Public Speaking & Organizational Skills
Camp Overview
Help your child speak confidently in public and learn how to put together a captivating presentation using PowerPoint. Students will also learn how to effectively organize and manage their daily time usage using the speaking assignment as a project goal to practice this skill. Students will also work on implementing note-taking skills using legible handwriting.
Daily Breakdown
Each day in camp, we'll work on icebreakers, daily activities, and our major project.
Icebreakers are short, 15 - 30 minute, activities that get campers ready for our daily activity and major projects. Icebreakers include games like charades, tongue twisters, telephone game, and more.
Daily activities focus on communicating clearly, organizing and structure, intriguing our audience, planning for the unpredictable, and thinking positively while coping with nerves. Some activities are team oriented, and others are for individual work. Speaking goals campers achieve with the daily activities are; eliminating fillers, focusing on one goal, self confidence, organization, composition, and self expression.
Our Major Camp Project is a solo project that campers will work on during the last half of camp each day, with the goal of presenting in front of an audience on Friday at 3pm at our Camp Speech Conference. Each presentation will be 5 minutes in length. At the beginning of camp, campers select a topic and type of presentation. Campers may select from an informative, persuasive, instructional, arousing, or decision-making presentation. Campers will then select their topic or subject, focusing their selection on something they know or are passionate about. Each day in camp, we’ll work on the project by researching, organizing, practicing, making note cards, and creating visual aids. Campers will need to have their final project ready for presentation by 3pm on Friday.
Camp Breakdown
Monday
Introduction
Campers are introduced to the camp structure, expectations, goals, and activities covered during the week. Each day at camp, we’ll have an icebreaker, daily activity, and work on our major project.
Icebreaker - Sweet Introductions
Campers pass around a bag of candy/cookies, and take as many pieces as they like, without eating them. After all campers have selected their pieces, they must then tell one fact about themselves for each piece the grabbed! 15 pieces of candy? 15 facts. After speaking, students may eat their candy.
Daily Activity - Magic Bag
Arrange group in a circle. Ask for a volunteer to start. The first volunteer reaches in the "bag" with of common everyday items, and selects an object (no peeking allowed!) He then stands up and tells everything that he can about the chosen object, using up to one minute only. A second volunteer selects an object and gives his mini-speech and so on. To prevent repeat speeches, each participant holds his chosen item until the activity is complete. Helps campers focus on unrehearsed speeches.
Major Project
We begin planning our major project! We’ll discuss the different types of presentations campers may select from (informative, persuasive, instructional, arousing, or decision-making presentation), and organize a plan in order to present the best speech on Friday. We’ll discuss our plan, we’ll practice, and discuss how we’ll engage our audience. After our discussion, campers will select their type of presentation and begin selecting and researching their topic. Students will exercise their skills at taking effective notes in order to incorporate them into their major project.
Plan
- Research the topic
- Think about your structure (Presentation structure, The introduction, Main points, Transitions, The Conclusion, and Summary)
- Organize the material into an outline (Preparation, Choosing your main points, Choosing your supporting information, Establishing linking statements, Developing an opening, Developing a conclusion, Reviewing your presentation)
- Make note cards that reflect key ideas and their sequence in the speech
- Plan for unpredictable answers to help keep you on your feet
- Find constructive ways to cope with nerves prior to speaking
Practice
- Practice, practice, practice (three times, don’t memorize, speak from the heart)
- Speak in front of others
- Records yourself, listen, and critique
- Repetition - repeat again until you feel confident
Engage with Audience
- Communicate appropriately and clearly, enunciate
- Intrigue your audience
- Use visual aid if necessary
- Look at audience’s body language
- Think positive, smile, and think about your tone and body language
Tuesday
Icebreaker - Eliminating fillers
Before starting, choose your topic and write a list of common fillers that don’t positively add to spoken communication: um, yeah, like, uh. Students must speak for 30 seconds (vary the time if necessary) and not use any fillers. Students should realize how fillers creep into their speech. Each student will give a short speech for 30 seconds. The topic isn’t too important. You can choose one for the entire class or allow students to choose. I often used this on the first day of class and told students to tell me about themselves.
Daily Activity - Stand Up Comedy
Students will have 5 minutes to prepare a list of jokes to present in front of the rest of camp. Students will have 2 minutes to perform their comedic routine and make the rest of the campers laugh!
Major Project
Campers focus on researching their topic and thinking about their structure. In addition to our plan we discussed yesterday, campers should also keep in mind the occasion, theme, and people of the presentation:
When writing the speech campers should keep in mind the structure of their speech:- Public speaking occasion - What will you be speaking for? Why are you speaking?
- The speech theme - What is the topic/subject of the occasion and your speech? How you will present the speech to the audience? Does your speech match the theme?
- The people - Who is your audience? Who are you speaking for? Is the audience supporters of your speech, or are they against your speech or the theme or occasion? Will there be hecklers?
- opening
- body
- closure
Campers need to be sure to include an introduction, main points, transitions, and conclusion:
- – Summarize the main points of your speech
- – Provide some further food for thought for your listeners
- – Leave your audience with positive memories of your speech
- – End with a final thought/emotion
Campers will use the Cornell note-taking approach to collect facts on their topic. Campers will need to organize their notes into an outline that includes preparation, choosing main points, choosing supporting information, establishing linking statements, developing an opening, developing a conclusion, and reviewing the presentation. If time allows, campers will begin making note cards for their presentation.
Wednesday
Icebreaker - Charades!
Campers randomly draw an action and act them out while the other campers try and guess each action!
Each camper will have to interview someone who has been a member of the community for a long time. There is no rule about how long the person has to have lived in the area, but they should have seen enough changes in the area to make your presentation interesting. After interviewing the person, each student will prepare an oral presentation in which they will tell the other students what they learned.
Major Project
Campers will make note cards that reflect key ideas and their sequence in the speech. Campers will also begin to think and research their visual aids. Are they necessary? What kind of visual aid will be used? Once decided, campers begin to create their visual aids:
Campers will also begin editing their speeches, and creating their scripts or note cards.
- powerpoint
- handouts
- props
- writing board
- flip chart
- video
Campers will also begin editing their speeches, and creating their scripts or note cards.
Note Cards
- One main heading or idea per card
- Written clearly using larger than usual font (so you can read them easily)
- Have plenty of white space around each word or phrase to help them stand out
- Use bullet points or numbers to itemize the supporting ideas under the main heading
- Are written on one side of the card only
- Are clearly numbered so that you know the order they come in and/or they may even be tied together.
- Are color-coded to show your main idea, supporting ideas, examples and transitions or links.
- Have where props are to be shown.
- Have approximate timings marked so you can track yourself through your allotted time. If you find you're going over you can adjust by leaving out an extra example or conversely if you're under time, you can add one in.
To keep organized, and to present the best speech, campers will:
- Make an outline
- Create Drafts
- Get feedback from others
- Create a final version
- Inappropriate content
- Error(s) of omission
- Grammatical problems
- Appropriate use of humor
Thursday
Icebreaker - Focus on one goal
Students will individually decide what they want to improve in their speaking – they will each have a goal. Some students want to work on eye contact, others want to balance their volume, others want to stop fidgeting. Then I divide students into small groups. Students will practice the current speech they are creating, receiving constructive feedback when they need to correct an action to meet their goal. Their group will also tell them when they did well and moved toward meeting their goal.
Daily Activity - Me Collages
Campers create a collage based on their individual personalities and preferences. When the collages are completed, the participants will use them as visuals and stand before the group to share "All About Me."
Materials: One half sheet of poster board or large sheet of construction paper for each participant, scissors, glue, and a supply of magazines, newspapers and catalogs. allows for a lot of creativity and self expression
Major Project
Campers continue to finalize note cards and visual aids, and begin to focus on editing and practicing. Students will need to plan for unpredictable answers and find constructive ways to cope with nerves prior to speaking.
To help reduce nerves, it is helpful to know:
- Your speech
- Read and re-read the speech
- Record the speech and listen to it while mobile
- Recount the speech from memory
- The goal is not to learn your speech word-for-word
- Your audience
- Who is your audience? Who are you speaking for? Is the audience supporters of your speech, or are they against your speech or the theme or occasion? Will there be hecklers? How can you best get your message across?
- The public speaking venue
- How is the stage arranged? How close is the audience to you? How will the audience see and hear you?
- Yourself
- What re your strengths and improvement areas when speaking? What calms you down? What makes you nervous? What are way you can overcome improvement areas, and enhance strengths?
Friday
Icebreaker - Commercial Made!
Campers pick an item randomly out of a bag and have 2 minutes to think of and write a commercial for that item. After the 2 minutes are over, each camper will present their commercial and have 30 seconds to present.
Major Project
Last hour to put final touches on major project. Campers will need to make sure presentations are organized clearly, under the 5 minute time limit, have visual aids ready, and they’ve practiced enough before 3pm. At 3pm, campers will begin to present their speeches. Family, friends, and campers are invited to come and see campers present their major projects!
Items to keep in mind when speaking:
Items to keep in mind when speaking:
- Make sure that your appearance is well presented
- Speak clearly, and adjust your voice so that everyone can hear you.
- Don't shout for the sake of being loud
- It is common to speak rapidly when nervous, try to take your time speaking
- Effectively used, a pause in your speech can be used to emphasize a point, or to allow the audience to react to a fact, anecdote or joke
- Make eye contact with your audience. This helps to build trust and a relationship between the speaker and the listeners
- Do not fidget or make other nervous gestures with your hands
- Do not keep your hands in your pockets
- Do use hand gestures effectively
- Be yourself, allow your own personality to shine in your speech
