Lesson video

Hello, and thank you for joining me.

My name's Mrs. Butterworth, and I will be your English teacher for today.

Now, this lesson is called Finding Your Voice.

So we will delve into what this means and what we can do to help you with this.

We will also consider how we can choose and research an effective topic for a presentation.

So let's get started.

So in this lesson, you will choose an appropriate topic for a presentation and use your research skills to begin developing ideas.

But let's look at those all important key words that we will need for this lesson.

Those words, are authentic, unique, credible, reliable, and reputable.

Now, authentic, we're going to use this word when we're talking about your voice.

So we want you to use your authentic voice and find your authentic voice.

And this means to be genuine, real, or true to yourself without pretending to be someone or something else.

So really think about this idea of an authentic voice.

Unique means one of a kind, unlike anything or anyone else.

So again, this links to this idea of your authentic voice, your unique, authentic voice.

Credible is to be believable or trustworthy, which we are aiming for in our presentations.

Reliable, we're gonna be thinking about this with relation to information and sources.

So if something is reliable, it consistently provides accurate and valid information.

It can be depended on.

And then reputable, quite similar to reliable.

So it means it has a good reputation, or is being considered trustworthy and reliable.

Okay? So see if you can see those words pop up throughout the lesson.

So the outline of our lesson looks like this.

We're going to begin by choosing a topic and considering how we do that before moving on to create some effective research.

So part of being an effective public speaker is finding your voice.

I want you to discuss what do you think this might mean? Pause the video to give yourself time to discuss your ideas.

If that isn't an option, you can think quietly to yourself.

Off you go.

Thank you for those really thoughtful ideas.

Let's just share some of those now.

So finding your own voice can mean developing your own unique speaking style, feeling confident in how you express yourself, using your natural strengths to communicate clearly, connecting with the audience in a genuine way, and being authentic and impactful when you speak.

So with effective public speaking, it isn't about performing or doing everything perfectly.

It's about being genuine.

It's about your unique point of view.

It's about expressing your ideas clearly and with your own voice.

As I have said, finding and developing your authentic voice is all about your views and your voice.

So one way to start thinking about this is to make sure, when you are giving a presentation, that you pick a topic that you care or feel strongly about, okay? Because it has to be specific to you.

So in terms of a presentation, I'd like you to just spend some time thinking now.

So consider what potential topics you could talk about.

what do you want to say about the world, and what matters to you.

So pause the video to just give yourself some quiet time to think about those questions.

Off you go.

Great, thank you for that time to think about those ideas.

So hopefully you are really starting to think about what you could potentially present on.

So I'm going to give you some ideas now that you may want to consider.

So if you're struggling to think about how your idea might work or any ideas at all, this will help you now.

So you may want to give a presentation on a person that inspires you.

So this could be anyone from a family member to someone famous, a historical figure, or anyone else personal to you.

You could think about an issue or a cause that you are passionate about, for example, the environment, mental health, social justice, or animal rights, and think about how it drives your actions or shapes your values.

So again, picking one of these issues or causes could be a really good way to think about using your authentic voice.

You could think about presenting on a personal experience or a challenge that has impacted you.

So think about a moment in your life that really changed your perspective or challenged you.

So it could be something like overcoming a fear, moving to a new place, or achieving a goal.

All of these things could be really interesting to form the basis of a presentation.

And then finally, a hobby or an interest that has influenced you.

And I'm sure you have many.

So whether it's playing a sport or an instrument, maybe creating art or volunteering, you can really share how it has helped you develop skills, confidence, or a sense of purpose.

So you may think that your hobby or your interest might not be that interesting, or you might not have much to say, but actually there is lots that you can delve into and share as a part of a really engaging presentation.

Okay, so complete this sentence.

An authentic voice is a voice that A, B, C.

Select your answer, now.

Are we ready for the answer? Hopefully, lots of you feeling confident and have picked B.

So an authentic voice is a voice that expresses your true thoughts and feelings honestly and genuinely.

So hopefully, now you have some topic ideas for a presentation.

Because once you have chosen your topic, it can be really useful to turn it into a meaningful statement or title, because this can really help you with the following things.

It can really help you to focus your ideas.

It can help you to develop a clear line of argument or thought.

It can help you to explore and develop complex ideas within your presentation.

It can also signal where you might be able to do some wider research or engage with some wider ideas to really develop that presentation topic.

So I'm gonna show you now some ways to develop and focus your topic choice.

So we're gonna look at one method, and this is to identify the main message.

So one thing that you can do to develop and focus your topic choice is identify the main message.

So you are thinking, what is the key takeaway or point you want to make about your topic? So you identify the main message.

So let me show you what that looks like.

So for example, the topic is "My grandmother inspires me." So I'm gonna identify the main message, which becomes "My grandmother's resilience in facing hardships has taught me the importance of perseverance in life." So you can see how identifying the main messages of resilience, and hardship, and perseverance has made the topic much less general.

So the "My grandmother inspires me" is quite vague.

It's quite broad, isn't it? So identifying the main messages and the key takeaways has given it much more structure and has focused it down there.

The other thing you can do is narrow your focus.

So you want to make sure your statement is specific enough to cover in your presentation.

So what I mean is this.

So you've chosen to talk about "a challenge I've overcome." It's not very specific, is it? It could be any challenge.

You could have overcome it in a number of ways.

So we need to narrow that focus.

So this looks like this.

"Overcoming anxiety helped me develop resilience and a more positive mindset." Okay, so you can see they've identified the challenge that they've overcome and thought about narrowing that focus.

What exactly are they going to present on? So that's a really good method as well in order to help you focus your topic choice.

Again, taking it from the broad, the general, and the vague to the more specific, more layered, more complex.

You could also, another method is to make it arguable if it's appropriate.

So think about your topic.

Could perhaps someone agree or disagree with the idea? So that can look like this.

So imagine that you've chosen the topic climate change.

You could make it this.

"Small personal changes can have a big impact on fighting climate change." So climate change, the topic is really broad.

It could be about anything.

So actually this person thought, "Okay, I'm gonna change it to an argument.

I'm going to argue that small personal changes can have a big impact on fighting climate change." So this is another way that you can think about your topic and really again, making it specific and making it focused.

And also you can think about stating the significance.

So you can explain why your point matters or how it impacts you or others.

So again, the topic could be, "I'm gonna talk about personal experience." Again, not very specific, but if we think about stating the significance, it becomes much more detailed, much more specific.

"Moving to a new school helped me learn adaptability and the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone." So you can see they've really stated the significance, the importance of that personal experience and what the personal experience is.

Now, it's over to you to select the correct answer.

So which is the best example of a developed and meaningful statement or title? Is it A, B, or C? Select your answer now.

Brilliant.

Well, done to everyone that selected C, "Dogs teach us about unconditional love and loyalty, making them our true companions." So you see they've identified a main message.

They've narrowed their focus.

And actually this could almost be argued, couldn't it? So they've made this almost an arguable point.

But if we look at the other two, "Volunteering is important and necessary," again, they haven't really identified a main message.

They haven't narrowed the focus.

I guess it could be argued, but it doesn't.

It still feels quite vague and not specific enough.

And likewise, "My hobby is football, and I enjoy playing lots of different positions." A great topic to choose, but in terms of the statement or title, they really want to think about their main message.

They really wanna think about narrowing the focus or even making an arguable point or statement.

Okay, so it's over to you now.

So thinking about everything that we have looked at in this first part of the lesson, I would like you first of all to choose a topic for your presentation.

You may wish to consider one of the following: a person that inspires you, an issue or cause that you are passionate about, a personal experience or challenge that has impacted you, a hobby or interest that has influenced you.

Then, once you have chosen your topic, I would like you to turn your topic into a meaningful statement or title, like we have just done.

When you are ready, pause the video and complete the tasks.

Off you go.

Okay, thank you everyone.

I'd just like to spend a little bit of time reflecting on our statements and just sharing some work.

So we have our Oak pupil, Alex, here, and Alex has written this statement.

"Social media is bad and impacts negatively on people." Now, before we talk this through, I'd like you to discuss how could Alex improve his statement.

So pause the video to give yourself time to discuss the answer to this question, or just think quietly to yourself.

Off you go.

Okay, great.

Lots of really brilliant suggestions there.

So you may have said that the statement lacks depth.

It's quite vague.

It's just kind of making these broad statements, like "Social media is bad," and it doesn't specifically explain why social media is considered bad or the specific impacts it has.

So this statement isn't going to help Alex narrow his focus or create a line of argument, okay? It's really general, broad, and vague.

So Alex has another go, and you can see this is already much better.

So, "Social media can negatively impact mental health by fostering feelings of anxiety and inadequacy through constant comparison with others." So you can see how it is much more specific there.

He wants to talk about mental health.

He wants to talk about specific feelings of anxiety and inadequacy and how that happens.

So you can see how it's a lot more specific, a lot more focused than social media is bad.

So again, as I have just said, this revised statement is more developed as it explains the specific negative effects of social media on mental health.

So now I'd just like you to spend a few moments checking that your own statement is developed and specific.

So pause the video.

So you've got time to do that.

Off you go.

Okay, excellent work everyone.

We are now already at the second part of our lesson.

So we've thought about choosing a topic, and now we're going to move on to creating effective research.

So I'd like you to discuss, please, why is research important? As ever, pause the video so you've got time to discuss your answers or think quietly to yourself.

Off you go.

Okay, are we ready to share? So hopefully, you've got something similar.

Maybe you have something different.

That's fine, but let's see what we have come up with.

So why is research important? Well, it supports your content.

So research provides reliable facts and data to back up your ideas, making your presentation more credible.

So if you're presenting something, it's great if you have an opinion on it, but some research can really help to bolster that opinion and make it more credible and reliable.

It also enhances understanding.

So research helps you to understand your topic better.

So it allows you to explain it clearly and confidently to your audience.

So even if you are talking about your hobby, for example, doing some research can help you to understand other aspects of it.

So you might understand how the hobby was invented, or other people's perspectives on the hobby, or studies that have been done on the hobby.

That can really enhance your understanding of your own topic.

And also, research can really engage the audience.

So if you have a well research presentation, including interesting information and examples can really help to capture the audience's attention and it keeps them engaged.

So research is so important for developing your presentations, even if the topic is something personal to you, there is always scope to put some research in.

So effective research can look like the following.

So you could identify others who have spoken about the topic.

So it could include people such as experts, historical figures, celebrities.

So just looking for people that have spoken about those key ideas.

You could also find some relevant evidence.

So this could include facts and statistics, case studies, reports and newspapers.

So any kind of relevant evidence can help with your presentation.

And finally, you could even research some key vocabulary.

So this could include subject terminology or even elevated vocabulary choices.

So again, always thinking about how we can improve our vocabulary, even when we're thinking about spoken language.

So when we're thinking about research, it's really important to think about the sources that we use.

And you want to try and use credible and reliable sources.

And this becomes particularly important when quoting facts or statistics.

But we don't just want to rely on any sources.

Using reputable sources is a really good habit to get into.

So using things like reference books can be a really good thing.

Or government websites.

So official websites, news sources.

So things like the BBC, The Guardian, or The Times can be a source of credible and reliable information.

And also things like documentaries and educational videos.

Things like TED Talks can be a really great way to get quotes, facts, statistics, examples that are reliable and credible and come from those reputable sources.

True or false? Research from any source is valid.

Is that true or false? Say your answer now.

Well done everyone that said false.

But as ever, you need to explain why that's false and justify your answer.

I'll give you a few minutes now to come up with your answer.

Well done to everyone who said something like, you should aim to use credible and reliable information from reputable sources.

So not all research is good research, if you like.

We have to try and use credible and reputable sources.

So it can sometimes be to be difficult to know where to begin with research.

So I think a really good place to start is to consider the key words or ideas in your statement.

So we created these at the first part of the lesson, and actually these can really help to signpost or signal where you should research.

So let's look at this statement.

"My grandma's resilience in facing hardships has taught me the importance of perseverance in life." So before I speak to you about this, I would like you to discuss what do you consider to be the key words or ideas in this statement? So pause the video so you can discuss your answers to this question.

Think quietly to yourself, or you may wish to jot some ideas down.

Pause the video.

Off you go.

Okay, so you may have got "grandmother's resilience," "facing hardships," and the "importance of perseverance." There are kind of key ideas and key words in that statement.

So what we can then do is these key words can be used to generate effective research questions.

So it can look like this.

"Grandmother's resilience" can be "How is resilience defined?" So that can lead you to research that.

What does resilience mean? How does it link to these experiences? And what are the vocabulary links to the word resilience? So a really nice thing to think about is like dictionary definition.

So how does the dictionary define resilience? How does your grandmother define resilience, for example? So "facing hardships" could become "Are there any examples or studies that explore coping mechanisms?" So is there anything that could be compared to what your grandmother was doing? The "importance of perseverance." We could think about "Are there any famous stories or examples of people who demonstrate the importance of perseverance?" So again, we could think about comparing the grandmother's perseverance to famous people or historical characters.

Now it's time for you to begin researching your topic.

So the first thing you'll need to do is you'll need to select the key words and ideas in your statement from task A.

So if you remember for the first part of the lesson, you chose a topic, then you created a statement or title.

So you'll need to select the keywords.

Then, you'll need to generate some questions or areas to consider for further research.

So really think about, you know, are there any keywords that you could look for definitions for? Are there any famous stories or examples that you could compare? And then what I would like you to do is research your topic.

So remember, we are using reputable and credible sources for our research.

So I've also given you a grid, which is available on the next slide, and the worksheet to record your research.

So I'll show you what the grid looks like.

So you've got your statement, your keywords, your research questions, and then some ideas there.

So who else has spoken about the topic? Relevant evidence, keywords, and vocabulary.

So that research grid should help you to record your research.

Let's go back to the tasks.

So here they are.

When you have everything you need, you can pause the video, and can complete your research.

Off you go.

Well done and thank you everyone.

Hopefully, you are beginning to see the benefits of effective research in really developing and growing those initial topics for your presentations.

What I would like you to do is I'd like you just to spend a few minutes self-assessing your research using the following questions.

So have you gathered enough evidence to support your main ideas or arguments? Have you used reputable sources? And have you gathered a range of examples? So pause the video to give yourself time to self-assess using those questions.

Now, off you go.

Okay, fantastic work everyone, and you have reached the end of the lesson, and hopefully, you are starting to feel like you are finding your authentic voice because, as we see here, part of being an effective public speaker is all about finding your voice, and developing your authentic voice is all about your views and your voice.

So when picking a topic, you could choose something that is important to you because this is all about developing your voice.

Creating a meaningful statement or title can help to develop and focus ideas in your topic.

And effective research can elevate a presentation, but must come from credible resources.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I hope I will see you all again in another English lesson, and I will see you then.

Goodbye.