Speaking and Listening

When working on speaking skills we are building student's confidence and ability to speak to increasingly larger audiences. We also work on turn taking within group work, partner and whole class activities. Students learn to increase their ability to listen and gather the correct information to become more independent learners.

We do informal and formal speaking activities throughout the year.

AudioBoom is a quick and easy website to use to record speaking to listen back and reflect on ways to Make It Better (MIB). It is very easy for your parent or teacher to sign up for an account so you can start recording.

At least once a year students are asked to write and create their own speech to speak about a topic of their choice to their peers. Some students are chosen each year to represent our school within zone competition. 

Here are some tips on how to prepare for this formal speech

Topic – This needs to be age appropriate without being boring; something YOU, the student, really feels comfortable/enthusiastic/ passionate on which to speak. This is not a Debate - the topic should be your personal choice..

Introduction – This refers to the introduction or very first part of your speech & needs to grab the audience’s attention – dare to be a bit different, creative & original but take care not to turn it into a skit/drama performance. 

Sustained Audience Engagement

• The judges will be noting how the audience, particularly the student audience is responding.
• Make eye contact; use facial expressions. Project your voice and speak clearly; try to stay calm & not rush or you will ‘throw away’ your great & clever lines or even start to mumble; varying the tone & volume of your voice will make your speaking more interesting.
• Use humour to get the audience reacting, but take care not to overdo the ‘toilet’ humour or be too colloquial with the expressions you use.
• Have small palm cards, not sheets of paper if you need – use these as cues to prompt the next idea you will talk about. If you just read, the audience will be bored as you can’t give them your wonderful smile, your eye contact etc.
• Early Stage 1 (Kindergarten) palm cards can have pictures/drawings on them to help.
• Avoid singing or reciting poems as you will have changed your Public Speaking into a different type of performance – 1 or 2 very short quotes are OK.
• Be informative – in an interesting way and stay on the topic.

Presentation

• Be enthusiastic – this can be contagious for the audience, so look excited, smile and be confident – you can do it!
• Be prepared - at home you could practice in front of the mirror, your family may have helped you with hints or suggestions; you could practice in front of your classmates or even the whole school - your teacher has probably helped out too, so you will be well prepared & have the timing right. But, take care not to be ‘over rehearsed’ as you will lose your natural freshness & spark.
• Stance – stand with your feet a little way apart so you look confident; feel free to move if you need to add a big gesture, but try not to sway or jiggle or stand stiff as a pole.
• Gestures – use these to emphasis a point, assist your humour or sustain the audience engagement - be comfortable with them so they look natural & spontaneous. 
• Gimmicks such as “put your hand up if…’ to the audience shouldn’t be overused

Conclusion – Try to finish leaving the audience buzzing – be creative, original, funny. 

Zone Judges Criteria for speeches

The Criteria used in adjudication is listed below:

Creativity/Originality of introduction	10
Content	20
Originality of conclusion	10
Sustained audience engagement (humour, audience response)	30
Presentation (enthusiasm, stance, spontaneity and naturalness of gesture)	30