For This or That, you give them a choice between two things and they have to choose. So you might say, "Would you rather live in the city (point to the left side of the room) or the country (point to the right side of the room). And they go to the side that they prefer. It obviously works best in a larger space with not a lot of stuff in it. You can Google to get lots of options for This or That choices.
Clumps and Lines - you have them put themselves in Clumps (groups) or lines based on a series of things. Line up shortest to tallest, alpha by first name, in birthday order and so on. For the clumps, they can gather with people who share the same favorite class in school, holiday, food, and so on. With theatre classes, the clumps have to be staged so that everyone can be seen, and I can tell where one clump stops and another begins.
Hope this helps!
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Dianne Rowe
Theatre Arts Teacher
Junior Thespian Troupe 88177
Berry Middle School
bit.ly/BerryDrama
Birmingham, AL
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-22-2019 13:07
From: Cathy Archer
Subject: Middle School - Effective Speaking
HI,
Thank you for your help. I do not think I know clumps and lines or THis or THat. Can you explain how these are played? THank you
Cathy
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Cathy Archer
Rutland VT
Original Message:
Sent: 10-22-2019 07:53
From: Dianne Rowe
Subject: Middle School - Effective Speaking
Triple Speak sounds fantastic and we will be trying it right away! We play a game called Experts, where they have to speak for 30 seconds on a random topic, with the goals being to sound like an expert, avoid happy feet and fidgeting, and avoid fillers like "um" and "uh". Triple Speak takes it to the next level. They will love it!
I am teaching middle school Speech this 9 weeks as well, and tried a different tactic for the beginning of the year. We did some ice breaker games like Clumps and Lines, This or That, and Human Bingo, then did Paper Bag Speeches. I did one to show them what I was looking for, and on this first speech, I did not grade them on the delivery at all, but on getting in all the required elements, and format of their outline. It worked better than I anticipated. Right off the bat, they had their first speech done and it was relatively low stakes. It opened the door to discussing common issues, like happy feet, fidgeting and projection.
We are starting today on the next speech, which will be How-To. Tomorrow I will do a How-To speech for them, and show them how to bake a Wacky Cake (uses no dairy or eggs and only one pan). They get cake at the end, so they love it.
Other planned speeches are informative, persuasive, and impromptu (10-15 mins to write and research and present same day). I also want to do a unit on oral interp/storytelling as our final pre-Christmas assignments.
I also email home when we're in the planning stages of each speech, so parents can help gather supplies (if needed) and provide an audience. Last year, I used a checklist for the informative and persuasive that required them to present to at least two people outside school, and get their signatures and feedback. I will be doing that again this year. Middle schoolers need lots of checkpoints to keep them on track.
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Dianne Rowe
Theatre Arts Teacher
Junior Thespian Troupe 88177
Berry Middle School
bit.ly/BerryDrama
Birmingham, AL
Original Message:
Sent: 10-21-2019 14:40
From: Elana Kepner
Subject: Middle School - Effective Speaking
My public speaking students love an exercise called Triple Speak which not only helps them practice transitions but also is a fun intro to impromptu speaking. I give my students slips of paper and have them write down three random words/ topics ("Happiness," "jelly beans", "The Sinking of the Titanic," etc). I screen them to make sure they are legible and appropriate for the activity. With a younger group, you might want to brainstorm topics as a class. I assign a timer and topic person. A speaker gets up and the topic person gives them a topic and the timer starts the stopwatch. The speaker must try to keep speaking in complete thoughts about or around the topic for the next 30 seconds. At 30 seconds, or when the speaker starts to run out of steam, whichever comes first, the timer says "next," and the topic person shouts out the next topic. The speaker must transition as smoothly as possible to the next topic. We do this two more times. For an added challenge, you can add time for a conclusion at the end of the 3rd topic. Everyone in the class speaks. Usually, they want to do the exercise again immediately because it makes them laugh and there is a bit of a competitive aspect to it, seeing who can build the most coherent speech from three random topics. This feeds nicely into impromptu speeches.
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Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC
Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2019 09:58
From: Cathy Archer
Subject: Middle School - Effective Speaking
HI,
I am teaching a brand new course to seventh graders and eighth graders called effective speaking. I am a part of a unified arts rotation so I have them for twenty lessons, give or take. I had a plan when school started - start with an introduction speech, then a storytelling speech, then either a persuasive speech ( eighth graders) or an information speech ( seventh graders) and then a final presentation integrating with other classes. THe students are resistant to the class. The period is 68 minutes which I am trying to break up so they are doing different kinds of activities but..... basically I am spending a lot of time getting them to pay attention. Any thoughts of hands on activities which might engage them. They totally resist "theatre" games - although a few have worked briefly!!! HELP!!! I am really at a loss as how to engage this age group.
Cathy
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Cathy Archer
Rutland VT
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