Focusing on public speaking is a new challenge for me and my sophomore students this year. I like having students build up to speaking in front of larger groups, as in, starting in small table groups, combining said table groups, and then building out from there. I also like focusing on one different skill each time. For example, a 30 second presentation where students focus on using inflections, or making eye contact, or avoiding the word “like.” I used to be petrified about speaking in front of groups of people, so I sympathize with the wary students very much. Anyone who would like to come observe a student public speaking session is welcome to! It’d be great to get feedback from different teachers 🙂
We still have a lot of work to do…
I love this meme.
Student presentations can be PAINFUL! I wish there was a way to debrief as a class what worked well but more importantly what did not work well in a presentation without killing the souls of students. If you find a way let me know!
Student presentations in a different language are very tough to get through for everyone involved. I also notice that the audience is lost, not paying attention, or painfully bored (I don't blame them). I even say I will grade them as an active, engaged audience and students try their best to look interested, but it's just not. How do we fix this???
actually there a bunch of ways… for one thing you sprinkle, so they only have to pay attention to one or two as a warm up activity… then you give them things to listen for.
I love how Joanie explains how they focus on different things… you could potentially use some of those techniques with the foreign language. Take some of the focus away from spanish and onto the form of what they are doing… they just happen to have to do it in spanish 😉
in a foreign language, leveraging video is also a great tool since they have the option of starting over
I love that you guys are putting this into action… so curious… how does this translate into having them get at the history content they are using as their vehicle…?
Would love to come see the class!
Joanie, let me know when I can observe your students presenting, especially when there is a particular skill/practice (i.e. eye contact) they are working on that day. You can let me know in advance…
The best thing I ever did in Symbols and Ethics last year was to make it a presentation guideline that you had to face the audience and could only have notecards, not using the powerpoint to guide their speaking. They still looked at their notecards but it was a baby step!
Joanie, Thanks for these tips. I had not thought of speaking at the table as a starting point to presenting, but it is! I am going to start pointing this out in class.