How to Help a Student Prepare a Speech
The ability to capture the attention of their audience, speak with clarity and confidence and educate others on the subject of a speech is invaluable in college, adulthood and the business world. This tool makes public speaking such an integral part of a student's education. Help your students prepare a speech by teaching them a few simple tricks that they can use anytime they write a speech for school, business purposes or to accept an award.
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Instructions
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Provide your students with a topic; the best way to teach a child to write a speech is to provide them with a subject, focus and point of view. For example, assign your student the topic of writing about whether the school week should be four longer days rather than five and assign each student a point of view, either for the change in school week policy or against it. Providing them with a point of view that they may not personally have gives them the opportunity to explore the subject with an open mind and learn something new.
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Help students write an outline. The speech should include an introduction, a thesis statement, a body and a conclusion. Explain to students that the introduction is important because it is the first impression of the speech; the introduction either makes or breaks the rest of his speech. It must be informative, interesting, concise and even humorous -- if appropriate. The introduction should be short and to the point; it should introduce the topic of the speech and the thesis statement before transitioning seamlessly into the body of the speech. The length of the introduction varies based on the length of the speech. A good guideline is to make your introduction 30 seconds long for a five-minute speech.
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Work on the second part of the outline; the body of the speech. The body should include the information pertinent to the subject -- for example, explaining why students should maintain a five-day school week rather than switching to a four-day week. The body of the speech is the longest portion of the speech; in a five-minute speech the body should consist of 80 percent of the speech, which is four minutes in length. The body is the part of the speech you use to give examples, provide insight and discuss the topic. Think of your speech like a Christmas gift; the body is the gift, the introduction is the wrapping paper you must get through to see the gift and the conclusion is like cleaning up the remnants of the gift and giving thanks.
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Finalize the outline with the conclusion of the speech. The conclusion should quickly summarize the main points of the body and reiterate the thesis statement made in the introduction. The conclusion, like the introduction, should remain relatively short. For a five-minute speech, you want the conclusion to last between 30 and 45 seconds; otherwise you run the risk of losing your audience as you summarize the points of your speech.
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Make the student write the speech and then have him read it for you. Give him constructive criticism; ask yourself the following questions when listening to your student give his practice speech: Is the introduction effective and attention grabbing? Is the content of the speech well thought and organized? Does it reflect the amount of research required to speak about the topic and is it on point? Does the speaker speak at the right pace? Is he speaking too quickly, too quietly or just right? How is his body language and gestures? Does the speaker make appropriate eye contact with the audience or does he look at his paper the entire time without looking up even once? Does the conclusion neatly round up the main points of the speech while providing an interesting end to the speech?
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Provide the student with feedback you have based on the notes you took when he read the speech to you. Have him rewrite the speech based on your suggestions and resubmit the speech to you in class.
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References
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