This is a work still in progress . . . .
The header box is totally BLANK
to draw notice to the most important page on the whole site. WORKSHOPS are the main reason
this site was launched.
You are invited to fill in the blank
with a class workshop to use any form of
public speaking.
The sub-tabs show communication NOT
just for English or Language Arts.
Youth Toastmasters is what the program is called, and the two primary communication skills are the prepared speech and the impromptu speech.
This program is offered to select schools or groups, whether home-school or public school or even a YMCA, in Henderson or even in Buncombe County, in grades 6-8 and grades 9-12, for free, sponsored by the Four Seasons Toastmaster Club of Hendersonville.
The sub-tabs cover mainly these four areas:
1) Humorous speaking in these workshops is practiced with both prepared speaking and impromptu speaking. It is a common, effective way to connect with an audience when done tastefully.
2) Improv or Impromptu speaking does not allow much if any preparation. But practice and use of techniques does allow readiness and being more at ease. Whether there is to be collaboration for improv or a sparring for debators or simply a prompt for a one-person response, "thinking on one's feet" or "speaking off the cuff" situations can still be prepared for with practice.
3) The Point Story speech is using preparation to organize examples, usually as stories, to make a point or points effectively. Having a set structure can prepare listeners as much as speakers.
All these above three areas deal mostly with content. What of delivery?!
4) Oral Interpretation delivers content with the main focus on expressing meaning. Delivery with variety in the Four P's is a fourth area that is primarily featured on the sub "Oral Interp" tab. This could be applied to whatever content or literature is most appropriate, be it science, history, civics, prose, poetry, or scripture. This speaking with feeling could be a separate workshop, or it could be incorporated with the other workshop areas, as needed. It is the aim to be versatile with Pacing, Power, Pitch, and Pronunciation.
Of course, natural-appearing gestures and body movement and eye contact are also vital elements of delivery that will be worked in with the other areas.
The four main tabs all give concepts and actual materials that would be used in workshops. A workshop is normally a 45-minute session, with a few less or more minutes tailored to the number of participants. It would normally focus on just one of the four areas * unless it is to be followed with a second or a successive workshop within a week's time.
Impromptu/Improv
Humor
would begin with definitions of the SLIP-EP terms and application to examples. Examples would come from the samples with and without punchlines.
(As an option, a teacher could assign students for a future session to find a clean joke online or even outline a true humorous story and fully personalize it and develop it leading up to the punchline at one minute or more. Then the student would analyze the type of humor that was used that could have made us laugh.)
An impromptu exercise could use a one to three panel comic strip chosen at random and the student visualizing the scene and voicing any dialogue or caption. Then the student or the class could analyze what humor was used.
The triad and the twist phrasing could be experimented with for humorous effects.
One sample twist is this: My flight left at 5:45 PM. I was not on it. One sample triad with a twist is this: We came; we saw; we were conquered.
would begin with the explanation of what a "pivot" is. If you are given a table topic prompt, ideally, you'd go with the first thought that comes to mind and develop it with an example or story and then clinch it. But if you go blank, there are some stalling strategies. Such tactics and the GRASP acronym would be revealed. And you can also, if necessary, change the direction to what you better know. The prompter's goal is NOT to stump you but to encourage a response that lets you shine.
You aim to have a beginning, middle, and end. Such a structure will come off as organized and in control.
Some of the simpler prompts would be responded to.
There may be time to introduce an improv prompt that two speakers would collaborate on to show the comparison. For this you'd not pivot but go with the flow.
A new session would allow a reveal for improv stategies and more examples.
A new session might also get into a debate between partners. (A debatable proposition, fallacies, and research for a debate could be associated pathways. . . )
would begin with a discussion of what a "story" is.
There would be an analysis of what structure is in a plot applied to the structure of a one-point or multiple point (as three) speech.
After a pair of examples are demonstrated, students would brainstorm on possible subjects for a personal story of their own, select one, and begin an outline of it.
(As an option, a teacher assign each student to outline a personal story and then write out a rough draft.)
(As an option, once the rough draft is down, it could be delivered as a speech that makes a point important to the speaker.)
(As an option, once the speech is delivered, there could be an assignment to do a three point speech following the steps made in class.. This would be done as a labeled outline first and then a rough draft. The speech could be an ice-breaker giving three points about the student, or the outline and speech could use the same structure on a researched, informative topic. )
Point Story
* As mentioned above, a teacher may choose one workshop in an area or choose multiple workshops in one area or multiple areas. Two or more workshops would mean a couple of areas could be addressed in the same workshop session. For instance, a short humor unit and a short impromptu unit could be covered in the same session. The point story session might include some improv or impromptus on storytelling. . . .
Options
Abound
Oral Interp/Declamation
The sub-tab features one non-religious sample and then Biblical text. But text can be from any discipline. Whether or not a specific text was selected for oral interp practice, a class copy of speech examples from Brian Woolf's book called The Speaker's Blueprint would be put to use in this workshop. There could be poems, well-known extracts of speeches ("I Have a Dream." etc.), and other examples that would be given emphasis with the Four P's and gestures and body movement.
(As an option, a teacher could assign use of the Pentad (Who, What, When &Where, How, and Why, as sampled on the Humbly Bold tab) by students on selected passages or the creating of an imaginary autobiography for the speaker of a certain literary passage. Once done, another option would be to apply this written analysis towards practicing for a performance of the declamation or oral interpretation.)
It has no separate workshop tab here, but one definite focal point of any workshop
is the observing audience and its role with giving valuable feedback.
The multiple audience roles are explained in the Toastmaster tab in the sub-tabs of Roles, Evaluation-Plus,
and the full demonstration in the Brian Woolf Workshop.
What is a possible out-of-class conclusion to this Speech Workshop?
One culmination to class workshops is to share the learning with a larger audience. Beyond that demonstration for other classes, a full Toastmaster meeting presentation might be considered after about eight sessions that involve all three of the speaking areas, along with vocal variety and body use suggestions for delivery worked in. The sessions might be for one teacher or even two teachers that combine for a joint meeting.
(Leadership) One option would be to have a student Toastmaster that runs the whole show, which would include choosing a theme for a word master and table topics master. This could include evaluators for the major speeches and have an agenda like on the Toastmasters tab.
(Humor) A joke master or two would start off the meeting after some introductory remarks with some laughter for everyone. As an option, each joke could be analyzed by the joke master or even an evaluator. (5-10 minutes)
(Shared Leadership/Oral Interp) Instead of having a Toastmaster have all the fun with transitions between the upcoming prepared speakers, there might be some inspirational content in the poetry realm with two or three speakers of short lines making the most of the Four P's and effective gestures and body movement.
(One Point Story speech elaboration) Two to three pre-
pared speeches of 4-6 minutes each would take center stage with two major formats possible, each to feature three points: 1) An ice-breaker speech would take the one-point story and add two other points about the speaker, as on hobbies or interests; 2) an organized speech on one informative or persuasive subject would be developed in three points with some credible research.
Each of these speeches would be evaluated by either a class member or an adult, as a member of the local FSTM club. There'd be an opportunity during transitions for audience members to write out brief feedback comments for each of the speakers. (20- 25 minutes)
(Impromptu) While the evaluators were preparing their oral evaluation of the prepared speakers, there would be 3-5 table topic prompts on the chosen theme for single responders and 1-2 improvisations with two improvisers. This would be followed by some discussion of grows and glows from evaluators. (10-15 minutes)
* These Twitter/Facebook links purposefully don't work: we could do with less social media!