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Speech is a semester elective offered once a year in Mrs. Wall-Smith's class. Let’s face the facts: public speaking is frequently cited both as the #1 fear in America, and the #1 most attractive trait employees look for in new hires. If you’re enrolled in this class, you’ve already given yourself an edge among your peers–both personally and professionally. Congrats! While this course may not cure your fear of public speaking, it will give you a safe space to overcome initial anxiety, gain strategies for clear and effective communication, and empower you to thrive in future public speaking endeavors.
Speech is a semester elective offered once a year in Mrs. Wall-Smith's class. Let’s face the facts: public speaking is frequently cited both as the #1 fear in America, and the #1 most attractive trait employees look for in new hires. If you’re enrolled in this class, you’ve already given yourself an edge among your peers–both personally and professionally. Congrats! While this course may not cure your fear of public speaking, it will give you a safe space to overcome initial anxiety, gain strategies for clear and effective communication, and empower you to thrive in future public speaking endeavors.
Unit Speeches:
1. Introductory Speech: This will be your first speaking opportunity in class. The purpose of this speech is to give you the opportunity to confront and to successfully overcome anxiety that you might have as a public speaker. This speech will also give me an opportunity to assess your strengths and areas for improvement as a speaker. This speech will be an introductory speech about yourself in which you address a personal passion and a pet peeve. This speech should be 2-3 minutes in length.
2. Informative Speech: The purpose of this speech is to teach the audience something new, and it is also an opportunity for you to apply the foundational concepts of structure and delivery. You will be expected to demonstrate a familiarity with the five components of speech structure: ICD, introduction, body, and conclusion as well as transitional statements. You will also be expected to demonstrate a familiarity with the components of delivery: eye contact, hand gestures, posture, vocal fluctuation, and facial expressions. As this is an informative presentation, you will be asked to properly cite at least three outside sources. This speech should be 4-5 minutes in length.
3. Narrative Speech: This speech’s predominant purpose is to entertain, though it should enlighten as a bonus effect. Select a significant experience in your life and tell it with flair, ultimately conveying to the audience a lesson or value that you learned through that experience. The dramatic use of rhetorical devices should be incorporated into this speech to demonstrate the connection between the creative and emotive power of words. This speech should be 6-7 minutes in length.
4. Persuasive Speech: The purpose of this speech is for you to successfully build a deliberative argument through the use of formal persuasive appeals. You will be expected to advance your formal claim, support your position with ethos, pathos, and logos, and demonstrate with evidence the reasons you consider the claim credible. Each student will be cross-examined by the class following the speech. You must use a visual aid slide deck. This speech should be 8-9 minutes in length.
5. The TED-Talk (Your Final): This final speech is the culmination of everything you’ve learned in the class. You will be asked to give a lecture on a personal theory of life–in other words, WHY you think something is the way that it is. This presentation will inform, entertain, and persuade the class to think about your topic in a whole new way; in the words of TED, you will present an original “idea worth spreading.” Your deep dive into your theory should leverage devices of rhetorical persuasion, weave in interesting stories and anecdotes, integrate outside sources, harness visual aids in a meaningful way, and represent the best of the verbal and physical delivery skills you have developed across the year. This creative presentation is longform, like a TEDTalk; it should be 10-12 minutes in length.
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