3rd – 6th Grade Public Speaking
The 3rd-6th graders have been hard at
work on their persuasive speeches. We’ve
been working from outlines that include a hook (a joke, story, or question to
capture the audience’s attention), thesis statement, and transition statement
in the introduction. Students were asked
to provide 3 arguments (or “reasons”) to support their thesis statements. The
outlines end with a transition, a reworded thesis statement, as well as a
summary of their three arguments. The students have been challenged to create their
outlines using primarily key words/phrases rather than complete sentences. This
is a change from what they have done in the past, and some are more comfortable
with it than others. I’ve encouraged
them to choose something that they really enjoy or feel strongly about so that
they can share their enthusiasm as they persuade their audience.
3rd/4th grade: Students need to
complete their outlines at home this week. Many of the students have their
three main reasons, but still need to provide more information in outline form.
A few students still need a 3rd reason and will require a bit more
help to finish their outline. Students should have at least an A and B filled
out for each Roman numeral (C is optional). They have the option to provide
more details (add 1’s and 2’s to the
outline), but I am not expecting as much of that for this age group. I had an
extra teacher in class today to help answer questions, but I know many of them could
benefit from your brainstorming help. They
may also need help rewording their thesis statements for the conclusions. I
expect their speeches to be a bit shorter than previous speeches. I’m leaning
towards 1.5 – 3 minutes for this particular speech but will make a decision
after I’ve heard some practice speeches.
5th/6th grade: Most students have
completed their outlines and had an opportunity to begin practicing their
speeches. A few students (I think Micah, Selah, and Olivia) need to do some
research at home or brainstorm with parents in order to complete their
outlines. This class should have all A’s and B’s filled in on their outline. At
least 1-2 of the C’s should be completed as well. They have been encouraged to
add as many numbers (1, 2, or more) to provide support for their
arguments. Their speeches should come
out to be 3-5 minutes.
Next week both classes will be practicing their speeches.
I've been having fun getting to know the students better with our roll call questions each week.
Jessica Weatherford
