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Unless you are teaching for your students to enter competitive speech, don't use As I was saying (published by Comm. for Christ). There is nothing wrong with the book -- it is just aimed only at competitive stuff.

 

I planned a class for our high school co-op students. I wrote my own curriculum for it. Nothing that I found out there already presented the "meat" (and not the classroom fluff) or required enough for me.

 

I went to our local university and asked the speech prof to look over what I had planned. I was actually requiring MORE than the college speech class asked for (because of number of students, they could only require 3 four minute speeches from each person). He gave me a syllabus, some free texts that he had received but wasn't going to use, and loaned me some others. I organized, pulled out, and wrote.

 

The first semester I taught quite a bit, but included multiple opportunities for the children to be up front, even if only for a few moments. I wanted the students to get comfortable being in front of a group. With 9 classes, they were in front for 3 times -

-- 30- 45 seconds about their favorite ice cream. (I modeled that one for them on the first day, doing my own, so they could see I was looking for more than "My favorite is vanilla.")

-- an informative speech (I taught through my 7 steps and asked them to DO those steps at home for the first speech they were writing. Total time - 4 - 5 minutes)

-- a persuasive speech (I taught, showed a video that had a hilarious one about running the bad guys out of a western town, had them do the steps at home as we went through it in class. Total time - 4- 5 minutes )

 

This semester, I am teaching less (because they already know how to do some of this stuff), but am requiring more.

 

-They have introduced each other as speakers (which was rehearsal for later in the semester). - 1 minute

- They are doing an newspaper article summary (got this idea from Communicators for Christ - this is one they ask you to prepare ahead of time, and bring to their seminars). 1 minute

-They are doing a second informational speech (already know how, so just working on that at home). 4 -5 minutes

-The are doing a devotional (This is where most of my teaching time is being spent this semester, because it is new to them, and requires some special "research".) - 4 - 5 minutes about 1,2,3 verses, not a huge passage. I am also doing multiple devos of my own to show the different variety depending on the setting you are asked to speak in. I will probably present a total of 6 different examples.

 

Then the final test -- they will choose one speech of all those they have presented in class, and do it AGAIN, after editing, polishing, etc. (I critique each speech, and include something they can work on to improve). This will be given before an audience of their parents and siblings.

 

We also did other assignments like evaluate a sermon (after we went over what should be in an informative or persuasive speech, they evaluated the speaker of their choice. I was careful to say that the intent wasn't to tear down someone, but to see if we could see the thesis and structure, how they creatively used visuals and stories and humor, etc. I did not talk about those in class - it was just for the student.)

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Be Prepared to Speak. Toastmasters International, 1991. VHS series.

 

Beebe, Steven and Susan Beebe. Public Speaking. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.

 

Booher, Dianna. Speak with Confidence. New York: McGraw Hill, 2003.

 

Fujishin, Randy. The Natural Speaker. 4th ed. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2003.

 

Gard, Grant. The Art of Confident Public Speaking. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986.

 

Litfin, Duane. Public Speaking: A Handbook for Christians. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book, 2001.

 

Lucas, Stephen. The Art of Public Speaking. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.

 

Myers, Jeff. Secrets of Great Communicators. Dayton, TN: Myers, 2001.

 

One Life. Whose Legacy? TN: Communicators for Christ, 2007.

 

Rehn, Thane. As I Was Saying... TN :Communicators for Christ, 2002.

 

Ryan, Margaret. Extraordinary Oral Presentations. New York: Franklin Watts, 2005.

 

These were in my public library, loaned to me by the speech professor, or purchased from Comm for Christ.

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You can get lesson plans for 25.00 for a high school public speaking course along with the text Basic Speech Experiences Text for 25.OO at http://www.olvs.org if you want everything laid out for you. This is a Catholic homeschool sight if you are not familiar with it. I don't think the text is Catholic though and I don't know what the lesson plans are like. But this course is part of the English requirements for eleventh grade students. You don't have to be enrolled to purchase textbooks or lesson plans from their site. I have my ninth grader enrolled in the ninth grade program and the ninth grade lesson plans are nicely detailed.

Blessings

 

Zoraida

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