Lesson Plan 3
Verbal Illustration of Recitation - Books, Poems, and Speeches
Goal: Students will be able to perfectly recite memorized speeches, poems, and book dialogue segments. Students will listen, analyze, memorize and recite specific speeches, poems and some dialogue segments from books. They will learn to use their voice to bring their own meaning to the words, phrases, and sentences. Students will also be able to discuss and comment on the social and political messages, which may or may not be imbedded in the speech and/or poem. Students will be successful in using varied vocal tones and inflections, as well as, perfect body language that is agreeable to the audience and the message. Students will be able to expand in understanding new vocabulary.
Objective: PA State Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening 1.1.11. C; 1.1.11.H; 1.3.11.C; 1.3.11.D; 1.3.11.E; 1.3.11.F; 1.6.11.A; 1.6.11.B; 1.6.11.C; 1.6.11.D; 1.6.11.E; 1.6.11.F; 1.7.11.A; 1.7.11.C. PA Academic Standards for History 8.3.12.A. PA Academic Standards for the Arts and Humanities 9.2.12.A; 9.2.12.B; 9.2.12.C; 9.2.12.F; 9.12.K; 9.3.12.A.
Materials: LCD Projector, Interactive Whiteboard; audio speakers, Internet access, computer, microphone, iPod, or other recording device, photocopies of all text to be memorized.
Teachers should already have prepared the following links for use in viewing varied speeches. The websites are as follows: Obama speech transcripts - http://www.barackobama.com/speeches/index.php; A More Perfect Union- http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid900718856/bclid900554575/bctid1472313547; Yes, We Can- http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid900718856/bclid900554575/bctid1372110765; Senator Barbara Jordan speech transcripts and her audio/visual speeches, 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address-http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordan1976dnc.html; Statement on the Articles of Impeachment http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordanjudiciarystatement.htm.
Audience: This lesson will satisfy any high school student of all academic tracks and at all levels. It can be adapted for the learning support setting, too.
Procedure: Day One - Introduce public speaking as a way of communicating messages to a larger community. Ask for one or two student volunteers to write brainstorming ideas on the board. Have students brainstorm ways and means they have incurred such speaking events. Ask students what purpose was served and/or addressed. Next, ask students to choose at least five of the most important ideas from the board in their notebooks. Students should be able to discuss in detail why they made their specific choices. Ask several students to share their responses publicly to the class. (This will begin their practice of public speaking.) Assignment: List three speakers you like to hear, identify the title of their speech, the main idea, and what appealed to you to choose this speech.
Day Two - Student groups will be designated from homework assignment completion. Set up groups of not more than six students, assigning them by their top five answers. Try to connect students with others in the class whose answers do not match their own. This will elicit diversity in the group sessions. Have students discuss their personal answers with their groups; they are to have at least two reporters, giving detailed information to the whole class at the end of the session. Thereafter, show two speeches (preferably male and female) and one poetic performance from Furious Flower video. Model for students the reading of a book segment, noting vocal tones and inflections. Assignment: Give students a copy of a speech, poem or novel segment to memorize for the following week showcase.
Day Three - Ask students if they know how to begin a study in memorizing their assigned pieces. Discuss with students some memorizing techniques and have them write the techniques in their notebooks. Some of the techniques we will discuss are: Rewrite and organize notes, create index cards on key terms or definitions, and review and recite frequently. In addition, rhythm, repetition, melody, and rhyme can all aid memory. The use of rhyme, rhythm, and repetition all helped storytellers remember. Students can learn to break up the information into small bits that you can learn, one step at a time, and you may be surprised at how easy it can be. Students can utilize grouping techniques, "chunking", to form meaningful groups that they can learn over time. Another technique is to create an acrostic, which is a sentence where the first letter of each word represents an idea that you need to remember. Finally, students should give the material your full attention and concentrations, set realistic study goals, minimize distractions, organize the information, and create study tools for vocabulary such as flash cards and vocabulary sheets. Students should also know that repeating is still a great memory aid. The actual work of memorizing is repeating information repeatedly until it is stored in our mind. Tell students to recite the information to yourself out loud. Recitation is an important step in committing information to memory.
Assignment: Remember the first paragraph or the first seven lines of their assigned piece. Be ready the next day.
Day Four - Student volunteers can perform their homework assignment for the class. Choose several student audience members to check off words that speaker missed pronounced, left out, etc. Choose some other student audience members to determine the level of the performance. See rubric in Appendix B.
Following week - Assign specific students specific days to perform their assigned memorized piece. Use rubric to determine high scorers of the assignment. Provide for students an atmosphere conducive to the activity and maybe even prizes for all who complete the assignment.
Follow up activity - Upon all students completing their memorized performance, have top scorers repeat their work at a public school event. Use these student speakers at the intermission of an assembly or some other large school gathering. Ask other students who scored next to the highest group of students to introduce their peers to the audience.
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