Speeches

January 13, 2020 

Dear Parents/Guardians, 

As you may already be aware, public speaking is the number one fear in North America, even though there are countless jobs and situations that require an individual to present information to an audience or advocate for one’s needs. For these reasons, each student in the classroom will be writing and presenting a speech in front of an audience. Some students may even be selected to move on to the gym or even the Legion speech competition in Clinton. 

The students have had (we started end of November) and will continue to be provided with time, in class, to brainstorm, research, write and practice their speeches. They will also be provided with time to edit and revise their work. All students are to have speeches ready to present by Wednesday January 29, 2020. 

Despite the class time dedicated to speeches, your child will very much benefit from home support as well. For this reason, speech preparation will be the homework task this month. Please assist your child by encouraging him/her to practice the speech on a nightly basis; his/her comfort will greatly increase with consistent practice and preparation. Also, feel free to provide additional support to your child by giving additional tips such as: memorization tips, having your child look at your audience, use more vocal expression, add humour to your speech, etc. 

All students will be required to present a speech. It is expected that the speech is a minimum of 1 minute and 30 seconds long but does not exceed 5 minutes. Your child will work with the educators in the room to choose a topic of interest to him/her that can be researched. All students will be provided with examples,  personal copies of rubrics and success criteria and they are encouraged continually reference these tools to improve their speeches. In order to move on to the next section/component of speech writing, each student will need to have me sign off on his/her progress through a personal conference. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school or via email (matthew.chaput@ed.amdsb.ca ). 

Thank you, in advance, for your time and consideration! 

Respectfully, 

Matt Chaput