Speaking Step 1

Speaking: The oral transmission of information or ideas.

Step 1: I speak clearly to small groups of people I know

Outcomes

To achieve Step 1, learners will show that they can speak clearly to small groups of people that they know.

This builds off the previous step which focused on being able to speak clearly to one other person that they know.

Learners need to be able to:

Understand what is different about speaking to a small group
Know how to speak clearly to a small group

Introduction

People find it more challenging to talk in front of a small group than to an individual. There are more people to talk to and it can be harder to know whether everyone is listening.
It’s normal to feel more shy or self- conscious in front of a group – even with people you know well.

Skill Starter

Do It!

Put learners into groups of 4-5.

Learners pass around a ball or other soft object from person to person telling the next person to ‘pass it’, ‘roll it’ or ‘throw it’.

Encourage learners to use the name of the person they are calling on to make it clearer.

10 mins

Group activity

Active

Teach & Apply

Think about how you can engage more than one person.
You could:
- Make sure that you look at everyone that you want to be listening to you. That way, everyone will know that you are speaking to them.
- Speak more loudly because in a group you are likely to be stood further apart, and it is harder to hear otherwise.
- You might need to leave more space to check that everyone has understood you. You can check that everyone is following what you’re saying by looking around.

Optional Activity

Top 3

Learners will be asked to consider and explain their ‘top 3’ from certain sports-related categories (these can be mind-mapped with the coach and learners at the start of the activity); examples may include:

Top 3 sports that they play
Top 3 sports people that they admire
Top 3 favourite moves/skills for a particular sport

Each learner has 5 minutes to consider their ‘top 3’ before sharing with the rest of the group, using the Teaching It engagement points to help.

15 mins

Group activity

Discussion

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

Whenever an adult is speaking in front of the group, they can model how they are getting ready to speak and ensuring that the learners in the group are ready to listen to them.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

Asking learners to prepare a short talk about something they are interested in, or a task that they have completed. They can then be observed to see whether they are able to speak clearly to a group they know for up to 3 minutes.
Ask these reflective questions:
- What is different about speaking to a small group than to a person you know?
- Which do you find more difficult and why?
- How can you speak clearly in front of a group?