Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Butterworth here, and I am ready to take you through today's lesson, which is all about delivering powerful speeches.

Now, I know for some of you this can be a really nerve wracking experience.

I think I get nervous too when I'm giving speeches, but hopefully by the end of this lesson I'll have given you some strategies to make you feel a little bit more confident and will be prepared and ready to go.

So shall we get started.

So by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to deliver a convincing, persuasive speech.

So let's look at those key words that are gonna be popping up throughout the lesson.

So these words are convincing, speculate, body language, and naturalistic.

Now, convincing means to make something believable by presenting strong evidence and reasoning.

So your speeches should do this, but we can also think about a convincing delivery.

So if you are giving an effective and persuasive delivery, your audience will believe you.

So it will be convincing.

Speculate.

Speculate is another word to guess really.

So to make guesses or predictions about something.

So you might speculate about what the weather is going to be like tomorrow for example.

And body language is all about those non-verbal cues or gestures, such as facial expressions and posture.

And then finally naturalistic.

Now naturalistic when we're thinking about a speech, is delivering your speech in a relaxed way without scripts.

Now, I know what you're thinking.

Delivering a speech is not very naturalistic at all.

And obviously you have to do things with your voice like slow down your speaking, which doesn't feel naturalistic.

But what we need to think about is how we aim to present our speeches as naturalistic so that we are comfortable, so that we are relaxed and in turn our audience are relaxed.

So, yes, it is not necessarily naturalistic what we are doing, but we are aiming to present it in that way.

So we actually have three parts of our lesson today.

So we're going to start by thinking about those final touches and creating cue cards.

We're then going to think about asking and answering questions effectively because you may wish to take questions at the end of giving your speech, or people may have questions to ask.

And then finally, we're gonna think about confident delivery.

So be thinking about ways that we can address those nerves that you may be feeling before giving your speech.

So in a moment there will be some statements appearing on the screen.

I'd like you to have a little think or discuss whether you agree or disagree with these statements.

So the first one is, memorising a speech and delivering it word for word is the most effective way to prepare to give a speech.

Do you agree or disagree? Yes.

Good.

Well lots of you said disagree because actually, relying on memorising your speech can lead to a robotic delivery and lack of connection with the audience.

Because it's actually very difficult to memorise a speech word for word and you don't want to be distracted trying to remember everything that was in that speech.

So, memorising it isn't necessarily the best way to go.

Practising is a good idea, so you know most of it, but memorising not so good.

Reading from your speech like a script is the most effective way to ensure you say everything.

Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Great.

Yes.

And over reliance on a script means less eye contact, and the positive body language needed to engage the audience.

So you can imagine if I'm stood here and I'm reading from a script, I'm going to be looking down, I might look up occasionally, but I'm looking down instead of looking up and looking at my audience.

And likewise, if you've got your head in a script, your speech written out as a long script, you can very often lose your place.

So having to scan through big chunks of text can actually be quite difficult.

And then finally, creating effective cue cards can lead to a more engaging delivery.

Do you agree or disagree? Absolutely.

I agree.

So creating and using cue cards is an effective way to prompt you when delivering your speech.

It can help create a more naturalistic and engaging delivery because you are not gonna be looking down at your cue cards all the time, and it gives you space to be able to move more freely and just present your speech in a much more naturalistic way.

Now the thing to remember with cue cards is the most effective cue cards will give you just the right amount of information to help you deliver and structure your speech.

So what should they include? Key ideas from your introduction.

Now your introduction is a very important part of your speech.

So including key ideas from that is a useful thing to do.

You could also include sentence starters and key words that will help you introduce your ideas.

Sentence starters are always great 'cause they could prompt you and remind you what it is you are talking about, but then also help you open up what it is you're about to say.

So sentence starts are a really good one.

You may want to include any rhetorical devices that you've crafted.

So any anecdotes or facts, statistics are a good one to include on your cue cards because sometimes they're quite difficult to remember, like specific numbers I will always put on my cue cards just so I can present them in a convincing way, but they should not include full sentences.

Remember, cue cards are very small, they're about being in note forms. So full sentences are not a good idea here.

So here's an example of some effective cue cards.

So here's the first one.

So this person has given some key ideas about their introduction.

So they put, imagine this as a sentence starter and then anecdote in brackets to remind them so you know that this person's going to be, imagine this, I'm sat at my desk.

They're gonna give an anecdote.

And then imagine how you would feel.

So they've got that sentence starter there to remind them to use direct address, and what they're going to talk about.

Then on that cue card, they've also got point 1.

So this tells that speaker that their first point is all about that stereotypes still exist.

So this speaker can look at this and go, right, my first point stereotypes still exist.

Then they've got the example.

So they know they're gonna be talking about media, how women are often criticised, and there is pressure to fulfil a specific set of expectations.

So you can see how this point that has been written out will help that speaker, but then those specific examples will prompt them to develop that point.

And then point 2, and this other cue card, their whole point too is about politics and they've put here that it's damaging.

So they know that this whole second part is about the lack of women in parliament and how that's damaging.

And they've got a key statistic here.

So less than a third of MPs are women, and this means that all important decisions are made by men.

So you can see there's limited information there, but there's enough just to prompt the speaker to know exactly what they're talking about.

And likewise, point 3, they know that point 3 is all going to be about jobs are not given fairly, women less likely to get promotions, and that only 35% of largest boards are women.

So they've got that key statistic there and then we must change it.

So that key rhetorical device there.

So they've really clearly mapped out their speech, the key points, examples, and rhetorical devices needed.

So these are really effective cue cards because you can see how these notes provide just enough detail to prompt the speaker when they're delivering a speech.

Okay, so, which of the following should be included on your cue cards? Yes, well done to everyone that noticed it was A, B and D.

The one that we don't want on our cue cards are those full sentences because we just want some lovely succinct information to help us deliver those speeches.

So first task over to you.

Now I'd like you to create your own set of cue cards to help you to deliver your speech.

Now remember, they should include key ideas from your introduction, sentence starters, maybe some key words, the things that are going to prompt you to remember your ideas, any rhetorical devices.

But remember these and should not include full sentences, nor should they include your whole speech.

Okay? So pause video, and get creating those effective cue cards.

Off you go.

Okay, so let's just do a little bit of feedback.

I've got some cue cards here and I just want you to discuss how could these cue cards be improved? So pause a video, so you can read through those cue cards and discuss how they could be improved.

Off you go.

Great.

So lots of you picked up that this person's written out the whole introduction.

So actually key sentence starters and key idea would be a much more effective way of writing a cue card for the introduction than writing out the whole thing.

And likewise, if you look at point 1, point 2 and point 3, they're really not specific enough.

So there's things like mention statistics, use some rhetorical device, gender stereotypes and expectations.

It's very, very vague compared to the other example we looked at, which was very specific, had some really key ideas.

This one's very vague, so they might wanna include the statistics and the specifical rhetorical device that they want to include.

So now check that your own cue cards have the right amount of information on them.

You may even just want to practise giving your speech with the cue cards to check.

Okay? Pause video to give yourself time.

Okay, so we are on the second part of our lesson and this is all about asking and answering questions effectively.

Because this is a really important skill to have when we are thinking about delivering and listening to speeches.

So at the end of a speech, you may be invited to answer questions or you may even want to answer questions or ask questions of another speech if you are an audience member.

And for that, you will also need to be able to pose effective question too because this shows you're a good listener.

So as much as you want to be a good speaker, you also need to be a good listener.

Now I want us to think about open questions because open questions invite developed responses.

So these are questions that go beyond a yes or a no answer.

So these sentence starters can help you for those open questions.

So what do you think.

What's your opinion on.

Do you think there is a valid argument to say that.

You spoke about.

What else do you think? So you can see that these offer an opportunity to develop the speech further and open up discussion.

You don't want to ask a question that's just gonna allow the speaker to say yes or no, or not allow the speaker to develop their speech any further.

So true or false, it is a good idea to use open questions when asking questions about another speech.

Is that true or false? That's right, it's true.

Now, justify by picking A or B.

Great.

Open questions invite developed responses.

Absolutely.

Now, when asking a question, you must.

When answering a question, you must respond with new content rather than repeating parts of the speech.

Okay? So it's really important that you don't just repeat yourself when you are answering a question.

Now Alex here has been asked the following open question, "You mentioned parliament, why do you think less women are choosing to be in politics?" So that's a really nice open question, isn't it? Now Alex is struggling because he actually doesn't know how to answer.

So I want us to think now about what he could do because very often you may find that you are in a situation where you actually don't know how to answer the question, especially if you're feeling a bit nervous.

So this can help.

So first thing, it's okay to admit you are unsure.

So if someone asks you a question, it's okay to say, oh, I'm unsure, or can I have a moment to think about it? Or can I think, what's your answer to that? So you can even throw it back to them for a moment to give yourself time to think.

You can also speculate or make some guesses using the information you already have.

So phrases like perhaps, maybe, I wonder if, can just help you make some tentative speculations.

So Alex has a go at answering the question and he says this, "Thank you for the great question." Very polite, Alex, well done.

I'm not sure he admits he doesn't know.

Perhaps this is due to the opportunities offered in educational settings, or maybe that stereotypical expectations still exist.

So Alex has used information from his speech, but he's developed it slightly to make some speculations in order to answer the question.

Okay, so in a moment I'm going to put a pupil response on the board.

And what I would like you to do is using the pupil response and the sentence starters, create two open questions that could be asked about the speech.

Then what I would like you to do is I would like you to create two additional questions you could be asked about your own speech.

So you need to come up with the questions for your own speech.

And then practise answering the questions.

So you can use practise answering the questions on the pupil response and on your own speech.

Remember, if you are unsure, you can use tentative statements to help you speculate.

So you've also got the sentence starters here, and here is the pupil speech.

So I'm gonna read this to you and then leave you to get on with that task.

So here's a pupil speech.

"Our disregard for gender equality has created a significant problem for our society.

It's harming our communities and the wellbeing of individuals.

The delicate balance of equality is threatened by persistent gender discrimination.

Currently, less than a third of our MPs are women, and this statistic is mirrored in big business where less than 35% of board members are women.

We can improve the situation by advocating for gender inequality.

Let's seize this opportunity to empower and uplift individuals of all genders together.

So that's the pupil speech." Here's the sentence starters, two questions on the pupil speech, two questions on your own speech, and then practise answering those questions using tentative statements.

So lots to be getting on with.

So pause a video, and off you go.

Well done everyone.

It's lovely to hear some of those tentative phrases being used to answer some difficult questions.

So well done.

It's so good to practise using them and to practise what to do when you're unsure.

So Jun poses this question, "Do you agree there are less opportunities for women?" Now discuss why is just Jun's question not as effective as it could be? What do you think? Yes, that's right.

It's a closed question.

So really it's about that question would really only get a yes or a no response.

Yes, I agree.

And the question has already been covered in the speech, and it doesn't really invite a developed response.

So it is important to think about your questioning and how you can can help the speaker to develop what they are saying.

Now consider your own questions, would they give you the speaker the best opportunity to develop the content in your speech? Okay, so we are on the final part of our lesson, which is all about confident delivery of our speeches.

Now, the first thing I want to say about confident delivery is it is okay to feel nervous.

In fact, you should feel nervous, it's a good thing to feel nervous.

But it's all about how we can use those nerves to make an effective delivery, to create an effective delivery.

So I'd like you to discuss what strategies can you use to help with nerves.

Pause the video to give yourself time to come up with some answers.

Off you go.

Some really interesting strategies there.

Thank you.

I'm going to steal some of those for myself.

So yes, somebody said about practising , and that's so true because confidence is key and the more you practise, the more you will know what you are going to say and how to deliver it.

It will almost become just second nature, it'll just flow out of you.

And this will also ensure that your speeches are convincing.

So practise, practise, practise, practise is such a good habit to get into and it will help with your nerves.

And also body language can be really helpful in feeling confident and less nervous, you can almost trick yourself into feeling confident.

So sometimes just smiling is a really good way to make yourself feel less nervous, having an upright posture so you might just try putting your shoulders down, relaxing your hands, and also just taking a few deep breaths before you begin and even during your speech.

You know, having a pause or just taking a breath can just help really calm you and it also sounds like you are thinking, or making an important point.

So pausing is good.

Okay, so true or false, it is okay to feel nervous before delivering a speech.

Is that true or false? Yeah, absolutely.

It's so fine to feel nervous before delivering a speech.

Now justified by saying A or B.

Yes, that's right.

Practising your speech and effective body language can help with pre-speech nerves.

So, we have reached that time.

It is time for you to deliver your speech.

Now, remember, as you deliver to refer to your cue cards because these will help you.

Consider the effect your body language has in creating a confident delivery.

So you may wish to smile, you may even wish to use some gestures.

Consider how you can use posture and eye contact to convey different emotions and a compelling speech.

So don't forget to glance around, and look up as well because it'll make you feel confident.

Consider how you can vary.

You'll use a pitch and pace in order to change the tone of your speech and sound convincing.

Remember as well, when giving a speech, you should speak slower than you usually would on a day-to-day basis.

Okay? So spoken language requires that, and you may need to up your volume a bit too to ensure that everyone in your audience can hear you.

And then finally, don't forget those question phrases.

Have you got those tentative phrases ready to go? And remember, it's okay if you are unsure about the question just a bit that I'm unsure, or I don't know, have you thought about that? Okay.

So remember to take a few deep breaths to calm those nerves, make sure you smile, have your shoulders back, and you are ready to deliver an effective speech.

You've got this, so pause a video and off you go.

Well done everybody.

What an achievement.

You did it.

You delivered a whole speech.

You must feel really proud of yourselves.

Well done.

So what I'd like you to do now is to self-assess your speech delivery.

So you'll need to give yourself a what went well and an even better if.

And I will give you some pointers to help you construct those.

So, did you use your cue cards to help support you? Did you consider the effect of your body language? Did you consider your posture and your eye contact? Did you consider how to you to vary your use of pitch and pace in order to change the tone of your speech? And did you answer questions effectively? Pause the video, so you've got time to give yourself that what went well and an even better if.

So again, a very well done in all that you have achieved today.

I'm really proud that we've managed to deliver a persuasive speech, and learn how to combat those nerves.

So well done.

So let's just remind ourselves of everything that we have looked at.

We know that reading from a script, or memorising word for word can lead to a less engaging delivery.

And I'm sure that lots of you are using those cue cards to ensure that you were engaging and making effective eye contact.

If you take questions at the end, you should respond with new contact rather than repeating parts of the speech.

Asking open questions can invite developed responses.

Body language and eye contact, support the successful delivery of a speech.

It's okay to feel nervous, find the strategies that work for you.

And then finally, speeches are much more engaging when the speaker does not simply read off a page.

So again, well done excellent work and I can't wait to do it all again soon.

So I'll see you in another lesson.

Okay? Bye bye.