Organizing the Speech

Like anything designed to be experienced sequentially, speeches need to have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction must get listeners' attention, provide background, preview the information to come, and deliver a clear focus/thesis.

The strategies on this page can help students start strong, getting listeners' attention. Students probably have heard, "It's good to start a speech with a joke" or ". . . with an anecdote" and so on. Help them understand the purpose of these strategies: to hook listeners' attention. The only way students can successfully communicate is to get people to redirect their attention from a thousand distractions and focus for a few minutes on what the speaker is saying.

Have students experiment with different opening strategies as they write the introductions for their speeches. The model speech on pages 458–460 shows how one student opened with a set of scenarios.

Rehearsing and Delivering the Speech

Though students may have written out their speeches word-for-word, they often will not deliver them that way. Simply reading a speech from a page can be deadly. The speaker spends the whole time looking down rather than connecting with the audience. And rote delivery with flat tone convinces the listener that even the speaker is not interested in what is being said.

As TED talks demonstrate, fully memorized speeches with no note cards are the most engaging, but most students will have neither the time nor the confidence to go this route. This page helps them find a happy medium, somewhere between full memorization and rote recitation.

A list or outline provides that middle ground. It captures the opening and closing lines, thesis, main points, and details, but requires the speaker to paraphrase those ideas. A list or outline gives a student structure while letting the person speak naturally. It provides a safety net instead of a cage.

Lead students through their options, and then have them prepare their speeches for presentation.

Using Visual Aids

Visual aids need to be visual. The perennial failure of PowerPoint presentations is presenting information mostly through words. Though a slide can highlight key details, it should do so in a visual, memorable way.

The two slides on this page help the speaker wrap up the speech. They summarize the benefits and drawbacks of "offshoring" using text, but the main feature is an image that connects emotionally with the audience.

Help students develop slides for their presentations. Students should especially consider graphs or diagrams that demonstrate their points. Industrious students could also incorporate props, making their points all the more real. Encourage students to show their audiences what they mean instead of simply telling them about it.

Model Speech (Cont.)

On this page of the model speech, show how the speaker uses different types of details for different purposes. The statistics ground the topic in reality, helping listeners quantify the ideas. The anecdotes help the audience make an emotional connection to the topic, feeling that they are experiencing it firsthand.

Conducting Interviews

This page will be most fruitful if students actually must interview someone, whether for a formal assignment (speech or essay) or as a role-playing exercise. Present this information to help students prepare for their interviews.

Stress to students that a successful interview begins long before the parties meet. Preparation is key.

Lead students through the steps of preparing for an interview. Focus especially on the quality of questions, avoiding those that require just a "yes" or "no" response. Use the minilesson to help students develop better questions for their interviews.