Call to Action Self Reflection

Speaker: Rebecca Childress
Reviewer: Rebecca Childress
Topic: Going Green

I was not very satisfied with my call to action speech because I felt that how I presented the information did not flow very well from point to point and ended out being awkward.  At the last minute I decided to make some cuts to my speech because I was worried my speech was too long and I never got the chance to practice my speech with the new cuts, so I felt that my speech did not flow like I had originally planned. 

I felt that I did illustrate a clear need for action.  I tried to pick things that everyone could relate to, like the drought that we are having currently and paying expensive bills.   I knew that everyone likes to have water because we need it to live, and that everyone also likes to save money; so I was able to use both of these points to illustrate that this is something that affects everyone. 

I felt that the actions that I proposed were very specific, although I wish I had been able to come up with more creative actions than to tell a friend and to contact the chancellor.  I felt that my best action idea was the steps of things people could do in their own home.  I tried to come up with some original ideas that maybe people had not thought of so that they could see that there are many ways to recycle and to save and it is not only the ways that you hear about whenever we go through a drought.  One example being to catch water in a bucket while you are waiting for the shower to warm up and then using that water on plants or in other ways. 

I tried to make the audience more engaged by handing out the flyers in the middle of my speech; however I think if I did it again I would try to move around more to engage the audience more effectively.  I also tried to use words like ?demand? in order to get the audience more motivated and hyped up to act.

Posted by rhchildr [Self Reflections] ( December 05, 2007 11:10 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Call to Action Peer Review

Speaker: Mae Royal

Reviewer: Rebecca Childress

Topic: Birth control for middle school students

Mae had a very motivating speech; she was very energized throughout her entire speech and really convinced me that action does need to be taken.  Mae made it very clear that we need to take action to stop schools from giving out birth control to middle school aged children because they are encouraging children to have sex without talking to their parents about it, or at least without asking their parents for permission to get birth control.  Also this is giving an option to the children who might not have had sex because of the birth control obstacle, now they are able to have sex because they are being handed birth control without their parent?s knowledge.  Mae had very specific and unique actions for us to take in order to stop this from happening.  First Mae told us to attend school board meetings, and to send in a letter that she provided already written out that we simply had to fill our name into and mail it.  Also Mae had two interesting actions in addition to the first two actions, one being to provide adults with information about how to talk to their children about sex.  She also suggested that we give out a free movie ticket to students that fill out a survey about sex, I thought this was a very creative idea that really might work to learn about what the children are getting into, and how many of them are doing it.  Overall, Mae had an excellent speech that motivated me to want to take an action.

Posted by rhchildr [Peer Reviews] ( December 05, 2007 10:55 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Call to Action Peer Review

Speaker: Brittney Kelley

Reviewer: Rebecca Childress

Topic: Background checks for teachers

 Brittney?s call to action speech showed that there is a great need for background checks for teachers.  Brittney expressed this need by telling us that if a teacher does something wrong they can often just go to a different state and teach, and also many schools do not even do a thorough background check, so we can never be completely sure of the types of people that our schools are hiring.  Brittney made it very clear that we need to have an increase in background checks and that those that are done need to be thorough.  Also we need to have a national registry of abusive teachers, so that their record will follow them to every state.  Brittney proposed that we fulfill this need by taking two specific actions. The first action is to attend school board meetings to become more involved in our school system.   The second action is that we all need to write to a state representative and make our opinions about this issue known to them.  Brittney?s style of speech did not really get the audience energized because it was mostly monotone and there were a few long pauses because she was reading from a paper and would lose her place, both of these can easily be fixed with practice to become less nervous and more confidant about speaking.  Overall I thought Brittney?s speech was quite good, and she had good plans of actions for us to take to solve the problems with background checks.

Posted by rhchildr [Peer Reviews] ( December 05, 2007 10:24 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Call to Action Peer Review 2

Speaker:  Whitney B

Reviewer:  Wes B

Topic:  Supporting Invisible Children

Whitney spoke on the invisible children, something I find to be a very important issue.  She did a good job at emotional appeal in her speech; afterall, who likes to hear about children who are being kidnapped and forced to fight a war that no one agrees with?  Whitney provided us with three ways to help the invisible children.  Her first solution was to order t-shirts from the invisible children website, in an effort to raise money for awareness and those trying to stop it.  Her second proposed solution was to organize our own fundraiser to also raise money.  Her last solution was to simply spread the word.  If we were to inform everyone about the invisible children, then it would recieve more and more attention by the media, causing the leaders in our country to pay more attention to this horrible situation.  I felt like she chose a very good topic for the speech and did a good job giving a sense of urgency.  Overall, it was a good speech.

Posted by jwbarbou [Peer Reviews] ( December 05, 2007 04:15 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Call To Action Peer Review

Speaker:  Aaron B

Reviewer:  Wes B

Topic:  Prison Reform

Aaron gave a good speech about a very important and critical issue in our society today- prison reform.  His speech kept my attention the whole time and i felt it was pretty inspiring as far as speeches in our class go.  He proposed 3 solutions to the prison situation in America, each being at different levels of intensity.  The first step in his plan was to get in touch with our representatives in congress to let them know that prison reform is important to us.  I felt as if this was a good first step.  His next step was to have a march for a clear public demonstration of our beliefs.  His final step was what he called "prison washout".  This was an idea saying that we should all go out and commit armed robery.  When i first heard this, I asked myself, "Why?".  He soon answered that by stating that by all of us being arrested and taken to prison, it would not be long before the prisons became too full.  This would send a clear message to our politicians, telling them we care about prison reform.  I found this to be a very good speech.

Posted by jwbarbou [Peer Reviews] ( December 05, 2007 04:07 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Call to Action Speech Peer Review

Reviewer:  Brittany Brown
Reviewed:  Wes
Topic:  Universal Health Care

     Wes's speech was clear, concise, and well-given.  He introduced the huge need that the US has for universal health care.  There are 45.8 million citizens that are uninsured, with 18,000 deaths a year due to no healthcare.
      Wes presented a three part plan for ways that we can help to get the universal health care bill passed, and provided all of the information needed to implement this plan.  This informtation was given in the form of a handout, starting with the names, phone numbers, and websites of our current senators in Congress.  Therefore, the first part of his plan was to contact these senators, either Richard Burr or Elizabeth Dole and tell them you want universal health care. 
     The second plan involved simply voting for upcoming presidential candidates that are in support of universal health care.  He said that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both supported this issue and he had their websites listed on his handout.
     The third part he called Project Infection.  Wes clearly layed out what this meant, but I obviously did not think it a practical means of action.  However, it was creative and easy for listeners to remember.  Basically Project Infection means that a disease would be spread among those who do not have healthcare.  Not only would these people get sick, but they would pass it on to those who do have healthcare, and this drastic measure could finally ge the government's attention. 
      These were specific actions that the audience could go out and do (except the last one) and his evidence was effective in motivating his audience.  Although he did not necessarily have a big "energizing" effect, he did help people to know what they can do.  Overall, this was an excellent speech.


Posted by bnbrown2 [Peer Reviews] ( December 05, 2007 02:35 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

my call to action speech

Speaker: Jeremy Clayton
Reviewer: myself
Topic: children's healthcare insurance bill

Overall, I was a little nervous about this speech. I nailed my last speech I felt and I was afraid this speech was not going to be as strong. Part of what made it tough was that we were speaking on the same material to the same audience. However, I did mix it up a little to compensate for it.

For my speech, I decided to use the same Monroe's 5 steps outline and start off the same way as my last speech, except show what the benefit would have done. Next, I tried to illustrate the need for the bill by giving the statistic that 4 million children are still not covered with health insurance. I also used specific actions that the audience could take so that the audience would know what to do. I told them how they can tell their frieds and family. The audience needed to contact our state representatives in both houses of Congress. I gave them a hand out that listed how they could contact them. I also instilled in them the need to vote for the right people to get these types of bills through.  Next, for my vizualization step, I used the example of a pyramid. Where your vote can be very effective if you vote and then tell ten people, those people tell ten people. Then those people tell ten people. Then those people tell ten more people. Then those people tell ten more people. This leads to 100,000 people contacting our representatives with what we want.

Overall, I think I did a good job. My last speech was stronger but I tried to incorporate the general phrase that "the more we speak out, the more that we will be heard." Hopefully, that helped to strengthen my speech and get the message across to my audience. I used the pyramid also as a persuasive strategy to get people to vote because their vote can be effective. I also tried to be more energetic in this speech.


Posted by jjclayto [Self Reflections] ( December 05, 2007 12:38 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Peer review of Rebecca's call to action

Speaker: Rebecca
Reviewer: Jeremy Clayton
Topic: Go Green!

Rebecca did an excellent job starting out the speech. She gave an extreme example of going gree of "everyone peeing outside", which got everyone's attention. She went on to establish the need of going green. She mentioned how we can lose our resources. She used a strong example of Raleigh's water supply to support her point.

Next, she gave 3 specific actions that we could take as the audience. The first action was to tell a friend about how to go green. The second action was to email the chancellor and demand that we need to make all new buildings "green" buildings and renovate the old buildings to be "green" also. Next, she gave ways we could act in our homes. We could put in dual flush toilets, recycle, and put a bucket in the shower to catch water while the shower is warming up.

Overall, Rebecca did a great job with her speech. She used persuasive strategies that moved the audience. She gave easy and simple ways to go green as well as evidence that our resources are not unlimited. She used the phrase "Go green!" to make the audience want to take action. She spoke with great clarity and did not speaking when handing out our "refrigerator reminder."


Posted by jjclayto [Peer Reviews] ( December 05, 2007 12:28 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Peer review of Brittney Kelly's call to action

Speaker: Brittney Kelly
Reviewer: Jeremy Clayton
Topic: background checks on teachers

Brittney Kelly talked in her call to action speech about how there is a lack of security in schools because teachers are not thoroughly checked. Brittney developed the need for more thorough backgroud checks on teachers by letting us know how it is now. Then she describes that some states do partial or no background checks. She clearly illustrates the need for these states to reform their security checks of teachers.

Brittney then transitions to specific actions that the audience can take. First, she stated that we could contact our state representatives and voice our opinions to them. Then, she mentioned the national registry of abusive teachers and how this group has not been heard by Congress. She also mentioned how the more we discuss this issue, the more attention this issue will get.

She ends informing us that this is a national issue, supporting her argument on the need for more thorough background checks, and she ends with a quote. Overall, she did a good job with her speech. She spoke clearly and had supporting evidence to back up her claims.


Posted by jjclayto [Peer Reviews] ( December 05, 2007 12:16 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]