Hi Parents! I wrote the post below last Monday and saved it rather than published it (I was trying to schedule it to publish the next day while I waited on some information and I guess I made a mistake in using the schedule function). We'll just go with whoever is ready to do speeches and save the rest for March 25th. I'm sorry if this causes in any last minute chaos. Hopefully all the students had it written in their planners last week and there aren't any surprises (although I forgot to mention to the sub to remind them about visual aids).
I had a sick child today, so there was a substitute for the 3rd-6th grade Public Speaking classes. They had an activity to refresh their non-verbal communications skills and hopefully everyone had an opportunity to practice their speech one more time. If 5th/6th graders have not put their outline on note cards, they need to do so by next Monday. I had originally planned to allow some of them to give their speeches this week, but chose to push this back until next week. I hope that wasn't a problem. If your student is anxious to get this speech done, let me know so that he or she can go right away. The 5th/6th graders were asked to choose a visual aid for the speech. This can be as simple as pictures or a poster board display. The classroom is fairly small, so a small visual aid is fine. It can be more elaborate as well (for instance, the student speaking about LEGOs making the best toy may bring in a LEGO creation). The emphasis on this speech has been more on speaking from keywords on an outline. Since this was a bit more challenging, this speech length should be 2 1/2 minutes to 5 minutes for 5th/6th grade.
Note cards are optional for the 3rd/4th grade. I did not ask this class to choose a visual aid - I want them to focus on speaking from key word outlines (hopefully, by now many will have them memorized!). However, if there are 3rd/4th grade students eager to share a visual aid, they are welcome to do so at the end of their speeches. I asked the 3rd/4th graders to get their speeches between 2 to 4 minutes.
Please feel free to call me at 913-782-6185.
Have a great week!
Jessica
