Welcome to 2024! I hope wherever you are it’s behaving nicely.
In New Zealand, my part of the world, summer has finally arrived, and our usually quiet seaside village is full of sun hat wearing visitors, slurping on rapidly melting ice cream cones, determined to have a good time.
The noisy throngs don’t venture much further than the nearest beach which leaves the pathways threading amongst the rocks and trees along the coast between settlements free. This is one of my favorites: the walking track between Langs Beach and Waipu Cove.
If I could bundle up the scent of fresh sea air, the beauty of the trees, rocks, sea and sky with the warmth of the sun and send it to you, I would. ☺
Instead, here’s a collection of 10 public speaking resources. All of them were made to go with activities I wrote about for write-out-loud.com. You’ll find them flexible - good for either regular student or adult community classes.
I hope you enjoy them, and that they're useful for you.
Happy New Year to us all, whoever and wherever we are,
Susan
Articulation and pronunciation fun
The Announcer's Test
This is a classic long form articulation work out. Apparently, it was regularly set as a cold reading test for would-be announcers by Radio Central New York in the 1940s. One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese... Here’s my attempt: The Announcer’s Test - take number far-too-many! It’s hard.
Blank speech outlines
I sincerely wish I'd been shown how to use these a long, long, time ago when I was student. Perhaps I wouldn’t have had such a hard time learning about structure.
Here’s four of varying types.
The first is a general or standard speech outline. The page it's on covers the reasons for using an outline, different organizational patterns for speeches and how to effectively prepare a speech introduction, body and end. Here’s the link for it: standard speech outline printable.
The next is a demonstration speech outline. The page covers all the steps necessary for preparing a good demonstrative speech from set up to finish and includes a completed example to use as a guide. Get the demonstration speech outline printable.
For persuasive speeches here's an outline using Monroe's Motivated Sequence as an organizer. The page it comes from covers each step thoroughly with examples: persuasive speech outline.
Lastly here's a speech outline for learning and/or teaching structure for impromptu speeches. It uses Point, Reason, Example, Point (PREP) format. You can see it in action in the example speeches on my page about 1 minute speeches.
Impromptu speaking games
All of these adapt well across age groups, and they’re great to play!
Picture prompts for story telling: 5 activities. The printable file contains 40 evocative pictures to use with the activities.
Next there are 3 Christmas giveaway printables. For several years I made ‘gifts’ of family friendly public speaking games for my newsletter readers. The instructions for playing them are included.
Story Starters - a game to get everyone: Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Grannies, telling stories - the bigger the better.
Expert Interviews - become an instant expert in the most diverse and interesting range of occupations and hobbies. This activity unapologetically promotes outrageous exaggerations, truth bending and total nonsense!
Would You Rather - explores the dilemma of choice. What do you choose and why, particularly when both options are not what you’d normally consider for yourself.
Poetry fun
The last, the tenth, is a printable of 6 classic children's poems. These are perfect for exploring vocal variety, for honing articulation, and for having sheer unadulterated giggly fun. You'll find suggestions for working with the poems along with audio clips of yours truly, me, reading them here: poems for kids.
PS. If you found this beneficial, feel free to share it and click the ❤️ button so more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏Thank you.
PPS. As I said last week, and I’ll say next, if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, or if you’d like to share an article on some aspect of public speaking, or a speech of your own, please get in touch. Either reply to this email or contact me through the form on my about me page on my website. I’d love to hear from you!