Title: Before your public speaking performance...

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Before your public speaking performance...

Target group:

2nd‑grade students of a high school.

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

3) recognises the specificity of journalistic texts (article, column, reportage), rhetoric (speech, laudation, homily), popular science and scientific (dissertation); it distinguishes between message and commentary among press texts; recognizes linguistic means and their functions used in texts; reads information and explicit and hidden messages; distinguishes between correct and avoidant answers;

II. Language education.

1. Grammar of the Polish language. Student:

3) recognises the argumentative nature of various syntactic constructions and their functions in the text; uses them to build your own statements;

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

2) recognises prosodic style elements: accent, intonation, dynamics, rhythmization and determines their functions in the text; ZR

7) recognises the valuing vocabulary; distinguishes neutral vocabulary from the vocabulary with an emotional color, official from colloquial.

3. Language communication and language culture. Student:

3) recognises and defines text functions (informative, poetic, meta‑linguistic, expressive, impressionistic - including persuasive);

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

4) explains how the rhetorical means used (eg rhetorical questions, calculations, exclamations, parallelisms, repetitions, apostrophes, metadases, inversions) affect the recipient;

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

1) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion;

9) uses rhetorical compositional principles in creating its own text; speaks with non‑linguistic means;

IV. Self‑study. Student:

1) develops the ability of independent work, among others, by preparing various forms of presenting their own position.

General aim of education

Students learn non‑verbal aspects of speaking.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• recognises the specifics of rhetorical texts;

• lists permanent and optional speeches;

• discusses and applies memory strategies;

• cares for proper diction and articulation while giving a speech.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned;

  • leading text method.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students refer to the abstract content. They shall be able to summarize it in they own words and solve the exercices.

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the classes and sets criteria for success together with the students.

Realization

1. The teacher before the lesson prepares a short speech on any topic, asks two students to read it. One student should be characterized by acting skills. The speeches must be different: one dispassive, the other expressive.
   After the speeches, the students describe their impressions after hearing the speeches.

2. Students perform interactive task no. 1 - they check their memory, recreating the names of people who should remember from the previously watched slide show (each image with a signature is displayed for 6 seconds). After this exercise, students share their insights (which name was the easiest way to remember them, what memory strategies they used). Then they look for information on memory techniques in available sources.

3. Students get married and tell each other about an event. The second person's task is to reproduce history as faithfully as possible. Then the pupils pronounce any sentences, and the other person repeats them using other words.

4. Students, working individually or in pairs, carry out interactive exercises to check and consolidate knowledge learned during the lesson.
   Selected people discuss the correct solutions for interactive exercises.
   The teacher completes or straightens the statements of the proteges.

5. Students will get acquainted with the instructions on the interactive map regarding speeches (diction, breath, voice modulation, eye contact). Together with the teacher they discuss these elements.

6. Before the lesson, the teacher prepares auxiliary material for students in the form of a speech therapy book (for example on the Internet). Students read it by doing specific exercises of speech organs (they mimic different sounds, perform language movements).

7. Students read sentences (language breaks), paying attention to the correct articulation.

8. Students wonder what is the purpose of the last two exercises performed, and to whom and in which situations they may come in handy.

Summary

1. Students choose one word from the dictionary in abstract. Then they try to arrange a short language break with him.

2. Students, based on their experiences, discuss about whether the school prepares them for public speaking.

Homework

1. Perform the following exercise to improve the articulation organs and prevent the so‑called jaws that prevents proper articulation. Insert the stopper (the one that closes the bottles, for example with wine) to the mouth between the teeth and read aloud half the page of any text. Try to speak your voice as accurately as possible so that the recipient understands the text you read. Exercise repeat daily or every two days.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Before your public speaking performance...

Our communicative image comprises a few components such as your voice, appearance, posture and body language. All of them are important in public events – discussions (debates, panels, negotiations), lectures, presentations and speeches.

Some of our presentations happen spontaneously, some are planned and prepared for hours, days, even weeks. In those cases, the moment of actual speaking needs to be preceded by text’s memorization. It’s the penultimate stage called memoria. To pass through it smoothly and efficiently, you will need to look into various techniques of memorization.

First and foremost, you need to divide the text into memorisable segments with a special attention to key information – they should be memorised firstly. We recommend creating associations with objects or events you are more familiar with. The simplest way to memorize, however, is repetition.

Remember that the speaker is not obliged to reproduce all that he/she planned to say. It’s completely fine to express some thoughts differently. When a fragment of your presentation slips your mind, try to say what you think differently and not to pounce for your notes immediately.

The preparation of both the content and the form is essential for a successful presentation. Those components are shaped during the work on the final shape of the speech - from choosing subject, unifying the thoughts, shaping its form to memorizing it. However, there are too few people giving enough attention to how they will speak.

Remember – the diction, exactly as the memory, is the matter of practise.