Suggested Activities for Chapter 11

1. Give students a basic informative speech topic, like local sports teams, and break them up into four groups, each responsible for one main point (in the case of local sports teams, each group gets a team). Ask the groups to write a working outline for their section.
2. After the first activity, bring the class back together and have each group share its work. Then re-form the groups and have each group complete some of the other parts of the outline: group one could work on specific purpose and the first two parts of the introduction, group two could cover the last three parts of the introduction, group three could create transitions, and group four could craft the conclusion. The four groups will need to talk to each other to accomplish these tasks, and you might require the transitions group to be the communicators between groups, as their assignment is simplest and it will be a physical demonstration of the importance of transitions. Bring the class together and have the groups present their work.
3. Re-form the groups and ask them to create a speaking outline for their assigned sections from both activities 1 and 2.
4. Finally, bring the groups together and have students deliver the entire speech, perhaps tag-team style, with each person delivering a line or two. The group nature of this final culmination energizes students and helps with the nervousness building up in some members of the class at this point in the course.