Semi-public Speaking: 12 Days of Hanutech, Day 3

12 Days of Hanutech, Day 3: Semi-public Speaking

Today's Tech Treat is a lesson idea for a way to add some variety to homework: have students record a speech.


The ability to write and deliver a well-constructed, well-considered speech is an important part of 21st Century learning (actually, it was an important part of all of the other centuries as well!). Delivering a speech forces the speechwriter to reflect on their word choice, organization, and language construction in ways that are similar to but critically different from writing text. 

Unfortunately, the traditional "oral report" is a huge time-killer in class, and speaking in front of peers can be stressful for many students.

What's great about our technology tools is that students can easily record themselves with laptops and smartphones, and upload and share these videos with you digitally. This means students can deliver their speeches "semi-privately" and can allow them to focus on how to give a speechwithout the accompanying social anxiety. The tech also lets you collect and review speeches later, rather than using up days of class time giving each student a turn at the podium. 

This does not need to be the "big project" at the end of a unit. In fact, I think this would work great as a thoughtful homework assignment.

So today's 12 Days of Tech suggestion is to change an upcoming writing assignment into a speech assignment.  Here's a how-to example:

Example
Original Assignment
Read the online article about the impact of journalism on the Spanish-American war. The article states that modern journalism is less biased than news organizations during the Spanish-American War. In a paragraph, describe why you agree or disagree with this statement.

New Version
Read the online article about the impact of journalism on the Spanish-American war. The article states that modern journalism is less biased than news organizations during the Spanish-American War. In a 60-90 second speech, describe why you agree or disagree with this statement.
Record a video of yourself delivering your formal speech (that is, write a script -- no "winging it!"). Upload the video to your school YouTube account as an unlisted video, and share the link with me.

For a teacher using Google Classroom, collecting and reviewing these videos would be super easy.

Pro-tip 1: Arrange the assignment into a blog or forum so that students can review each others' speeches and post feedback.

Pro-tip 2: Adjust the assignment so that students have to give an extemporaneous speech - that is, require students to record without a pre-written script. This requires a completely different skill set for the students.

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