Learn about public speaking

Step 1: Students sit in a circle. One student can volunteer to start.

Step 2: The first student starts with a single word. Going clockwise around the circle, the next student says another word to add onto the story.

For example: "There", "once", "was", "a", "spider", "monkey", "who"...

Step 3: Encourage students to say the first thing that jumps into their heads, so long as it suits the story and is appropriate. Continue playing until the students feel the story has reached its conclusion and 2 students say "the" and "end".

Challenge: each student says a sentence instead of a word when it is their turn!

Step 1: Students brainstorm a number of random, uninteresting items (e.g. a spoon, the garden hose, the ceiling fan). 

Step 2: Select an object from the list. Students then have a 30 second brainstorm, thinking about why this item is actually SO amazing! 

Step 3: A volunteer can then stand up and tell the class why this item is the most amazing item ever invented! Encourage students to use their voice (emphasis) and body language to make it seem like the most exciting thing in the universe. 

Step 4: Repeat the task with another object from the list.

Step 1: Students will take turns collecting a card with a fictional person and public speaking scenario on it.

Some example characters and scenarios:

• • news reporter – reporting on the birth of new animals at the local zoo

  • teacher – teaching shapes to Kindergarten students

  • a new and unknown actor – winning an Academy Award

  • a Prime Minister – giving a press conference about the upcoming election

  • CEO or businessperson – presenting an exciting new product to their stakeholders or business team

  • spruiker at a fair – encouraging people to come and try the food at their stall

  • a used items salesperson – trying to sell an item that doesn’t work anymore to someone over the phone

  • Olympic medallist – giving a press interview right after winning a gold medal

  • a famous YouTuber – reviewing a new product

  • Australian of the Year – acceptance speech at the awards ceremony.

Step 2: The student has 30 seconds of thinking time to mentally prepare for their performance.

Step 3: Student stands in front of the group and speaks as if they are the fictional character in that scenario.

Note: make sure you don't give it away too easily! For example, you can't say “That’s why I, as a famous actor, am so excited to receive this Academy Award today!” However, you could say “I am just so surprised that I’ve won this prestigious award today for my work in High School Musical 7. What an honour!”.

Step 4: Students have a few turns at guessing the character and the scenario. The performer then reveals the correct answer.

Step 5: Repeat the game until all players have had a turn.

The aim of the game is to be the person speaking when the buzzer goes off (as a class, choose your time goal – it could be 3 minutes, 5 minutes or 10 minutes).

Step 1: The teacher or the group selects a stimulus topic (e.g. creativity, technology, education).

Step 2: The first student stands in front of the group and begins to speak about the topic.

Step 3: If the speaker repeats themselves, says "um" "ah" or "like, or talks about something not related to the topic they can be ‘challenged’ by another student. To challenge, the student should raise their hand and the stopwatch stops momentarily.

Step 4: The challenger must explain their objection in a factual, respectful manner. If the teacher agrees the challenge is correct, that student takes over as speaker and the stopwatch restarts. This continues until the buzzer or timer goes off.

Step 5: Repeat the game with a different topic and a different starting speaker until everyone has had a turn at speaking.

Occasionally, a distraction will occur when you are speaking in a competition. The bell might ring, other students might be whispering loudly or someone in the audience moves around. It is important to be able to stay focused. Practise ignoring distractions by playing this game.

Step 1: Pick a text to be read aloud (a chapter book for example).

Step 2: One student starts reading from the book.

Step 3: One by one, a handful of volunteer students get a 5-second window to distract the speaker (but they must remain seated).

They can do this by whispering, making a funny face or tapping their foot. They cannot get up, move around, yell or do anything too ridiculous. Think about distractions that might occur in a public speaking competition and stick to these sorts of things.

Step 4: The speaker stops when the other students have all had a turn at attempting to distract them. If the speaker ‘breaks’ (for example, they break into laughter or forget what they were saying), they should take a breath, focus and try to resume talking as best they can until the end of their turn. 

Step 5: Repeat the game until all students have had a turn at either speaking or distracting.

Step 1: Teacher shares an interesting image of a person or a scenario. You could use Pobble365, where a new thought-provoking image/stimulus is shown each day (you can scroll through all their recent images as well).

Step 2: Students take 45 seconds to quickly write down some ideas about who this person is or what is going on. They should think about who the person is, what is going on, why it's happening and anything else that will tell a compelling story.

Step 3: A volunteer can then present their impromptu story (verbally) to the class or group.

Step 4: Repeat with another image.

Note: if you haven't got access to images, you can use objects instead. You could use a stapler, a book, a chair – and ask students to use this as a stimulus for an intriguing story. Alternatively, they could tell the make-believe history of the object e.g. how it got it's name or how it was invented.

Step 1: Students brainstorm a number of random topics you could be an expert in (e.g. balloon animals, Antarctica, gardening, French cuisine).

Step 2: Students should be in pairs. One student is the interviewer, the other is the expert. The teacher selects one of the topics. The interviewer then asks the "expert" questions about their topic and the expert does their best to respond in a convincing manner.

Step 3: Once time is up, reverse the roles and select a new expert topic.