Standard 3.3D: Language Arts Literacy

 

Standard: Speaking

 

Strand: Oral Presentation

 

Cumulative Progress Indicators: The student will use speaking techniques, including voice modulation, inflection, tempo, enunciation, and eye contact, for effective presentations.

 

Grade: 8

 

Framework Activities

 

·               In order to have students consider when audiences do understand a message, an English teacher has arranged to videotape his class while he delivers a ten-minute lecture on an arcane subject. The teacher then plays the video for the students. They note the nonverbal signals of disinterest, boredom, and misunderstanding and discuss the reasons for these reactions, as well as what the speaker might have done to evoke a different response .

 

·               Small groups of students work to develop a new board game. They create the materials, rules, and directions for playing the game. Each group presents their game and directions to another group. The second group tries to play the game, asking for clarification or elaboration when necessary. Later, each group discusses reasons why the audience did not understand the directions and the need to make appropriate adjustments.

 

·               Students read a “how to” book to learn how to make an object or how to perform some task (e.g., how to make an origami bird or how to juggle). After actually making the object or mastering the process, students reflect on how they mastered the book’s directions. They then develop a set of directions to share with their peers so that classmates can make the object or perform the process, and they adjust their directions as needed so that all students can be successful.