Lesson 13 — Activity 3: Giving a Speech
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Lesson 13 — Activity 3: Giving a Speech
The writing skills you have been developing throughout this theme are useful not only for written assignments but for oral assignments as well.
If you can plan and develop a paragraph, or a format that uses several paragraphs, you can apply the same planning and development to a speech.
Communicating a message through a speech, just as communicating a message through writing, requires you to focus on your audience and purpose.
You can give a speech for the same reasons you might write: to persuade, to inform, to entertain, or to describe.
If you can plan and develop a paragraph, or a format that uses several paragraphs, you can apply the same planning and development to a speech.
Communicating a message through a speech, just as communicating a message through writing, requires you to focus on your audience and purpose.
You can give a speech for the same reasons you might write: to persuade, to inform, to entertain, or to describe.
There are many situations in your life where you might be called upon to
speak to a group. In the movie Freedom Writers, the students discover
the power of words and of being able to voice their thoughts and opinions
through writing.
As the characters in the movie went on to college, so did the real people the characters were based on. Currently many of them work with the Freedom Writers Foundation. They tour across the United States to speak to teachers about their experiences in school.
If you are asked to give a speech, you would:
You still need to provide support for your ideas and be sure that there is a logical flow to your speech. Really, the main difference is that you do not need to know how to spell every word correctly because no one will know!
As the characters in the movie went on to college, so did the real people the characters were based on. Currently many of them work with the Freedom Writers Foundation. They tour across the United States to speak to teachers about their experiences in school.
If you are asked to give a speech, you would:
- brainstorm
- plan
- organize your ideas
You still need to provide support for your ideas and be sure that there is a logical flow to your speech. Really, the main difference is that you do not need to know how to spell every word correctly because no one will know!
Use cue cards to prepare.Strategies to keep in mind when preparing a speech:
- Make sure you have all of your information prepared in advance. Use cue cards!
- Know your purpose/goal.
- Plan what you will say, how you will say it, and what non-verbal strategies will be most appropriate. Adjust your volume and pacing (how fast you speak) to make an impact where it's important to do so.
- Practise the speech ahead of time.
Make eye contact with your audience.
Strategies to keep in mind when presenting a speech:
- Make sure your audience is listening before you begin.
- Make eye contact, change where you are looking periodically, move around if necessary — but don’t fidget!
- Speak carefully and clearly. Make sure others understand and hear you.
Miep Gies: "You are the heroes. You are heroes every day."
Miep Gies: "But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room."
Marcus: "I've never had a hero before. But you are my hero."
Miep Gies: "Oh, no. No, no, no, young man, no. I am not a hero. No. I did what I had to do, because it was the right thing to do. That is all."
Erin Gruwell: "Maybe we should talk about art. Tito's got real talent, don't you think? You know something? I saw a picture just like this once, in a museum. Only it wasn't a black man, it was a Jewish man. And instead of the big lips he had a really big nose, like a rat's nose. But he wasn't just one particular Jewish man. This was a drawing of all Jews. And these drawings were put in the newspapers by the most famous gang in history.
You think you know all about gangs? You're amateurs. This gang will put you all to shame. And they started out poor and angry and everybody looked down on them. One day one man decided to give them some pride, an identity, and somebody to blame. You take over neighborhoods? That's nothing compared to them. They took over countries.
You want to know how? They just wiped out everybody else. Yeah, they wiped out everybody they didn't like and everybody they blamed for their life being hard. And one of the ways they did it was by doing this: see, they print pictures like this in the newspapers, Jewish people with big, long noses... blacks with big, fat lips. They'd also published scientific evidence that proved that Jews and blacks were the lowest form of human species. Jews and blacks were more like animals. And because they were just like animals it didn't matter if they lived or died. In fact, life would be a whole lot better if they were all dead. That's how a holocaust happens. And that's what you all think of each other."
Miep Gies: "But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room."
Marcus: "I've never had a hero before. But you are my hero."
Miep Gies: "Oh, no. No, no, no, young man, no. I am not a hero. No. I did what I had to do, because it was the right thing to do. That is all."
Erin Gruwell: "Maybe we should talk about art. Tito's got real talent, don't you think? You know something? I saw a picture just like this once, in a museum. Only it wasn't a black man, it was a Jewish man. And instead of the big lips he had a really big nose, like a rat's nose. But he wasn't just one particular Jewish man. This was a drawing of all Jews. And these drawings were put in the newspapers by the most famous gang in history.
You think you know all about gangs? You're amateurs. This gang will put you all to shame. And they started out poor and angry and everybody looked down on them. One day one man decided to give them some pride, an identity, and somebody to blame. You take over neighborhoods? That's nothing compared to them. They took over countries.
You want to know how? They just wiped out everybody else. Yeah, they wiped out everybody they didn't like and everybody they blamed for their life being hard. And one of the ways they did it was by doing this: see, they print pictures like this in the newspapers, Jewish people with big, long noses... blacks with big, fat lips. They'd also published scientific evidence that proved that Jews and blacks were the lowest form of human species. Jews and blacks were more like animals. And because they were just like animals it didn't matter if they lived or died. In fact, life would be a whole lot better if they were all dead. That's how a holocaust happens. And that's what you all think of each other."
Andre: "Justice doesn't mean the bad guy goes to jail, it just means that someone pays for the crime."
Sindy: "During the war in Cambodia, the camps stripped away my father's dignity. He sometimes tries to hurt me and my mom. I feel like I have to protect my family."
Tito: "Nobody cares what I do. Why should I bother coming to school?"
Eva: "In America, a girl can be crowned a princess for her beauty and her grace. But an Aztec princess is chosen for her blood. To fight for her people as Papi and his father fought, against those who say we are less than they are, against those who say that we are not equal in beauty or blessings."
Sindy: "During the war in Cambodia, the camps stripped away my father's dignity. He sometimes tries to hurt me and my mom. I feel like I have to protect my family."
Tito: "Nobody cares what I do. Why should I bother coming to school?"
Eva: "In America, a girl can be crowned a princess for her beauty and her grace. But an Aztec princess is chosen for her blood. To fight for her people as Papi and his father fought, against those who say we are less than they are, against those who say that we are not equal in beauty or blessings."
All of these statements tell us a lot about the different characters in
the movie and their experiences. Think about these statements as you
begin this activity’s assignment.