Feedback for Speech Drafts

Comment on the following elements and send them to the speechwriter via email. Be specific in your feedback. Send the email to me as well so I can give you credit for this work. It will count as an additional project grade.

1. Catchy opening (grabs the audience's attention)

2. Body of speech -- content (interesting? organized? convincing? detailed?)

3. Body of speech -- length (too much, not enough, or just right?)

4. Clarity of ideas (easy to follow?)

5. Anything confusing (language, word choice, grammar)

6. Clear takeaway (message/thesis is clear)

7. Catchy ending (leaves audience thinking)

8. Delivery (pace,volume of reading)

Research for speech/TED talk

Here is a link to the Library's LibGuides page -- where Ms. Betjemann created a site for our class with resources:

http://www.cheshireacademy.libguides.com/

Bring on Week 5 and 6: Spoken Word!

Weeks 3 and 4 were saturated with Monologues -- and I thought they all were an excellent beginning to the course and a great learning experience for us all. Feel free to click on other students' blogs and check out their final monologue videos -- the close-up camera makes them even more powerful than when delivered in the Black Box.

Personally, I was impressed with the feedback and support you all gave to your peers. It helped them better memorize, more accurately enunciate, and express truer emotions in their process of delivering their best take. The biggest successes were in projection, clarity of speech, and solid positioning (no fidgeting). We are still working on emotional impact, but that's exactly where our next project leads....

In beginning to explore the genre of Spoken Word Poetry, students have found many good examples to share with the class. You can click on students' blogs to see some of these, and I have also posted a few under the "Animation and Expression" Topic on our class portal.

This week, I will ask you to find your own poem to eventually turn into a recitation that brings life to the poem instead of stillness. I am looking forward to what we will create in this unit!

Quote of the Week -- Taking Risks with Our Monologue Performances

"Our lives improve only when we take chances -- and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves."

End of the first week -- phew!

Thanks for a great first week of classes. Just a reminder that the blogging assignment is due Saturday, and the assignment (what to write about) is on the portal under the first Topic of the course.

Quote of the Week - Week 1

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty" -- Maya Angelou