Thursday, September 20, 2007

Objectives:
After this class, students will be able to:
1. reflect on personal experience to create an essay.
2. spontaneously contribute to a class discussion.
3. analyze a poor public speaking performance.

Agenda:
1. Warm-up: In your notebooks, please answer the following question: Describe a situation in your life that was so unbearable and uncomfortable that you thought you would never survive, but you did.

Ms. Kingsbury will solicit answers from the class. This exercise is meant to show students that, even though they might be uncomfortable speaking in front of the class, there have been situations in their lives which were just as uncomfortable but which they managed to get through.

2. Build A Story activity: In order to continue building students' confidence and speaking skills, students will participate in a build-a-story activity. Ms. Kingsbury will provide the first line of the story (example - a girl went to the mall and lost her wallet), and each subsequent students will add a line to the story.

3. Transition: Students will answer the following question in their notebooks: In a recent survey, it was found that one out of five Americans cannot find the USA on a world map. Why do you think that is? Ms. Kingsbury will solicit the students for their answers.

4. Public Speaking Analysis: Students will then watch a video of a Ms. Teen USA contestant who answered that same questions. Students will critique her performance.

Homework: There is no homework assigned tonight.