Personal Experience Speech

1
Personal Experience Speech

• Focus on Vocal Variety, tone, and Eye Contact

2
Reminder of Guidelines

• It has to be a story about you - the more
  specific the better
• It has to be school appropriate (no drugs,
  swearing, sex)
• It has to be 2-3 minutes long
• It has to be interesting!!
• It must have a catchy introduction (use our
  handout)
• It must have sensory description in it (we will
  practice today)
• It needs to have a purpose (theme, moral, lesson,
  larger meaning, point)
• You will also be graded on poise , eye contact,
  vocal variety
• You will need to write out a manuscript of the
  entire speech for this one.

3
Vocal Variety

• What is Vocal Variety and why do we need this
  when we speak?
• Vocal variety is achieved through combining
  pitch, tone, volume and rate.
• How loudly or quietly you speak is called volume.
  Some people are habitually loud and others,
  quiet. Make sure you are loud enough to hear
  comfortably, and increase volume when you want to
  emphasize something in your speech.
• The term 'rate' refers to speaking pace. How fast
  or slow do you speak? Do you know the effect of
  slowing deliberately? Speaking rate matters
  because how fast or how slow you speak alters the
  listener's perception of your topic. When you
  speed up, you sound nervous.

Volume
RATE
4
Pitch

• To understand pitch, think of music. It has high
  and low notes as do people's voices. Everyone's
  voice has a natural pitch. Women's tend to be
  higher than men's and everybody has a pitch
  range the number of notes we habitually use.
  When that range is very small, the effect is
  monotonous.
• When someone speaks at a higher pitch than normal
  for them, what is the effect?
• When someone speaks as a lower pitch than normal
  what is the effect?
• Where is your natural pitch?

5
Tone

• How can the tone of voice change the meaning of
  something Use the phrase Im sorry.
• Tone refers to the emotional content carried by
  our voices. It is not the words themselves, but
  'how' we say them. To speak expressively, is to
  fill or energize our words appropriately.For
  example a person who puts very little energy
  into their speech, no matter what they are
  saying, is often described as being flat. By
  contrast someone who fills their speech to
  overflowing with energy is described as being
  exuberant or enthusiastic.

6
NPR the argument

• http//www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play
  241podcast1

7
Tone of Voice

• For TONEThe Ham Sandwich ExerciseRepeat the
  words 'Ham Sandwich' in as many varying ways as
  you can. For example say it angrily, happily,
  sadly, lovingly, despairingly, laughingly,
  importantly, slyly, snidely, shyly... This is a
  fantastic exercise to share with a partner. Take
  turn about giving each other the way to say the
  phrase. Repeat until you run out of variations.
  NB. Listen for emotional truth or
  believability!
• Extension Ham SandwichUse the phrase to
  'converse'. Take an emotional state and build a
  whole conversation around the phrase 'Ham
  Sandwich'.For exampleImagine you've just seen
  the most exciting thing. You want to share that
  experience with a friend. You ring to tell them.
  The catch is you must use the words 'Ham
  Sandwich' to convey your feeling and NO
  others.Try consoling using 'Ham Sandwich' or
  congratulating. Experiment with as many different
  ways as you can.
• And yet Another Ham SandwichThis time take two
  opposite emotions, for example happy - sad or
  angry - contented...Start with one and gradually
  switch to the other. Make sure you grade the
  switch. Unless we're very, very excitable
  emotionally, we seldom alter suddenly from one to
  the other.

8
Eye Contact

• What is the effect when a speaker does not have
  eye contact with the audience?
• Seek out smiling, friendly faces as you speak
  dont just look at one person.
• Memorize pieces of your manuscript, highlight
  the areas you need to remember to draw your eyes
  back to, so you dont get lost.
• Tasks
• Read your speech silently right now and use a
  highlighter to indicate when you should look back
  down at the speech (highlight sections you dont
  know as well.
• Read a piece youve written today to a partner
  and practice looking up and down without losing
  your place.
• Practice one more time, before we begin the
  speeches I will time you three minutes, read in
  your head and look up when you can.

9
Reflection on Personal Experience Speech

• On a separate sheet of paper, reflect on
• What did you find easy and difficult about
  preparing for and performing your speech?
• What goals did you accomplish during this speech
  (that you made last time)? And what goals do you
  want to make for the next speech?
• Of the speeches you observed, which ones did you
  like best and why?
• What do good speakers do to make their speech
  interesting and effective?