Analyzing Great Speeches: Part II
When we last left off, your students watched a great speech (perhaps the iPhone announcement) and identified patterns in the speaker’s verbal and non-verbal traits. Remember, your students were using the generalization:
Verbal and non-verbal patterns converge to create a powerful public speaker.
1. Reinforcing The Generalization
Over the next days, bring in a second and third video. Go ahead and watch a “classic” speech from a political or social leader. I’ve listed a few possible Youtube videos at the bottom of this article (don’t worry if Youtube is blocked at school, you can download videos at home and bring them to school).
Once again, students should be looking for patterns in the speaker’s verbal and non-verbal traits and noting them on a graphic organizer.
2. Connecting The Three Speakers Together
After analyzing the three speakers separately, have students look at the parallels among the speakers. How did they all use rate? How did they use their hands? A venn diagram or double bubble map will work as a graphic organizer.
Compare and Contrast Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King, Jr
3. Bringing It Back To The Students
By this point, students should have a wealth of examples and are ready to start with their own great speech. To scaffold this process, have students select one verbal and one non-verbal element as their “focus elements.” These will be used in the next step as students work on improving small parts of their public speaking skills.
Next Steps
The next time, we’ll look at how students can begin working on developing excellent verbal and non-verbal patterns in their own public speaking.