Lesson video

Hi everyone, and welcome to today's lesson.

This is the final lesson of our 'Front Desk' unit where today we're going to be reading aloud our writing.

In today's lesson, you will be able to read aloud a persuasive letter inspired by 'Front Desk.

' Here are some key words we're going to use.

Reading aloud, projection, diction, eye contact, body language.

Reading aloud involves speaking in front of others and listening to others.

Projection involves speaking powerfully and clearly.

Diction means pronouncing words clearly.

Eye contact means looking into the eyes of the people in an audience.

Body language is how we use our posture and gestures to communicate meaning, confidence, and feelings.

Today we are going to be reading aloud a persuasive letter inspired by the text 'Front Desk.

' We're going to begin by preparing to read aloud and then we are going to move on to reading aloud our persuasive letters.

Reading aloud can be an important final stage of the writing process.

It can be a way of sharing information or showing a piece you've written to other people.

Reading aloud involves speaking in front of others and listening to others.

When we read aloud, we need to think about all these: projection, diction, eye contact, body language, pace.

Let's begin by looking in more detail at projection.

Projecting our voice involves speaking powerfully and clearly.

Projection is very important because our audience needs to be able to hear what we are saying.

When we project our voices, we need to use deep breaths and use the muscles in our stomach to help us speak.

We can use a muscle called the diaphragm in our stomach to help us make sure that we are using a strong, clear voice.

This helps us project our voice around the room and speak at an appropriate volume so everyone in the audience can hear us.

Projecting our voice is not the same as shouting.

Projecting involves which of these? Using the stomach muscles when speaking, shouting, speaking in a high-pitched voice, taking deep breaths before speaking.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that projecting involves using the stomach muscles when we speak and taking deep breaths before speaking.

It does not involve shouting or speaking in a high-pitched voice.

Now let's move on to learning more about diction.

Diction involves pronouncing words clearly.

Diction is very important because our audience needs to be able to understand what we are saying.

So firstly, we want to project our voice around the room at an appropriate volume, but we also need to make sure that we are speaking clearly and pronouncing our words clearly enough so that the audience understands us.

When we speak with clear diction, we take our time to pronounce our words carefully.

This might involve practising saying some tricky vocabulary so we can pronounce it clearly when we're reading aloud or writing.

In our persuasive letters, we are writing in a very formal tone, so that means we might be using words that we're not used to saying in our usual conversations.

So that might mean that we need to take some time to identify those key words and practise saying them and pronouncing them confidently.

So when we come to reading aloud, we can pronounce or we can speak with clear diction.

Speaking with clear diction is important because, A, it helps the audience understand the words we are saying.

B, it helps us slow down and pronounce tricky words correctly.

And C, it helps keep the audience engaged.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted this prediction is important because it helps the audience understand the words we're saying.

It helps us slow down and produce tricky words correctly, and it helps keep the audience engaged.

Diction helps us achieve all three of these goals.

When we read aloud, we need to think about all of these, but let's focus now on eye contact.

Eye contact involves looking into the eyes of the people in our audience.

Eye contact is very important because it helps us connect with our audience and it helps for them to feel connected to us.

That's really important for the audience to stay engaged.

When the audience feels connected to us, they find what we have to say more interesting.

We may need to speak more slowly so that we have time to make eye contact with the members of our audience.

Remember, the purpose of our persuasive letter is to connect with our audience so that they're going to be persuaded by our point of view.

So eye contact is really, really important here.

True or false? Eye contact helps us connect with our audience.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that this is true.

Now choose how to justify your answer.

Well done if you spotted the correct justification is, A, eye contact helps us connect with our audience because it involves looking people in the eye as we are speaking to them.

When reading aloud, we need to think about all these.

So we've talked about projection, diction, eye contact.

Now let's focus on body language.

Body language refers to how we use our posture and gestures to communicate meaning and feelings.

Body language is very important because it helps us look confident.

Strong body language includes all of these standing with our feet shoulder-width apart, speaking with our chin up and standing with our shoulders back.

It can be a really useful tool because even if we're not feeling that confident, if we make ourselves look confident, we can almost trick ourselves into feeling more confident than we actually are.

Strong body language includes which of these? A, speaking with our chin up.

B, standing with our feet shoulder-width apart.

C, speaking in a loud, clear voice.

D, standing with our shoulders back.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you start spotted that strong body language includes speaking with our chin up, standing with our feet shoulder-width apart, and standing with our shoulders back.

Speaking in a loud, clear voice is really important, but this is more to do with projection than body language.

When we read aloud, we think about projection, diction, eye contact, body language, and now let's focus on our pace.

Pace refers to the speed at which we speak.

If we speak too quickly, our audience may not be able to clearly hear what we are saying.

If we speak too slowly, our audience may lose interest in what we are saying.

Successful presenters speak at a slow, clear pace so that everyone can hear them.

Speaking at the correct pace Will give us more time to do the other things, such as projecting our voices, speaking with clear diction and making eye contact.

So when we are speaking in a public capacity, like reading aloud or writing, we want to slow down the pace at which we would normally speak if we were having a conversation with our friends, so that we can really give each word and each sentence the time to land properly with our audience and make that impact with them.

Now it's time for your first task.

Match the key aspects of successful reading aloud to their definitions.

So on the left we've got projection, diction, eye contact, body language, and pace.

On the right, we have got the definitions, the speed at which we speak, our posture, stance and gestures, which help convey meaning and emotions, speaking powerfully, clearly, and at an appropriate volume.

Pronouncing all our words clearly and looking audience members in the eye.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Projection involves speaking powerfully, clearly, and at an appropriate pace.

Diction means pronouncing all our words clearly.

Eye contact means looking audience members in the eye.

Body language refers to our posture, stance and gestures, which help convey meaning and emotions, and pace is the speed at which we speak.

Well done.

What a brilliant start to our lesson.

Now that we have prepared ourselves for reading aloud, let's move on to reading aloud our persuasive letters.

We are now really familiar with the aspects of effective reading aloud.

Let's read them together.

Projection, diction, eye contact, body language, and pace.

Before we move on, let's focus just in a bit more detail on diction.

Diction involves right pronouncing our words clearly.

This may involve practising saying some tricky vocabulary so we can pronounce it clearly in our presentation.

Some formal vocabulary might be tricky to say.

Remember, we've already mentioned how our persuasive letters written in a formal tone.

That means we might have used some language that we wouldn't normally use in our regular day-to-day conversations and our writing.

Some of these words might be polysyllabic.

My turn, polysyllabic.

Your turn.

Great work.

Polysyllabic words are just words that have several syllables.

They might be words we don't use often.

If we identify which words we find tricky to say in our letter, we can practise saying them out loud.

This will help us develop clear diction when saying these words and help us prepare for successful reading aloud.

It's almost like training ourselves with muscle memory to be able to say some tricky words before we have to use them in our reading aloud.

Take a moment first to reread your persuasive letter.

Then circle any words that you find tricky to pronounce and practise saying them aloud.

Pause the video while you do that.

Well done everyone.

Here's my example.

Let's read mine together.

First and foremost, may I extend my gratitude for your true dedication to our community's wellbeing.

Your tireless efforts in ensuring that our time flourishes are commendable.

I write today with a matter of great importance: the establishment of a new community playground.

Imagine a place in our local area where children can laugh, play and create cherished memories.

I am certain that you will agree that such a playground would not only enrich the lives of our youth, but it would also foster a strong sense of unity and belonging within our community.

So here's my introduction of my persuasive letter.

Here are some words that I circled that I find tricky to pronounce.

These are words that are not in my usual vocabulary, commendable, establishment, and cherished.

Now I can practise saying them aloud.

Sometimes I find things like clapping the syllables as I say them really helps.

I'm now going to practise reading aloud my introduction using the checklist below.

So thinking about my how I project my voice diction.

So how I pronounce each word clearly, and remember, I've already identified those tricky words, eye contact, strong body language and my shoulders back, speaking with my chin up and pace.

So speaking at a clear pace and a little bit slower than I normally would if I was just speaking to my friends.

First and foremost, may I extend my gratitude for your true dedication to our community's wellbeing.

Your tireless efforts in ensuring that our time flourishes our commendable.

I write today with a matter of great importance: the establishment of a new community playground.

I am certain that you will agree that such a playground would not only enrich the lives of our youth, but it would also foster a strong sense of unity and belonging within our community.

Now it is time for you to practise reading aloud your introduction.

Use the checklist to help you.

So think about how you project your voice.

Use clear diction, especially with those words that you've already identified as being tricky to say.

Make sure you pause and give eye contact strong body language and speak at a slow, clear pace.

Pause the video while you do that.

Great work.

Now it's time for you to read aloud your persuasive letter and remember to use the checklist.

Project your voice so all members of the audience can hear you.

Speak with clear diction so your audience can understand every word you say.

Make eye contact with audience members in order to form connections with them as you speak.

Use strong body language to convey the information confidently and speak at a slow, clear pace.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Did you remember to do all of these things? Did you think about your projection, your diction, eye contact, body language, and pace? There may be some parts of this checklist that you find came more naturally to you than others.

Remember, the more times you practise your reading aloud and focus on each pre presentation skill on its own, the more confident you will be with your overall reading aloud by the end.

Brilliant work everyone.

That now brings us to the end of our lesson, where today we've been reading aloud a persuasive letter inspired by the text 'Front Desk.

' Here's a summary of what we've learned.

Effective reading aloud involves projecting our voices, speaking with clear diction, making eye contact with the audience, and using strong body language when speaking.

Speaking at a calm slow pace helps us remember to use the above presenting techniques.

Some words are tricky to say.

By identifying these words and practising saying them beforehand, we make it easier to pronounce them with clear diction when it comes to reading aloud.

I hope you've really enjoyed getting the opportunity to share your writing with other people in your class.

Well done for all of your hard work.