidgeting with the height adjustment
ring on the microphone stand. He simply could not leave that ring
alone. The entire time he spoke, he would wiggle the ring back and
forth with one hand while holding the mike with the other hand so
it wouldn’t slide down during the loosening part of his fidgeting. He
probably had important information to impart about the workings of
the school or perhaps inspirational words for the honorees, but all I
remember was the microphone stand.
On the other hand, my own experience in high school proved to
me that if a speech is delivered well, it is possible no one will notice
how poor the content is. I am not advocating that students do what I
did many years ago, but I did learn the importance of performance.
 Well Spoken

We were supposed to have read a few chapters of A Tale of Two Cit-

ies for English. I hadn’t done the assignment. (I assure you this was
a rare occurrence. I was a model student generally. Really, I was.) I
knew the odds were with me. How many students would get called
on in one class? Six or seven out of thirty, maybe, so I had only a one-
in-five chance of being called upon. But I lost.

TEACHER: Erik, what do you think?

ERIK: (Poised, confident, making eye contact, with feeling.) I

immediately sensed why the book is a tale of two cities. The
word “tale” is so much more encompassing; more complex
than the word “story,” for example, and the early chapters have
a richness that suggests the depths of the tale. But I was most
intrigued by the juxtaposition of the two cities, the interplay of
the events, and the characters in the two very different locales.
I agree with Debbie that the personalities of the protagonists
seem to adjust as the environment shifts. (Debbie, who had
spoken earlier, had read the book.)

The teacher seemed satisfied with my response/bluff and went on

to the next student. I apologize for seeming to glorify a situation in
which I pulled the wool over a teacher’s eyes. But I believe that students
who speak better do get viewed differently. There were many times in
my teaching career when I had to struggle to adjust my perception of a
student—the oral student was so good that I had a hard time realizing
that the whole student was needier than I initially thought.
It should be no surprise that actors often succeed in politics. They
are performers, and in an era of sound bites and video clips, perfor-
mance is crucial. Voters tend to vote for the performance rather than
the content. Is the candidate believable? Charismatic? Charming?
How often does a performance error affect an election? In contrast,
how often does a great performance sway voters? In a world of video
conferences, Skype, and video calls on phones, performance becomes
crucial to your students’ futures as well. They will be judged on how
well they deliver the sales pitch, the presentation to the board, the

60
 P art I I I P e r f o r m i n g a S p e e ch

closing argument to the jury, the lesson to the class, the portfolio to
the hiring committee, or the landscaping bid to the homeowner.
I realize that most people use the word deliver when discussing
speeches, but I prefer the word performance. Delivery is just hand-
ing something over to someone. The FedEx guy delivers a package;
the postal carrier delivers a letter; the speaker delivers a speech. No
big deal, right? But delivering a talk is a big deal. It involves several
skills that few people master in a lifetime. It is a performance art. The
speaker is on stage and in the spotlight, if not literally, certainly figu-
ratively. Even in small, informal speaking situations, the speaker is
evaluated on performance elements. Sometimes, the audience buys
the performance, and sometimes not. You’ve probably had an experi-
ence in which you thought, “He said he was going to do it, but I didn’t
believe him.” Or perhaps the reverse occurred: “I can’t believe she
did that! She told me that we were in agreement, yet she went to her
friend and said the exact opposite.” You judged the performance. In
the first case, something about the performance made you doubt the
words. In the second case, the performance fooled you into believing
a lie. Performance counts.
The performance aspect of speaking can be broken into six parts:
poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures, and speed. Many years ago,
I made a poster for my class listing those elements (see figure on).
The capital letters stood out, and a student called out, “PV LEGS!”
PVLEGS became a simple mnemonic for remembering the parts of
a performance. That mnemonic has surprised me with its appeal.
As I moved from elementary school to middle school, students still
found PVLEGS useful. I assumed high school students would find
it childish, but that didn’t turn out to be true. I suppose that Roy G.
Biv may seem like an odd name, but millions of students (and adults)
remember the colors of the rainbow because of that name. Similarly,
while PVLEGS may sound odd, it represents all the elements needed
to become a master orator.
The elements of building a talk can be checked by reading the text
of the talk. Studying the words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have
a Dream” speech reveals how well he thought about his audience,
how carefully he chose his content, and how brilliantly he organized

61
 Well Spoken

his words, for example. The elements of performing a talk cannot

be checked until you hear the talk. For that reason, mentor talks are
available at www.PVLEGS.com. Ranging from kindergarten stu-
dents using a green screen to talk about Colorado weather to Amanda
Gorman delivering her poem at an Inauguration ceremony, you will
find models for your students to critique and emulate. I encourage
you to visit the site, and I encourage you to contribute to the site. Do
you have students whose speaking skills impressed you after your
lessons were presented? Send them to me to post so that others can
see what is possible.

62
 P art I I I P e r f o r m i n g a S p e e ch

P
oise • Appear calm and confident
• Avoid distracting behaviors

Voice • Speak every word clearly

• Use a volume level just
right for the space

Life • Express passion and emotions

with your voice

Eye Contact
• Connect visually with the audience
• Look at each audience member

Gestures • Use hand motions

• Move your body
• Have an expressive face

Speed • Talk with appropriate speed:

not too fast, not too slow
• Use pauses for effect and emphasis

S i x T r a i t S p e a k i n g™
pvlegs.com © Erik Palmer

63
CHAPTER 8:

Poise: Appearing Calm

and Confident

I f you check the library or search online, you will find many
books and articles about overcoming the fear of public speaking.
Almost all of the articles will include phrases similar to these:

Statistics show that public speaking is the number one fear of adults.

According to statistics, the fear of speaking ranks higher in

people’s minds than the fear of death.

According to national surveys, fear of public speaking ranks

among Americans’ top fears, surpassing fear of heights, fear of
flying, and fear of terrorism.

None of the articles or books actually cite the source of the “statis-
tics.” It seems highly unlikely that anyone would choose to die if asked
whether they would prefer to give a speech or to be put to death. But the
point is clear: many people fear giving a speech. The fear of speaking is
greatly overstated, though. In spite of the terror and dread that is sup-
posedly out there, I have never had one student fail to give an assigned
speech. Not one. Every student (and every adult) I have worked with has
been successful at performing the speech when the time came. Students
with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and students with 504
plans that would have allowed not participating chose to speak. Not all
students were master orators, but all were able to overcome their fears.

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 Well Spoken

GETTING BEYOND THE BUTTERFLIES

The truth is that all speakers have a degree of nervousness. Even a
professional speaker with massive experience will have a heightened
level of excitement before a presentation. It is also true that if that
nervousness is obvious, listeners can be distracted and miss the
point of the speech. This is why the first skill needed in performing
a speech is poise. Webster defines poise as an “easy, self-possessed
assurance of manner . . . pleasantly tranquil” (Merriam-Webster 1998,
899). The key to performing a speech is to appear calm and assured
even when we may not feel precisely that way (or even remotely
close to it).
All of us have normal reactions to stressful situations. First,
acknowledge these reactions. Let students know that what they
feel is normal and expected. Students can expect a dry mouth
because saliva dries up. They can expect butterflies: a nervous,
almost queasy feeling in the stomach. Shortness of breath is com-
mon, as is a rapid heart rate. Students may find they are sweating.
Hands may tremble; knees may feel weak and wobbly; the voice
may be unsteady and sound shaky. These symptoms may sound
dreadful and dramatic, but assure students that they are typical
reactions to being “on stage,” even if that “stage” is a one-to-one
talk with the counselor. Another normal response—perhaps less
disturbing than these others—is the nervous smile. Students take
the stage and begin with a grin on their faces; it doesn’t matter
what the topic is:

STUDENT:(Smiling.) Today, I want to tell you about the day my

dog died . . .

These things happen. Tell students not to worry. Normalizing

these symptoms of stress will take the charge out of them.

NOTICING OUR ANNOYING HABITS

Every speaker has some habit or distinguishing tic that is an outcome
of nervousness. Yes, every speaker. Ask your students—they will tell
you what you do. For the principal at my children’s high school, it

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 C hapt e r 8 : P o is e : A pp e ari n g C a l m a n d C o n f id e n t

was fidgeting with the microphone. For beginning speakers, the list
of annoying mannerisms can be quite long:

• A head flick to get the bangs out of the eyes

• Repeatedly saying “um,” “and um,” and “uh”
• Tugging at the hem of an untucked shirt
• Twirling hair next to the ear
• Twirling the strings of the hoodie
• Buckling one knee and then the other over and over
• Shifting weight back and forth from one leg to the other and
rocking
• Happy feet—moving one foot from heel to toe repeatedly
• Tugging on fingers
• Hands active in the front pocket of a hoodie
• Continuous nervous smile or giggle
• Tugging on the end of long sleeves or pulling the hands into
the sleeves
• Scratching
• Smoothing hair
• Touching the nose
• Fiddling with eyeglasses
• Rolling and unrolling the note cards
• Mangling the edges of the manuscript
• Trying to flatten the pages of folded speech notes after pulling
them out of the pocket at the beginning of the speech
• (Add several that you have observed here)

All of these habits can become so annoying that the audience loses
focus on the content. I have watched as students made tally marks
to score all the times the speaker continued the annoying patterns.
Amazingly, invariably, the speaker had no idea that he was doing
whatever it was that all of the audience members noticed. Much more
often than not, a classmate will say, “Did you know you kept shifting
weight from one foot to the other?” and the speaker will say, “I did?”
I have no doubt that if I had asked the principal if he was aware of
his constant microphone adjusting, he would say no, too. All of these
habits have to be discovered, discussed, and overcome.

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 Well Spoken

Some students decide to solve this issue by making sure they don’t
do anything distracting. They resolve to stand perfectly, rigidly still.
But that still fails the poise test (“easy, self-assured”). The key is to
appear calm and confident.

STANCE AND MOVEMENT

Well, then, how should speakers stand? Different people have differ-
ent styles. For example, I remember my style when I was in college
debate tournaments. I always started behind the podium and then
moved to the side of it, resting one arm on the podium, crossing one
foot over the other, and leaning on the lectern. I would move back
to the podium to check my notes and read a quote, and then go to
the side again. That worked well for me. Actually, it still works for
me—if you saw me now giving a keynote speech, you would see that
I start at the podium and then move to the side.
Of course, few classrooms have a podium. What works in that
case? What do you do? You have a favorite delivery position in your
classroom, right? That one place where you usually stand when you
are in charge? The certain stance you assume? Think about it, and
if you can’t identify your “home” position, ask your students. They
know your style. Similarly, your students will have to discover their
own personal positions. Does it work for them to stand with feet
shoulder length apart? One foot in front of the other? Do they want
to have their arms crossed and comfortable as their base position?
One hand in the pocket? Students should test out various poses to see
what works for them.
In a classroom without a podium, the speaker is exposed, stand-
ing alone at the front of the room, or perhaps with a desk in front
of him with note cards on it. Stance and posture become magnified.
Most of us find it impossible to stay in one location for the duration
of a speech. We have to move to release the nervous energy. The good
news is that purposeful motion does not hurt poise. The question
is whether the motion is smooth and assured or unnecessary and
distracting. Students should never move without a reason for the
movement. For example, if they step to the side, they should time the
motion to when they are moving from one point to the next in their

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 C hapt e r 8 : P o is e : A pp e ari n g C a l m a n d C o n f id e n t

speech. A couple of steps to one side or the other at transitions can

emphasize the organization, the signposts:

Now that I have explained the causes of the war, let’s look at the
major battles that occurred. (Speaker takes two steps to the left and
settles into a good stance.) The Battle of Bull Run was significant
because . . . But perhaps the most important battle (speaker moves
back to her original position) was the Battle of . . .

A step back can indicate that the speaker is done with that part
of the speech. A step forward emphasizes an important point. Dis-
cuss with students how they can use purposeful movement during
a speech, but be sure they know that speakers do have to stand still
sometimes. Constant motion is distracting.

DEALING WITH MISTAKES

All speakers make mistakes. They forget something; their voices
crack; they mispronounce words. Part of poise is learning how to
deal with those mistakes.
Teach students not to dwell on a mistake and get off track. They
should stay calm, acknowledge the error quickly, and move on. (That’s
often good advice in other areas, too.) Nervousness tends to wear off
as a speech continues. I have watched many students start with shaky
hands and unsteady voices yet transform into poised speakers a min-
ute or so into a speech. Making an issue of an early mistake doesn’t
allow this transition to occur.

A RESPECTFUL CLASSROOM ATMOSPHERE

In truth, not all behaviors can be cured. Many people blush when
nervous. You will have students who turn bright red the moment all
eyes are on them. Let me talk for a minute, then, about classroom
atmosphere. It is extremely important to set up the audience to mini-
mize the discomfort of student speakers. To create a respectful and
safe environment for speeches, discuss the difficulty of the task and
how uncomfortable it can be to make a speech in front of a group.

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 Well Spoken

Reassure students that no one in the room is a professional and

experienced speaker. Emphasize the need to be kind and tolerant.
We can’t laugh at Chloe because she blushes. We can’t give Marcus
a hard time because his voice cracks. We have to understand that
many speakers will have quivering voices when they start, and we
need to be tolerant of that.
This may be a good time to have a discussion on how to be a good
listener. Explain the importance of being attentive and quiet, laugh-
ing only when appropriate during the speech, avoiding distracting
the speaker, responding when the speaker expects a response, and
applauding politely when the speaker finishes. The goal is to have the
speaker feel that the listeners totally support him as he presents. You
are responsible for creating a safe space.

EXPERIENCE LEADS TO POISE

So far, I have discussed being aware of all the things speakers do to
distract the audience. When your students are aware of their tics,
they can begin to avoid them. But habits are hard to break. Don’t
expect students (or yourself ) to eliminate all annoying behaviors
instantly. Progress is incremental. That’s why I hope all teach-
ers in your school adopt this framework. Next year’s teacher can
say, “What poise issue are you working on? Let’s see how you’re
progressing.”
A key to developing poise is experience. The more they speak,
the better students will be at leaving out the head flicking and shirt
tugging. Certainly, it is easier to be poised in familiar situations. The
second back-to-school night is not as bad as the first. We need to give
students many opportunities to speak in different situations so they
can begin to feel comfortable and develop stage presence.

POSTURE
I cannot leave the poise section without a comment about posture.
When I taught an eighth-grade civics lesson, I assigned what I called
the Twenty-Eighth Amendment Project. Students had to propose
an idea for the next amendment to the Constitution, write a formal
research paper, and present a speech to parents who had volunteered

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to be members of the “Senate committee” conducting a hearing on

the proposed amendment. Students were seated during the pres-
entation to the committee, and I was amazed at how they arranged
themselves. They slouched in the chair, stretched their legs out in
front of the desk, constantly wiggled their feet, and draped one arm
over the back of the chair. “Self-possessed assurance of manner”
must include presenting yourself in a way that commands respect.
Students do not grasp this concept without some help and risk cre-
ating bad impressions.
I taught students that when we spoke, we had to become poised
first. I am not referring only to that one major presentation. When we
had a class discussion, if a student chose to make a comment, they had
to get themselves ready to make a comment: sit up, avoid annoying
habits, and speak. When we conducted traveling debates (described
in Chapter 16), the speaker had to stand, get settled, and speak. You
set up many rules to make your classroom work. It is not at all dif-
ficult to set up the expectation that when a student speaks, they have
to look composed and impressive, with a posture that shows they are
about to present an idea worth listening to.

TIPS FOR BECOMING POISED

With so many possible distracters to poise, it is a good idea to make
students aware of a few strategies that can help them calm down.
Encourage them to do the following:

1. Visualize. In your mind, go through the entire speech. Visual-

ize the room, the audience, and the place where you will be
speaking. Imagine the perfect performance and the audience’s
appreciation. See yourself being successful.
2. Practice. Repeat your performance over and over again.
Practice in front of a mirror; practice in front of a friend
who will offer constructive criticism; practice in front of the
family; practice the speech standing up if you will be stand-
ing when you deliver the speech. Ask for feedback about
things that indicated a lack of poise. (Typically, students

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practice until they get the speech right. Suggest that they practice
until they cannot get it wrong.)
3. Take three long, deep breaths before you walk up to speak.
Once in place, take one more deep breath. Yes, the audience is
watching, but they will allow you to get yourself settled. Don’t
begin until you feel settled.
4. Acknowledge nervousness by saying something like this:
“Please excuse me if my hands tremble. I don’t want it to get in
the way of the important things I have to say today.” Audiences
are on your side and are very forgiving.
5. Get a drink and take water up to the podium.
6. Count backward from four very slowly five times before you
speak: “Fourrrrrrr, thrrrreeeee, twooooooo, onnnnnnne . . .”
Exhale as you say (or think) each number.
7. Use positive self-talk: “I can do this!” “I am ready!” “They all
survived and so will I!”
8. Take a brisk walk before the speech, if possible. (I always
let my students go out in the hall five minutes before their
speeches to get the wiggles out.)

PRACTICE IDEAS
1. Ask several students to give two-minute impromptu
speeches on topics familiar to them, such as their
favorite movie, activity, or sports team. After each
speech, ask audience members to discuss what they
noticed about the speaker’s poise. (I suggest two min-
utes because most of us can easily talk for thirty sec-
onds, but the true wiggles come out when we start to
struggle to keep the speech going.)

2. Model (and have students model) several speech stances.

Which stances look comfortable and confident? Which lead
to wiggling and fidgeting? Do you have to stay in one place,
or can you move smoothly from one location to another?

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3. Ask students to record the talk if possible. Tablets,

phones, laptops, and other devices record audio/video
and are increasingly available. Tell students to watch the
recording with sound turned off while paying attention to
mannerisms and tics. Without the pressure of a live audi-
ence, some of the tics may not show up, but it is a good
way for students to see themselves as others see them.

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CHAPTER 9:

Voice: Making Every

Word Heard

F ollowing the PVLEGS mnemonic, voice is the second part

of a performance that speakers should address. Notice the
simplicity of that phrase: every word heard. It encompasses
the varied, confusing, and sometimes wrong terms we give to stu-
dents. Articulation, enunciation, elocution? Not friendly words, and
few of us could explain the difference between them. Projection?
Multiple meanings and a word that requires explanation. “Speak
loudly?” That’s a common but horrible bit of advice. Yelling is not
the goal. We just need to hear every word clearly.
At a minimum, we strive for a voice that is pleasant to hear. Think
of the types of voices students might hear: the radio or video deejay;
the entertainment show hosts; the infomercial hustler; the president
of the United States; other teachers in your school; online influencers.
Some of them have voices you could listen to all day; some have voices
that would be too harsh to live with. I don’t believe we all need to be
as smooth and pleasant as the jazz station deejay, nor do I believe we
should encourage students to try to mimic someone else’s style. I do
believe we need to have students begin to think about how they sound.
A good speech is a good conversation magnified. The speaker
retains his basic conversational style but uses animation and volume
suitable for a larger audience. Don’t encourage students to pretend to
be master orators. Have you ever seen a comedian doing a caricature
of a Southern revival preacher? (“Say yay-ess! I said, say yay-ess!”)
That is not the goal. Again, you don’t want students to imitate any

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style or any person. You should, however, point out to students that
there are different types of voices, and you should begin the process
of having them think about their voices. Some people have very stri-
dent voices, for example, making it tiring to listen to them. Help stu-
dents become aware of how they sound to avoid such problems.

VOLUME
Volume is an important part of voice. As a professional speaker, I always
check the sound system before a presentation. In the classroom setting,
the same concern exists. Can everyone comfortably hear what the speaker
is saying? Is the volume just right for the space? Does the voice carry
to the back corners? Many students speak too softly. Often, a teacher
will just repeat a speaker’s inaudible comment so the class can hear it.
Don’t reinforce bad habits. Require the speaker to repeat the comment
and use the occasion to reteach the importance of appropriate volume.
Certainly, before a presentation, we should tell students to con-
sider whether their voices will be heard at the back of the room. That
shy girl who never raises her voice must know that for the four min-
utes of the speech, she has to use a voice bigger than she has ever used
in school—the voice she uses when her sister borrows her favorite
outfit without asking. Much rarer is the student whose voice is too big
for the space. If you have one of those students, rein them in.

ENUNCIATION
The audience needs to be able to hear every word of a speech. I empha-
size this because students often mumble and/or blur words together.
Generally, the volume is fine, but there are moments when enuncia-
tion falters, as in these examples:

I’mgonnatellyubout the author’s life . . .

Knowhudimean? Allovus have felt that way at some point . . .

Jever hear about generative AI? Generative AI is . . .

“I am going to tell you about” is a seven-word phrase and should not be

turned into one word. “Do you know what I mean” may be unnecessary

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(recall the verbal virus section in Chapter 4), but if a student is going to
use the phrase, she should say all six words, not one blurred word. “All
of us” have heard students make these mistakes, but “did you ever” talk
to a class about the need for each word to be clear and distinct? You don’t
need to use the word enunciation, but you do need to make the concept
of enunciation a routine part of your instruction.

ODD VOCAL PATTERNS

Finally, voice includes odd vocal patterns. Have you ever heard a
student whose voice rises at the end of every sentence as if he is
continually asking questions?

So then he went to the principal’s office? And the principal was

mad at him because he didn’t go to the pep rally? Worser said
he didn’t think he should get in trouble for going to the library
and reading? Then his aunt comes and picks him up?

Many students fade away at the end of a sentence.

Worser was always picked on and didn’t fit because he was such a
word nerd and kinda funny looking.

I have no idea where these habits come from, but please begin the
process of ending them. When they occur, bring them to the student’s
attention. Discuss how they may diminish the impact of the message.
Ask the speaker to repeat the lines without the odd mannerism.

PRACTICE IDEAS
1. Ask students to deliver some short, silly speeches. Project the
text of the speech onto a whiteboard or screen and ask volun-
teers to step up and speak. (You can download some samples
at www.PVLEGS.com.) Afterward, ask the class to discuss
the voice aspects of the speech. Here is one short speech
example:

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 Well Spoken

There are several things to consider. First, do you feel

ready to compete? Second, do you have a game plan you
believe in? Third, are you prepared to accept the possibility
of defeat? Once you have mentally prepared yourself, only
one question should enter your mind: do you want to open
with rock, paper, or scissors?

2. Teachers often hold class discussions. Before your class

discusses a book, an assignment, or an issue, tell students
that in addition to the content of their comments, they
should focus on voice. After each student speaks, discuss
the substance of the comment. Then, before calling on
the next student, make some remarks about the student’s
voice: volume, enunciation, and vocal pattern. We want
students to understand that speaking skills shouldn’t only
be trotted out for one or two big presentations a year.

3. As I mentioned, many students have access to some kind of

recording tool. Cell phones, tablets, laptops, and more have
audio and video recording options. Suggest that they make
and listen to a recording of the talk they will be giving.
Without a quality microphone, the sound can be misleading,
but the recording gives students an idea of how they sound,
and it is good practice for making every word heard.

4. Students can use a Web site such as Vocaroo

(www.vocaroo.com) to record a talk. The recording can be
e-mailed or embedded in a blog, enabling others to give
feedback.

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CHAPTER 10:

Life: Putting Passion

Into the Voice

L istening to students’ speeches over the years, I was often

reminded of a time when I took my four-year-old son, Ross,
to a school “musical” his older brother’s third-grade class was
putting on. Before the performance, the principal was droning on
and on about some school issues (forgetting about audience analysis:
“Is this what they came here for?”). Before I could stop him, Ross
had put both hands to his mouth, made a loud raspberry sound, and
said, “Bor-ring!” As a parent, you are sometimes put into a position
of having to tell your child he is wrong, even when he is right.
Similarly, it amazes me how children who are so animated in the
lunchroom or at a sleepover can be so flat and dull in the classroom.
We need to hear emotions in students’ public presentations: anger,
excitement, joy, sadness, fear, disappointment, and amazement. Many
students believe that adding emotion to their voices will make them
decidedly uncool, but it is far less cool to bore your peers to tears.
I use the word life rather than inflection for this element because life
seems to resonate with students.
I got a lesson in vocal life many years ago when I had a radio show
on a Top 40 station. (It was a talk show called “Rap,” to give you an idea
of how many years ago it was. I’ll talk more about it in Chapter 17.) After
recording the first show, I listened to the tape. I was boring. I found out
that radio and television flatten your voice. To sound normal through
the audio speaker, you have to be exceptionally lively in the studio. To a

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 Well Spoken

large extent, this is true in most types of speaking: to sound interesting

to the audience, you have to exaggerate the feeling in your voice.
This is a real stretch for many students. They often push back at this
point; they worry about sounding foolish in front of their friends when
we ask them to animate their voices in a speech. (Oddly, there is no
worry when they talk excitedly in the lunchroom.) Without instruction,
students tend to be monotonous and remove feeling from their voices.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LIFE IN THE VOICE

Consider these simple phrases:

I don’t think you’re wrong.

You know you shouldn’t do that.

As you read them, did it occur to you that the meaning of the phrases
could be changed just by the life you inject into your voice? Can you say
the first phrase in a way that seems like you sincerely believe I am not
wrong? If you emphasize the words differently, can you say it in a way
that makes me sure you believe I am wrong? How about, “I don’t think
you are wrong,” which suggests that you know I am wrong? The second
phrase can have multiple meanings, too. How would you say it to sug-
gest that someone else was supposed to do that? How would you say it
to suggest that I was supposed to have done something else? How would
you say it to let me know you were angry with me? These are fun exer-
cises that demonstrate the importance of life in the voice.
In most speaking situations, of course, we are not interested in
using emphasis to change meaning but rather to sustain interest
or convey the importance of information. Teach your students the
importance of life in the voice and demonstrate how to add life by
emphasizing various words and phrases. A good reading teacher, for
example, makes a story come alive by adding life to the words. Read-
ing teachers know the word prosody: how authors give clues about
how the words are supposed to sound. Peter Brown, the author of
Children Make Terrible Pets, wrote this:

“OH! MY! GOSH! You are the cutest critter in the WHOLE
forest.”

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Only after you have taught about life in the voice will students be
able to understand how to use those clues. When they read Brown’s
words aloud after such a lesson, the book is much more interesting.
(See? Teaching speaking improves reading.)
Students will generally agree that they have more animated voices
in the lunchroom and will insist that this is because the lunchroom
chatter is more interesting than, for example, an informational
speech on environmental issues. They contend that there is no way to
be exciting with or excited by an informational speech: “It’s just bor-
ing facts.” Consider the following speech:

Tropical forests cover just 7 percent of the world’s surface, but

these forests contain more than half of the world’s living species.
A sad fact is that these forests are being destroyed. Each year,
forty million acres—about the size of the state of Washington—
disappear, along with the plants and animals that live there.

When I read that silently to myself, I always “hear” emphasis in

my head. I can’t read that speech without hearing places where emo-
tion belongs. I suspect I am not alone in this. Certainly, if I were asked
to read this aloud, there are places where I would naturally add life:
“just 7 percent” should be said forcefully to emphasize how small the
number is, and “contain more than half” should be said with amaze-
ment, right? But, although these inflections are natural to me, they
are not natural to students just beginning to develop as speakers.
Some speeches call for modifying the voice to become someone
else. Again, thinking about a teacher reading a story, you’ll real-
ize that great teachers use different voices for different characters.
When Eeyore is talking, the voice changes to become Eeyore rather
than Pooh. Have you ever overheard students mimicking one of their
teachers? It is not always flattering, to be sure, but it is often entertain-
ing. So one way to put life into the presentation is to bring in someone
else’s life and become that character.
I have had students come show me the text of their speeches and
ask for help finding places to add life. I was amazed that they couldn’t
see the opportunities. In other words, don’t be surprised at how much

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you need to model. (Yes, there are always one or two students who
have drama experience or are gifted performers, but most students
need help.) I have great respect for students who work hard trying to
put emotion in the right place. Once, when a student asked for help, I
highlighted points in her text where I believed emotion was called for.
When she performed her speech, she spoke in a monotone except for
the parts I’d highlighted (shown here in italics).

The book Stone Fox has an ending that will make you cry.
With a small distance to go to the end of the race, the
dog’s heart burst. Yes, it burst! I was sad and stunned. The
remaining teams in the race caught up but stopped instead
of passing! The grandson picked up the dead dog and carried
the dog across the finish line, pulling the sled behind him.
There were tears in the eyes of the spectators. Tears in the
eyes! The grandfather looked on . . .

It was an odd effect, to be sure. You may hear speeches like this—
speeches that are 95 percent monotonous and 5 percent lively, but
that is part of the process. This speech is 5 percent lively now; by the
year’s end, it will be 20 percent lively. (Were you thinking they could
become 100 percent masters in just one year?)

PRACTICE IDEAS
1. Have fun with small phrases. Use phrases like the ones I
listed on page 80 and ask students to say them differently
to create different meanings. Challenge them to think of
ways to alter the delivery of the phrases. “Don’t do that
to your sister” can be delivered with anger, with the idea
that you should have done something else to your sister,
with the idea that you should have done it to someone
else’s sister, or with the idea that you should have done
it to your brother. Other phrase ideas can be found at
www.PVLEGS.com.

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2. Have students write a short speech that includes a conver-

sation between two characters. Require a different voice
for each character. For example: “My dad said, ‘Now, Wil-
liam, stop talking back to me,’ which made me reply, ‘Well
then, I will just shut up. Is that what you want?’” (It is
entertaining to hear student versions of what their parents
sound like.)

3. Do whole-class choral exercises with fun phrases so that

all students can practice inflection together. For example,
“Don’t ever use my toothbrush on the dog’s teeth again!”
delivered by an entire class pretending to be angry can
be entertaining for students and surprising to teachers in
nearby classrooms.

4. Project mini-speeches, such as the tropical forest speech,

onto a screen and have student volunteers deliver them.
Discuss ways to add life. Ask, Where can we add feeling?
What feeling belongs with this word or phrase?

83
CHAPTER 11:

Eye Contact: Engaging

Each Listener

W hether you are interviewing for a job, talking to a parent

at conference time, or speaking in front of a large audi-
ence, you have to be mindful of where you are focusing
your attention. When I am called in as a consultant to work with a
group of students, I do a little demonstration to make clear the power
of eye contact. As I begin the discussion, I walk a little closer to some
unsuspecting student. I look at him. And I keep looking. Invariably,
the student reacts. Perhaps his leg starts jiggling. Maybe he begins to
shift a bit in his seat. A nervous smile appears. The student glances
up at me, and looks away, and glances at me, and looks away. There
may be some squirming. No, I have never had anyone get upset for
being put on the spot. I have had a lot of laughs with students, and
I have had universal acceptance of the idea that where a speaker
looks is very meaningful.

WHERE TO LOOK
Typically, a student giving a speech will look primarily at the teacher.
They will look at their notes, then at the teacher, and repeat that
process several times. We have done a great job persuading students
that we are the people who matter in the classroom. Now, we have
to convince them that we do not matter more than any other indi-
vidual in the room. If a student is at the board, overhead projector, or
interactive whiteboard demonstrating how to do a problem in math

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 Well Spoken

class, they should be looking at the other students. If a student is

trying to persuade other students during a class discussion that their
argument is the correct one, they should be looking at the students
they are trying to persuade. The way to involve listeners is to make
eye contact with them.
As teachers, we always look around the room. We know that
just glancing over at Jackson makes him look up and stop talking.
We know that giving Amanda a disapproving stare gets her to stop
doodling and refocus. As speakers, we should always survey the
faces in the room as well. The same things happen: listeners look
up and focus on us; people who might have been thinking about
talking to a neighbor suddenly stop; audience members who were
starting to daydream become attentive again. Such is the power of
eye contact.
As a speaker, I need to look at the audience for two reasons. One,
making eye contact ensures that each person feels involved and impor-
tant. Two, making eye contact gives me feedback about my performance.
When I was in the classroom, I would occasionally teach a lesson and
see my students’ confused expressions: “You guys aren’t getting this,
are you?” I would ask, but I already knew the answer. Their dazed
faces cued me right away, but only because I was looking at them.
Students also need to direct their vision toward the individuals in
the audience. They aren’t speaking to a group; they are speaking to
many different people. It may seem intimidating to look at each per-
son in the audience, but it is necessary.
Perhaps you have seen studies that have followed the eye contact
of teachers. Even the best teachers tend to ignore certain areas of
the classroom. Years ago, Adams and Biddle (1970) coined the term
“action zone” to describe the area of teacher focus. They discovered
that teachers pay more attention to students seated at the front of the
class and to those seated down the middle. It takes a conscious effort
for most of us to remember the sides and the back corners.
Since it is difficult even for seasoned speakers, it will be very
difficult for the beginning speaker to make eye contact with every-
one in the audience. We are only beginning the process here. I have
seen the student who takes this to heart and plans eye contact. In a

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somewhat robotic fashion, the student glances at his notes, looks

at students on the left side of the room, glances at his notes, looks
at the students one row in from the left side, and so on, until all of
the audience members have been checked off. I applaud that effort.
It is a long journey from looking only at notes or staring down to
jerking the head up and down and back and forth to smoothly scan-
ning the entire room briefly connecting with the eyes of the audi-
ence members.

FAMILIARIZE, DON’T MEMORIZE

A presentation is most powerful if the speaker looks at the audience
constantly. In a small speech, a class discussion, or an impromptu
speech on a familiar topic, this is easier than it is for a major speech.
In a longer speech, the question becomes this: Should you require
students to memorize the big presentation? Is it unfair to demand
that they memorize a five-minute speech (750 words, remember)
on the topic about which they were supposed to have spent weeks
researching? A book they had a month to read? A demonstration they
should have practiced many times? If the speech were memorized,
constant eye contact would be a lot easier to achieve.
Let’s look more closely at the issue of memorization. Recall that I
wanted every student to have a complete text of the speech, a word-
for-word script, at the end of the building-a-speech process. In some
dream world, each student will have read the speech many times
before the presentation, rehearsed it out loud, videoed it, made a pod-
cast, and sat the family down for a couple of dress rehearsals. But
that is a world far away from any in which I have taught. It is hardly
surprising that some students who give a speech in class have never
performed it before that very moment. Memorization by all students
is not a realistic expectation.
Total memorization may not be desirable, either. If a student
memorizes word for word the entire five- or six-minute speech,
two things can happen. First, the speech can sound old and tired.
Remember that a good speech is a good conversation magnified.
A memorized speech can lose the conversational feel. Second, a
small mistake can seem significant if a speaker is working from a

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memorized speech. If the speaker is thinking word for word, one

glitch can throw her off:

The main character in the story, T. S. Spivet, was surprised

. . . no, wait . . . wait a minute . . . I mean stunned . . . he was
stunned . . . yes, wait . . . I mean T. S. was stunned when he got
the call from the Smithsonian.

The student is so worried about each word that she becomes una-
ble to think of the big picture. It wouldn’t have mattered to listeners
to think of T. S. as surprised rather than stunned. It matters to the
word-bound speaker only. Let students know that no speaker deliv-
ers a speech exactly the way the text reads.
Don’t stress memorization. Stress familiarization instead. Theoreti-
cally, after all the rehearsals and preparation time, each student is totally
familiar with the main ideas. (Back to that dream world . . .) No one
should ever use the text when it is performance time. On the other hand,
almost no one should try to speak empty-handed. Even the best student
may find that the pressure has caused him to go blank temporarily:

My third point is . . . is . . . um, I forgot . . . wait . . . (nervous

smile) . . .

Choose the middle course. Students should bring note cards or

one piece of 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper. In large print or a font easily seen
at a glance from three feet away, the main ideas should be listed—trig-
gers, if you will, for the familiar information. Under no circumstances
should complete sentences be written on the paper or note card. Per-
haps for certain speeches, students can write down facts that can’t be
memorized or the exact words being quoted. That’s all.
Obviously, there is a trick to taking an entire speech text and con-
densing it to a few keywords. I have had success modeling this in two
ways. Project on the board the text from some fictional work. Perhaps
you can take a passage from a novel the class is currently reading or a
passage from a story the students love. Display the entire text. Then,
have student volunteers come up and cross out words that can be

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eliminated, leaving enough keywords to make it possible to retell the

story. After a few volunteers, the significant words remain, and you
may get a story that looks like this:

Homer didn’t realize that Apu had crossed out the expiration
date on the bologna. It was over six months past the time the
product should have been taken off the shelf. Unknowing,
Homer ate the entire pack even though he started to feel sick.
You know Homer, he just had to finish. Homer ended up so
sick that an ambulance had to be called, and he was rushed
to the hospital. Apu became remorseful and decided to do
something to make amends.

Once students have the concept, take the text of one student’s
speech and go through the same process. Project the entire script and
have students whittle away at it. Ultimately, you will get something
workable for a note card to use during the speech.

Before:

The study of angiogenesis has two exciting potential

applications for dealing with significant health issues in
America. First, we may find a way to inhibit the growth of
cancerous tumors. Those tumors depend on adequate blood
supply and the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis).
If we can find a way to inhibit angiogenesis, we can cut off
the supply of blood and nutrients to the tumors. Second, we
may find a way to limit obesity. Fat cells also require blood
supplies and antiangiogenesis drugs and foods may be part of
an answer to our obesity epidemic.

After:

ANGIO: 2 APPLICATIONS HEALTH

1. CANCER—CUT BLOOD SUPPLY TO TUMORS
2. OBESITY—FAT CELLS REQUIRE BLOOD

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 Well Spoken

Then, do the process in reverse. Hand each student one note card.
Challenge them to put keywords on the note cards as you speak, with
the goal of being able to retell your story using the note card. Use a
speech like the one about tropical forests on page 81 in Chapter 10.
Students as young as third graders have been successful in turning
that speech into a note card like this:

Trop forests
7% of world
½ of species
each year size of Wash. destroyed and plants/animals

And what does all this have to do with eye contact? You have seen the
student who has a fistful of note cards and loses her place, right? The
solution? Don’t allow a fistful of note cards. As I said, a presentation is
most powerful if the speaker is constantly looking at the members of the
audience. In a two-minute speech about a student’s favorite activity, that
is easy to pull off. In a seven-minute speech about Afghanistan for world
geography class, it is not so easy. Having brief phrases on one or two note
cards removes the possibility that the speaker will read to us and never
look up. Having only major headings on the note card makes it easy for
the speaker to glance down quickly and then resume eye contact.
Using notes effectively is tricky. It takes practice. It is easier,
though, when students have the right tool in front of them. The com-
plete text stapled in the corner? No. The entire script cut into pieces
and pasted on note cards? No. Two note cards with several bullet
points or trigger words on each? Yes.

PRACTICE IDEAS
1. Let student volunteers speak for one minute about a topic
they love (favorite sports team, store, class, grandparent,
etc.). At the end of each speech, ask the students in the
audience to raise their hands if they think the speaker

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looked at them at some point during the speech. This cre-

ates a great visual of where the student was focusing as he
or she spoke.

2. Project a small speech on the board. Something silly, like

this one, will do:

Class, there are three reasons why crunchy peanut butter

is better than creamy peanut butter. First, crunchy peanut
butter has texture. We aren’t babies eating mashed baby
food anymore! Second, crunchy peanut butter is mature.
Studies have shown that adults over twenty-one prefer
crunchy by 46 percent. Finally, crunchy peanut butter has
little bits that get stuck in your braces or between your
teeth. You can have fun later during class trying to get the
stuck pieces out with your tongue.

Tell the class to turn away from the board and face the back
of the room. Then, ask a student volunteer speaker to stand at
the back of the room, facing the class and the board where the
speech is projected. The volunteer speaker can practice glancing
up at the screen and back down at the faces as he or she delivers
the speech.

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CHAPTER 12:

Gestures: Matching
Motions to Words

W atch people in some public place as they converse. Look

around a restaurant or coffee shop. Sit on a bench in
the mall and watch people walking by. Sneak a peek at
friends a few seats over on the bus. Odds are that as they speak, they
are gesturing. Hands move, faces emote, and body positions change.
This is typical and natural. Sure, some people use gestures more
than others, but it seems that when humans talk, the body moves.
Watch your students in the lunchroom. Along with the animation
you hear in their voices, you can see the animation in their hands and
faces. When they are loose and relaxed, they gesture.
We gesture all the time without thinking about it. When I work
with classes, I often ask students to be aware of my gestures. When
you ask students to pay attention to gestures, it is quite entertaining.
Here’s how the experience usually goes when I demonstrate:

MY GESTURE: Holding up the right hand with palm out.

MY WORDS: Wait. Stop for a minute and pay attention to my ges-
tures. See? There’s one. I just made a stop gesture with my
right hand.

MY GESTURE: Holding up the left hand with one finger extended,

pointing at the right hand.

MY WORDS: This is my “wait/stop” gesture. I held up a hand with

the palm out. Did you notice? And wait a second. Check this out.
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 Well Spoken

See my left hand? I have one finger pointed at the “wait” ges-
ture. This is my “did-you-notice-my-gesture?” gesture.

MY GESTURE: The right hand and left hand now point at each
other.

MY WORDS: And wait a minute. There was another gesture. See

how my right finger is now pointed at my left finger, which was
pointing at the “wait” gesture? This is getting confusing, isn’t
it? My right hand changed from the wait/stop gesture to the
pointing gesture. Crazy, huh?

The class focuses on every move now, and because I tend to have
very expressive hands, the chain of gestures gets quite long. With this
beginning, we discuss the way gestures improve speaking and engage
listeners.
We also discuss the randomness of gestures. By this, I mean that
the way I indicate “wait” might be quite different than the way you
indicate “wait.” My gesture for describing a terrible-tasting food is
probably different from yours. If you ask three people to come up
with a gesture for a heart that is beating really fast, you will proba-
bly get three slightly different motions. That’s fine. There is no right
or wrong to gestures, for the most part. That is part of the fun of
gestures.
You would think that all the animated behavior in the hallway and
lunchroom would transfer to the classroom and the presentation, but
it often doesn’t. On stage, the free-flowing gestures stop, partly due to
tension from nervousness and partly due to fear of embarrassment.
But without gestures, a speech is incomplete.
Gestures support words. If you say, “There are three reasons . . .”
and hold up three fingers, the audience has gotten your message in
two modes. Gestures add drama. If you want to describe how mad
you were when the teacher gave you a bad grade, a good facial expres-
sion will help. Gestures involve the audience. If you ask, “How many
of you love pizza?” and raise your hand to model, listeners respond.
Gestures add emphasis. A clenched fist pounding on the palm of the
hand definitely emphasizes how upset you are at the new dress code.

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Gestures also can help you get rid of nervous energy. You don’t have
to be still and let us see how shaky your hands are.
Some speeches have gestures built in. Recall once again the brown
bag speech. Obviously, some motions are implied in that speech: reach
into the bag, pull out the mini soccer ball, hold it up for the class to see,
and so on. But haven’t you seen students who do a poor job of that?
Maybe they don’t hold the ball high enough for everyone to see, or
maybe they don’t show the picture long enough or don’t show it to all
sides of the room. How are students supposed to learn those things?
Why not give them a list of ideas?

• When counting, hold up your fingers. Say, “First . . .” while

holding up one finger; “Second . . .” while holding up two fin-
gers, and so on.
• Use descriptive gestures. When describing size, use your
hands: if you say, “It was about two feet long . . .,” hold your
hands about two feet apart with the palms facing each other. If
you say, “The dog was about three feet tall . . .,” hold one hand
three feet above the floor. Use hands to draw the words: if you
say, “He rode the waves of the ocean,” move your hand up and
down; if you say, “His hat had a triangular shape,” trace the
shape in the air with your pointer finger.
• Use emphatic gestures. “And suddenly (slap hands together),
they were gone!” “We cannot (pound on the table) allow this!”
Clench your fists to indicate anger.
• Match your face to your mood. Smile when telling a funny
story; open your eyes wide when talking about a surprise; fur-
row your brow when describing something upsetting; make a
face when talking about that bad smell in science class.
• Use hands to control the audience. Say, “Raise your hand if you
think . . .” while raising your hand. Say, “Look at this poster
. . .” while pointing at the poster.
• Use your shoulders. Say, “I don’t know . . .” while shrugging.
• Move your head. Shake your head “no” while saying, “Was put-
ting pickles on my peanut butter sandwich a good idea?” (At
least, I think you would be shaking your head “no”!)

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 Well Spoken

• Move your body. Say, “Do you want to know a secret?” while
leaning toward the audience. Say, “No way,” while rocking back
away from the audience.
• Use your eyes. If you say, “Way off in the distance,” squint and
look over the heads of the audience into the “distance.”

And this list is only the beginning. When you have your class focus
on gestures, they will add things they notice.

BODY TALK
Most people think that gestures only refer to hand motions. As the
previous list indicates, facial gestures can be equally powerful. You
often adjust a lesson based solely on the quizzical looks on your
students’ faces. You probably recognize when your spouse is angry
before a word has been spoken. But you may have overlooked this:
facial gestures not only convey messages, they also have the power
to change the face of the person listening. I watched my wife read
aloud to her fourth-grade class. At one point in the book Matthew’s
Meadow, the character blows the seeds of a milkweed pod into the
breeze. As my wife pursed her lips, half of the class pursed their lips
as well. We mimic what we see. If you walk into your class with a
huge grin, I guarantee a large number of students will start smiling.
I’m sure you have seen a storyteller who used great body motions
to enhance his story. Maybe he hunched over to become the evil witch
or stood tall to be the giant. Body gestures are effective in other situ-
ations, too. If I take a step back and turn my shoulders slightly, don’t
you get the idea that I don’t want to hold the tarantula you brought in
for science class? If I take a step toward a student and lean over her
desk, doesn’t she get the idea that she should get back to work? What
would you do with your body to indicate that you thought an idea
suggested to you was ridiculous?
I have had students with very expressive faces but fairly quiet
hands, students with very active hands and little body language, and so
on. Each student has a style, and so do you. As speakers become more
relaxed and more confident, the style shows up, and the gestures begin
to flow. Be aware that it can be a long journey to go from clutching the

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podium or having a death grip on the note cards to smooth, well-timed

gestures. The beginning speaker may be formulaic, and some students
actually write gesture directions into their scripts:

There are three reasons for this. (Pause. Raise three fingers. Pause.)
First, not everyone believes global warming exists. I don’t know
why. (Pause. Shrug. Pause.)

I applaud that effort. This student has the idea. This year, 5 percent
smooth, next year . . .
As a final note, remember that gestures are only possible if you
have worked on a couple of prerequisites. Remember the admonition
about the need for familiarization with the script? It is impossible to
use a full range of gestures if you are holding note cards or a sheaf of
papers. Tell your students to put the notes down. Remember the dis-
cussion about poise? Ask them to take their wiggling hands out of the
front pocket of their hoodies and to stop twirling the strands of hair
at the side of their faces. Now, they can gesture.

PRACTICE IDEAS
1. Ask students to keep track of your gestures in a normal
class. As you explain a typical assignment, let them focus
on all the motions you make.

2. Give students an opportunity to give a one- or two-minute

speech about a familiar topic. Let the class discuss the
gestures they saw and/or suggest gestures that would have
worked in the speech.

3. Enlist the support of an animated student. Have this

student deliver a speech without gestures. Make sure
he includes some exciting events in the speech, such as
describing the time his sister wrecked his bicycle or his
brother fell down the stairs.

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 Well Spoken

4. Give students a fun homework assignment. Their mis-

sion: to get a family member to mimic their facial expres-
sion. For example, tell students to go up to Dad and say,
“Dad! Guess what?” with a big, happy face and eyebrows
up. Dad will look back with raised eyebrows and say,
“What?” Or, have them try going up to Mom with a fur-
rowed brow and saying, “Mom, I have a problem.” Mom
will furrow her brow, too.

5. Record a speech and play it back without sound. Dis-

cuss the gestures, body language, and facial expressions
the speaker used. What movements seem unintentional?
What gestures could the speaker have added? How would
the effect of the speech be different with or without these
movements? (You have often suggested that every student
who can record their presentation do so before the day of
the in-class speech, right? Encourage these students to play
their own recordings without sound to see how they look.)

6. Put on the board some phrases or speeches that demand

many gestures, such as those in the following list. More
examples like these can be found at www.PVLEGS.com.

This affects everyone!

We have to stop right now!

The bucyrus valve is a tiny, tiny part of the vivofletzer.

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.

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CHAPTER 13:

Speed: Pacing for a

Powerful Performance

W hat is the most common comment teachers make when a

student gives a presentation? My guess is, “Slow down!”
Excitement, nerves, and the adrenaline rush of showtime
lead to increased speed. Your students are not lying when they say,
“I know it was five minutes long when I practiced last night!” after
you tell them that the speech lasted three minutes and forty-seven
seconds. Giving a speech in front of Mom in the living room is not
the same as presenting it to thirty peers in the classroom. We know
this, but do we prepare students for this? Do we give them a warning
before the speech to expect this problem? Not often enough, if at all.
So, to begin with, we should discuss with students the need to pay
attention to the speed of the delivery. Then, we can teach them the
more complex issues of pacing and using pauses.

SPEED
Think back to the lesson on poise. A student who has practiced will
have a smaller problem with nerves and will be less likely to rush. A
student who used calming techniques will control the adrenaline bet-
ter than the student who ignored those tips. But even those students
will talk faster than normal. I have given many, many speeches, and
I am willing to bet that even now, I say more words per minute on
stage than I do in rehearsal. Again, with more speaking opportunities
comes more control, so give students many opportunities to practice.

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The speed of delivery affects the enunciation and the audience’s

ability to hear every word. Did you say, “We need tee liminate”?
Because that is what the audience heard when the phrase “We need to
eliminate” was rushed through. An overly fast delivery has another
major problem, too. The audience gets tired. The listeners’ ears wear
out. I know that doesn’t sound possible, but it is true. A speaker can
lose the audience quickly if they have to exert too much effort listen-
ing to what is being said.

PACING
There is a more sophisticated aspect to speed, though. It is not just
about talking too fast or not; it is about using the speed of delivery—
pacing—to enhance the message. This is too much for the novice to
comprehend. I don’t recommend spending a lot of time teaching
pacing until students have gotten comfortable with all the other parts
of speaking. But I will tell you about it.
You probably adjust the pace of your words without thinking
about it. If you are describing the person who was painfully slow
in front of you at the ATM machine, you probably slow down your
story:

He punched in one number . . . then another number . . . then

another number . . . then he waited . . . and finally punched in
another number . . .

If you are describing the kickoff return for a touchdown, you prob-
ably speed up:

He caught it at the five, and before you could blink, he was at

the fifteentwentytwentyfive and thengone.

I would be surprised if you said it this way:

He caught it at the five . . . before you could blink . . . he was at

the fifteen . . . the twenty . . . the twenty five . . . and then g . . .
o . . . n . . . e.

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For dramatic effect, the pace should match the words. We should
speed up a little for an exciting part or when describing something
fast. We should slow down when the mood gets serious or sad or
when we’re describing something slow. This may come naturally to
experienced teachers who still read aloud with the class.
We also need to adjust the pace for emphasis. Think about the
huge difference in impact between these two statements:

You . . . must . . . do . . . something . . . now!

You must do something now!

If a parent says, “Don’t. You. Ever. Ever. Do. That. Again,” odds
are the kid won’t ever do that again. There is power in slowing down.

PAUSING
Few speakers master it, but pausing is powerful. This was reinforced
for me when I spoke at my son’s wedding. I thought the father of the
bride was required to speak, not the father of the groom, but I guess
the wedding couple wanted to break with tradition. I have given
hundreds of speeches and led countless seminars and trainings, but
I had never given a wedding speech for my son. You can rehearse the
words, but you can’t rehearse the emotions. I got choked up. I said,
“When Greg was little . . .” and stopped. I stood there holding up
one finger to indicate, “just give me a minute,” and waited to gather
myself. And because I am a student of speaking, I also noticed that I
totally owned that room. Every eye was riveted on me. No one made
a sound. For thirty seconds, not one person did a thing except give
me undivided attention. As a rhetorical technique, it was awesome,
though it was not by design. One pause, one gesture, complete power
over the audience. I did not decide to create a dramatic effect, but a
pause created a dramatic effect nonetheless. A pause is a bold move.
Coming to a complete stop? Scary. But very powerful.
Sometimes, a brief pause helps a point sink in:

There are three reasons. Three. (Pause.) This is the most

important . . .

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 Well Spoken

Four hundred thousand deaths a year from smoking. Four hun-

dred thousand. (Pause.)

A pause is useful after a rhetorical question:

What would you do? (Pause.) I know. It’s tricky, isn’t it? (Pause.)
Did you get that? (Pause.) Four hundred thousand. (Pause.)

Stopping adds drama:

Bullying in our school has to stop now. Right now. (Pause by

mentally counting one one thousand, two one thousand, three
one thousand, four one thousand.) Each of you must take a stand.

It is hard to muster up enough courage to stand in front of an

audience in silence for four seconds. It is hard for you to be still
and allow four seconds of wait time after asking a question to the
class, isn’t it? So you can understand why it is almost impossible for
students, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make them aware of the
possibilities.

PRACTICE IDEAS
1. Work on the speed of delivery of simple speeches written
with obvious places for speeding up and slowing down.
Project them on the screen or give students a handout such
as the following. (More ideas are at www.PVLEGS.com.)

Life is too crazy. We are always busy. We rush to get up,

wolf down breakfast, run to school, race to practice, hustle
through homework, and do our chores. We are always in a
hurry. What if, one day, we just stopped? I mean, stopped.
Dead halt. Catch your breath. Relax. Take a break. It will
improve your life.

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2. Time students delivering the same speech at different

paces. How fast can someone read it with each word dis-
tinct? Notice what happens at high speed. Try this from
Star Trek:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the star-
ship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange
new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to
boldly go where no one has gone before.

3. Ask student volunteers to read a section from a textbook

at slow, medium, and fast speeds. Which is most effective
for understanding the text? Try other kinds of text.

4. Take famous speeches from books, plays, and movies to use

for practicing. Here is an example from the Barbie movie:

It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so

beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t
think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be
extraordinary, but somehow, we’re always doing it wrong.
You have to be thin but not too thin. And you can never
say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be
healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have
money, but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass. You
have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead,
but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. . . . But always
stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the
system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also
always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude,
never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail,
never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too
contradictory, and nobody gives you a medal or says thank
you! And it turns out, in fact, that not only are you doing
everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.

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 Well Spoken

I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single

other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like
us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing
women, then I don’t even know (Villareal 2023).

Ask students: Where would a pause be effective? Where

would you speed up or slow down?
The following is the example text to consider from the first
edition of this book.
Shoeless Joe:

They’ll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why

they’re doing it, and arrive at your door, innocent as
children . . .
“Of course, we won’t mind if you look around,” you’ll
say. “It’s only twenty dollars per person.” And they’ll pass
over the money without even looking at it—for it is money
they have and peace they lack.
They’ll walk out to the bleachers and sit in shirtsleeves
in the perfect evening, or they’ll find they have reserved
seats somewhere in the grandstand or along one of the
baselines—wherever they sat when they were children and
cheered their heroes, in whatever park it was, whatever
leaf-shaded town in Maine, or Ohio, or California. They’ll
watch the game, and it will be as if they have knelt in front
of a faith healer or dipped themselves in magic waters . . .
I don’t have to tell you that the one constant through
all the years has been baseball. America has been erased
like a blackboard, only to be rebuilt and then erased again.
But baseball has marked time while America has rolled by
like a procession of steamrollers.
(Kinsella 1982, 212–213)

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 PA RT IV
PUTTING THEORY
INTO PRACTICE

Whew. That is a lot to think about and a daunting amount to

teach. Building a speech has five parts; performing a speech
has six more parts. That’s eleven things I have to add to my
already overcrowded curriculum. How can that be done?
First, let’s step back and look at the big picture. If I told
you that you had to teach writing, including content, organi-
zation, word choice, voice, sentence structure, paragraphing,
spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, what would you do?
If I told you that you had to teach math, including addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division, adding and subtracting
fractions, multiplying and dividing decimals, and the formulas
for area, perimeter, and volume of a cylinder, what would you
do? What do you do? One thing you don’t do is assume that
you have to teach all of that by yourself today. You work bit by
bit, and you build on what others have done before you. If we
create a common language for the school or district, teaching
speaking becomes a shared responsibility. You won’t have to
start from scratch.
In addition, you shouldn’t “do” speaking as a unit and then
move on to the poetry unit, the skeletal system unit, or the
trappers and traders unit. Speaking can be part of every unit
 Well Spoken

and every subject. Of the thousands of teachers I have worked

with, I have never met one who didn’t have speaking activities
already built into the curriculum, no matter what subject they
taught. Every one of them had discussions, sharing, answering
questions, explaining solutions to problems at the board, pre-
senting projects or book reports, reading aloud, telling stories,
participating in mock trials, explaining science experiments,
and many, many more speaking opportunities. Some of these
activities were informal, and some were more formal. Some
were part of everyday instruction and routines, and some were
special events with special audiences, including grandparents,
parents, and community members. You don’t teach speaking
in isolation; you teach it in the context of all of those activities.
The biggest difference is that before you read this book, there
may have been little or no focused teaching of speaking skills
prior to those activities. Now, that will change. To some extent,
then, nothing new has been added to the curriculum. We’ll just
teach what we were teaching, but better, more purposefully,
and more specifically.
CHAPTER 14:

Every Day Through the

End of the Year

I have never been a fan of teaching skills in isolation, no matter

what the skill. I never handed out a worksheet about word
choice unless something made a word choice lesson necessary
and relevant. Perhaps some novel had unique language—a good
time to talk about word choice. A lesson on political parties is not
effective without tying it into a current event, such as the debate
on border control, where students can observe party differences in
action. Learning about .com, .gov, and .edu is important knowledge
to have in order to be Internet savvy, but why teach this informa-
tion unless you are going to assign some research project that sends
students to the Internet?
Let me make two suggestions, then. Suggestion one is to teach
speaking skills when you introduce the special speaking assignment,
that one big show. Maybe you have assigned a big book report project.
Perhaps you have given students a month to read a novel and prepare
an oral presentation in which they dress up as a character from that
novel. Maybe, at the end of your poetry unit, you plan to have a poetry
café in which students share their poems and adults are invited for
tea and cookies. That kind of thing. In my case, when I taught civics,
it was the Supreme Court project, as you may have guessed. During
this study of the judicial branch, I gave each student the name of a sig-
nificant Supreme Court case—a case that changed America. I asked
them to research the case, understand its significance, and be able to
explain how it affects us today. I told them they would present the

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case to the class and to invited guests (generally, parents and grand-
parents who could get off work, and occasionally administrators
whom I talked into coming by). Because the Supreme Court is formal,
students had to dress up on the day they presented. Students had one
month to prepare the five- to six-minute speech. That was not a sug-
gested time frame. The speech had to be between five and six minutes
long (nothing less than five minutes would be scored; at six minutes,
they would be forced to stop). As you can see, I set this up to be a big
deal indeed. Situations like these would be good times to teach stu-
dents how to do an oral presentation.
Suggestion two is to teach speaking skills at the beginning of the
year when you set up class procedures. Maybe you don’t have a spe-
cial presentation until the end of the year. For example, I have worked
with schools that have an annual tradition. The entire year builds to
some big culminating activity, and exit projects are required. If you
teach speaking skills at that time, you miss the benefit of improved
communication all year. The students will benefit and carry the skills
with them, so discussions and speeches in next year’s classes will be
better, but from August through May this year, your class missed out.
You want improved speaking in your classroom all year.
Maybe you don’t have any special presentations at all during
the year but just want better oral communication during routine
classroom business—discussions, solving problems at the board,
responding to questions, working with partners, and so on. In this
case, also, early in the year, when you set up class procedures, set up
speaking procedures: “This is how we turn in papers; this is how we
keep the assignment book; this is how we use hall passes; this is how
we speak. Final papers must be in ink or word-processed; comments
in class require poise and voice.” This is not difficult to set up. Make it
known early in the year that speaking matters, and teach students all
that is involved, even in less formal speaking.

TEACH THE PROCEDURES

Here is how I teach speaking skills. I take two class periods of about
fifty minutes each. For schools on a block plan, this is a one-day lesson;
for others, two consecutive days are required. If we are talking about

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the big show scenario, I recommend this training after the introduc-
tion of the project. In that case, on day one, explain the big project
and give the big picture of where students are headed. Hand out
the project requirements, the rubric, useful materials—the kinds
of things you give students when you make the big assignment. On
days two and three, teach speaking skills. (Remember, this assumes
that none of the teachers in your school has this book, and no one
has introduced this before. When I was teaching, that was certainly
the case, and it has been true in my consulting as well.)
If you aren’t building to the big presentation, block out two periods
early in the year when you are setting up class norms. Perhaps you are
planning to have weekly discussions about current events. After the
first discussion, suggest to students that discussions could be better.
Take two days to show them how. The bottom line: starting from noth-
ing, teaching all the skills really can be introduced in two class periods.
Here is what you should do in those two periods. During the first
period devoted to teaching speaking, explain the two parts of speaking
(building a speech and performing a speech) and help students clarify
these parts in their minds. Then teach the elements of building a speech.
In truth, this part is pretty dry: use lecture and explanation and mode-
ling, PowerPoint slides, and the whiteboard; not the most exciting class,
but a very important one. You can explain building a speech in forty
minutes. Then, for the last ten or so minutes of the period, introduce the
teaser. Read the part of this book about the importance of performance
on pages 59–63. Tell students that you will introduce them to PVLEGS,
a guaranteed way to become a great speaker. Set up the students for par-
ticipation and laughter. Stress the need for students to be able to laugh at
themselves—that we will laugh as we play with performances.
The second class period is all about performing a speech. There are
two ways to conduct this class: using student volunteers and using
illustrative video clips. I prefer the first way because I have used this
method for a long time. It worked with students in my own classes,
and it works when I coach a class as a consultant. If you don’t feel
comfortable trying it, go with video clips.
Generally, I ask for student volunteers to deliver a speech, and
I observe and comment on the speech, focusing on the skill that is

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going to be introduced next. Then I introduce the skill. I believe that

for maximum effect, student volunteers work best.

TEACHER: I need a volunteer who is brave and willing to laugh

at himself or herself. Yes, we might laugh. We are going to
play and have fun and begin to become good performers, but
because we are not all experts yet, some silly things will hap-
pen. Sometimes, we will look funny or sound funny. There is
always awkwardness when learning something new. You can
probably ride a bicycle well now, but your first ride without
training wheels was humorous. So I need volunteers who real-
ize that we aren’t expecting anything other than trying; volun-
teers who want to learn and are willing to look like they did the
first time without training wheels. But the good part is that you
will learn something important about your mistakes so you can
avoid them when the real performance happens. Wouldn’t you
rather discover the mistakes now instead of the day of the big
show? Any volunteers?

BRANDON: Okay.

TEACHER: Good! Come up to the front of the room here. Tell us

about a favorite activity of yours, whatever it is that you know a
lot about and love doing, okay?

BRANDON: Okay. (Nervous smile.) Um. (Tugging at shirt tail.) I

love playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder. (Still tugging at shirt
tail.) And I like it ’cuz it has lots of action and crashes and, you
know, like, action. (Pause, nervous smile, wiggling.) What else
am I supposed to say? (Tugging at shirt.) Oh, I know. And the
graphics are really cool, and I like driving fast.

Depending on the kind of teacher you are and the relationship you
have with your class, you have a couple of options here. I am a per-
former, and I like to play with the kids. I take the position the student
was in and copy the speech, exaggerating the behaviors. I mimic his
actions. I readily admit that few teachers will be bold enough to be
on stage like this, but if you are brave, and if the kids trust you to

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make gentle fun of them, the students will love the demonstration
and really get the idea that some behaviors are problematic. If you set
up the activity well and prequalify the volunteers, this can be memo-
rable and a lot of fun. If you are not comfortable with what may be an
over-the-top idea, simply discussing the behaviors you and the class
noticed will be effective.

CREATE A SAFE SPACE FOR SPEAKING UP

It is important to set up the rules for a discussion and critique of a
student sample speech. Harkening back to my comments in Chapter
8 about creating a respectful atmosphere, give students some ground
rules. We have to separate the actor from the action: the action may
be less than acceptable, but the actor should never be made to feel
that they are less than acceptable. Explain to students that comments
can be made on the performance but not on the person. Comments
must simply state the facts: “He tugged at his shirt”; “She shifted
weight from one leg to the other”; “He never looked up from his
notes.” Explain that constructive comments are helpful, and give a few
examples: “I think she could have more feeling when she talks about
finding the money”; “He should show with his hands how large the
animal was.” Finally, let students know that positive comments are
appreciated: “His facial expressions were really cool”; “She started
out looking nervous but did a great job calming down.” Here’s how
a discussion of Brandon’s impromptu speech might go:

TEACHER:Let’s talk about Brandon’s speech; not the words,

though. What did you notice about his actions?

CLASSMATE: Well, he tugged at his shirt a lot.

CLASSMATE: He kept smiling and kinda laughing.

Take another volunteer and give the same assignment.

ARMIDA: (Smiling.) I love shopping and hanging out at the mall.

(Head flip to get hair out of eyes.) Me and my friends go every
weekend. (Head flip to get hair out of eyes.) We look at shoes

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a lot. (Head flip to get hair out of eyes.) Oh, and we check out
guys. (Laughing, head flip to get hair out of eyes.)

TEACHER: What did you notice about Armida?

You can see how this works. After the discussion, introduce the
skill you want students to work on.

TEACHER: The first part of performing a speech is poise. Without

poise, listeners will not be able to pay attention to the speech.
(Share the ideas and information from the poise section of
this book in Chapter 8, and show the list of problem behaviors
on page 67.) Does someone want to volunteer to give a speech
with poise?

Almost certainly, the next volunteer will be more poised than

Brandon and Armida. That is how fast students pick up on the skill.
They haven’t mastered poise, of course, but they have the concept,
and they know what to look for. They will be watching speakers with
a new awareness and a critical eye. They will be evaluating every
speaker they see from now on, including you. All you need to do is
reinforce this process as the year goes on, as I will explain later.
Introduce the remaining skills (voice, life, eye contact, gestures,
and speed) in the same manner. First, ask another student to volun-
teer to deliver a speech. Then, invite feedback and steer the discus-
sion toward the next skill you want students to learn. In the following
example, we use a scripted speech instead of an impromptu speech,
and we move on from discussing poise to discussing voice.

TEACHER:Now, who would like to volunteer to read the speech I

have on the screen?

PAYAM: (Standing up to read the speech.) There are several

things to consider. First, do you feel ready to compete? Second,
do you have a game plan you believe in? Third, are you pre-
pared to accept the possibility of defeat? Once you have men-
tally prepared yourself, only one question should enter your
mind: do you want to open with rock, paper, or scissors?

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TEACHER: Any comments?

CLASSMATE: He had good posture and stance, but he tugged at

his fingers sometimes.

TEACHER:True, and I love that you are thinking about poise in

speeches. See how we are already better at thinking about
speaking? But what if I asked you a different question: How
many of you heard every word Payam said?

(Only a few hands go up.)

Explain.

CLASSMATE: He wasn’t loud enough for me to hear back here.

CLASSMATE: I heard most of what he said but I missed some.

TEACHER:Very good. Now Payam knows one thing to focus

on before the presentations next month. Let’s take another
volunteer.

REBECCA: There are sevral things to consider. First, dyew feel

ready . . . (Finishes the speech speaking quickly, without enun-
ciating words clearly.)

TEACHER: Could you hear every word? Was every word clearly
spoken? (Discussion follows.) The second part of performance
is voice. (Share the ideas and information from the voice sec-
tion in Chapter 9.)

And so on. I have found this to be an engaging and effective way to

introduce PVLEGS and teach the skills to students. Invariably, stu-
dents will make exactly the mistakes I hoped for. But if you have a stu-
dent who surprises you with great life in her voice, for instance, that’s
fine, too. Use it as an example of where you want all the students to
be to supplement the examples of mistakes to avoid. You win either
way. At the end of the day, students know the skills that make up a
great presentation. They will not master PVLEGS in one day, but the
concepts will be indelibly etched into their minds.

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OTHER METHODS
Though I have never had one problem in all the years I have con-
ducted classes this way, I realize that some teachers may feel it is
inappropriate to put students on the hot seat like this. What I recom-
mend in that case is to build a file of video clips. Explanation alone
will not suffice. Seeing and hearing are much more powerful. If you
choose this method of introducing the concepts, show a demonstra-
tive video clip or two of a poise problem and then discuss it. Then,
show a clip of a voice problem, discuss it, and so on.
How do you get the video clips? One option is to have student vol-
unteers act in a movie. Record the performance. Your student actors
can demonstrate the behaviors I mentioned previously: tugging at
the shirt, twirling hair, and so on. Another option is to look for video
clips online. Of course, most people in the media are chosen because
they have PVLEGS and don’t make mistakes, but you can find exam-
ples. Maybe an actor in a TV show or film is playing a character who
is awkward. Possibly, an otherwise polished performer or politician
has an odd habit. People interviewed on TV news programs, and
contestants on game shows may demonstrate problems you want to
highlight. And, unfortunately, there are many student podcasts that
have been posted online by teachers which are wonderful examples
of what not to do as speakers.
Why focus on the problems and not show examples of polished
performers? In my experience, students are aware that some people
are great performers, but they do not know about all the things that
can diminish a performance. They certainly aren’t aware of some
of the things they do, as my children’s principal wasn’t aware of his
microphone fidgeting. Showing them the pitfalls encourages them to
look for—and then avoid—those pitfalls in their own performances.
No matter how you present the information on day two, you will
have invested two hours of class time presenting the elements of oral
communication. That is only the beginning. During the rest of the
year, you need to allow time for maintenance and reinforcement. One
way to do that is to make references each time you ask students to
speak in class. Before a class discussion, it takes very little time to
say, “Let’s focus on poise today. Before you speak, think about how

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you present yourself.” After the discussion, take a couple of minutes

to talk about the speaking skill of the day. Ask, “What did you notice
about poise in today’s discussion? Who impressed you? Why? Did
you see some distracting habits? Which ones?” Before the students
give their weekly current events reports, it is not burdensome to say,
“Pay attention to life in your voices today. Make the news come alive
for us.” Spend two or three minutes afterward discussing life in the
voice. If you do these things, you will be amazed at your students’
growth in oral communication skills. Discussions in June will not be
like discussions in September.
Another way to continue the development of oral communication
is through mini-lessons. When I taught English, I noticed common
errors in the assignments I received. If I noticed that students seemed
to be having a problem with correct comma usage, for instance, I
interrupted my big plan to offer a small lesson about commas. In the
same manner, maybe you notice that verbal viruses have infected
your students as they answer questions in class. Stop for a few min-
utes and use an activity from the “Discussion Ideas” in Chapter 4
(page 35) to remind students to avoid verbal viruses. Before storytell-
ing presentations, insert a few mini-lessons about gestures; before
persuasive speeches, present some mini-lessons about life. Students
need to know that improving speaking skills will require continual
effort.
Yes, teaching speaking will take time from some other activities in
your curriculum. Not as much as you think, perhaps, but some time
nonetheless: two days to set the stage, a couple of minutes every time
you have a speaking activity to make it more purposeful, pieces of a
few class periods for mini-lessons, and a couple of extra minutes after
each student’s big presentation so class members can express their
reactions, as I will explain in Chapter 15. Don’t think of this as bor-
rowed time but rather as value added. As I mentioned at the begin-
ning of this book, your students will thank you for improving their
speaking ability.

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CHAPTER 15:

Evaluating Speeches

F or most speeches, you will have two kinds of evaluation:

instant feedback from the audience and written feedback
from you, the teacher.
In the past, you might have run class presentations like this: one
student would march up to the front of the classroom and give his
speech. As he was speaking, you filled out the score sheet. When he
finished, the rest of the class applauded. (I encourage you to insist on
applause to acknowledge the speaker, no matter what kind of perfor-
mance.) The first student sat down, and the next got up.
Notice which person matters in this scenario. The teacher who
filled out the score sheet. The teacher shouldn’t be the only audience
member speakers need to worry about. The speech should be for the
class and scored by the class. I use a simple 1 to 5 scale, with 5 being
excellent and 1 representing no effort at all. At the end of the speech, I
ask for a show of hands for each part of PVLEGS:

For poise, how many of you give Tom a 5? (Two hands go up.)
A 4? (Nineteen hands go up.) A 3? (Five hands go up.) Hmm,
looks like a 4. For voice, how many give Tom a 5? (One hand.)
A 4? (Four hands.) A 3? (Twenty-three hands.) Okay, a 3. Let’s
score life. Five? (Zero hands.) Four? (Zero hands.) Three? (Five
hands.) Two? (Twenty-five hands.) Okay, looks like a two.

When I was teaching, I made those scores a part of the actual

grade. Yes, my scoring was worth more, but the student speaker was

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able to get instant feedback from a real audience. Tom knew that poise
was one of his strengths. He discovered that life was a weak spot and
something to focus on next time.
I know some readers may object to having students grade each
other. Let me try to anticipate and address some of the concerns:

• “Student grading turns the speech into a popularity contest.”

Not true. Give students more credit than that. I have never
been disappointed in the results of peers evaluating peers.
Students who have learned the criteria absolutely know a
poised speaker when they see one. Yes, Martin may be your
best friend, but won’t you feel foolish when your hand is the
only one raised for 5 in the poise category? Won’t you feel fool-
ish when I ask you if you missed the fact that Martin never
stopped cracking his knuckles? Students only make that mis-
take once.
• “Student scoring might damage self-esteem.” The best way to
build self-esteem is to try something difficult and succeed, not
to be told that every effort is praiseworthy. If teachers set up
their classes to understand that we are all emerging speakers,
no student will feel bad because of an initial subpar perfor-
mance. “Martin Luther King, Jr. might have gotten all 5s,” you
can remind them, “but I don’t expect that kind of mastery. We
know going in that it is tough to put life into a speech, so don’t
panic if you get a 2 rating.” Their self-esteem will soar when
they see hands go up at 4 in the next speech.
• “Grades should never be public.” Please note that we don’t
make the speaker’s grade public. A speech with ratings of 3s
and 4s may well be an A speech once the teacher’s marks are
factored in. For the most part, I agree that grades should not be
publicized. But this is a unique situation. This is speaking to
an audience. Remember the goal: to prepare students to be con-
fident and comfortable oral communicators in the interview,
office, boardroom, and so on. Students need to know how an
audience sees them. They need to become comfortable with the
idea that in the real world, the listeners’ opinions matter.

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FIGURE 15.1: ORAL BOOK REPORT ON HISTORICAL FICT ION

Book Report components complete and on time (10 points)

There is an interesting opening and a satisfying conclusion

(10 points)

Speak loudly, clearly, and slowly (10 points)

Make eye contact with the audience (10 points)

The character in the story is creatively shown to the audience

with historical facts, motivation, and expression (20 points)

Preparation and practice are evident (10 points)

Presentation is organized and within the time limit (3–4

minutes) (minimum = 3 min./maximum = 4 min.) (15 points)

Keep audience engaged and interested (5 points)

Costume and/or props (10 points)

Total Points (100 possible)

Exemplary A 90–100
Competent B 80–89
Developing C 70–79
Emerging D 60–69
Below 69: Has little understanding of writing or speaking process

Having read this far, you can see some issues with Figure 15.1. Let’s
examine it piece by piece to see what problems we can discover and
avoid in the future.
Notice that the first box has nothing to do with oral presentation.
It is a score for timeliness and work ethic. The students had to turn in
answers to questions as they read the book, which was a way for the
teacher to see if they were on track.
The second box addresses an aspect of building a speech: organi-
zation. Two pieces of that are included: the opening and the closing.

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I am not sure the descriptors are useful for children. “Interesting?”

“Satisfying?” To whom? These adjectives invite a discussion of audi-
ence analysis.
The third box shifts to aspects of performing a speech. Actually,
three very different aspects of performance—volume, enunciation,
and speed—are grouped into one 10-point category. We wouldn’t
score a piece of writing using a rubric that puts “organization, word
choice, and spelling” in one category, and in scoring speeches, we
need to be equally clear to separate the distinct skills.
The fourth box contains another element from the performance
category that commonly shows up in rubrics. Every teacher realizes
that eye contact is part of effective communication. I have no com-
plaint about including it, but I wonder if the teacher included specific
lessons about eye contact. You should never grade something you
never taught.
The fifth box is problematic. Worth double the points of eye
contact, a book’s character must be “creatively shown,” another
sloppy descriptor. What would that mean in the eyes of a student?
And how do I creatively show “with historical facts, motivation,
and expression”? I suspect the rubric creator is trying to get at the
content part of building a speech. Perhaps the project requirements
include using a certain number of historical facts in the presenta-
tion and explaining the main character’s motivation. That should
be made clear and scored separately as “content.” “Expression”
(what we now refer to as “life”) is actually an element of perform-
ing a speech and should not be grouped with content/building a
speech.
What would be evidence of “preparation and practice” in box six?
I have seen speakers who worked hard, yet nerves got the better of
them, and their performance suffered. I have seen natural showmen
perform well extemporaneously. What, specifically, do I look for
when assessing preparation and practice?
In box seven, we again run into the problem of grouping unre-
lated elements. Organization (building a speech) should be scored

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separately from the timing. A student may have brilliant signposts

and a clear beginning, middle, and end, but he may take four and a
half minutes to say all of that. What then? How many points do I give
the child with excellent organization but who exceeds four minutes?
I also note that the other parts of organization, the opening and clos-
ing, were isolated and put into box two.
Only five points are awarded for what is perhaps the real test of all
oral communication: keeping the audience engaged and interested.
Beyond that problem, I wonder how the teacher prepared students to
know how to engage a particular audience. You should never grade
something . . .
Finally, we are back to an aspect of building a speech (appearance)
when students get points for their costumes.
Just taking the elements this teacher values and using her words,
we could greatly improve the rubric simply by reorganizing it. Using
the framework we now have, the rubric could be restructured as
shown in Figure 15.2.

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FIGURE 15.2: REVISED RUBRIC FOR ORAL BOOK REPORT ON HISTORICAL FICT ION

BUILDING A SPEECH

Audience (5 points)
“Interested and engaged”
Content (25 points)
“Historical facts”
Character “motivation”
“3–4 minutes” of content
Organization (20 points)
“Interesting opening”
“Organized” body of speech
“Satisfying ending”
Visual Aids (5 points)
“Props” meaningful and well made
Appearance (5 points)
“Costume” accurate for time period

PERFORMING A SPEECH

Voice (10 points)

Speaks “loudly”
Speaks “clearly”
Life (10 points)
“Expression”
Eye Contact (5 points)
Speed (5 points)
Speaks “slowly”

In Figure 15.2, some key elements are missing, and yes, telling
students to speak loudly and slowly is bad advice, but reworking the
rubric at least puts us on track to giving more understandable feed-
back. A student could easily see areas of strength and weakness. One
student might notice that she is strong at writing a speech but weak
at delivering one. Another student might notice that he is generally
good at giving a speech but speaks too fast. Yet another student might
realize that she is good at organizing but less adept at including all

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the necessary content. This would be a great improvement upon the

original rubric.
Figure 15.3 is a rubric created by a ninth-grade science teacher who
required students to present articles about “science-related occur-
rences” in the news.

F I G U R E 1 5 . 3 : R U B R I C F O R S C I E N C E P R E S E N TA T I O N

1. Oral Presentation
make eye contact with the class 5 pts. ________
speak loud enough for class to hear 5 pts. ________
hold head up 5 pts. ________
use note cards 5 pts. ________
knowledgeable 5 pts. ________

2. Written Presentation
5. Ws answered 20 pts. ________

3. Display
written work is mounted on poster 5 pts. ________
articles are cut out neatly 5 pts. ________
display is colorful 5 pts. ________
display includes hand-drawn map,
picture, flag, etc. (use your imagination) 15 pts. ________

Again, I am sure you can see where there is room for improvement
in Figure 15.3. This is the only rubric I have ever seen that gives a
score for holding the head up, but if it gets us to the idea that poise
is important, I am all for it. One element of voice is present (“speak
loud enough”), so we also have a beginning there. The idea that a
speech needs to contain some life is totally missing, but the rubric
understands the need to include eye contact. I am not sure about
“use note cards.” Perhaps it means “use note cards well,” which may
make it another way of reinforcing the need for eye contact. Gestures
and speed have been ignored.
I suggest that “knowledgeable” is getting at the content part of build-
ing a speech. Parts 2 and 3 are also about content. Certainly, we could
argue about the relative point values here (is a hand drawing worth
three times as much as being knowledgeable?), but I will leave that aside.

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A little reorganization could improve the initial rubric (see

Figure 15.4).
F I G U R E 1 5 . 4 : R E V I S E D R U B R I C F O R S C I E N C E P R E S E N TA T I O N

BUILDING A SPEECH

Content (25 points)

“knowledgeable…”
“5 Ws”
Visual Aids (25 points)
“on poster”
“cut neatly”
“colorful”
“hand-drawn”

PERFORMING A SPEECH

Poise (5 points)
“hold head up”
Voice (5 points)
“speak loud enough”
Eye Contact (10 points)
“make eye contact”
“use note cards well”

When the rubric is reorganized, it is easy to see what was left

out. If a student did all that was asked of him in this rubric, he
would still fall far short of what is needed to meet the speaking
standards. But that may be fine. Not all speeches have to include
all elements of effective oral communication. Perhaps you want
to have students deliver a speech and focus only on life and eye
contact. Maybe you want students to work hard on using signposts,
building content, and performing in a poised manner. I have no
problem with those ideas. Just don’t randomly jumble disparate
speaking skills.
I encourage you to examine the speaking rubrics and score sheets
you currently use in the same way we scrutinized the examples in
Figures 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, and 15.4. I am sure yours have good points, just

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as these samples did, and that some small adjustments will make the
evaluations more useful for students.

PUSHING FOR MORE PRECISION

The skills of oral expression should not be defined differently in
Mrs. Smith’s and Mr. Johnson’s fourth-grade classes, in Mr. Janicki’s
social studies class and Mr. Avery’s English class, in Ms. Mooney’s
sixth-grade class and Ms. Pond’s eleventh-grade class. It’s often the
case that last year’s teacher said a good speech should include a cos-
tume, eye contact, speaking loudly, and historical facts; this year’s
teacher said a good speech includes content, eye contact, expression,
a good opening, and visual aids; and next year’s teacher will say a
good speech includes understanding the topic, standing up straight,
eye contact, loud volume, not saying “um” and “uh,” and speaking
distinctly. Over the years, our students get an idea of what it takes
to be an effective oral communicator, but if we were more consist-
ent, they would master the skills. It will be easier for them to meet
the oral expression standards if all of their teachers use the same
language. Let me suggest some new generic rubrics and score sheets
that can be easily modified as the grade levels and subjects warrant,
and that will provide a consistent framework for students as they
move through the educational system and beyond.
We can start by creating evaluations that reflect the two main
parts of all oral communication. The basic structure could look like
Figure 15.5. Teachers who like to assign points could make the catego-
ries worth whatever value they wish.

FIGURE 15.5: BASIC RUBRIC FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING

BUILDING A SPEECH

Audience
Content
Organization
Visual aids
Appearance

PERFORMING A SPEECH 125

Poise
Voice
 Audience
Content
Organization
Visual aids
Well Spoken
Appearance

PERFORMING A SPEECH

Poise
Voice
Life
Eye contact
Gestures
Speed

Within the basic structure of Figure 15.5, teachers can add descrip-
tors of the important requirements. In the next class or next grade
level, while the descriptors may change, the basic understanding of
the components of a good speech remains the same. Figure 15.6 shows
two examples of how the content box can be adapted, depending on
the assignment.
FIGURE 15.6: MODIFYING THE CONTENT SECTION

Content
Name of invention
Name of inventor(s)
Date of invention
Needs met by invention
Benefit to our lives

Content
Name of case
Date of decision
Facts of case
Reason for decision
How decision affects us today

For teachers who assign multiple speeches within the year, the
same score sheets can be used and easily modified. The majority of
the components of effective oral communication don’t change from
speech to speech. For instance, the requirements of organization don’t

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change from speech to speech, nor do the expectations of eye contact.

This means that the basic rubric form, once built, is applicable to a
wide range of activities (see Figure 15.7).

FIGURE 15.7: ENHANCED RUBRIC FOR ORAL COMMUNICATION

BUILDING A SPEECH

Audience
Speech appropriate for audience (5 points)
Key points clarified (5)
Connectors present (5)
Content
(varies from speech to speech)

Organization
Grabber opening immediately engaged listeners (5 points)
Well-chosen organizational structure (5)
Signposts clearly stated (5)
Powerful closing (5)
Visual aids
(varies)
Appearance
(varies)

PERFORMING A SPEECH

Poise
Speaker appeared calm and confident (5)
No distracting behaviors (5)
Voice
Loud enough for the space (5)
Every word clear (5)
No odd vocal mannerisms (5)
Life
Could hear feeling in voice (5)
Avoided sounding monotonous (5)
Eye contact
Looked at each member of audience at some point (5)
Did not focus only on teacher or a few students (5)
Gestures
127
Used hands in meaningful ways (5)
Facial expressions contributed to speech (5)
Body gestures helped message (5)
 No odd vocal mannerisms (5)
Life
Could hear feeling in voice (5)
Avoided sounding monotonous (5)
Eye contact Well Spoken

Looked at each member of audience at some point (5)

Did not focus only on teacher or a few students (5)
Gestures
Used hands in meaningful ways (5)
Facial expressions contributed to speech (5)
Body gestures helped message (5)
Speed
Not too fast (5)
Adjusted speed to enhance message (5)
Pauses created dramatic effect (5)

Naturally, the language within the boxes of Figure 15.7 can be mod-
ified as appropriate for your students; number values can be adjusted
to emphasize the parts you think are most important. Using a score
sheet like this will give students a clear picture of their strengths and
weaknesses, just as the multiple-trait rubric for writing increases
students’ understanding of strengths and weaknesses in their writ-
ten work.
The same elements can be structured differently to fit the require-
ments in most districts. While there is no agreement nationwide on
the labels (e.g., advanced, proficient, basic, pre-basic; advanced, pro-
ficient, partially proficient, in progress), a four-point rubric can and
should be developed using the framework I’ve described. The rubric
for performing a speech, once created for each grade level, will work
across the curriculum. Figure 15.8 shows an example of a rubric from
a workshop I conducted with ninth-grade teachers. Notice that the
content box is generic, allowing the rubric to be used in a variety of
assignments. Figure 15.9 shows the performance rubric they created
to use in all classes.

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FIGURE 15.8: MULT IPURPOSE SPEAKING RUBRIC

BUILDING 4 3
A SPEECH ADVANCED PROFICIENT
• speech perfectly designed • speech clearly designed for
for this specific audience this audience
• key points understandable • one or two points or key
AUDIENCE • several clear connections to terms should have been
this audience more clearly explained
• two or three attempts to
connect with the audience
• all required content • all required content included
included • purpose of speech clear
• purpose of speech clear • some extraneous material
CONTENT • no extraneous material
included

• good choice of organiza- • good choice of organizational

tional structure structure
• opening grabbed the • opening grabbed the listeners
ORGANIZATION listeners • some signposts
• explicit and frequent • powerful closing
signposts
• powerful closing

• visual aids relevant • visual aids relevant

• aids clarified important • aids clarified important
concepts concepts
• aids appropriate for the • aids understandable for
VISUAL AIDS
audience and the room most of the audience
• well designed • most of the audience could
see the aids
• well designed
• student looked sharp • student looked sharp
• dress appropriate for the • dress appropriate for the
APPEARANCE speech speech
• added something above
and beyond expectations

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FIGURE 15.8: MULT IPURPOSE SPEAKING RUBRIC (CONT INUED)

2 1
BASIC EMERGING
• little evidence that speech designed • no evidence that particular audience
for this audience considered
• several key points needed explanation • no attempt to explain things for this
• only one attempt to connect audience
• no connectors

• most required content included • important omissions of required

• audience could figure out the purpose content
• unnecessary information presented • unable to understand purpose of
• verbal viruses present but not speech
problematic • random information in speech
• verbal viruses detracted from speech

• good choice of organizational • disorganized

structure • ineffective opening
• ineffective opening • no signposts
• infrequent signposts • speech just stopped
• ineffective closing

• visual aids relevant • no visual aid or irrelevant aids

• aids merely repeated what was said • sloppy and hard to see
• aids appropriate for most of the
audience
• many audience members could not
see the aids
• decorations and/or sloppiness
diminished aids’ appearance
• student took care to adjust • no attempt to change appearance for
appearance before speech the occasion

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FIGURE 15.9: PERFORMANCE RUBRIC

4 3
PVLEGS
ADVANCED PROFICIENT
• student calm and confident • student calm and confident
• no distracting behaviors • only one or two distracting
POISE • no shuffling, fidgeting, behaviors that did not di-
wiggling minish overall performance

• voice perfect for the room • voice perfect for the room
• every word clear and • a few words blurred/indis-
VOICE
distinct tinct

• great expression • good expression

• many emotions expressed • some feeling evident in
LIFE
• excellent feeling parts of speech

• looked at each member of • looked at each member of

the audience at some point the audience
EYE CONTACT • eye contact continuous • eye contact made for most
of the speech

• excellent use of hands for • good use of hands

descriptive and emphatic • some facial gestures
purposes • limited body language
• facial expressions added to
GESTURES message
• body language contributed
to message

• not too fast or too slow • not too fast or too slow
• varied pacing to enhance • some attempt to adjust
SPEED message pace for effect
• paused for dramatic effect • no pauses

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FIGURE 15.9: PERFORMANCE RUBRIC (CONTINUED)

2 1
BASIC EMERGING
• student somewhat ill-at-ease • student ill-at-ease
• occasionally distracted the audience • many and repeated distracting
behaviors greatly detracting from
performance

• voice a bit too soft/loud • had a hard time hearing the speech
• several words and phrases indistinct • many words and phrases unclear

• some attempt at expression • tone monotonous

• some attempt at adding emotion in • no expression
speech • no attempt to add feeling to voice

• looked at most members of the • script-bound

audience • never looked at most of audience
• looked at notes too much

• some hand gestures • no gestures

• facial expressions and body language • no attempt to use facial expression
minimal • no use of body motions

• not too fast or too slow • spoke too quickly

• no attempt to adjust pace • no pacing or pauses
• no pauses

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Notice that some wording in Figures 15.8 and 15.9 is the same in mul-
tiple boxes. For example, to be an advanced speaker organizationally,
a student needs an opening that grabs the listener and a powerful
closing; the proficient speaker must also have both of those. These
teachers felt that what distinguished advanced from proficient in
organization was the use of signposts, so that was the only language
that differed from one box to the next. I agreed with them. It is not
the case that all language needs to change from one level to the next.
Often, to achieve the next level requires mastering the same skills
plus one thing more. In this case, proficient and advanced speak-
ers must master openings and closings, but the advanced must also
master signposts.
The descriptors in the rubric boxes will change depending on the
grade level. What is advanced poise for a first grader (few wiggles,
minimal fidgeting) is quite different than advanced poise for an elev-
enth grader (no wiggles, no fidgeting). You (and your colleagues) can
craft language appropriate for your students. Look for more sample
rubrics at www.PVLEGS.com. If you have a rubric to share, please
send it to me to post.

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CHAPTER 16:

Speaking Activities
Across the Curriculum

I t doesn’t matter what subject is being taught—math, science,

social studies, language arts, health, industrial technology, Span-
ish, art—all classes involve speaking. The activity ideas in this
chapter can be adapted to any subject area. I have avoided mention-
ing activities that I think we all know about: book reports, research
projects, biography projects, and so on. Those are so common that
I don’t need to tell you how they work. Instead, I offer some varied
ways that I have taught public speaking in classes. Some may be new
to you or add a different twist to a familiar activity. In the parenthe-
ses following each subheading, I have indicated the speaking skill(s)
most relevant to the activity and a suggestion about the appropriate
grade level, but you know your students, so feel free to ignore that
suggestion. I hope you’ll try some of these activities in your class as
you expand your teaching of public speaking.

1. MODELING MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (ALL SPEAKING

SKILLS) 6TH–12TH GRADES
I was a young boy when I first heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak,
and he quickly became my hero. Every year that I taught, I used his
“I Have a Dream” speech to show students the power of speaking.
The text can be found easily online and in several books in your
library. Read it with your students.

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Ask students to think about the audience King had to address and
the complexity of his challenge: Black people who supported him in
his peace movement and Black people who believed self-defense and
even violence, at times, might be necessary for change. White people
who supported him, and white people who were screaming at him.
Lawmakers he wanted to move to action. Ask students to look for
places in the speech that address each of those audience segments.
Notice the connectors. Where does King indicate that he understands
the audience’s perspective?
Examine the content. What was his purpose in speaking? What are
his main points?
Review the organization of the speech. It’s a brilliant composition.
Everyone knows the repetition of the phrase, “I have a dream,” but
few realize that King used a similar organizational strategy through-
out the speech. “One hundred years later,” “we can never be satis-
fied,” and “let freedom ring” are also repeated, breaking the speech
into memorable sections.
Although King used no overt visual aids, his appearance was
important. If possible, show students a video of King delivering his “I
Have a Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial. How did he dress?
Why did he always wear a black suit, white shirt, and black tie?
You can also discuss the performance. Talk about the poise King
demonstrated in front of 500,000 people and a television audience.
Discuss the power of his voice. Life? He is one of the most dynamic
speakers your students will ever hear. Eye contact and gestures aren’t
a major part of this speech because of the venue. Point that out. Also,
discuss King’s tremendous use of speed and pacing for effect. Analyz-
ing this speech is a unique way to celebrate Martin Luther King Day
but does not need to be restricted to that day.

2. ANALYZE OTHER SPEAKERS (ALL) 4TH–12TH GRADES

Your students will analyze other speakers for you. They will come
into your class and say, “Did you see the president’s speech last
night?” or “Did you see her Grammy Award acceptance speech?”
Once students become aware of the art of public speaking, they
will analyze all of the performances they see. Look at newscasters,

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TV hosts, and other speakers, and spend a few minutes discussing

their PVLEGS.

3. THINK, PAIR, SHARE (CONTENT, EYE CONTACT)

7TH–12TH GRADES
Provide a thought-provoking question to the class. The question
could be related to a unit of study, but it also might be a random
but engaging question. Give students a few moments to think about
the question, and then ask them to find a partner. I always like to
have the kids decide which one of them will be Person A and which
Person B. Once that is decided, I say, “Okay, B, you go first. Explain
to your partner your thinking in response to our question.” After a
couple of minutes, I say, “Okay, B, you stop and let A explain.” The
idea is to get them to come to a consensus about the answer to the
question. Have them think about the statements that seemed the
most valuable in reaching an agreement. Finally, the entire class
regroups for a discussion.
For the whole-class discussion, some days, I say, “Person A will
talk today. If you are Person A, tell us what you and your partner
decided.” Some days, I call on Person B. This eliminates the problem
of having only the highly verbal students dominate the discussion.

4. WHAT HAPPENED HERE? (LIFE) 3RD–6TH GRADES

Find interesting photographs from newspapers, magazines, or online
sources. Build a large collection of these odd photos. Ask students
to think of a brief story that would explain the photo. How did the
shoe end up on top of that pole? How did the child get his head stuck
in that chair? Call on volunteers to share their ideas focusing on the
speaking skills of life.

5. BROWN BAG INTRODUCTIONS (VISUAL AIDS) 1ST–5TH GRADES

This is a great idea for a get-to-know-you activity at the beginning
of the year. Tell students to bring in a brown lunch bag that con-
tains five or six items that represent who they are. The items could
be pictures, equipment they use, mini versions of objects that are

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important to them, and so on. Each student takes a turn at the front
of the class and reveals the contents while explaining the significance
of the items. Remind students of the effective ways to use visual aids
while speaking.

6. SHOW AND TELL (VISUAL AIDS) 1ST-?? GRADES

This is really retro . . . but really engaging. When I taught eighth
grade, I was surprised when a student came to me and asked if she
could bring in something to show her classmates. I said yes, and
after her presentation, many other students asked if they could bring
in something. I thought about it. Show and tell might cost me five
minutes, but the benefits are huge. It lets kids be kids; it creates con-
nections between kids; it improves class atmosphere; it lets students
showcase their lives outside of school; it helps the teacher connect
with the students. It is also another chance to work on presentation
skills, in particular, the use of visual aids while speaking. Give each
speaker advice on how to present the item in a way that all students
can appreciate it, for example.

7. TRAVELING DEBATES (VOICE, AUDIENCE, CONTENT, EYE

CONTACT, POISE) 7TH–12TH GRADES
Traveling debates can be used in any subject. The teacher poses a
question. Should the character in the novel have done that? Should
the United States have universal health care? Should we allow clon-
ing? Should old movies be edited or banned if they contain content
that we now think is offensive to some groups? Come up with some
content-related questions that have two strong sides. Then, tell the
class to stand up and move: “Stand on this side of the room if you
think that we should have physical education every day. Stand on
that side of the room if you think we should not have P.E. every day.”
It is not important to have an even number of students on each
side. In fact, sometimes it is more fun to have five students against
twenty-five students. As long as there are people on each side, you
can begin. (No, no one can be in the middle—we either have P.E. every
day, or we don’t. Make students decide.)

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The rules are simple. One person speaks at a time. I address the
side with the smaller number and let someone from that side speak
first for up to two minutes. The speaker tries to persuade students
from the other side to walk over to his side. There is no clapping, no
voting, and no commenting—if your viewpoint has changed, you sim-
ply move over to the other side of the room. When students finish
moving (if they move—sometimes no one is persuaded), call on a stu-
dent from the opposing side of the room. Their goal is the same: to
get students to switch sides. Call on different students from each side
several times. Here’s how the P.E. debate might go:

PRO: We should have P.E. every day because Americans are get-
ting fat. Schools teach you stuff to make your life better like
reading and stuff, so they should make you exercise ’cuz that
is good for you.

(No one moves.)

CON:We should not have P.E. Lots of us play sports outside of

school, and we get exercise on our own. P.E. is dumb anyhow.
We just play dumb games no one likes.

(Two kids switch over to the con side of the room.)

PRO:What would you rather do, go to math class or go play a

game in P.E.? P.E. gets us out of other classes. Sometimes, we
even get to go outside.

(Ten kids switch sides, including one of the two who just
came over.)

Traveling debates emphasize audience because to be successful at

moving students by coming up with a winning argument, you have to
understand your listeners. To point out that exercise reduces choles-
terol may not be persuasive to fifth graders. Eye contact is essential;
looking right at someone is powerful if you are trying to move him or
her. Of course, students will primarily look at the teacher, as always.
Stress that you are not going to move anywhere. Students need to talk
to the peers they want to persuade.

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8. FREEZE FRAME (LIFE, GESTURES, VOICE) 6TH–12TH GRADES

Improvisation games can be a lot of fun in class. Many involve quick
thinking and quick wit, but Freeze Frame is useful for practicing
some of our speaking skills. Choose two student volunteers. Assign
them parts to play in a two-person drama. For example, ask one stu-
dent to be the parent and the other the child who has just taken the
parent’s toothbrush to brush the dog’s teeth. This forces students to
play with life in their voices. In this case, the students have to speak
like an angry mom or a young child.
When you say, “Action!” the play begins. Let the volunteers act out
the scene for a couple of minutes. At some point, say, “Freeze!” The
two actors must stop in the exact position they were in when they
heard “freeze” and hold that position. Try to stop them when they are
in an interesting position. Perhaps the mom is holding up the imagi-
nary toothbrush to show the child how damaged it is, and the child
has his arms crossed.
Now for the tricky part. Choose a volunteer to replace one of the
two frozen characters. The new volunteer can take the place of which-
ever character they want, but they must assume the exact position of
the actor being replaced. The new actor will speak first when you say,
“Action!” but they must change the scene. It is no longer a mom, a child,
and a toothbrush scene. The new actor has to use the gesture they
inherited and go off in a new direction. The actor who wasn’t replaced
has to go along with whatever idea the new actor thought of. The fol-
lowing scene picks up from just after the new actor joins the scene:

TEACHER: Action!
NEW PLAYER: (Holding hand up exactly as the “mom” did.) As you
can see, I have here a magic wand. This wand will make the
straitjacket mysteriously fall away! Kazaam!
OLD PLAYER:
(Hands were crossed but now swing open.) Wow!
That is amazing! How did you do it?
NEW PLAYER: A magician never tells. Now help me with this new
trick. Pick a card, any card. (Holding hands out as if to display
a spread-out deck of cards.)

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OLD PLAYER: (Reaching for a card.) Okay, I’ll choose . . .

TEACHER:Freeze! Who wants to volunteer to replace one of

these two?

(A second new player comes in and takes the place of the old
player reaching out.)

TEACHER: Action!

SECOND NEW PLAYER:

Here is the money. You say these treasure
maps are all good?

FIRST NEW PLAYER:

(Speaking like a pirate.) Arrr, yes. Each one
came from my days on the pirate ship.

I have used this game very successfully with students from grades
six through twelve. There is a bit of a learning curve. You must make
sure the scene goes in a new direction when the new student comes
in, and you must make sure the new character uses the inherited ges-
ture. The new player can’t come in and just ignore the position they
assumed. If their hand is outstretched when they take the position of
the previous actor, they have to do something with an outstretched
hand. Sometimes, you may stop a scene, and no one will volunteer
because no one has an idea of what to do. Very soon, though, students
will begin to see that dynamic, dramatic gestures are the most fun
to work with, and they will begin to free up their motions. You will
become a better director, too, and will begin to see which positions
offer the best potential and, hence, the best time to yell, “Freeze!”
Sure, some students are better than others. Some students have a
slew of character voices they are dying to use; some love to get up and
do crazy things; conversely, some are too shy to play but love to watch
and laugh. In all cases, my students have loved the game. They would
ask to play any time we had a few extra minutes. It kept me sane on
indoor recess days.

9. OBJECT BOX (VISUAL AIDS) 5TH–8TH GRADES

Put some small, silly items in a box: a piece of yarn, a marshmallow,
a key, a feather, a sponge—crazy things. Choose a student to reach

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into the box and, without looking, pull something out. Give the stu-
dent two minutes to prepare a speech that somehow incorporates
the item. Here are some examples.

Ah, my favorite sweater. This is all that is left now, just this one
piece of yarn. But when I was younger, it was part of my favorite
piece of clothing.

Here at the yarn factory, we make all kinds of yarn. Our most
popular yarn is this one right here. We call this color Ocean Mist.

10. TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (LIFE, CONTENT) 3RD–6TH GRADES

At the beginning of the year, ask students to pair up. Give students
a few minutes to interview each other. Each pair will then come up
to the front of the room to introduce each other. The trick is that the
introducing student must include three statements about their partner,
one of which is not true. The objective is to fool the listeners, who will
be asked to determine which statement is the lie. The speaker must be
poised, or else their listeners will easily discover the lie. (The student
being introduced has to be poised as well in order to remain impassive
when they hear the lie.) The exercise encourages students to think
carefully about content: what are the two most interesting things to
tell the class, and what lie would fit in? It won’t fool many people if
you say, “Lucas has two sisters named Amelia and Ellie. He has a dog
named Muggsy. He has twelve arms.” Students need to consider content
that is believable and deliver it in the same style as the factual content.

11. DEMONSTRATION SPEECH . . . WITHOUT ANY PROPS

(GESTURES, EYE CONTACT) 6TH–12TH GRADES
Tell students they will have to demonstrate how to do something.
For example, they can demonstrate how to make a paper airplane,
how to brush teeth, how to make a peanut butter sandwich, how to
bake brownies, or how to fix a flat tire. The trick is that when they
do the presentation, they can’t use any visual aids. They have to
gesture so well that we “see” the props without them being there:

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Notice that I have a plain piece of white paper, 8 1/2 by 11

inches. (Holding the right hand out with two fingers pinched
together and using the left hand to point to the invisible paper
hanging down from the pinched fingers.) First, fold the paper in
half. (The left hand goes 11 inches below the pinched fingers
of the right hand, pinches the bottom of the invisible paper, and
brings the pinched edge up to the right hand.)

Students enjoy using their imaginations to fill in the blanks. They

also enjoy keeping track of the “props” and noticing any slipups on
the part of a speaker. During a student’s demonstration about how to
make brownies, for example, the audience will notice if she “pours”
the batter into the pan as if the pan were on the right edge of the desk
but then “picks it up” to put in the “oven” as if it were on the left edge
of the desk. Through this activity, students will realize how important
even subtle gestures can be.

12. POETRY CAFÉ (LIFE, POISE, VOICE, SPEED) 3RD–12TH

GRADES
At the end of her poetry unit, my teaching teammate always held
a poetry café. Students found a favorite poem (or, in some cases,
wrote a poem), which they read aloud. To make it more significant,
parents were invited, students volunteered to bring food and drinks,
the room was rearranged, and everyone was required to dress up.
Students would take turns sitting on the stool in the center of the
room to recite their poems. Adding the performance piece encourages
students to become much more animated readers. It was great P.R.
(parents and administrators loved it), and students who had little
interest in poetry at the start of the unit became really enthusiastic
about poetry and this culminating activity.

13. COMMERCIALS (ALL) 6TH–12TH GRADES

The school district I worked in decided to make a deal with the
Coca-Cola Company. The district got millions of dollars to agree to
offer Coke products and only Coke products in all of the schools.

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Coca-Cola supplied juices and water in all school cafeterias and

soft drinks in all teachers’ lounge vending machines. This gave me
the idea of having all classes sponsored by some product. Why not
have the Amazon Pre-calculus Hour? The Frito Lay Language Arts
Period? Civics—Brought to You by Nike? Students were thrilled
with the idea.
Students volunteered to do a thirty-second spot during a future
class period. They had a week or so to prepare. As for a true com-
mercial, thirty seconds was the exact time allowed—they could not go
one second over, and if they finished early, they had to stand in front
of the class until thirty seconds lapsed. I let students invent their own
products or use existing products. Then, during class, I would have a
commercial break presented by a student—perhaps as we were tran-
sitioning from one activity to another or at the end of the class.

TEACHER:
Today’s class has been brought to you by Nevaeh.
Nevaeh?

NEVAEH:
Are you tired of homework? Meet the Droid 2XQ35
Homework Application. This app will . . .

The commercials were a minimal intrusion into my class and a lot

of fun for the speakers and the listeners.

14. READING ALOUD (LIFE, VOICE) 1ST–8TH GRADES

Many teachers have students read sections of a book aloud for a class.
One student reads the first section of a textbook, another reads the
second section, and so on. If you do this in your class, insist that
students read with life in their voices and don’t allow the droning
that is so common. Just set this up as a class expectation—if you
read, you will read with feeling. Yes, it is easier to read with feeling
if you are reading a passage from a novel rather than a textbook, but
monotone is never acceptable.
Many teachers also schedule reader’s theater. In some versions,
students take the parts of characters in a chosen book and deliver
lines of dialogue. Find a section of a novel that has a long conversation

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between characters. Students become the characters as they read.

Instead of Hasan and Xavier from our class reading aloud, we are
listening to story characters, and students have to add the life of the
characters to their voices.

15. BIRTHDAY INTERVIEW (VOICE) K-2ND GRADES

On the student’s birthday, invite them to come up to the “stage” for
the interview. One kindergarten teacher in my school used a pencil
as a microphone. You may have something more fun to represent
the microphone.

TEACHER:
(holding the “mic”) Today, we are talking to Kim. Hello,
Kim. How old are you today? (holding the mic in front of Kim)

KIM: Six.

TEACHER:Class, would you please raise your hand if you didn’t

hear Kim? (a few hands go up) Kim, could you repeat that so
everyone can hear?

KIM: Six.

TEACHER:Excellent. Six years old. Wow. What is your favorite

food to eat?

KIM:My favorite food (a couple of hands go up—Kim notices)

My favorite food is pizza.

TEACHER: Do you like pepperoni, mushrooms?

KIM: (No longer having volume problems) I hate mushrooms. I

like cheese pizza but sometimes ham. My mom likes mush-
rooms, but I pick them off.

TEACHER: I hear you like soccer. Tell us about that.

KIM: I’m really good at soccer. My team won . . .

After a few interviews, students get the idea, and it becomes rare to
have to comment about voice.

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16. FAVORITE TOY (GESTURES) K-2ND GRADES

We all know that gestures are part of engaging an audience, and
we give students points on speaking rubrics for gestures. Sadly, we
don’t teach lessons about how to gesture well. Tell students that hand
and body gestures contribute to understanding and keep audiences
interested in the talk. Very few teachers keep their hands still while
talking to students, so ask students to notice the gestures you are
using as you talk to them. Tell them that they will be giving a talk
about their favorite toy, and the focus will be on gestures. Ask five
students to bring in their toy Monday, five others on Tuesday, and
so on. At showtime, guide them in gestures as they speak.

TEACHER: Sofia, what did you bring in today?

SOFIA: I have my mermaid doll.

TEACHER: How pretty! Hold her up so everyone can see. Nice. I’m
not sure this side of the room can see it, so let’s show them,
too. Fine. Now, what’s her name, and what is a mermaid?

SOFIA: She’s Pixie. Mermaids are girls who live in the water.

TEACHER: Does she have legs?

SOFIA: She has a tail.

TEACHER: Like a dog’s tail?

SOFIA: No, like a fish.

TEACHER:Can you show the class her tail? (Sofia points) Oh,
nice gesture! We can see exactly where to look. What else
would you like to point out? Tell us all about her.

SOFIA: One of her eyes fell out but my mom put a new one in
here. (showing the face to the class, pointing to the new eye) I
got her for my birthday when I was one. I like to play with her
hair and put ribbons in and this crown. (holding the crown up)
If you push this button (points), her tail lights up.

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With this safe, fun activity, students get used to using their hands
and bodies as they speak. Starting with these simple moves, it will
be easy in later grades to transition to gestures for emphasis or
descriptiveness.

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SPEAKING DIGITALLY

Digital devices do not change the skills of effective oral commu-

nication, they display them. This means that in the digital world,
speaking skills are more important than ever, as I mentioned in
Chapter 1. Yet I am amazed at how many of us, as teachers, have
focused on the tools rather than the reason the tools were created.
No device or website is designed as an end in itself but rather as a
way to convey a message. The communication is the point. None of
these tools should be used unless we have something of value to
communicate. We don’t make podcasts, for example, for the sake of
making podcasts but rather to present ideas. Because the potential
audience for podcasts is very large, the quality of the communication
becomes even more important. One might think, then, that teachers
would say, “Wow, we are going to record something for the world
to hear, so we better have something amazing to say, and we better
say it well!” Unfortunately, if you listen critically to the vast amount
of student podcasts that have been posted to YouTube and the like,
you notice that they are generally quite poor. Be honest: don’t most
two-minute student podcasts seem much longer than that? Do you
have a hard time listening all the way to the end?
I apologize for seeming harsh. I am not criticizing the students—
they are just doing what they were told to do. I am criticizing us, the
teachers—we put the cart before the horse, the digital tool before
the point of the digital tool. We failed to give students the instruction
 Well Spoken

needed to be impressive. I am not concerned about the green screen

and the images projected using that screen; I am concerned about the
students in front of the screen. We have shortchanged them. Their
speaking can be so much better than what the current products sug-
gest. Let’s see how to make students more successful.
CHAPTER 17:

Building Digital Talks

T o be sure, if you teach the building and performing frame-

work that you have been introduced to in this book, audio
podcasts and videos, live or recorded, will be better. But,
because speaking digitally is not the same as speaking in person, I will
share ways that all digital tools alter the way we apply the building
framework. Additionally, you will see that the type of tool matters
also. A live talk via Zoom (or other video conferencing platform)
is a bit different than an audio podcast, which is different than an
online video, and each requires unique tweaks.

AUDIENCE
As I mentioned in Chapter 3, students often give a speech without
thinking about the intended audience. The teacher hands out a list of
requirements for the oral presentation, and most students dutifully
check off the items without focusing on how the audience will react
to the checklist speech. As a result, the audience is bored much more
often than we like to admit. You know now that well-built speeches
are designed specifically for a particular group. Consider Class P,
for example, where the teacher assigns a traditional book report to
be presented in class. She tells the students to prepare a three- to
four-minute oral presentation. Because the teacher has read Chap-
ter 3, she talks to the students about the intended audience: males
and females in the same grade and with similar vocabulary levels;
some like reading, and some do not; all have and love cell phones,
computers, and game systems; their interests include soccer, shopping,

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dance, skateboarding, and so on. The teacher explains that a good

report makes the book interesting to all listeners. Although the book
may have been written to appeal primarily to female readers, for
example, the book report must engage males as well. The teacher
makes clear that only by understanding the listeners will students
be able to build a book talk that will appeal to everyone. Students
know a lot about the other kids in their class and should be able to
create a better talk with that knowledge.
For teachers using technology to showcase student work, audi-
ence analysis can be more challenging. Students likely do not know a
lot about the people who may view the online product. In Class V, for
example, a teacher from the United States attended the Global Learn-
ing for an Open World Conference, an annual online conference
designed to build education-related connections around the globe.
He decided to partner with a teacher in Mexico to share some of each
country’s great books. He asked his students to tell students in Mex-
ico about one of the most famous books in the U.S., To Kill a Mocking-
bird. The talk would be presented via Zoom to a class at the American
School in Guadalajara. The teacher asks his students to analyze their
Mexican classroom audience. What interests and customs might the
students there have that are the same as ours? What might be differ-
ent? He suggests that students do some research to find the answers
to these questions, including sending e-mail messages to the Mexican
teacher before the performance and reading articles about school,
customs, and activities in Mexico.
In Class V, the teacher seized one of the main advantages of digital
tools: extending learning beyond the classroom walls. Using technol-
ogy such as Zoom can give students access to a very different audi-
ence than the ones they typically address. Posting to a site, such as
YouTube, gives students access to the world. Although the potential
audience may be large, it is not too diverse to be analyzed. A podcast
about adding fractions could be of interest to anyone in cyberspace,
for example, although we could assume that the viewers would likely
be young. An online slideshow about Picasso might appeal to a wider
range of ages, but the likely viewers will probably share a similar
interest in art. Despite the unknowns of our digital audience, every

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audience will have some characteristics that we can research and use
to target the message. Design the podcast or video for the target mar-
ket (young math students, Picasso fans). Don’t just make a podcast.
Digital tools demand audience analysis in another dimension as
well: We must consider how the audience will be receiving the mes-
sage. Will the teacher in Guadalajara be projecting the Zoom presenta-
tion onto a large screen in the classroom? Will the students be looking
at a thirteen-inch laptop screen? A twenty-inch monitor? Might view-
ers be viewing the lesson on a tablet or smartphone? These become
critical questions that will affect how we build the speech, as we shall
see later in this chapter when we discuss visual aids.
Finally, understand that all viewers/listeners only pay partial
attention. Yes, even in person, we can’t guarantee that everyone pre-
sent is paying full attention, but we can guarantee that all listeners
viewing podcasts independently are not paying full attention. The
cat is nearby, other windows may be open on the desktop, a snack is
being eaten, social media is being checked—you know, because that
is how you are, too, when at a Zoom meeting or viewing a webinar.
There is no way to check if your podcast is engaging, which means
it better be well-built to have a chance of success. Sports highlights
and Instagram are a click away. Understanding the audience includes
understanding all the options you are competing with when the Play
button is pushed.

CONTENT
Remember that content doesn’t mean Those Things That the Teacher
Requires. Those checklist talks are boring and forgettable and certainly
do not hold the attention of online viewers. Three considerations
are important as you build the content for the Zoom presentation,
the Skype meeting with a class far away, the audio podcast posted
at Schoology, or the video posted to YouTube.
First, less content is required. Teachers usually require informa-
tional talks, e.g., the dangers of vaping, Hungary after World War II,
and book talks. Sometimes, instead of talking to the class for five min-
utes, students are asked to record the talk. But be warned: five min-
utes is an enormous amount of time on the small screen, especially

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for informational talks. The in-class talk about composting can be five
minutes. The video about composting gets old at around three min-
utes, and an audio podcast is less than that. The viewer can and will
just skip ahead to see if there is anything better/less boring ahead.
Students should not talk to the online audience for a length of time.
Be ruthless in cutting the amount of information included in digital
formats. As you’ll see, adding aids to sustain interest is critical.
Second, remember clarifiers. Clarifiers are the specific additions
to speeches that ensure the audience completely understands the
message, right? The expanded audiences that digital tools make pos-
sible give us another opportunity to teach students about clarifiers
and to use the information gained from audience analysis. Who will
be viewing the podcast the students are making about the book they
read? Parents? Grandparents? Students from other classrooms or
grade levels? Will all of them understand the multiplayer virtual real-
ity universe you are talking about in Ready Player One? In the Zoom
example earlier in this chapter, students should explain the situation
in the American South at the time of To Kill a Mockingbird to help the
student audience in Guadalajara understand the novel. The students
in Mexico might not have the background knowledge to appreciate
the context of the American Civil War, including slavery and the atti-
tudes about racial differences that linger in this country. The students
in the U.S. will have to explain that during that time period, many
white American Southerners considered African Americans second-
class citizens. Without that understanding, To Kill a Mockingbird
makes no sense. Speakers must use audience analysis to anticipate
such issues. Successful talks leave all listeners with the feeling that
they completely understand what was said.
Finally, recall that a speech is more effective if it contains specific
statements designed to connect the topic to a particular audience.
No speech should be generic, designed to work for every group. We
use the audience analysis to come up with a way to let the audience
know the speech was built specifically for them. How will you con-
nect Ready Player One to Grandma and Grampa? Every listener, at
some point, has to hear something directed especially to them—a
challenge when audiences get diverse. And think back to the school

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in Guadalajara. The climax in To Kill a Mockingbird takes place after a

Halloween pageant, with Scout still in her costume. If students briefly
explain the similarity of Halloween to Día de los Muertos, the stu-
dents in Guadalajara know that the conversation is personalized for
them, and they will be much more receptive to the message. Ask stu-
dents to think about a conversation—how long would they continue
talking to someone who never talks about them or their interests?
Not very long, I’d guess. Because a good speech is just a conversation
magnified, the same principle applies. Connectors keep online audi-
ences with you: “Ah, she’s talking to me!”

ORGANIZATION
Think back to my comments about permanent partial attention.
Presentations created for online viewing often run into this issue.
If we have students create podcasts and assign the class to listen
to them at home, we have to realize that their attention may not be
as focused as in the classroom. The physical presence of a speaker
increases attention to the message. Without the speaker’s physical
presence, we tend to become distracted by other things that we can
do while listening.
Anticipating distractions, we must redouble our efforts to create
a grabber opening, include effective signposts, and finish with a very
clear closing. From the start, we must intrigue listeners and make
them want to hear more. For example, “Hi, my name is Liam, and this
is Kiyan, and we are gonna tell you all about global warming” will
probably shift viewers to partial attention immediately. On the other
hand, “The Pacific island of Tuvalu is gorgeous. Look at the pictures.
Look quickly, though, because the island is disappearing. Climate
change is causing water levels to rise, and Tuvalu will be underwater
soon. Want to see why?” definitely has an increased chance of sus-
tained attention.
We must also put extra effort into signposts. After a shockingly
small amount of time, listener and viewer attention starts to drift. BBC
News reported back in 2002 that “with literally millions of websites at
our fingertips, the attention span of the average Web surfer is meas-
ured in seconds” (BBC News 2002). I can only imagine how much

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more multitasking goes on today during online viewing or search-

ing. “Ever on the lookout for engaging content, most online viewers
spend less than 60 seconds at an average site,” BBC News reported
(2002). Specific and engaging signposts are critical to reclaiming that
attention. For example, “Now that we have discussed the causes of
global warming, let’s take a look at the effects” might work well if the
speaker were in front of the audience, but “Now that we have learned
what you do to contribute to global warming, let’s discuss the ways it
will destroy your life,” would have more force and the inattentive lis-
tener would most likely perk up because of that language. Signposts
give us opportunities within the speech to refocus the listener.
Discuss with your students how well they pay attention in class.
Then, ask them how well they stay focused when online. They will
begin to understand the problem. It’s a rare person who can pay full
attention in the online environment, but signposts improve the odds
of sustained attention, can be effective at reorienting the listener/
viewer, and can let the listener/viewer know what they missed.
In an online environment, it might be advantageous to work with
summative types of closings. Remember, the audience drifted in and
out of attention. Some points were missed while the listener was tex-
ting a friend. The old “Tell them what you told them” is pretty useful
before the powerful last statement.

MEANINGFUL AIDS
I have renamed this part of building a speech, called Visual Aids in
Chapter 6. Recall that I generally prefer that beginning speakers not
use visual aids. I want the speaker to focus on creating a message
rather than creating a visual, and I want the listeners to attend to
the speaker rather than a potentially distracting aid. That emphasis
changes in a digital format. The speaker is not as commanding on
a small screen as he is in person, and the expectations in the digital
world are that audio and image will be included. Therefore, creating
effective aids is an important part of the communication-building
process, and audio aids can be used as well as visual aids.
The idea of adding media to improve presentations is not new. The
Common Core Standards included this component years ago: “They

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are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technolog-

ical tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to
their communication goals” (Common Core State Standards Initiative
2010, 7). Yes, those standards are not popular now, but their impact
remains. I recently worked with teachers in Arkansas, and their state
standards say that students should “include relevant multimedia” in
presentations. More than a PowerPoint slide deck is implied here.
When the intent of the aid is to assist the listener’s understanding
and/or sustain interest, aids must be relevant, important, accessible,
and simple, right? Let’s apply those criteria to digital talks.
I was working at a school where a teacher asked students to make
a one-minute podcast about something very important in their lives,
something they were passionate about—a hobby, a sport, a belief, a wish
for the future. I asked the teacher what her objective was for this “About
Me” assignment. (Note: asking this question often causes educators to
become defensive, but that shouldn’t stop us.) Her first response was
along the lines of “It seemed like a fun activity.” It’s not a very good justi-
fication, in my view. I pressed. She then suggested that she wanted them
to be podcast literate. I asked if she had taught any mini-lessons about
music and its value to a podcast, such as giving an example of a pod-
cast where music added a lot to the mood versus a podcast with looped
stock music that sounded repetitive and annoying. I asked if she taught
any mini-lessons about images because each podcast had to include a
picture of the student. Not all images have the same power. Why should
one be chosen over another? She had done neither of these things. Stu-
dents don’t become podcast literate just by creating a one-minute show.
We need to prepare them to use the tools wisely and well.
A soccer maniac who includes an action shot of themselves as
they have just headed the ball and accompanies this with the official
music from the World Cup would have a much deeper understand-
ing of technology’s power to inform and entertain than a student who
mindlessly inserts a picture of themself at a sleepover and uses a cur-
rent hit tune in the background. Let’s make sure that our assignments
support our learning goals and that we carefully communicate those
standards to students. Of course, if the purpose is simply to under-
stand how GarageBand works, then any topic would work, and the

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teacher would not have needed to restrict the students’ options. (As
a side note, having chosen the “passionate” theme, a lesson about
adding life would be important. Listeners must be able to hear the
passion in every student’s presentation. If a student says, “I am pas-
sionate about ending world hunger. One-eighth of the world’s popu-
lation is undernourished, yet we do nothing to help,” they had better
say it with feeling.) Teaching about technology involves more than
showing students how to point and click.

Eye-Catching Visuals
We need to introduce a new purpose for aids as well. Visual aids
are not just tools to assist understanding but are also de rigueur for
adding stimulation and sustaining interest. We don’t enter a website
expecting a video of a speaker standing in front of a classroom. We
expect something to be added, something attention-grabbing and
impressive. As I said, visual aids need to be designed rather than
decorated for in-class presentations. I came to loathe bubble letters,
stickers, and neon pink markers when I was in the classroom, and
I have little respect for ClipArt on Microsoft PowerPoint slides. I
soften my stance on this for digital presentations, however. Color,
liveliness, and high-impact images can be useful to brighten up the
thirteen-inch laptop screen and make the presentation more compel-
ling. Looking at a thumbnail of the speaker in the corner as she reads
the slide that fills up the rest of the Zoom screen is not engaging. A
video of a student standing and talking is not going to keep viewers
watching. Pictures intrigue viewers. Add a media literacy lesson here.
How do professionals select images for ads? Why is this the picture
that was chosen to go with the article? What images made this viral
video successful? Use that thinking to select the accompaniments to
the talk. The focus should always be on the message, but visuals can
be used to keep viewers focused on the screen. After all, if viewers
aren’t focused on the screen, they aren’t focused on the message.

Auditory Aids
Many digital tools and websites encourage adding music and sound
effects. Often, teachers and students believe that all podcasts require

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a soundtrack. They don’t. If there is no important reason to add

sound, don’t add it. You have witnessed the problem. You have heard
podcasts and videos with a generic music track that came with the
software and was looped so that there was a nonstop accompaniment
to the podcast. Yes, a generic audio track can be added with Apple’s
Garage Band software and similar programs, but should it be? And
a huge number of fun sound effects are right there, too! Shouldn’t
we have fun with those? Don’t let students get sucked in by silly
options. That said, an audio podcast of just talk cannot compete for
attention with all the listening options available online. Something
must be added, but what?
This should lead to a media literacy discussion with students. “If
people aren’t taught the language of sound and images, shouldn’t they
be considered as illiterate as if they left college without being able to
read or write?” asks film director George Lucas (Daly 2004). It’s an
interesting question that compels us as educators to notice how sound
and images have become such important methods of communicating.
Music and pictures convey ideas and manipulate emotions without
words. How is music used to increase a movie’s impact? What kind
of music is chosen for the Save the Children commercial? The Ram
truck commercial? Likewise, any audio added should be consistent
with and contribute to the message. Ask these questions about any
audio additions:

• Should audio be added? What would be the purpose? What

does the music contribute to the podcast or video?
• Is opening music needed, or will listeners be eager to get on
with the podcast?
• Is the music relevant? Do the lyrics in a snippet of a song rein-
force your message?
• Is the repetitive loop of sound necessary? Does hearing the
same 15-second clip repeated twenty times during the five-min-
ute talk get tiresome?
• Did the soundtrack add to the mood you are trying to create, or
did it interfere with the message?
• Do sound effects help or distract?

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As we will discuss again when we talk about Voice in the next

chapter, the audio additions must allow the message to be accessible.
The narration must be dominant, not drowned out. Sound levels may
need adjusting, and music may require ducking—lowering the vol-
ume of one audio track to enable emphasis on a different audio track.
(Realize, then, that students adding soundtracks might need to learn
some additional technical skills.) Again, these are aids, not the main
focus.

Rethinking Accessibility
Digital presentations require more attention to accessibility. Earlier,
I talked about how the audience will receive the message: The visual
may be viewed on the ten-inch screen of a netbook or the very small
screen of a smartphone or projected on a large interactive white-
board. What works best in each case? The Microsoft PowerPoint
slide with several keywords or multiple images may be accessible
when projected on a large screen in class but may need to be broken
into several pieces to be accessible on the small screen. Showing
several steps of the equation-solving process on one screen will not
work if you are presenting via Zoom and a piece of an eleven-inch
laptop screen is the viewing platform. Small screens require radi-
cally changing presentation design. The sound system that ampli-
fies the music in the lecture hall is not available on the laptop, so
we can’t assume that the embedded audio in the presentation will
be as effective. Small audio speakers diminish voices and produce
less distinct sounds, especially if there is competition from ambient
noises in the listening or viewing location. Compensate for the way
the message will be received.

APPEARANCE
To introduce the importance of personal appearance, we may tell
students about situations we have been in—the interview, back-to-
school night, the wedding toast—and describe the thought process
we go through in deciding what to wear. Digital tools make the con-
versation much more interesting. In Chapter 7, I wrote about requir-
ing my students to dress up for big presentations. They did dress

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up, but the audience was just a class of thirty peers, so perhaps
students didn’t take it too seriously. But what happens when digital
tools expand the audience? This creates new questions for students.
How do you want to look for the relatives who will get the link to
the site where the speeches are posted? How do you want to appear
on TeacherTube when students around the country might see you?
What will help you impress the students in Guadalajara when we
Zoom in? These new situations create new chances to discuss this
facet of building a speech.
Additionally, realize that in the digital world, more than personal
appearance is on display. As we use webcams for webinars, Skype,
FaceTime, and more, we broadcast our surroundings. For audio
podcasts, ask what other noises were picked up by the microphone.
Breathing that we don’t notice in person but that the microphone
picked up? Dog barking in the background as you recorded at home?
Noises from fidgeting with the script while recording? Listen care-
fully to the recording, and be sure to control the recording envi-
ronment. Encourage students to think like a soundman, the audio
engineer in filmmaking.
Be careful with video, also. I’ll bet you’ve noticed some odd or dis-
tracting things in the backgrounds of the attendees in online meet-
ings you attended during the pandemic and after. He had Taco Bell for
lunch? She has a poster of a baby in a flower basket on the wall? We
are supposed to believe that she is on some tropical island? What else
is being seen or heard by the device you are using? The camera sees
more than just the speaker; the setting is often overlooked, and as a
result, viewers get a glimpse of distracting and perhaps embarrassing
things. Pets walking by can destroy attention; a messy shelf behind a
speaker can affect the desired impression; the unmade bed may not
be the best backdrop, and yes, I have seen all of those in student work.
Viewers will definitely look past the face and notice the background.
Remember that we judge a book by its cover, and we judge a digital
presentation in part by its background. Warn students to take care of
the appearance of the surroundings as well as of their own appearance.
Point out that we are talking about what the film industry refers to
as set design. Students should think like set designers. And point out

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one other job in the movie business, gaffers: lighting designers that
make sure the audience can see the actors clearly. What will be the
best lighting for the speaker in the Zoom meeting, the video comment
posted on Padlet, or the “TED talk” that will be posted online? We
don’t think about audio, set, and lighting in the classroom, but they
matter a lot in digital speaking.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I don’t want to discourage anyone from making podcasts, presenting
via Zoom, or making a video. Not doing these things makes students
feel like they are time travelers: there are so many tools they use out-
side of class, but when they get into our classrooms, they have gone
back to the 1980s when none of those things existed, and instruction
goes on as it did decades ago. I do want to discourage everyone from
being motivated by “Wow, this is cool. I bet the kids would love this.”
Be motivated instead by “Let’s come up with a great message. Then
we’ll figure out a way to share it with the world.”

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CHAPTER 18:

Performing for Virtual

Audiences

R emember that I think all successful talks are performances

demanding more than normal chit-chat situations do. Read-
ing aloud isn’t a reading activity; it is a performance activity.
Sharing an opinion in the Socratic Seminar should be done with the
idea of making an impact and convincing others, and that requires a
little more effort than normal. It may be easier for students to think
of digital talks as performances. Microphones and cameras are used
by performers we admire in music, film, television, and even social
media. A presentation in class is regular; making a recording is spe-
cial. The stakes are higher: the whole world may be watching! No,
your products won’t get more than forty-two views, but students are
somehow inspired to do more and try harder, given new opportuni-
ties and proper guidance. PVLEGS are critical for success.

POISE
The beauty of digital tools is that they give us risk-free ways to exam-
ine ourselves. We can turn off the sound of our video and really
concentrate on poise. We can spend time counting the number of
times the speaker pushed her bangs out of her eyes, or the speaker
tugged at his untucked shirt. We can turn the sound on and look
away from the screen to hear evidence of nervousness in the voice.
These will be important lessons before we ever hit the record button
to create the podcast or video for the public.

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Recording talks should remove some of the fear of speaking. The

live performance poorly done cannot be fixed. The podcast or video
can be rerecorded many, many times if needed until the performers
convey the required confident, self-assured manner. Because of the
large storage capacity of digital tools, we no longer have to worry
about wasting camera film, which means we no longer have to accept
the first, second, or even third version. Earlier, I said, “suggest that
they practice until they cannot get it wrong.” Modifying that, great
speakers don’t publish or save when they think the message is com-
plete; they publish when they think the message is perfect.
For audio podcasts, poise is not an issue, right? No one can see
the nervous tics. Go ahead and slouch. Who cares? That thinking is
a mistake. Microphones pick up tapping toes, fidgeting with paper,
squeaky chairs as students wiggle. Insist on poise. Sit up. Sit still.
Calm down.
For some students, performing for the camera is less threatening
than performing before a live audience, but for others, being on cam-
era is nerve-wracking. They may think they look and sound funny.
Nervous behaviors show up. If the viewer’s first image is of a child
with a silly, nervous smile, something has already been lost. Students
tend to think that certain behaviors don’t matter if the camera doesn’t
see it. For instance, if children are being filmed from the waist up,
who cares if their feet are crossing and uncrossing or if their legs are
jiggling? For all we know, the newscasters we watch are barefoot and
tapping their toes, right? As with the previous comments, don’t accept
this kind of thought. Do a test: Sit a student down, focus the camera
on her shoulders and head, and have her tap her toes or bounce her
leg up and down. Can you see the difference? Can you hear a differ-
ence in the voice? Most likely. Insist on total poise. Before we record,
we must become poised.

VOICE
Every word heard is the goal. Unfortunately, recordings of all types
generally make individual words less distinct. Issues with mumbling
and blurring words are amplified when words are heard through the
speakers on most devices. Words heard clearly in person may become

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blurred in digital formats. “Do you want to know how GPS satellites
work?” becomes “Joo wanna know how jeepees saddleye zwerk?”
when spoken by a speaker who hasn’t been given instruction on this
aspect of voice. Emphasize the need for precision before recording.

Microphone Issues
The digital devices and websites that students use to record speech
have radically different microphones. When I use the microphone
built into my laptop, the webinar audience has a harder time hearing
than when I use the microphone I bought to plug into the laptop.
My voice didn’t change; the mic did. But, having the better mic is
not the only issue: the voice that seemed fine when I was talking
toward the mic and only one foot away may be harder to hear if I
turn my head to look at notes. Yes, there may be an in-person situ-
ation where students are using a microphone in a large auditorium,
but for most, thinking about microphones is not important. For all
students making podcasts and videos, it is a critical consideration.
Do not assume that students can record and upload fluidly. Many
sound checks will be needed before they can have the right voice
for the medium, and all of those checks are chances to reteach the
importance of voice in delivering a message.
Sometimes, teachers have groups working together on projects.
Perhaps there aren’t enough cameras or computers to allow each
student to work individually. I might ask two students to practice for
readers’ theater, three to record the poems they’ve written, a couple
to present their information about mountain men, and so on. When I
later view the presentations, they might sound like this:

MAYA:We begin by looking at the life of the mountain man. It

was a lonely existence. Jace?

JACE:THAT’S RIGHT, MAYA. OFTEN THEY WOULD BE IN THE

HILLS FOR TEN MONTHS WITHOUT SEEING ANOTHER PERSON.

Listeners frantically reach for the volume adjustment after each

speaker. Before recording, teach lessons about consistency. We have
to make sure that Jace and Maya have equal volume in the final

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project. Maybe Maya could scoot toward the mic, and Jace could
move back two feet. Maybe Maya could practice projecting her voice,
and Jace could lower his booming voice to the whisper range. When
students are working on a collaborative writing project, I insist that
the final version carries one “voice.” I don’t want a separate voice for
each paragraph or section. The same rule applies here. Insist on one
“voice” for the project.

LIFE
Many years ago, I had a radio show, as I mentioned in Chapter 10.
A Top-40 radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wanted to get the
young person’s view of the world, and I led discussions on topics
kids were supposed to be interested in. I occasionally interviewed
people. For one show, I wanted to interview the morning drive-time
deejay. He used the name “The Flying Dutchman.” When he started
speaking, I was stunned.
“HEYYYY, kids! JIVIN’ AND STRIVIN’, MOVIN’ AND
GROOVIN.’ WHAT’S HAPPENIN’ TODAY?”
As a cool, mellow kid, I thought, “This guy needs to calm down.”
In an act of arrogance, I actually asked him to talk like a normal per-
son. He didn’t break character and ignored my request. The Flying
Dutchman knew something I didn’t know: for a voice to be interest-
ing on the radio, it has to be over-the-top in person. When I listened
to the recorded interview, he sounded great, and, as I mentioned, I
sounded quite dull.
Recall that generally, students (and adults, for that matter) lack
sufficient life in their voices. Students are animated at recess, in the
lunchroom, and in the halls, but somehow, they tone everything
down for a class presentation. They also become quite subdued on
camera or in front of a microphone. This is especially troubling for
digital works. As The Flying Dutchman made clear, extra life is
needed when the speaker is not physically present. Understand that
life does not mean copying The Flying Dutchman. It means adding
feeling, adding emotion. My way of adding inflection may be differ-
ent than yours. For shy students, adding enough enthusiasm and
emotion for a podcast is a real stretch, but we must encourage them

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to extend their range. Even for students who are not generally shy,
we still must push them past their desire to seem cool and toward
a livelier performance. An in-person talk is always more impressive
than a recorded one. Record, listen, add more life, rerecord, listen,
add even more life, rerecord. Otherwise, no one will get to the end of
your three-minute podcast.

CAMERA CONTACT
When creating digital content, we usually aren’t able to make vis-
ual contact with our audience. Yes, you can sort of see faces in the
thumbnails of the video conferencing tool, but that is a far cry from
effective eye contact. How do we connect with an unseen viewer? It
is a bit tricky, but it’s also necessary. To help, I introduce students
to the term camera contact. The key is to speak to the camera lens
as if it is your best friend. This doesn’t mean staring at the camera.
In a conversation, we sometimes look away, perhaps looking up
as we try to remember something or glancing to the side for an
instant. Those are natural responses and should be part of talking
to the lens as well. But students must be taught to treat the camera
the same way they treat a live audience member. Unfortunately, the
physical design of computers encourages us to avoid eye contact.
Built-in cameras tend to be placed above the screen on laptops and
desktop computers, over to the side on many tablets, and up in
the corner of cell phones. If you have any experience with these
devices, you know the problem: students want to watch the screen
rather than play to the camera. Teach students to avoid watching
themselves as they record. They will be able to see how they look
when the recording is finished. Tell students who are using Skype,
for instance, to look at the camera when they are talking and only
look at the screen when they are listening. These tips will involve
breaking some habits and will be difficult for them (and for you, I
bet), but the effort must be made.

GESTURES
You know that gestures add a lot to all talks. We love conversing with
someone who talks with her hands. We love watching a storyteller

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with beautiful, expressive motions. With audio recordings, gestures

are lost. We can’t see the emphatic gestures that hammer home a
point, the descriptive gestures that reinforce the words, or the facial
expressions that set the mood for the audience. This puts more pres-
sure on adding life to the voice to make up for what was lost.
With video, gestures can be seen . . . sort of. Think of the camera
angle. Is the whole body visible? Torso and head? Head only? Is the
camera far enough away that we can see the entire body so we can use
hand, face, and body motions? If we zoom in for a close-up, what ges-
tures will we lose? And when we use the laptop camera to grab video
for Loom, Camtasia, or WebEx, what body motions are in view? Typ-
ically, only a very few. We have to adjust our gestures for the situa-
tion. Discuss with students how to move gestures into the camera’s
view. The hand gesture at the side of the body is not visible, so what
the student normally does won’t work. Move the gesture so it is on
camera. But there is danger there. Test this out: turn on your laptop
camera or your cell phone camera. When you say, “OK, just this one
time,” hold up one finger in front of you—a typical gesture, right?
But while a finger held up a few inches in front of the face works in
person, that finger and the hand appear huge on camera. Your entire
face is blocked out, isn’t it? That one common, tiny gesture doesn’t
work on camera. Point out how the device can distort the gestures: an
object six inches from the camera appears much larger than an object
ten inches away. Adjust gestures to fit the device. Also, think of how
hand gestures captured on a camera will appear when viewed on a
small digital device. A tiny gesture may go unnoticed on a tiny screen.
You don’t need to turn your class into a video production class, but
you do need to let students know that gestures will appear differently
because of camera location, camera angles, and the medium used to
view a video.
Finally, remember that gestures include more than hand and body
motions. Facial gestures make any speech more interesting. For exam-
ple, I wrote about my wife pursing her lips and blowing at a milkweed
pod as she read aloud to her fourth-grade students, and I noted how
most of the students pursed their lips along with her. Facial gestures
are powerful. Some students have naturally expressive faces. Others

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need to be encouraged to become more expressive. Show students

some simple cartoon characters and ask them to notice how a small
change in eyebrow position completely changes the character’s mood.
Do a Google search of a character they know, such as Stewie Griffin
from Family Guy, and find pictures of Stewie that are identical except
for eyebrow position, for example, one with eyebrows slanting up and
one with eyebrows slanting down. Discuss how that tiny difference
shifts our perception of the character’s mood. What does the first face
suggest? What does the second face suggest?
Ask students to show different emotions with their faces: puz-
zlement, anger, surprise. Then, remind them that because the cam-
era may limit hand and body gestures, facial gestures become more
important. The device camera is one foot away, and every facial move-
ment is magnified. That can be a good thing. The subtle eyebrow
raised to indicate curiosity won’t go unnoticed. But it can be a bad
thing if the face is expressionless. If reading the face is the only way
for the viewers to get the reinforcement that gestures provide, make
sure your face is contributing to the message. The meme “Did I make
that face out loud?” cautions people to be careful about revealing too
much, but in this case, please do make that face out loud.

SPEED
Speak slowly is bad advice generally. It is deadly in an audio recording.
Audiobooks are spoken at an average rate of 150 words per minute.
TED talk speakers can get up to 190 WPM. Keep things moving when
recording. The student slowly plodding through the book share pod-
cast will not sustain interest. As important as a quick pace is varying
that pace. Adding drama by varying the speed of the delivery is an
advanced skill, but one that is important to introduce to students. I
love to use dramatic pauses when I speak. Sometimes, I want to let
a point sink in; sometimes, I want to emphasize a fact by stating it,
pausing, and restating it. In online presentations, however, such pauses
may not work as well. Pauses can interrupt the flow without creating
the dramatic effect we hoped for. The pause seems to be a technical
glitch, and listeners tend to think, “What went wrong?” For serious
speeches, I suggest using pacing rather than pauses for effect. There

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are exceptions. If students are trying to create a humorous video or

audio podcast, I do recommend pauses. Students should pause in
places where listeners should be laughing. Watch a comedian. Notice
how he pauses after a punch line. He doesn’t want the audience
to miss his next joke while laughing at the last one. Of course, the
audience might not laugh at the appropriate time. “I thought it was
funny, but I guess they didn’t.” That may happen. But more likely,
audience members will view a podcast and say, “Wait. What did she
say? I missed it,” because the speaker kept talking without pausing
for the reaction. (Another reminder about audience analysis: what
will they think is funny, and what will they react to?)

SUMMING IT ALL UP
Listen to all student podcasts and videos with new ears. Be hon-
est in assessing them. It will be apparent that we have neglected to
teach the most important skill needed before recording: effective
oral communication. If a child is not well spoken, using a tool that
showcases speaking is a mistake. Give students an effective voice.
Then hit Record.

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CHAPTER 19:

Evaluating Digital Talks

I f the frameworks for building and performing speeches still

apply to Zoom and webinar presentations, audio and video
podcasts, and all digital tools that present oral communica-
tion, then the rubrics in Chapter 15 still apply, don’t they? Yes. If
we consider the Building a Speech pieces, we realize that all digi-
tal presentations require thinking about the audience; all require
interesting, important content with clarifiers and connectors; all
require good organization with great openings, signposts, and
powerful closings; many require visual aids, or, as we redefined
them in Chapter 17, Aids, so images, artwork, and music can be
subsumed into that category; many digital presentations show
the speaker, so appearance applies, too. Obviously, the pieces of
performing a talk also apply, as we noted in Chapter 18. So yes,
we could use those rubrics, but we would be missing something.
There are elements of podcasts and videos that are not included
on those rubrics.
Let’s look at examples of podcast rubrics that are available now.
You can look online, but I chose to use a generative AI site and
requested rubrics for audio podcasts and video presentations for
various grade levels. My thinking was that AI would scan all the
available rubrics online and give me a good sense of what was out
there. The results confirmed that there are problems. Let’s exam-
ine these rubrics the way we examined rubrics used by teachers in
Chapter 15.

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F I G U R E 1 9 . 1 : P O D C A S T R U B R I C : “ A B O U T M E ” TA L K
1. Content (40 points):
• Introduction (10 points): Did the student introduce
themselves clearly and confidently?
• Personal Information (15 points): Did the student share
relevant personal information, such as name, age, grade,
and interests?
• Family and Pets (10 points): Did the student talk about
their family and any pets they have?
• Favorite Things (5 points): Did the student share some of
their favorite things, such as colors, foods, or activities?
2. Organization (20 points):
• Sequence (10 points): Did the student present their infor-
mation in a logical order?
• Transitions (5 points): Were there smooth transitions
between different topics?
• Conclusion (5 points): Did the student end the podcast
with a clear closing statement?
3. Clarity (20 points):
• Speech (10 points): Was the student’s speech clear and
understandable?
• Pronunciation (5 points): Were words pronounced correctly?
• Volume and Pace (5 points): Was the student’s speaking
volume appropriate, and did they speak at a reasonable pace?
4. Creativity (10 points):
• Engagement (10 points): Did the student engage the lis-
tener with interesting facts or anecdotes?
Total Points: 90

In Figure 19.1, AI generated an “About Me” podcast rubric for

the activity mentioned in Chapter 17. You can see many problems
with this rubric, can’t you? Where are the Building a Speech ele-
ments? Scattered around. Audience? Probably under “Creativ-
ity,” and poorly misnamed here—engaging the listener requires
understanding the audience. Content? Check minus. Where are
the connectors and clarifiers? Organization? Check minus. Doesn’t

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the opening matter? Aids and Appearance are left off because it
is an audio recording.
The enormous problem is the scoring of the performance.
Remember that the entire point of podcasting tools is to showcase
speaking. Here, speaking is worth twenty out of ninety points. Ugh. I
repeat: it doesn’t matter how well you create a talk if listeners cannot
suffer through the way the talk is delivered. Never have unbalanced
rubrics. Speaking must be as valuable as creating on your rubrics.
Notice the poor language. Clarity? This category is about speak-
ing skills. Why use unclear language? Additionally, notice what is
missing. Voice? “Clear and understandable” and, redundantly, “pro-
nounced correctly,” which is surely needed to be clear and under-
standable. Volume shows up in a different place, but you know it

FIGURE 19.2: MIDDLE SCHOOL PODCAST PROJECT RUBRIC

CRITERIA EXCELLENT (4) PROFICIENT (3)

CONTENT • Content is well- • Content is mostly
researched and accurate and
informative. relevant.
ORGANIZATION • Podcast is well- • Podcast is mostly
organized and flows organized with
smoothly. minor issues.
ENGAGEMENT • Keeps the audience • Generally holds the
engaged throughout. audience’s attention.
DELIVERY • Speaker(s) articulate • Speaker(s) are
clearly and mostly clear and
confidently. audible.
CREATIVITY • Demonstrates • Shows some
creativity in creativity in
presentation style. approach.
TECHNICAL • High-quality audio • Audio quality is
QUALITY with minimal generally clear.
background noise.

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FIGURE 19.2: MIDDL E SCHOOL PODCAST PROJECT RUBRIC (CONT INUED)

CRITERIA BASIC (2) NEEDS

IMPROVEMENT
(1)
CONTENT • Content lacks depth • Content is
or accuracy. inaccurate or
irrelevant.
ORGANIZATION • Podcast lacks • Podcast is
clear structure or disorganized and
transitions. difficult to follow.
ENGAGEMENT • Engagement with • Fails to engage the
the audience is audience effectively.
inconsistent.
DELIVERY • Speaker(s) • Speaker(s) are
are difficult to unclear or mumble.
understand.
CREATIVITY • Lacks creativity in • Presentation is
presentation. mundane and
unoriginal.
TECHNICAL • Audio quality is • Audio quality makes
QUALITY poor or distracting. it difficult to listen.

is part of Voice, every word heard. Life, the single most important
thing needed to sustain interest in a podcast? Not mentioned. Speed?
Reasonable pace is a good starting place, but not quite all that we
talked about to use speed well. Poise, Eye contact, Gestures? OK, it’s
an audio podcast, so no score is needed.
You have already made some judgments, haven’t you? You won’t
have engagement if you haven’t done audience analysis, so let’s

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rename this category. You can have well-researched, informative

content that leaves everyone bored. Connectors and clarifiers will
solve that problem. You noticed the absence of a great opening and
closing, realizing that those are especially critical in the digital pres-
entation. There is a category we haven’t seen before, though: Tech-
nical Quality. Of course! We didn’t include that on our rubrics in
Chapter 15. This suggests what we need to add to those rubrics for
digital presentations.
But what do I have the hardest time with? Shortchanging speak-
ing. Only one of six categories pertains to speaking, yet nothing is
more important to a podcast. If you have a great thesis statement,
good paragraphs, solid evidence, nice transitions, and no back-
ground noise, none of it will matter if your speaking is dreadful.
Articulating clearly and being confident does not come close to mak-
ing you a speaker worth listening to. Many a monotonous speaker
has articulated well and felt confident while causing the listeners to
fast forward or open a different tab on the device. Again, the most
important element, Life, is ignored, as is adjusting pace for effect.
As a side note, what will a student think “creativity in presentation
style” means? Do you suppose there were lessons about how to be
creative in presentation style? Again, you would never grade some-
thing you never taught, would you?
And Figure 19.3? You can evaluate the language in each section,
thinking critically now about whether the keys of effective commu-
nication are all mentioned in language students would find helpful.
You already know what I am going to say. No distinction between
what you do before you record and what you do as you record, key
elements are missing, and imprecise language is used. Hey, kids, use
“excellent communication skills,” whatever those may be! That does
not help students know what is needed to be impressive. And if the
podcast is about world hunger, is enthusiasm what we need more
of? “Eight hundred million people are starving on our planet! I’m
enthused about that!”

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FIGURE 19.3: HIGH SCHOOL VIDEO PODCAST PROJECT RUBRIC

CRITERIA EXCELLENT (4) GOOD (3)

CONTENT The podcast content is The podcast content is

engaging, well-researched, interesting and mostly
and relevant to the target well-researched, with
audience. It demonstrates some minor gaps
a thorough understanding in information or
of the topic and presents clarity. It effectively
insightful perspectives. communicates the
main ideas to the
target audience.
DELIVERY The podcast hosts speak The podcast hosts
clearly, confidently, and speak clearly
effectively engage the and maintain the
audience throughout the audience’s attention for
episode. They demonstrate the most part. There
excellent communication may be occasional
skills and maintain a instances of hesitation
professional demeanor. or lack of energy.
PRODUCTION The podcast is well- The podcast has good
QUALITY produced, with high- production quality
quality audio and video. overall, with clear
It incorporates creative audio and video. Some
elements such as music, creative elements
graphics, and visuals may be lacking or
to enhance the viewing inconsistently used.
experience.
ORGANIZATION The podcast is well- The podcast is mostly
structured and organized, organized, with a clear
with a clear introduction, structure and logical
main content, and progression of ideas.
conclusion. Transitions Some transitions may
between topics are smooth, be slightly abrupt or
and the flow of the episode disjointed.
is easy to follow.

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FAIR (2) NEEDS SCORE

IMPROVEMENT (1) (OUT OF 16)
The podcast content is The podcast content is not
somewhat engaging but engaging or informative. It
lacks depth or originality. lacks coherence and does
It may contain inaccuracies not effectively convey the
or inconsistencies in intended message to the
information. audience.

The podcast hosts speak The podcast hosts speak

in a somewhat unclear unclearly or inconsistently,
or monotone manner, making it difficult for the
occasionally losing the audience to understand.
audience’s attention. Their They lack confidence and
communication could fail to engage the audience
be improved with more effectively.
enthusiasm and confidence.
The podcast has adequate The podcast has poor
production quality but production quality, with
may suffer from occasional frequent technical issues
technical issues or or distractions. Creative
distractions. Creative elements are absent or
elements are minimal or detract from the overall
poorly executed. viewing experience.

The podcast lacks clear The podcast is poorly

organization, making it organized, with no clear
difficult for the audience structure or progression of
to follow the sequence of ideas. It jumps randomly
topics. Transitions between between topics, confusing
ideas are awkward or the audience.
nonexistent.

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But beyond looking at the rubrics specifically, notice some over-

arching observations:

• There is no consistent language in the rubrics.

• There is no distinction between the things students do before
they record the podcast and the things they do as they are
recording the podcast.
• Important pieces of effective oral communication have been
left out.
• They grossly undervalue speaking.

We could claim that this is just a failing of AI and a cautionary

tale about being wary of AI’s results. The truth is that these fairly
represent what you will find if you do your own search. Be critical of
all rubrics. Do they include all the pieces of effective oral communica-
tion? Do they make clear the difference between what you do before
you record and what you do as you record? Do they make it obvious that
how you speak is more important than any other piece of the rubric?
Do they use student-friendly language? Will a student be able to see
areas of strength and weakness? Will the rubric lead a student to
make needed changes on the way to becoming well spoken in digital
formats?
Instead of the previous examples, the rubrics in Chapter 15 could
be used with minor changes. If we consider the speech pieces, we real-
ize that all digital presentations require thinking about the audience;
all require interesting, important content with clarifiers and connec-
tors; all require good organization with great openings, powerful clos-
ings, and signposts. In Chapter 17, we redefined visual aids as Aids,
so we see that the images, artwork, and music can easily fit into the
visual aids box with a tiny modification. Instead of “Visual aids were
relevant; aids clarified important concepts; aids were appropriate for
the audience and the room; well designed,” we could say, “Aids were
relevant; images and music were well chosen; aids were appropriate
for the audience and the medium; well designed.” In some digital for-
mats, the speaker is seen, so appearance often applies. If the speaker
is not seen, we can just put N/A in that box.

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The generic performance rubric might serve the purpose as well.

Even if a speaker is unseen, the audience will hear shuffling and fidg-
eting, shaky voices, and shortness of breath. Voice is doubly impor-
tant with recording devices, especially the inexpensive recording
devices available in schools. Life? It is more critical in digitized forms.
An in-person, live performance always commands more attention
than a small screen. And as the Flying Dutchman taught me, a small
speaker on some device demands more inflection than we might
think. Eye contact and gestures will apply in videos. We can use the
same rubric with an N/A in these categories for audio-only record-
ings. We also must pay attention to speed and pacing with any tech-
nology presentation.
So nothing needs to change. Although that may be the case, let me
suggest some possibilities that could improve the rubrics.
The basic elements of all effective oral communication are still
present in Figures 19.4 and 19.5, as is the crucial distinction between
building and performing. Much of the language is the same as that
used for in-class presentations that do not incorporate digital tools.
The goal is to achieve consistency for students—and to make things
easy for you—so while podcasts, videos, and digital stories are very
different from classroom speaking in some ways, we should not
change our basic approach to evaluating them.
The significant difference is the addition of two new categories in
the building rubric (Figure 19.4), “Technical elements” and “Graphics
and effects.” That’s because the in-class presentation doesn’t involve
scene changes and editing as a video would. It doesn’t require a stu-
dent to pay attention to the duration of each slide as an online slide-
show would. A steady camera with well-chosen angles is not an issue
when speaking in person. These are unique skills that demand a sep-
arate category. These are also new skills that students may not have
unless we specifically teach them. In high schools and perhaps middle
schools, we will have some students who know how to use tools such
as iMovie. In lower grades, students may not know those programs.
And no matter what grade or subject we teach, we must explain
concepts and skills students don’t yet know. Don’t overly penalize a
well-built podcast because students lack advanced technology skills.

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FIGURE 19.4: BUILDING THE PODCAST RUBRIC

BUILDING ADVANCED PROFICIENT

THE PODCAST
RUBRIC
AUDIENCE Speech was perfectly Speech was clearly designed
designed for this specific for this audience and this
audience and this medium; one or two points
medium; key points were or key terms should have
understandable; several been more clearly explained;
clear connections to this two or three attempts to
audience. connect with the audience.
CONTENT All required content was All required content was
included; purpose/message included; purpose/message
was clear; no extraneous was clear; some extraneous
material was included; no material; no verbal viruses.
verbal viruses.
ORGANIZATION Good choice of Good choice of
organizational structure; organizational structure;
opening grabbed the opening grabbed the
listeners/viewers; explicit listeners/viewers; some
and frequent signposts; signposts; powerful closing.
powerful closing.
AIDS Aids were relevant; Aids were relevant; aids
aids clarified important clarified important concepts;
concepts; aids were aids were understandable for
appropriate for the audience most of the audience; aids
and the medium; well worked with this medium;
designed; music and images well designed; music and
were well chosen and added images were well chosen.
to the main message.
APPEARANCE Student looked sharp; Student looked sharp; dress
dress was appropriate was appropriate for the
for the speech; added speech.
something to go above and
beyond expectations.

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BASIC EMERGING

Little evidence that the speech was No evidence that this particular
designed for this audience or this audience or medium was considered;
medium; several key points needed no attempt to explain things for this
explanation; only one attempt to audience; no connectors.
connect.

Most required content was included; Important omissions of required

audience could figure out the purpose/ content; unable to understand
message; unnecessary information was purpose/message of speech; random
presented; verbal viruses were present information in speech; verbal viruses
but not problematic. detracted from speech.
Good choice of organizational Disorganized; ineffective opening; no
structure; ineffective opening; signposts; speech just stopped.
infrequent signposts; ineffective
closing.

Aids were relevant; aids merely No aid or irrelevant aids; sloppy and
repeated what was said; aids were hard to view; music was off-topic and/
appropriate for most of the audience; or distracting; no images or images that
some aids didn’t work with the were off-topic.
medium; decorations and/or sloppiness
diminished aids appearance; some of
the music and/or some of the images
seemed off point.
Student took care to adjust appearance No attempt to change appearance for
before speech. the occasion.

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BUILDING ADVANCED PROFICIENT

THE PODCAST
RUBRIC
TECHNICAL The camera is still, and the Slight camera motion; the
ELEMENTS camera is well focused on camera is occasionally off-
the appropriate subject; subject; occasionally music
music is ducked; edits competes with voices; one
are smooth with no dead or two distracting edits;
space or chopped scenes; voiceovers are well synced;
voiceovers are well synced timing is very good.
with underlying visuals;
timing is perfect: viewers
have the right amount of
time to grasp visuals.
GRAPHICS AND Intro and ending graphics Intro and ending graphics
EFFECTS are engaging and relevant; are engaging and relevant;
title/transition slides title/transition slides are
are clear and add to the clear; some sound effects
presentation; sound effects or visual effects are
and visual effects add to inconsistent with the mood
the mood and content. and message.

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BASIC EMERGING

Camera motion is noticeable; camera Camera motion made it hard to watch;

is occasionally off subject; music often camera is often off-subject and/or out
makes voices hard to hear; a few dead of focus; voices are drowned out by
spaces and/or choppy edits; voiceovers music; choppy editing; voiceovers do
occasionally do not match underlying not match visuals.
visuals; timing is occasionally off: too
much time/too little time on visuals.

Intro and ending graphics are ho-hum Intro and ending graphics are
and do not add to the core content; distracting, off-topic, and/or sloppy; no
some title/transition slides are hard or poorly created title/transition slides;
to read; some sound effects or visual random effects detract from the main
effects are random and off-message. purpose.

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F I G U R E 1 9 . 5 : D I G I TA L S P E E C H P E R F O R M A N C E R U B R I C U S I N G P V L E G S

DIGITAL ADVANCED PROFICIENT

SPEECH
PERFORMANCE
RUBRIC USING
PVLEGS
POISE You appeared calm and You seemed calm and
confident. There were no confident. Only one or
distracting behaviors. two minor things were
noticed, but they were
not distracting to the
listeners/viewers.
VOICE Your voice was just right for Your voice was just right
the media—not too loud or too for the media. A couple
soft. Every word was heard. You of words were mumbled
didn’t mumble or blur words or blurred together. You
together. You didn’t have any didn’t have any strange
strange vocal pattern. vocal patterns.
LIFE You had a lot of feeling in You had some feeling
your voice. We heard emotion, in your voice. There
passion, excitement, sadness, etc. were several parts that
You were fun to watch/listen to. really came alive for
the listener/viewer.
CAMERA You constantly looked at the You mostly looked at
CONTACT camera lens. You treated the the camera. You used
camera as if it were a person. You your script well.
barely glanced at your script.
GESTURES You had very effective hand, face, You had some gestures
and body gestures. Your motions that contributed to
added a lot to your speaking. your speaking.
SPEED You were not too fast or too slow. You were not too
You varied your speed—faster fast or too slow. Your
for exciting parts, slower to add speech had one speed.
emphasis. You used pauses to let You didn’t use pauses.
the main points sink in with the
listeners/viewers.

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BASIC EMERGING

You mostly seemed poised. A couple You seemed wiggly and not at all
of major distracting behaviors poised. You had many distracting
bothered the listeners/viewers. behaviors.

You spoke a bit too softly or too The listeners/viewers had a hard
loudly. Several times, your words time hearing you. Many words
were not clear. You had a bit of a were not understandable because
pattern in your speech. of mumbling. You had a distracting
vocal pattern.

You only had one or two places There was no life in the speech. You
where you seemed to come alive and spoke in a monotone and didn’t put
put feeling into your speech. any emotion into any part of the
speech.

You only occasionally looked at the You never looked at the camera. You
camera. You read from the script read the script to us.
over half of the time.

Only one or two times did we see You had no gestures.

some gestures.

You spoke a little too fast or too slow. You spoke way too fast. There was
no change of pace.

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 Well Spoken

Graphics and effects may be new to many of our students. Remem-

ber that the goal is communication. Make sure your rubric values the
overall communication more than some technological mastery.
In Figures 19.4 and 19.5, I have made only minor language changes
from the traditional rubrics to the digital formats. For example, Vis-
ual aids became Aids, and we added the language, “music and images
were well chosen.” Eye contact, “You constantly looked at your audi-
ence,” became Camera contact, “You constantly looked at the camera
lens.” These are simple changes to reflect the new media.
At some point, you may want to sit down with your teammates and
create a grade-level appropriate rubric using the scale your district
prefers—advanced, proficient, basic, emerging; 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; mastery,
proficient, pre-proficient, minimal—rather than assignment-specific

FIGURE 19.6: ABOUT ME PODCAST RUBRIC

BUIlDIng: “ABoUT Me” AUDIo PoDCAST

Audience 5 points
• You considered who would listen and the device they
would be using.
Content 20 points
• What are you passionate about?
• Why are you passionate about it?
• How does your passion affect your behavior now?
• How might your passion affect your life in the future?
Organization 10 points
• You had a grabber opening.
• You had clear signposts.
• You had a great ending.
Aids 10 points
• Your music added to the message.
Appearance N/A
Technical elements N/A
Graphics and effects N/A

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score sheets. Of course, teachers often want a score, something on a

one-hundred-point scale that will generate a percentage for the grade
book. When you create a score sheet of that sort, organize it appropri-
ately, but don’t feel the need to score all the elements of effective com-
munication every time students present. Select the elements that fit
your assignment, your grade level, and your purpose. But do include
all the elements on your score sheet as a reminder to students.
Again, using the “About Me” podcast from Chapter 17, here is how
rubrics might look for that assignment:

FIGURE 19.7: “ABOUT ME” VIDEO PODCAST RUBRIC

BUIlDIng: “ABoUT Me” VIDeo PoDCAST

Audience 5 points
• You considered who would view it and how they
would view it.
Content 20 points
• What are you passionate about?
• Why are you passionate about it?
• How does your passion affect your behavior now?
• How might your passion affect your life in the future?
Organization 10 points
• You had a grabber opening.
• You had clear signposts.
• You had a great ending.
Aids 10 points
• You chose an excellent picture.
• Your music added to the message.
Appearance N/A
Technical elements 5 points
• Sound levels for voice and music were fine.
• The picture was the appropriate size.
Graphics and effects 5 points
• Slide durations were just right.
• Title slides were interesting.

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Figures 19.6 and 19.7 could be used to score the building part of the
project. A scoring guide such as Figure 19.6 would be appropriate for
lower grades because it doesn’t require technical skill. Ten-year-old
students may not be tech-savvy yet. Figure 19.7 would be appropri-
ate for older grades. It requires some technical expertise. High school
students have had more exposure to digital tools outside of the class-
room, and if we have thoughtfully scaffolded instruction inside our
classrooms through middle and high school, more complex video and
audio creation skills should have been acquired. You may even decide
that technical elements should be more heavily weighted than I have
suggested. Do poor sound and graphics diminish the message by 10
percent? Twenty percent? Thirty percent? Perhaps that should deter-
mine the number of points you assign, but only if your students have
had some specific lessons to develop those talents. Figures 19.8 and
19.9 are evaluation forms for the performance aspect of podcasts.
Figure 19.8 would be appropriate for an audio podcast because
there is no need to score camera contact and gestures. Figure 19.9
adds scores for those two features. Because it is confusing to students
to blur building and performing, I encourage you to make sure your
rubrics are clearly delineated. A sixth grader doing an audio podcast

FIGURE 19.8: “ABOUT ME” AUDIO PODCAST PVL EGS RUBRIC

PeRFoRMIng: “ABoUT Me” AUDIo PoDCAST

Poise 5 points
• You had no evidence of nervousness.
Voice 10 points
• Every word was heard.
• You had good volume levels.
Life 10 points
• You sounded passionate.
Camera contact N/A
Gestures N/A
Speed 10 points
• You didn’t speak too fast.
• You varied the pace for effect.

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FIGURE 19.9: “ABOUT ME” VIDEO PODCAST PVL EGS RUBRIC

PeRFoRMIng: “ABoUT Me” VIDeo PoDCAST

Poise 5 points
• You had no evidence of nervousness.
• There were no distracting behaviors.
Voice 10 points
• Every word was heard.
• You had good volume levels.
Life 10 points
• You sounded passionate.
Camera contact 10 points
• You spoke to the camera.
• Viewers felt you were talking directly to them.
Gestures 10 points
• Your hand gestures were effective for the media.
• Your face was expressive.
• Your body movements added to the message.
Speed 10 points
• You didn’t speak too fast.
• You varied the pace for effect.

should be given Figures 19.6 and 19.8; a high school freshman creating
a video podcast should be given Figures 19.7 and 19.9. With rubrics
and score sheets such as these, students will be able to understand
what it takes to be an effective oral communicator and will be able
to see where their strengths and weaknesses are. “I’m really good at
poise and voice, but I need to work on life” or “My music and images
are great, but I haven’t figured out sound levels yet.”
Consistent. Clear. Simple. Useful. Instructive. Rubrics should be
designed with those qualities in mind. From one assignment to the
next, from one classroom to the next, and from in-person to digital,
we need to make it easy for students to understand how to become
well spoken.

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CHAPTER 20:

Digital Speaking
Activities Across the
Curriculum

W e don’t have to master all the oral communication tools

to use them effectively. For example, we don’t need to
be a whiz with Apple’s GarageBand software; we only
need to understand enough to make it work for our purposes. Tap
into some expertise close at hand—our students. The odds are excel-
lent that a student in our class, even in the lower elementary grades,
can assist with the digital tools I mention in this chapter and prob-
ably suggest many others that will serve the purpose. In addition,
we don’t need to teach students to master these tools either. Did we
teach them how to use Instagram? Did we teach them how to play
Super Mario Bros Wonder?
Introduce the site or the tool and let them go. Explain the basics,
but if a student asks, “Can I add a sound effect track and duck a music
track behind the video I want to embed? I know how to do it,” nod yes
and enjoy the show.
Caution: students can get lost playing with all the fun special effects
that most applications provide. Google Meet has filters that add cos-
tumes, avatars, odd backgrounds, and more. Mac’s Photo Booth has
effects such as Comic Book, Pop Art, and Fish Eye. Padlet will let you
add your own drawings, search Padlet’s site for drawings, add GIFS,
and search YouTube. These are all ways to take students off-task.
Without clear instructions or warnings, students will spend hours

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messing around with all the fun possibilities and forget the point of
the project. “Hey, I just made an alien face for you,” and “Look, you
are up in the sky,” end up replacing the point of the instruction.
With that introduction, I pick up the numbering system from
Chapter 16.

17. DIGITAL STORYTELLING (LIFE, CONTENT, ORGANIZATION)

4TH–12TH
Many more opportunities for oral expression exist because of free
online tools and audio and video recording features built into so
many devices. While it is always dangerous to list Web sites—by
the time you get to print, the site is gone, has added a fee, or has
been outdone by a newer site—I will mention a couple that offer
interesting and engaging options. Personal stories, book talks, crea-
tive writing assignments, third-person retelling, and more can all be
done with images and voice recording. At Animoto (www.animoto.com),
pictures and video clips can be uploaded, and sound can be added.
Voki (www.voki.com) allows students to create an avatar and add a
voice to it. Their recorded words are spoken by an amusing cartoon
animal or human. The link to the video can be sent to the teacher
or, of course, a much broader audience. With laptops, cell phones,
and tablets, students can make videos and instantly upload them to
a class Web page, Schoology, or other appropriate places. In addition
to offering a speaking opportunity beyond getting up in front of the
class, the excitement of speaking in front of a potentially large audi-
ence—anyone with access to the site—and the excitement of having
immortality—the in-class speech lasts three minutes, but the posted
video lasts forever—can motivate many students to become more
verbal. The traditional “What I Did This Summer” essay can become
an online slideshow or video with student narration. Follow your
school’s or district’s policies about online safety.

18. ONLINE DISCUSSIONS (CONTENT, LIFE, AUDIENCE)

2ND–12TH GRADES
Certainly, class discussions will improve with improved speaking
skills. Those discussions can move beyond the classroom and into the
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online world with free tools in the “cloud.” Padlet (https://padlet.com)

is a tool that lets a teacher create a virtual bulletin board. Students
can put “sticky notes” on the board to respond to the prompt posted
by the teacher. Sticky notes can contain text, hyperlinks, images,
and, significantly for our purposes, audio and video recordings. Stu-
dents can see all of the sticky notes on the board and can respond to
classmates to continue the discussion. For example, a teacher could
upload an image of an oil-covered bird and start a discussion about
offshore drilling. Students could be given an assignment to access the
Padlet bulletin board, make a comment about the image, and respond
specifically to the comments of at least two classmates. Students who
are quiet in class often blossom when given a chance to speak in this
arena. Milan was in my class for one year. He never said a word in
any class discussion, and I feared that he was a lost soul not getting
much out of class. But when I opened up the option of commenting
via digital tool, he came alive. He left brilliant comments indicating
that he wasn’t missing a thing. Milan just didn’t have anything to say
at the spur of the moment during Period 6. He didn’t talk between
1:42 p.m. and 2:27 p.m., but at 11 p.m., he was brilliant. Unlike a class
discussion, the comment can be practiced, and the comment can be
deleted if a mistake is made. Students will quickly realize that a good
point becomes a great point if it’s passionately spoken.

19. PODCASTING (LIFE) 5TH–12TH GRADES

Many students have devices with built-in podcast creation tools.
Apple computers and tablets come with a software program called
GarageBand, which makes it extremely easy to produce a broad-
cast with voice and pictures that can be sent via e-mail or down-
loaded. As I said, you don’t have to teach GarageBand—many of
your students are already masters. A web search will find ways for
students to use their cell phones to make podcasts. If your school
allows cell phones, it is an enormously engaging assignment: “I get to
use my cell phone in class?!” At Vocaroo’s Web site (www.vocaroo.com),
students can make a voice recording with any computer that has
a built-in or attached microphone. These recordings can also be
e-mailed or embedded in a Web page. Using these online recording

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sites offers great lessons in inflection. Students are stunned to see

how a disembodied voice sounds, and they quickly erase their first
recording and try again until the life comes through. As a bonus, the
final products can replace traditional assignments that have gotten
stale. Write another chapter summary and hand it in? No, turn in
an audio podcast that will be posted for everyone to listen to. Sum-
maries will be much improved knowing the audience isn’t just you.

20. PRESENTATION ROUGH DRAFTS (ALL) 3RD–12TH GRADES

Before every big writing assignment, I asked students to write a
rough draft. I could give feedback and offer students an opportunity
to make the final paper better. Use digital tools to get a rough draft
of upcoming talks. No, I am not talking about the written speech I
referred to in Chapter 7. We’re past that point. Ask them to record a
piece of the talk. Create a Google Voice account. Require students to
call, wait for the beep, and leave a 30-second message. The message
content can vary: “give me your grabber opening”; “share the part
that has the most life”; “tell me three connectors you will include”;
and so on. I love Google Voice because it has voice-to-text: each call
has a transcript, so you can scan the responses rather than listen
to many messages. Scan to see if students have the idea of grabber
openings or connectors. Listen to a few and find and share exem-
plars with the class. Of course, other recording tools can serve this
purpose, too. If students say, “Can I use ______ to send you my rough
draft?” say, “Absolutely. As long as I don’t have to teach you how to
use the tool.” Before readers theater, 28th amendment project, poetry
café, science fair, DECA contest, or any other important assignment,
listen to the rough draft.

21. INTERVIEW SIMULATIONS (AUDIENCE, CONTENT, EYE

CONTACT) 9TH–12TH GRADES
Digital tools give us a chance to practice and see ourselves as others
see us. I had a chance to work with some students at a high school
near my home. They were involved in the Advancement via Individual
Determination (AVID) program, which is designed to help students

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in the mid-level performance range prepare for and succeed in col-

lege. These high school seniors were about to be interviewed for a
Daniels Fund scholarship, which offers a four-year grant for college.
For many of the applicants, the scholarship would be the difference
between being able to afford college or not, and successfully analyz-
ing the audience—in this case, a panel of judges from the Daniels
Fund organization—would be critical to their success. After I spoke
to the AVID students as a group, I recorded their mock interviews
and showed them to the students. Then, we provided feedback as
a group about the interviews. The feedback session gave everyone
in the class a chance to reinforce good speaking skills. Interviews
involve elements of building a speech (especially audience, content,
and appearance) and all the elements of performing a speech. Stu-
dents can thoughtfully review the practice interviews at home and
think about how they could improve before the real interview with
the scholarship board and all future interviews in their lives.

22. DEMONSTRATION SPEECHES PART II (GESTURES, VOICE,

SPEED) 4TH–10TH GRADES
One of the great advantages of the digital era is the ease with which
videos can be created and shared. Many lessons are much easier
to learn by watching. In a TED talk, speaker Terry Moore gives an
amusing short presentation about a seemingly simple topic: tying
a shoe (Moore 2005). Find the video online. It turns out most of us
tie our shoes incorrectly. Describing the shoe-tying error in print
would be quite difficult to convey, yet a video explanation is both
efficient and effective. I don’t believe I could have grasped my shoe-
tying mistake in fewer than three minutes with a text explanation.
Moore’s simple video can be used to show effective building elements,
such as an effective opening, connecting with this particular audi-
ence, and an effective closing. His video can be used to demonstrate
effective performing elements, such as an engaging amount of life
in his voice and simple yet effective gestures. But, his video should
also be used as an example of how video improves instruction. I
encourage you to increase your use of video and let students create
video in situations such as these.

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 Well Spoken

For example, we can use video for gesture instruction. When we

think of gestures, we typically think of hand movements. I want stu-
dents to know about and use both descriptive and emphatic hand ges-
tures in their digital video recordings. How can we give students a
lesson about the distinction? I could try to describe in writing how to
make descriptive hand gestures, and students might get the idea from
reading the words on a piece of paper, but actually seeing the gestures
themselves would make it so much easier for them to understand the
concept. Video examples created by the teacher or some talented stu-
dents can be used for this lesson.

23. BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT VIDEOS (AUDIENCE, CONTENT,

PVLEGS) K-12TH GRADES
Why not have students speak at Back to School Night? Rather than
telling parents about class procedures, schedules, expectations, and
materials, record students explaining all those things. Students are
inspired realizing that the videos have a real purpose. Show them to
parents at Back to School Night and to new students who arrive in
the middle of the school year. Record students, playback for the class,
and discuss. What would the parents be interested in knowing? What
are the most important things to tell them in the time provided? How
were the performances? Poised? Full of Life? Rerecord if necessary.

24. SCHOOL CONFERENCE (AUDIENCE, CONTENT)

K-10TH GRADES
I loved having students at parent conferences. I didn’t like talking
about them behind their backs. That is not an option for every teacher,
so use a digital tool. Open parent conferences with a video of the
student. Before the conference, ask each student to record answers
to prompts such as:

• One thing I am doing really well is . . .

• One thing I would like to improve on is . . .
• My academic goal for the next quarter is . . .
• My personal goal for the next semester is . . .

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Logistics are always an issue, of course. Recording every stu-

dent? Maybe students can take turns with one classroom laptop, or
if a computer lab is available, they can record their conference vid-
eos at the same time. Perhaps a class set of Chromebooks is available.
Allow them to use whatever tool they have: “Go home and use your
cell phone to complete this assignment.” Stress the importance of
reviewing the video before saving it. If they notice some distracting
behavior, they can delete and rerecord their videos. Mom and Dad
will be watching.

25. TUTORIALS FOR OTHER CLASSES (AUDIENCE,

CONTENT, AIDS) 7TH–12TH GRADES
How often do you go online to learn how to do something? When I
had to replace the broiler element in my stove, I went to YouTube
and found a video showing me how to do it. Use that thinking in your
classroom. For example, remember high school biology and having
to do a dissection? My class started with a worm. The teacher gave
us a fairly thick handout with text and some drawings describing
where to cut and what to look for. No matter how good the drawings
were, they never seemed to quite match what I was seeing. In an era
of easily accessible video, such handouts are unnecessary. Ask stu-
dents to create video tutorials for worm dissection, frog dissection,
sea cucumber dissection, heart dissection, or whatever animal or
part thereof you will be examining. Let them use a camera to record
an actual dissection and describe the procedure.
I recommend asking students to write the script before recording
and after your lessons on organization and clarifiers. Otherwise, you
may get comments such as, “You forgot to say that you should pin this
back first” and “What’s a teasing needle?” As always, emphasize the
need for life in the voice. Yes, these are just step-by-step directions,
but we still need some enthusiasm to break monotony. For example:
“What you see here is the valve. The heart valve has a remarkable
texture.” As a side benefit, students who miss the dissection class or
who would like to revisit the learning can see the embedded video if
you post it on a wiki or web page.

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26. FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (LIFE)

7TH–12TH GRADES
Use VoiceThread or Padlet to give English language learners a chance
to practice speaking in a nonintimidating environment and collaborate
with other emerging language speakers. Have students complete a
series of progressively challenging tasks. On early slides, for exam-
ple, students can simply record themselves naming an object. On
later slides, students can record a sentence about the slide. Padlet
is especially helpful for this practice because students can listen to
each other’s comments and notice pronunciation. Because language
learners are often quite shy about speaking in a new language, talk
about the importance of voice and making sure every word is heard.
Point out that adding life helps learning. “Lo siento mucho,” said
with feeling, makes “I’m very sorry” stick.

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Afterword

A lmost twenty years ago, the comedian Don Novello took the
stage as Guido Sarducci, an Italian monk. In one routine,
Guido talks about the “Five-Minute University” he created.
The idea was simple: Classes are only five minutes long because, in five
minutes, you can learn what the average college graduate remembers
five years after leaving campus. Spanish class teaches you “¿Cómo
está usted?” and “Muy bien,” which is all anyone remembers five
years later. “Economics? Supply and demand. That’s it. Business?
Business is you buy something, and you sell it for more.”
It’s a funny routine, and I encourage you to look it up on YouTube.
The routine is still timely. But I also find the premise disturbing. I saw
the routine for the first time when I was still teaching science and had
just finished a unit on cells. I suddenly wondered how long the stu-
dents would remember “Golgi bodies.” I also had to wonder about the
lasting value of other subjects I taught. As teachers, we don’t know
the long-term impact of our efforts, but I have never doubted the
importance of teaching speaking skills.
My last teaching assignment was at a middle school that shared a
campus with a high school. Let me tell you about a conversation that I
had with Martin and Michelle, two of my former students.

MARTIN: Mr. Palmer! We had to give speeches in ninth-grade

English.

MICHELLE:
Yeah, you could tell the kids who had you. Our
speeches were so much better.

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 Well Spoken

MARTIN: I know. It was so much easier! I really did well. Do you

still make students do the Supreme Court speech?

MICHELLE: I was so scared at that! Now, it seems really easy. Do

you still do traveling debates?

MARTIN: I loved traveling debates. Do you remember the time . . .

We get caught up in the day-to-day challenges of teaching and sel-

dom have time for reflection. I know that. But pause a minute right
now and think about the future. What will be essential to your stu-
dents’ success? What skills will be called upon most often? Creativ-
ity? Reading? Collaboration? Perseverance? Writing? Haiku? We
could endlessly debate the most essential skills, but I am confident
that oral communication belongs at or near the top of that list.
Now think about your life. In school, for almost all of us, verbal
communication is the main way we teach those other valuable skills.
But what about outside of school? Would you have liked more instruc-
tion in speaking when you were in school? Would you have benefited
from the ideas contained in this book? I encourage you, then, to give
your students a lifelong benefit by teaching speaking.

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APPENDIX:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

O ver the years, teachers have posed many questions about

how to teach public speaking, so let me answer some that
come up frequently. If you have other questions or concerns,
feel free to contact me through my Web site, www.PVLEGS.com.

What About the Student Who Is Shy? What About the Introverts?
We discussed the fact that many people fear speaking. For some
students, that fear is more intense than it is for others. You prob-
ably have one or two students in each class who are painfully shy.
They come up to you and say, “I don’t think I can do this,” in a
tiny voice. You reply, “Oh, well. Your presentation is on November
5.” Okay, maybe not quite as blunt as that. The reality is that you
have students who hate math, poetry, or writing. If they come
up to you and say, “This is hard for me, and I hate it,” do you
excuse them from the assignment or the unit? No, you work them
through the fear: “I believe in you. I know this is tough for you,
but you can do it. This is really important. I want you to get over
the fear now so you can succeed when it really counts in life. It
will be tough, but you can do this.” In twenty years in the class-
room, I recall one student who was especially terrified. Even so,
she got up and went to the front of the room. The speech was
a disaster, full of terrible distractions and strange noises—not
just “um” and “uh” but odd exhaling sounds as well. She was a
basket case. But she did it. I almost got tears in my eyes when
the class scored her. They knew how hard this was for her, and
they adjusted their scores. I did get tears in my eyes when she

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came up to me, absolutely beaming, and said, “I did it! I did it!”
Always give students a chance to succeed.

What Do You Do Differently for Students With Disabilities?

You modify as appropriate. Shorten the time limit. Modify the content
required. Modify the grading. I remember Jeremy. One of his com-
munication challenges was a very slow speaking pace. He labored to
get words out. The average speaker says 150 words a minute. Jeremy
might say twenty-five. I still wanted him to have the experience of
public speaking. It turned out to be another time the class proved
to me how good they were at evaluating speeches. Without telling
the class to modify their scoring, they did. For “speed,” Jeremy got
what I guess I should call a “Jeremy five” from the students because
they understood Jeremy and knew he did his best and had worked
hard to get the words out.

How Do You Differentiate?

Let me point out that giving a speaking assignment is differentiation.
You have students who hate speaking. You also have students who
love speaking and hate writing. Differentiation is tailoring instruc-
tion to meet individual needs, interests, and talents. Let’s accom-
modate those students with verbal talent, too. For them, the chance
to showcase their strengths motivates them to write well for the
first time. I don’t differentiate by offering alternative assignments.
I don’t say to one student, “You are artistic, so instead of giving a
speech, turn in a portfolio of drawings.” When the student applies
for a job as a graphic designer at some point in the future, he will
have to speak well at the interview. I do differentiate in working with
introverts, special needs students, and English language learners. I
let students have a digital voice first. Instead of giving a four-minute,
in-person, in front of the class book report in October, I will let
them submit a digital talk and play the recording. They can record,
rerecord, rerecord, and rerecord in the comfort of their home. By
midyear, they will have to introduce their recording (a small live
presentation), and by year’s end, they will be in front of the class
without a recording.

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 A P P E N D I X : F R E Q U E N T LY A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S

Students in My School Are Struggling Just to Survive. Is This

Relevant to Them?
The Colorado state assessment test included a question about ono-
matopoeia when I wrote this book. Is that relevant? As a teacher, I
often had the thought that some students had more important things
to think about than my particular lesson. When your mother is in the
last stages of cancer, how important is that lesson on gerunds? But I
always know that no matter what happens in a life, that life will be
better in some way by mastering oral communication skills. I can’t
take away from any student the opportunity to communicate better.
This is true student voice. For some, it may be their best chance at
improving their lives.

Do You Let Students Go Out of the Room to Get Ready?

For big presentations, the standard rule in my class was that students
could leave the room during the speech that preceded theirs. Some
wanted to rehearse mentally one more time. Some wanted to change
clothes. Some wanted a drink of water. Some wanted to do some of
the calming exercises. I recommend letting students spend the five
minutes before showtime outside the classroom door unless it is a
student you absolutely cannot trust.

Shouldn’t We Focus on the State-Mandated Test Since That

Is What Determines Our School Score?
Of course, we must pay attention to the test. That is the current real-
ity. But most of what is involved in speaking activities contributes
to your test preparation. Creating content, organizing content, pre-
writing, outlining, condensing a large text into notes, research—all
of these are great preparation for tests and everything else. The key
is presenting these skills in a fresh way. There are only so many
times you can write a ten-minute, timed essay or read a paragraph
and write a summary. Students who are nonwriters end up writing
if you give them a new goal. Students who are tired of writing for no
purpose become inspired when the writing is for a real audience. My
students did as well or better on the district assessments as students
in classes where speaking skills were not emphasized. As an aside,

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though, I never had one student thank me for moving him or her
from “proficient low” to “proficient” on the state assessment, but I
have had many, many students come back to my room years later to
thank me for improving their oral communication.

Doesn’t Mimicking a Student Hurt Her Self-Esteem?

Recall that I get up right after the students when we are talking
about poise and I mimic their actions. If they tugged at the shirt, I
tug at the shirt, and the class laughs. If they twirl hair, I twirl my
(imaginary) hair, and we have fun with that. I have never once in
more than twenty years had a problem. First, students of all ages
like to play. Second, I prequalified my volunteers: “Don’t volunteer if
you can’t laugh at yourself. We all do dumb things, and we will have
fun with the dumb things you do.” I have found that using actual
student examples is very effective in teaching, and exaggerating those
examples has been a powerful way to drive home the lesson.

How Do Students React When They Get Low Grades From

the Class?
No one likes to do poorly. How do your students react when they fin-
ish last at the track meet and their friends are watching? How do they
react when some kids go off to calculus, and they are in math basics?
How do they react when they are put on the B team instead of the A
team at your school? I hope they react like they care. Of course, they
are disappointed. But they are also aware. They know that DeVaughn’s
speech was better than Mark’s, just as they know Mark was faster
than DeVaughn in the race. They realize there is room for improve-
ment. They can handle this. Very rarely, a student is sure the class
was wrong and that they were cheated. They know they were a five in
eye contact! Similar reactions happen sometimes when teachers hand
back essays. The student who “knows” the paper deserves more than
a C? With those students, the teacher should have an individual chat.

Do Students Retain the Skills?

I think that question comes up because when students leave the
classroom, they fall back into old habits. If you watch students in the
lunchroom half an hour after they’ve done their presentations, you

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hear the verbal viruses, and if you see them answering a question
in math class, they are slouched in their seats and speaking the way
they always did. This is partly because habits are hard to break and
partly because the students understand the audience. They should be
different in the lunchroom. When it counts, they use the information.
When I taught in a middle school located right next to a high
school, I always had students come back to visit, and often, they told
stories about having to give a speech in Mrs. English’s class or Mr.
History’s class and how easy it was for them. “Do you still do the big
28th Amendment speech? That was so hard! But tell the students it
will be really useful in Mr. Garcia’s A.P. History class.” A parent of
a former student who attended one of my workshops reported to me
that her daughter Paige told her, “My teacher would never have made
it in Mr. Palmer’s class. His voice has no life, and he is so unpoised.”
Could my students recite all eleven elements of public speaking sev-
eral years later? Probably not, though many will recall the PVLEGS
poster I put up in the classroom (poise, voice, life, eye contact, ges-
tures, speed). As a certainty, they remember the experience.

Isn’t This Too Much to Think About? How Can a Student

Remember All of These Things?
If by “all of these things,” the question refers to the six parts of
performing a speech, I agree it is difficult. (The students don’t have
to remember the parts of building a speech—they have the informa-
tion in front of them as they build the speech.) While performing,
though, the student has to think about poise and voice and life and
eye contact and gestures and speed all at the same time. Most often,
they are quite successful with one or two of those skills, but the rest
are weak. You can tell as they deliver the speeches that one student
worked very hard on poise and eye contact, and another worked
hard on poise and gestures. Well done! They’ve each mastered two
so far. In the next speech, they can add one or two more. No one
becomes a master speaker easily.
Remember also that sometimes you focus on only one skill: “In
today’s discussion, I want you to think about being poised. Next
week, we will concentrate on life in your voices.”

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Speaking Seems Like an Old Skill, Doesn’t It? Shouldn’t We

Be Focusing on Preparing Students for AI, Coding, and Other
Tech Skills?
First, remember what I said in Chapter 1, that Silicon Valley employers
want better oral communication skills. It does not get more techy than
Silicon Valley, but they want more than techy people. Yes, information
literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving are on the list of valued
skills employers seek, but oral communication is more important than it
ever was. This is an age in which corporations put their annual reports
on podcasts instead of paper; business associates have video confer-
ences with affiliates in Dubai and Singapore; every device presents our
speaking selves via Zoom, WebEx, Skype, and FaceTime. Your speaking
skills are on display more now than they have ever been in schools,
digital storytelling, podcasts, e-portfolios, video, and more all demand
effective oral communication. Once students leave school, they’ll see that
the world does business using the number one language art, speaking.

I Am Not a Master Speaker. I’m Not Comfortable in Front

of Crowds Myself. How Can I Demonstrate All the Skills
Mentioned?
Very few people are masterful speakers, just as very few people are
great novelists. When I taught a lesson about metaphors, I was sure
someone else could have come up with better metaphors than the ones
I came up with. I don’t have the writing talent of David Sedaris, but I
think students still understand how and why we use metaphors. I didn’t
feel that I had to be a master writer to teach writing, and similarly, I
don’t think that I have to be a fantastic public speaker to give students
instruction on speaking. You may not have the drama in your voice
when you are demonstrating life that I have after decades of practice,
but students will still enjoy the lesson and understand the concept.
Acknowledging that you, too, are scared in front of groups is a good way
of connecting with students and making their feelings of anxiety okay.

Speaking Skills Are Not Part of My Subject Matter. Why Should

a (Science, Math, Health . . .) Teacher be Involved?
Do students ever talk in your classroom? Do you ever have students
present information in front of the class? Do you ever have class

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discussions? Will your students ever leave school and compete in the
global marketplace? Then, speaking skills are part of your teaching
responsibility.

I Feel That When Students Are Presenting, There Is Less

Class Interest. Don’t You Think I Should Avoid Situations
Like That in My Classroom?
I assume that you are better at maintaining interest than many mem-
bers of the class. But when the student is in front of the interview
committee, you won’t be there to be more interesting for them. The
class does not fall apart when students present. Often, students enjoy
the break from seeing us all the time, and they definitely enjoy see-
ing peers perform. Some presentations will be weak, and attention
will wander. That happens during the speaking activities you have
now, doesn’t it? It will happen less after teaching speaking skills.
But yes, there is a small price to pay while imparting speaking skills
to your students.

I Don’t Think Parents Care About Speaking Skills. Parents

Always Ask About Math and Reading Levels, But No One Asks
About Speaking Levels, Do They?
Parents are aware of the standardized tests in the same way that
teachers are. They know the newspaper will report scores for read-
ing, writing, and math. When the National Assessment of Educa-
tional Progress (NAEP) test results come out, American students
are compared to students in other countries in the areas of math
and reading. Sometimes, we see a report that compares our students
to students in other countries in geography and science. I agree
that in schools and in the world of testing, speaking skills have been
off the radar (but that is changing!), and parents don’t ask about
them. Once you start teaching speaking, though, you will get many
comments from parents who are thrilled with the inclusion of such
an important life skill. Parents who come in to see presentations
are excited to see their children speaking well. At conferences, you
will get many kudos for emphasizing communication skills because
while parents are aware of standardized tests, they are also very
aware of life skills.

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Do You Let Students Practice During Class Time?

Occasionally. Sometimes, students present as a team. I had students
do newscasts; I had students work together in groups proposing
new amendments to the Constitution. In situations such as these,
it is natural for the team to want to see in advance the performance
of a teammate. The team can provide excellent feedback to prepare
an individual for her presentation. For individual speeches, I often
paired students together and sent them out to practice. The hallway
was filled with pairs of students—one earnestly but quietly orating,
the other critiquing.

I am Afraid to Make Students Feel Uncomfortable. Don’t Stu-

dents Feel Uncomfortable Speaking in Front of the Class?
For some reason, we care about comfort when we discuss speaking.
No student is comfortable sitting still for three hours and coloring
circles on a standardized test. Many students are uncomfortable
doing timed writing, others hate trying to draw a self-portrait in
art class, and some say they aren’t good at math. It is definitely not
comfortable to be stuck inside at a desk on a beautiful fall day. We
have students do those things anyway. No one grows by doing only
those things they find comfortable. All of teaching is about stretch-
ing students past their comfort levels. No more deference should be
paid to the discomfort of speaking than we pay to the discomfort
of other subject matter. And remember, the discomfort goes away
with experience.
How Do I Use Such a Complex Rubric for a Speaking Activity?
Remember when I referred to the multiple-trait writing rubric? I
had a writing rubric that had a category for content, word choice,
voice, organization, sentence structure, and writing mechanics.
(The writing mechanics category included punctuation, capitali-
zation, and paragraphing, which seem like disparate items to me,
so I might have preferred an even more complex rubric.) Giving
six grades is certainly less convenient than giving one grade, but
it is necessary.
Now, it seems we have to make an eleven-trait speaking rubric,
right? It may seem unwieldy, but you need to make it, nonetheless.

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You don’t need to use the entire rubric each time. Did I grade every
writing assignment with the six-trait rubric? No. I had focus points.
I might say, “Today, as you respond to this prompt, focus on sentence
structure. I will not be looking for word choice or spelling.” Or I
might say, “This time, make sure you add details to your writing, and
let’s concentrate on content.” I only pulled out the entire rubric for
the research paper.
Similarly, you should focus on particular skills for most class
speaking assignments. In the current events discussion, grade con-
tent and poise one week, and grade content and voice the next week.
For the book report, tell students they will be graded on content,
organization, poise, and life. Bring out the entire rubric for the one
major speaking assignment of the year.
I believe you will find it easier than you think to score PVLEGS
as the students speak. You will become adept at recognizing the ele-
ments, and marking 4, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3 doesn’t take much time. It is harder
to listen to all the elements of building a speech as the words are fly-
ing by. Did she include all of the requirements? Were there significant
signposts? How many connectors were there? A solution may be to
have the script in front of you. You required that the student write it,
and you insisted that it can’t be used during the speech, so collect it
and refer to it to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

A Major Speech Assignment Takes a Lot of Time. Thirty Stu-

dents Times Five Minutes a Speech? What Teacher Can Afford
That Time Commitment?
It is worse than you think. Five minutes of talking time, plus the two
minutes it takes for the class to score the speech, plus three minutes for
one student to sit down and the next to get ready. So, thirty students
times ten minutes a speech is more realistic. Three hundred minutes.
Five hours. An entire week of language arts class, social studies class,
or health class is out the window. Many teachers already give up time
for student presentations, of course, and for them, only a little extra
time is involved for student scoring. Still, it is undeniable that speaking
activities take time. You could cover a lot of material with those five
hours if you lectured instead. You could hand out a lot of test prepara-
tion worksheets. There are a couple of ways to address this question.

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First, let me reiterate the goal here: to prepare students for life.
Aren’t speaking skills worth one week of the thirty-six or so weeks in
the school year? Second, the time is not wasted. Students listening to
presentations are learning about the planets, environmental issues,
biomes, or Supreme Court cases from the speeches. It is not as if there
is no content being presented. Students presenting are probably get-
ting a deeper understanding of their topic than they would get from
reading the textbook. There is still subject matter learning going on,
in addition to the valuable practice for a life of oral communication.
Finally, teachers are pack rats. I had this demonstrated by Mary, a
teammate who retired. When she retired, she put out all of the mate-
rials she would no longer be using and offered them to all of us for
use in our classes. It was an amazing pile of stuff. She had workbooks
with handouts that had to be run on a mimeograph machine. Most
of the readers of this book probably don’t know what a mimeograph
machine is. She had materials three decades old. Mary is not unique.
Many teachers have all kinds of old items that they are reluctant to
throw away.
What does this have to do with the time issue? Most teachers have
pack rat tendencies in their curriculum, too. I got tired of people com-
ing to workshops and saying, “I know you have a lot on your plates,
but here is the new thing you should teach.” What they should have
said is, “Some of the stuff on your plate has to be scraped off and dis-
carded.” I guarantee you that you have some old unit you have been
teaching for years that can go away. (If you are new to the profession,
you were probably given some things to teach that have always been
taught in the school.)
When I moved to civics from English, I was told that they always
taught about the Articles of Confederation for two weeks before they
taught about the Constitution. How often have the Articles of Con-
federation come up in your life so far? If they ever come up, do a web
search to find them. I never taught the Articles of Confederation. I
had two extra weeks to play with, and not one person ever came to me
upset about my decision. You have something that can go. It hurts to
say that, but it’s true. Something can be cut to make room for some-
thing new, more important, and more relevant.

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