Public Speaking Course
Why did we develop this Public Speaking course?
In a world where social interaction is continually dwindling and kids are spending over 8hrs per day staring at screens, the ability to speak articulately has become hard to come by.
Academics are required; however, to be an academic achiever is now the bare minimum. To exceed the competition and differentiate themselves from the rest, students must become proficient in the areas everyone else is inept.
Articulate Public Speaking is a Requirement for Job Success
Apprehensively mumbling words when speaking to your boss or timidly addressing a crowd is a certain pathway to career stagnation. The Private Scholarship Exam (which we coach multiple students for) is reversed to be the most difficult exam a student can undertake, not because it is hard itself, but because of the interview component in which a panel assesses a child’s ability to speak eloquently and authentically.
In 2021, 100 of our students seamlessly passed the academic component of this exam, and 72 of them successfully passed the interview rounds and gained a Scholarship.
Program Details
Small Group Classes
Classes will be done in a Zoom meeting in small groups of 7-10 students, allowing for efficacious interaction with every student.
Program Competencies
Week 1
Introduction to Key Elements of Public Speaking, and an Introduction to Speaker Roles For Debating.
1. Emphasis that being a good public speaker is critical to being successful at debating.
2. Break down the key components of manner for students;
- Speaker pace – how quickly they speak; slowing down to emphasis key ideas, and to use pauses to move from one idea to the next.
- Voice modulation – avoiding being monotonous
- Using gestures
- Eye contact, and not speaking into your paper/palm card (particularly important for debating).
3. Introduce Speaker Structure for debating. This includes the roles and requirements of:
- 1st speakers (differentiate between aff vs. neg, and introduce/define the components required: models, burdens of proofs, principle vs. practicals).
- 2nd speakers
- 3rd speakers (introduce concept of thematic)
- Remember, this is an introduction – so just give indications of components, time allocated to components etc. Future weeks will allow you to specifically focus on 1st/2nd/3rd speaker specifics.
Week 2
Arguments of Debating - Principle vs. Practical Arguments
1. Defining Principle Arguements
2. Provide examples of common principle arguments
3. Break down how to unpack, or argue, a principle argument. The best way to do this is to use a topic, and give an example to the students.
- Label principle
- Why is it important
- Precedent
4. Define Practical Arguments
5. Break down components of practical arguments (mechanisms, harms/benefits etc.)
6. Inform students on which speaker uses which type of arguments (ie. first speaker typically uses principle arguments etc.)
Week 3
How to Prep Effectively (Lesson 1)
1. Outline how prep time should be allocated (5 minute individual brain storm, 15 minutes for argument generation, 5 min for argument distribution etc.). Stress that speech writing should not take up majority of time – more important to build a comprehensive case.
2. Discuss the key features of a strong case that should be discussed in prep:
- Identifying Status Quo
- Analyzing stakeholders within the debate
- Characterizing stakeholders/status quo
- Examples
Breaking down these ideas of stakeholder analysis/characterization etc is a lot for a week, so there will be a second iteration of this lesson in Week 8 to allow for more detail.
Week 4
1st Aff Speaker – Thorough BreakdownStory Telling (Telling Informative Stories)
1. Outline, briefly, the components of a first affirmative speaker speech (intro -> model -> allocation -> argument 1 etc.)
2. Reiterate importance of introduction for first speaker.
Discuss characteristics of good introductions (try to make it first-speaker specific, but also make it accessible to all speakers).
3. Break down the components of good modelling.
Analyse how to integrate characterisation of stakeholders/status quo into arguments (the focus is now on using characterisation to create an effective argument, not just identifying what characterisation is).
Week 5
Effective Rebuttal + First Neg Speaker
1. Outline, briefly, the components of a first affirmative speaker speech (intro -> model -> allocation -> argument 1 etc.
2. Use this as an opportunity to talk about how to rebut effectively. Key components to discuss:
- Ways to structure rebuttal (WTS vs WWS etc.).
- How to integrate rebuttal into substantive (to avoid repetition).
- Importance of being responsive, and using the ‘even if’ model for rebuttal.
- Rebutting them ‘at their best’ – this is ultimately a question of ‘What should I rebut’. Discourage just rebutting examples, and encourage regarding arguments (at their best).
- Address the topical question of ‘Who writes rebuttals’ – encourage writing their own rebuttals, and explain the importance of why that is.
Week 6
Second Speakers + Importance of Impacting + Secondary Stakeholders
1. Outline briefly components of second speaker speech
- Emphasise importance of rebuttal in second speaker speech, and discuss time allocation between substantive vs. rebuttal
2. Clarify the type of arguments second speakers should receive vs. first speakers
- Using a topic and 5 brainstormed arguments for either AFF/NEG show which point you would provide to 1st speakers and 2nd speakers.
3. Method for impacting points.
4. Method for identifying secondary stakeholders and how to impact this.
Week 7
Third Speakers + Focus on the Thematic Model
1. Outline components of third speaker speech
2. Define the thematic model of third speaker model
- Compare against the less effective model of ‘rebutting and summarising’, and explain why the thematic model is preferred.
3. Explain how to identify the overarching themes – use an example to identify this.
4. Outline the ‘second model’ of introduction typically used by third speakers (and second): ethos attack.
Week 8
Elements of a Good Case – characterisation, stakeholder analysis, introduce burdens of proofs etc. Last lesson more focused on prep, this one more on elements of case.
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