PERSONAL EXPERIENCE SPEECH FOCUS ON VOCAL VARIETY, TONE, AND EYE CONTACT

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.

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

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?

TONE How can the tone of voice change the meaning of something… Use the phrase “I’m 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.”

NPR THE ARGUMENT

TONE OF VOICE For TONE: The Ham Sandwich Exercise: Repeat 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 Sandwich: Use the phrase to 'converse'. Take an emotional state and build a whole conversation around the phrase 'Ham Sandwich'. For example: Imagine 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 Sandwich: This 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.

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 – don’t 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 don’t 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 don’t know as well. Read a piece you’ve 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.

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?