Take a Stand Jr. 2: More Public Speaking for Power, Poise, and Persuasion

FIND YOUR VOICE AND VOICE YOUR OWN STRONG OPINIONS!

In this two-week multi-session class, a follow up to my own Take a Stand Jr.: Public Speaking for Power, Poise, and Persuasion,  students will learn how to respond to a new batch of  intriguing, twisty and provocative prompts, learning to speak with both clarity and confidence.

Take A Stand! Jr. 2: Public Speaking for Power, Poise, and Persuasion, has been created to continue the learning -with all new prompts-from my original Take a Stand Jr. class.  Both Take a Stand Jr classes work as stand alone classes or as follow up to my own Declaim, Recite, Hold Forth! Speech and Debate for Beginners. 

One of the key elements of speech—in both oral and written communication- is knowing how to quickly and confidently respond to a provocative prompt, determining one’s position and then quickly offering a response with both clarity and power.   This, the second in a series of multi-session classes, will give every learner the opportunity to both to find their own voice and voice their own strong opinions.

Learning to respond to assertion prompts is a training technique for the formal extemporaneous speaking to build both confidence and poise to enhance both public speaking and writing skills, particularly in the area of the assertion essay. 

For our assertion prompts we will utilize some of the greatest quotes from some of the greatest thinkers in history including:


“Life must be lived forward, however, it can only be understood backward.” Soren Kierkegaard

“The desire to seem clever often prevents our being so.” La Rochefoucauld

“You are not only good, but the cause of goodness in others.” Socrates to Protagoras in Plato’s Protagoras

Each class will do the following:

*highlight the keys to excellent presentation including diction, body language, eye contact, facial expression, intonation. 

*explain basic organizational keys to crafting a response to each quote

*Briefly explore the biographical information behind the quotes.

*Learners can expect to respond to two to three prompts per session.

*Judging sheets, individual to each learner, will be sent at the end of every session.

As a former a speech and debate judge for both local and national speech events I will write formal judging responses to each student presentation in real time, just as it’s done in a proper speech and debate event. The judging sheets, which all speech students use to improve their presentations, will be sent individually to students after each session.