Suggested Activities for Chapter 2

1. This chapter is designed to help students prepare and deliver a speech early in the semester, when they have not had a chance to learn a great deal about preparation and delivery. After covering this material, assign a speech that will be no more than three minutes long. Assignments that work particularly well for this first speech include speeches of introduction, informative speeches about current events, personal interest speeches, or asking students to pick impromptu speech topics from a hat. Make sure that students understand that this speech should be simple, fun, and brief. You could also ask the class to follow all the steps to preparation and keep track of their work on the “Speech Preparation To-Do Schedule” on page 120 of the Ready-to-Print Activities section for this chapter.
2. Get student input on favorite childhood television shows. Lead the class in an attempt to create a speech body outline about what makes a good children’s television program. Create two to five main points with subordinated points. After this, create an outline of an introduction and a conclusion together. Finish the exercise by leading a discussion of why the exercise began with outlining the body. Pose the question, “What would happen if we had just started with a catchy introduction?”
3. Have students brainstorm possible topics from a shared starting point, for example, “our school.” Give the class five to ten minutes and then have them each select three topics that are interesting to them, not overused, and that could be covered in a ten- to fifteen-minute speech and share them with the class. Highlight examples that demonstrate the way brainstorming can result in surprising and interesting topics.
4. Ask students to keep “practice logs” to document how many times they practice and what techniques they use. After delivering each assigned speech, have students review their practice logs to determine which techniques worked, which did not, and what they should add to future practices.
5. Show a videotaped speech in class or have students attend a public speech. Ask students to analyze how well the speaker uses the guidelines presented in this chapter. Students should identify the speech’s topic, rhetorical purpose, and thesis; the speaker’s attention-getter and clincher; an example of subordination; and evidence of audience analysis. If the speech contains presentation aids, students should evaluate how they were employed. Finally, students should report whether they found the speaker credible and why. This activity serves as a useful summary of the major textbook sections and illustrates the principles in action.
6. Ask students to write down their strongest anxiety or concern about public speaking on a piece of loose paper. Go around the room and ask each student to read his or her concern. After each anxiety is read, give the rest of the class the opportunity to provide the speaker with tips for overcoming their apprehension, based on the book’s suggestions or their own advice. When the speaker is satisfied with the class’s advice, he or she crumples up the paper and passes it to the next person. The next person reads his or her concern, the class gives advice, and the person crumples his or her paper up with the one from the previous speaker. This continues until the entire class has spoken. At the end of the exercise, the teacher should have a large ball of crumpled papers. The teacher should summarize the positive aspects of anxiety and the useful tips, and then throw the ball away (or recycle it) as a symbol of overcoming negative thinking.