Learning task 1: Speech preparation
Topics
Give students speech topics, these are suggestions by students, devised by HOD or arise out of studies for the year:
It is my view, that unless you initiate a lot of good topics, students will opt for the annual negative ones - eg. "Why do we have to give speeches?". Time spent offering a list of topics, will reap rewards with better speeches.
Brainstorm onto the board a list of topics which are topical, which they feel strongly about, then get them to write an introductory paragraph in which they express their opinion as strongly as they like.
Speech Topics
- We watch too much violence.
- A real problem in society is ... and how I would solve it
- How to get equality/quality back into New Zealand society
- How do we get a culture of good work ethics and respect for academic success in schools?
- Justice should be based on "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" philosophy.
- Five suggestions I would make for improving the education system in general, and my high school in particular
- A look at the comparisons and differences between North and South Islands.
- An optimistic view of New Zealand and the future and how I as a teenager would solve some of New Zealand's problems.
- Alcohol and smoking - preventable lifestyle diseases, targetting the youth of NZ.
- Radix malorum est cupiditas - love of money is the root of all evil.
- How to make school more relevant for more students in the education system.
- Adults should need to pass a comprehensive parenting test and gain a parenting licence before they have children.
- "Striving to better, oft we mar what's well".
Discuss valid topics for a year 12 class.
Structure
Discuss
other_ideas (RTF 35KB)
with them and brainstorm ideas.
Here are a few suggestions for accessing well-written speeches which model best practice.
- Make speeches compulsory from Year 7 to Year 12 - that way all students will be used to listening to good speeches in their classes.
- Build up a culture of speech-making excellence in the school.
- Teacher make a speech. Speech-making contest for staff - ITC to judge. How do they learn if we can't teach them how to do it? Osmosis? Luck? Divine inspiration?
- Show them a copy of last year's speech contest winning script.
- Get last year's speech winner to talk with the classes about how they structure their speech.
- Use school magazines. Our Head Boy and Head Girl speeches, and winning school speech are normally printed in the school magazine each year and this is a valuable source of modeling speech structure.
- Exchange students normally give a speech when they leave - get a copy of their speech.
- Ask guest speakers to give a copy of their speeches.
- Prize-giving speeches are always (well...sometimes) inspirational - copy them.
- Included also as a resource is
ten_ways (RTF 14KB)
, by John May from Reader's Digest 1991, which all students are given a copy of prior to speeches (more for presenting than structuring).
- Ask your local politician for a copy of their maiden speech to parliament.
- Take your students to the local marae.
- Book and video resources mentioned at the end of this Unit Plan can be put on desk loan at the library.
- Visit websites and listen to/read great speeches:
