Wednesday/Thursday Third Week November

We've started persuasive speaking with a small first round in each class.

In Wednesday's class, Zach made the effort to convince us that Southpark is more than just a gross and annoying adult cartoon but that it was satire with a positive impact on society. Scott wanted us to commit to recycling and showed some images of a messy earth. Veronica had some powerful stories about Kentucky Fried Chicken's abuse of poultry as well as their poor nutrition and Andrea chose to attack powerdrinks, a topic very well related to her audience.

In Thursday's class, one student went to the trouble of making her own costume, a t-shirt celebrating the Haight, a major gay meeting area in San Francisco. Her passionate speech focused on the rights of gay people to marry. Abby spoke from the heart about the problem of teens and adults drinking and driving and convinced us to take the keys from friends who drink. Calvin spoke with passion about why we should support the death penalty. We had two make up informative speeches as well. Kelly spoke with humor and personal creditility about the ranching life in Oregon. Chloe gave us an overview of ball handling in basketball and had her live visual aid show us some moves.

Monday/Wednesday First Week November

It's Monday and I haven't yet written about the two days of informative speeches in my Monday/Wednesday class last week. A number of people in the class didn't sign in the first day to give me permission to use their names. So comments on them are left out.

In defense of my procrastination, I'll say that I spent too much time looking for an old picture of myself bird-hunting that I could display along with my discussion of one student's speech. Unfortunately, the graphics file from 2002 was hopelessly corrupted. Sigh. So you won't get to see a picture of me with a shotgun in one hand and a big, phat pheasant-boy in the other.

Monday, November 3

I was impressed with our speakers who shared their personal lives today, including Brian and Ashley. Brian made great eye contact and looked very calm as he talked about diabetes and Ashley engaged with the audience in a very profession, interactive manner during her explanation of TMJ. Lance shared his personal experience with cancer as he spoke to us about different types of the disease.

Others shared their personal interest in sporting events. Becca also spoke energetically about gymnastics and another student spoke about swimming. Scott showed a concern for the earth with his presentation and Andrea showed a concern for the audience with her overview of the pros and cons of energy drinks.

But the Best-Speech-of-the-Day Award goes to Seth and his presentation on the Spartans. It was a well researched presentation about a historical subject that focused on stuff we'd find interesting, like their child hood and training experiences. Seth had plenty of information and showed his interest by speaking with energy. Good job, Seth.

(Spartan cup image is borrowed from http://mkatz.web.wesleyan.edu/Images2/cciv243.CIHAGPanels.html )

Wednesday November 3

Best-Speeches-of-the-Day Award for Wednesday is shared by Rheanna and Melissa for their speeches on SCFE and cannibalism, respectively. Rheanna researched the personal topic of Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis, a hip problem of adolescents. She went beyond telling us of her experience by offering appropriate research about the disease as well as very interesting visual aids. She also spoke with energetic and calm assurance. Melissa shared fascinating information about the pathological, emergency, and social reasons for cannibalism. Because of the great taboos around the activity, it's a fascinating topic. She was clear about her sources of information and her speech was very well organized and easy to follow.

Among the other speakers of the day, Laura's speech on Tourette's Syndrome also stood out because she made an effort to link the topic to what we "knew" from film and television and she sounded well informed. I enjoyed another student's speech on bird hunting because the speaker wore camouflage and made great eye contact. (He hasn't given me permission to use his name.) Sarah's speech on The Beatles had a solid, chronological structure.

I'm definitely looking forward to the persuasive speeches from this class.

T/Th Class 10/30 and 11/4

Like many of my students, I procrastinate all too often. (Especially on volunteer or un-assessed tasks.) Thus my notes about last week's class are late.

Informative Speeches - 10/30/2008

I can't name a Best Speech of the Day for this day because everyone did something well and no speech was perfect. I think the speech I personally enjoyed the most was Steve's presentation on the impact of microbrewery beer on Central Oregon. It was well organized and researched and had lots of local information. Steve also spoke with the energy and natural style that is common to speakers who pick topics on which they have a lot of interest.

Ryan offered good research in his speech on Cocaine and also spoke with energy. Megan also presented her information with a friendly style. Alma managed to get beyond her personal biases and present an object speech about the benefits and dangers of gambling. She also shared personal information with us that touched our hearts. Andrew faced the same challenge of possible bias in his speech about hybrid cars but managed to present pros and cons as well. Speaker 6 (who hasn't given permission to use a name) spoke with passion about a fun travel experience her family enjoyed. Jessica chose the fascinating topic of the Black Death and began and ended her speech with a nursery rhyme as her hook and clincher. This was a very artistic device. In his speech on the Chinese dragon, Rufio also had an artistic structure, motivating us in his introduction and conclusion by showing that China was the most populous nation (and the coming world leader) and suggesting that it would be helpful for us to know something about it's customs.

Informative Speeches - 11/4/2008

An historic election day that was totally ignored in our classroom!

Best Speech of the Day Honors are shared by Abby, MacKenzie, and Scott. All three gave speeches about subjects of interest to students in Central Oregon: piercing, caffeine and snowboarding, respectively. Abby's speech on piercing was well organized, interesting, and delivered with energy and a conversational style. Mackenzie wowed us with the number of sources she used and with her smile. Scott made the effort to dress up, bring his snowboard, and use his visual aids appropriate. Scott also taught us how to get rid of the automatic slide rotation on the latest version of PowerPoint. THANK YOU. I always appreciate students who teach me new aspects of technology.

Each of the other speeches also showed some particularyly appropriate quality. Rachael chose a topic that fascinates everyone - sex - and had lots of data to share. Alex had easy-to-see visuals of the army weaponry he discussed. Jason wore a shirt made out of hemp, the topic of his speech.

Today's Speeches 10/29/08

I liked the way the impromptu speakers in my class today just got up and started talking right away. They didn't take the 30 seconds prep time. They had great energy. I especially enjoyed Brian's little speech about "If you don't like people, go to internet chatrooms."

Some good work was accomplished with the informative speeches. Tylor was the most relaxed and energetic with his presentation about the engineering of golf balls. Zach showed that he was an impassioned expert as he talked about the iron man event. He also adapted well to the experience of time being shorter than he expected. Veronica offered some very sad stories in her speech on sweat shops yet managed to avoid trying to persuade us to do anything about them. Jenna was the best in referencing her researched sources.

Best Work in Speech on 10/28/2008

I got permission from some members of my Tuesday/Thursday class to use their real names when I talk about what people did especially well.

First of all, Best-Speech-Of-The-Day Award goes to Acacia for her speech about two Japanese Festivals. She chose to focus on festivals that would interest a young college audience, she refered clearly to her sources and also had references for her borrowed PowerPoint visuals, and her speech was appropriately organized. She also smiled, made eye contact, and sounded interested and enthusiastic about her topic. Very nice work.

I also appreciated Leandra's ability to link dance and sports in a way that could give non-dancers a better understanding of the art. Melany's interesting story of the Winchester Mystery House and its ghosts was well adapted to the Halloween season and Calvin's costume, with his Nosler hat and Cabela's shirt, was very appropriate for a speech on re-loading.

The impromptus also went well with props going to Ryan for his archaic oratory and perfect comic timing and to Megan for her calm ability to adapt to being unexpectedly called on as well as an excellent conclusion.

Impromptu Speaking

Ah. It's always interesting to snap a picture of a class personality by responding to the impromptu topic they give me. I enjoy demonstrating impromptu speaking because I used to compete in it in high school.

How it works -- Here are the directions for the assignment

Impromptu Speaking
Time: 1-2 minutes
This is a speech given with little preparation: 30 seconds
No rubrics for this one!
To receive a “pass,” your impromptu must
• be at least one minute long
• have an introduction, body and conclusion
• no pauses over 4 seconds • NO BABBLING.

I have students make up topics that go into an envelope. Then I have those who want to do so make up a "Huck Challenge Topic" for me. I appoint an assistant who collects these topics then I leave the room. The assistant is supposed to read the topics aloud to the class and the class chooses. I have never been defeated -- although at times I've done what I permit students to do for this assignment: "Lie like a rug."

This quarter, my Monday/Wednesday class chose "The History of Hair Dye." A nice, friendly topic. On the other hand, my Tuesday/Thursday class, those characters, picked "Explain the Impact of Anal Sex on the Youth of Today." Wow. That caused me a moment's pause. I always worry that if my impromptu speaking assignment has a sexual quality a student will complain to the authorities even if they are the ones who invited my speaking about the topic. But I decided to go for it and gave a serious presentation. I am, after all, a sex educator as well as a communication professional! I used the speech as an opportunity to plug my spring class, "Communicating Love."

Getting good grades

When I was in school it was often important for me to get good grades. I remember that Dad gave me a dollar for each quarter's A when I was in grade school. But I was really a B+/A- student. Through high school and my undergraduate years I never worked hard enough to get all As unless I wanted to impress the teacher of the class. In math and science I struggled just to get Cs. Actually, due to a brief window of opportunity regarding math I was able to avoid math entirely in college.

All this is preface to an interesting experience I've had this year. I have students in my speech classes who are choosing not to do the work even though they remain in class. Now this is something I don't understand. Why would someone just not do an assignment? Especially when all the directions are given and all one needs to do is follow the directions? I can only assume that these students are content to get low scores. I try my best to make sure everything is absolutely clear in class and every direction is written down. I ask for questions. I respond within two to 20 hours to every email.

Perhaps they are having an experience similar to mine after I was busted at age 19. As I was waiting for my case to come up before a judge in Alameda county in 1972, I entered a community college that we called UCLA -- University of Campbell at Latimer Avenue or Waste Valley. I decided that semester that I would reform myself and turn away from bad behavior and commit to something I could make money with -- business classes. So I took shorthand, accounting, business methods, and, for fun, music. I wound up dropping each of the classes and eventually just flunking music because I really had no interest in any of the courses.

Maybe my speech students are the same. All they want is a class and because they don't care about the material they aren't doing the work. I can respect that. Why do work if you don't care? And so far none of them have complained about their low grades. So, really, I guess it's not a problem. Their choices WOULD be a problem if they gave a few balls of deer excrement what their grade was going to be.