Friday December 07, 2007 Jeff's Call to Action Self Reflection
I feel as if I i illustrated a clear need for action to be taken. I gave a short overview of the issue and then went into my three steps of action. I also feel as if my steps to action were pretty realistic such as going to PTA meetings, writing school board and state legislator members, as well as going to the superintendent. My actions were very specific and i think the audience could do all of them. Again, I believe that my biggest problem was delivery. I don't think i was very motivating as far as my delivery is concerned. I didn't energize the audience enough which is the whole point of this speech. I had good content just not a very strong delivery. Posted by jrgonza [Self Reflections] ( December 07, 2007 10:14 PM ) Permalink | Comments [0]Jeff's Persuasive Speech Self Reflection
I felt as if I clearly made my arguments and that my audience understood them as well. I was pretty clear in distingusighing three specific problems in health in school which were the spread of illnesses and diseases, sexual abuse as well as drug and alcohol abuse, and the growing problem of obesity in America. I think i had pretty good supporting evidence such as statistics and personal examples. I also incorporated a video of Katie Couric in it as well that emphasized the larger issue of obesity in America. However, i think it might have been more affective if i had played it before talking about obesity so that i could discuss it. It might have seen as if it was just there to take up time. I think i wrote a good speech but obviously thats not everything. My weakness was definetely my delivery. I tend to get a little nervous and i think it showed a little bit by me tripping over my words at sometimes. I also felt as if i could have used more gestures and body movement rather than just holding onto the podium so much. Overall, I think i did a pretty good job with those few exceptions. Posted by jrgonza [Self Reflections] ( December 07, 2007 10:13 PM ) Permalink | Comments [0]Persuasive Speech Self Reflection
Speaker: Whitney Baker
Topic: Invisible Children
I can easily say that this was definately not my best speech. I didn't prepare it very well, and rushed through it. I had not developed my thesis very clearly nor did I develope objectives against my topic. It tried to make up time by making my introduction run a little long, but in the end I was still short on time. While I'm speaking, I don't pay much attention to the structure or style that I'm using, so I could improve on that.
I did go over my information thoroughly and felt like I knew what I was talking about. I also felt like I presented my topic with emotion, and connected with the audience that I was passionate about my topic.
Overall, I think I could have done better, and that public speaking is not my best class.
Posted by wjbaker [General] ( December 07, 2007 11:03 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]Speaker: Jamaine Clemmons
Reviewer: Whitney Baker
Topic: Prayer Reinstated in public schools
I always enjoy watching Jamaine give his speeches. He definately loves giving speeches and making them interesting. He even started his own group the Campus Crusaders (even though that's already a group) which was a good way of intriguing the audience. He started his introduction by reminding us of why prayer is needed in schools. He used statistics to illustrate how the nation's youth had taken a drastic downfall since prayer has been banned from school.
Jamaine's first two actions were ways of contacting your representative. These were very realistic, but not very persuading that it would make a difference. But his third action definately would get some attention, congress capture. Although this seems like the wrong impression would be given, Jamaine reassured us that it would be a peaceful capture. A little bit on the extreme side, and it's taking a big risk, but it definately would make a difference.
Jamaine always does a good job at delievering a great speech!
Posted by wjbaker [General] ( December 07, 2007 11:02 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]Speaker: Aaron
Reviewer: Michael George
Topic: Prison Reform
Aaron's speech was very well thought out and very entertaining. I really didn't get what he was talking about in the begining but he seemed to inform me of what he wanted to do as the speech went on. He wanted a prison flush out so crimes could not be commited in and from the inside of prison cells. I would greatly agree seeing the myth of the leader of MS13 is actually in a prison somewhere in the US. Which is scary, a guy who is in prison can tell one of his gang members to bust a cap in you of let you live. Seems as if these gangs and leaders in the prison should be delt with or put on a higer secerity. Which is what Aaron was talking about doing.
His way of doing if though seemed alittle extremem but fun to listen to anyway. He wanted everyone to rob a bank or something and sit to get caught so everyone will go to jail. This would help the flush out that is was hoping on planning to do.
Overall his speech was good and spoke very well. Cant say to much on the bad side but rather more good.
Speaker: Wes B
Reviewer: Whitney Baker
Topic: National Health Care
Wes gave an excellent speech. He stated his thesis clearly, and gave the audience a feel urgency for national health care. In his introduction, he used the number of deaths because the lack of health care in our nation. This brought the reality of the subject to the audience and showed how much of a problem we have.
His first two actions were the very realistic, typical contacting your representative. He did a great job at persuading the audience that contacting a representative is something anyone can do. His third action was probably my favorite. Making everyone without health care sick to show that the majority of the nation is in need of health care is definately not your typical way of getting the government's attention. Although potentially harmful, it's a different point of view and is thinking outside of the box.
It was a great speech, well constructed and delievered. So good job, Wes!
Posted by wjbaker [General] ( December 07, 2007 10:30 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]Call to Action Self Reflection
Speaker: Raychel BattsTopic: Rebuilding Berkeley Park
I felt like the action that I gave for people to follow was reasonable and obtainable. The first action that I gave was to sign a petition. Signing a petition is fairly common for people to do. It is an easy way for a big problem to be seen and heard. Being that this park is located in a small town, getting people to sign this petition would be fairly easy. My next step was for people to go to the Wayne County Board meeting and present this problem to the members of the board. One thing that I lacked about this was being really specefic. I probably could have stated at what day and time we were going to meet to go to this board meeting. My next and final step was the rebuild the park ourselves. This was kind of a fun action that probably couldn't happen. Although some aspects of it were reasonable like planting flowers, others were ridiculous like going against the county and bulldozing the baseball field down. By presenting a ridiculous call to action, I felt as if I could get the message across the significance of rebuilding this park. This is to say that if we are going to go to great lengths to get this done, then this must really mean something to the community. Overall I think I did pretty good. Some areas I could improve on such as having a flow to my speeches, becuase sometimes I feel as if I lack that.
Posted by rlbatts2 [Self Reflections] ( December 07, 2007 10:26 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]
Speaker: Rachel Batts
Reviewer: Michael George
Speech: Saving the Park
Rachel spoke very well on the topic that she selected. She spoke on rebuilding a park in her home town because it was run down and used to be a place where people had fun without worrying about criminal activity and other bad things. So she devised a way to rebuild this park to make it up to par with what it used to be.
She wanted to get people together and help rebuild it back up to a standard where a park should be. Where parents can take there children and people can go to throw a frisbee and maybe just grill out. She wanted to make it so you don?t have to see a drug deal going down in the middle of the park and add some decentcy where couples can?t have sex in an open field as someone is walking through the park.
Overall Rachels speak was well done and she was very enthusiastic about her speech and seemed as if she really had a feel for her cause. Her speech was well prepared and her hand out was very informative.
Speaker: Michael George
Reviewer: Michael George
Speech: Concord Dragway
I believe that overall the speech was very compelling and wasn?t too bad. Yes, I did stumble over my words in the first paragraph which sort of screwed me up and gave the speech an award pause for about 5 or so sec as I tired to get back into my train of thought and get the speech moving again. It could have been rehursed before I actually gave the speech so would have a clearer idea of exactly what I wanted to say, instead of kind of adding random things going through the speech and hoping they sound good in the end. Which they did so it worked out for me.
I think my tone and volume for the speech got peoples attention and sort of forced them to listen to me. So at least I had the whole audiences attention rather than just a few. I will admit I was kind of jumpy and rambling when it came down to some parts in the speech seemed to be necessary to some parts and others it could have been cut out but with more practice this could have been avoided.
Also my hand outs were good. I mean they were wallet size to fit in pockets and the wallets of my audience but yet still able to read them. Also they had the contact info of the people I talked about in my speech.
Call to Action Speech on Genetically Modified Food
I was not too happy about this speech when I sat down, having just given it. I was coming off of Thanksgiving Break, therefore I had not prepared well at all. This meant that I was less familiar with my speech, causing me to have to look at my note cards more and causing my style to be choppy and hard to follow. I believe that it would have gone well, had I of just read out my outline, but I knew I couldn't do that. Therefore, with just small phrases on my notecards, I was not able to make my speech flow very well.
I started out by writing big numbers on the board, representing the population of the world and in developing countries. This way my way to try to get myself to move away from the podium. I also tried to refer back to these numbers throughout the speech, especially in the conclusion. However, I ended up running out of time and cutting my conclusion off much shorter than it was supposed to be.
Overall, I thought that I wrote a good speech and stuck to the motivated sequence well, but I butchered it when I got up there. Hopefully, I will be able to learn from this even more than I can learn from a good speech.
Posted by bnbrown2 [Self Reflections] ( December 07, 2007 10:23 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]
Reviewer: Raychel Batts
Topic: Water Conservation
Brianna's topic is a very interesting topic and is currently all over the news. Her topic is water conservation. During her speech, Brianna stressed some major tips on how to save the water that we have left. She also stated some restrictions that are taken place today. I really liked how she informed us on how some of the communities are already on restrictions from watering their lawn or hosing off their driveways. This came as a shock and was a real eye opener that things are serious enough for these restrictions to take place. She also gave some tips on how we, as the community, could help. Some of those tips were to not flush the toilet everytime after we use the restroom, to take quick showers, and to not water our lawns.
Brianna's speech was put together very well. Her speech had a flow to it and went together perfectly. Each main idea or tip that she gave us clearly supported her thesis about conserving the water. She stressed to the class that we only have about 52 days left of water! That is not much at all and every little thing that we can do to help, will be a big start in the right direction. I felt like she picked a perfect topic, because not only did it get her a topic that she could present to the class, it actually brought awarness to a serious problem that our nation is facing today. I felt as if Brianna did an excellent job in representing the nation by telling our class the dangers of us running out of water. Her handout was also very helpfull. It was full of tips that we could use to help us save some water. Overall, Brianna did an outstanding job with her speech. It was very information and persausive and it has now motivated me to take action in actually trying to save some water.
Posted by rlbatts2 [Peer Reviews] ( December 07, 2007 10:18 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]
Reviewer: Raychel Batts
Topic: Birth Control in Middle School
Mae's topic is an interesting but yet startling one. Mae brought to our attention that some middle schools in the United States were administering birth control to their students. She stressed many issues that went against what the middle schools were doing. The major concern was that the permission form that the schools were sending home to the parents were vague and didn't address the situation accurately. Mae did an excellent job in giving specefics at what the form actually said and how each point that was made on the form, was vague. She also stressed the fact that this action is almost encouraging the students to have sex. Yea, they are saying have safe sex, but still they are saying have sex! Mae stressed the importance of how ridiculous this was because all of those students were just kids themselfs.
Mae came up with a brilliant idea to issue a new consent form to the parents. In this form, she was very specific as to what was going to happen and made sure that the parents were fully informed that their kids could get free birth control whenever they needed it. This action should have been taken earlier, but I think that since Mae has come up with this idea that many of the parents are going to not sign it. In every aspect of her speech, Mae did very well. She stayed calm the entire time and she is a very good speaker. The entire speech had a nice flow to it and not once did she go off topic. Everything in her speech was pertaining to this topic and everything went together to support her call to action.
Overall, Mae did an excellent job. Her speech was well put together and her main ideas were strong enough to convince me that the consent form was too vague. I also loved the topic that she chose. It is an on-going debate in the news today and it was interesting enough that everyone seemed to be paying attention.
Posted by rlbatts2 [Peer Reviews] ( December 07, 2007 10:17 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]
Call to Action Self Reflection
Reviewer: Mae RoyalSpeaker: Mae Royal
Topic: Availability of Birth Control in Middle Schools
For the very last speech of this course, I really worked hard on fixing the things that I had gotten negative comments in my grading guides and peer reviews from preview speeches. I also tried very hard to think of creative ideas, especially because I was a little worried that my topic-the availability of birth control in middle schools-was a little boring or not interesting to my audience. I feel that I did a great job in thinking of unique ideas, but maybe not so great of a job in fixing the common errors that I had in all my other speeches.
I really spent a lot of time brainstorming and asking friends about ideas on how to take action against this new idea in middle schools. It wasn't very hard for me to come up with ideas because I feel so passionate about this issue and the importance of it getting taken care of before any negative effects result. My first two actions were a little similar to many other call to action speeches, but I feel that I gave good reasons for each of these plans of action, and I took a lot of time planning and preparing how to use my time wisely to explain the benefits.
I definitely thought the strongest part of my speech was my third plan of action, in which I gave the idea that we could give out free movie tickets in exchange for middle school students taking a survey about sex and contraception. I was proud of this idea because I thought it was very unique and used forward-thinking. However, I kind of ran out of time during this third idea, so I had to scurry to fully explain it. If I'd planned better, I would have spent less time on my other two ideas to give my favorite idea more time and focus.
I worked really hard on my organizational strategy for this speech, because that was one area I was weaker in my other speeches. I ordered my plans of action from levels of greater authority to levels of no authority. I thought this was a smart tactic and a good way to tackle an issue that seemed too large or overwhelming to do anything about. Some of the errors I don't think I fixed successfully was just my overall speaking style. I had gotten critiques that I sounded like I was reading in my other speeches because I had worked hard to memorize those speeches. This speech, however, I purposefully tried NOT to memorize so that I would be forced to kind of say it in my own words. However, this caused me to stutter a few times and use "um"s to fill empty space. Also, my timing was once again a little off. I think I ramble when I get nervous, and this causes me to spend extra time on topics that don't necessarily need it. But I still managed to finish within the time limit, just one second away from getting points off!
Overall, I feel that my call to action speech was pretty good. I wish it had been my best speech since it was my last and I had gotten three other speeches to practice on, but I'm satisfied with how I did. I worked really hard on preparing my speech, and I think that paid off in the end. I still didn't do great on the actual presenting of my speech, but I think that's mostly due to nervousness, which I guess is something that I just can't fix. But I still feel that my call to action speech was a good way to end this course.
Posted by maroyal [Self Reflections] ( December 07, 2007 10:16 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]
Persuasive Speech on Genetically Modified Foods
I thought this speech went really well for me. I felt well prepared and I knew exactly what I was going to say because I had reviewed my speech several times. When I got up there, I felt like I could just look up and talk instead of reading straight from my cards, which was nice for me because it made me feel confident about my topic.
My arguments were persuasive, but I know that I could have done a better job with my style to make them even more persuasive and memorable to the audience. I did not change the vocal characteristics of my speech very much along the way, therefore this is something that I need to work on.
One positive aspect of my speech was my introduction. By starting out with fascinating examples of types of GMO's, I think I effectively captured the audience's attention. I was also glad that my speech stayed within the time range without being too long.
Overall, I was pleased with this speech. It was not by any means perfect, but I thought it went well.
Posted by bnbrown2 [Self Reflections] ( December 07, 2007 10:14 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]
Speaker: Michael George
Topic: Building the Drag Strip at Lowe's Motor Speedway
I felt that Michael had a good advantage coming into his speech because his topic had a lot of opportunities to be exciting for the audience. His topic was on the controversy over whether or not to build the drag strip at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In his informative speech, he did a great job of convincing the audience why we needed this drag strip, and in his call to action speech, he gave us actions to take to make it happen. He started his speech off in a great way by writing "LMS" on the white board. He told us that this stood for Lowe's Motor Speedway and then explained the importance of the speedway to the culture and environment of Concord, NC. This served as a reminder of his informative speech and also previewed what the rest of his call to action speech would be about.
Following his introduction, Michael clearly outlined the steps that we as a class could take to make the building of the drag strip a reality. But before doing this, he once again restated the benefits that would result from the building of the drag strip. I thought this was a good tactic because it made me more motivated to listen to his plan of action because I felt that it was important that we all do something about this issue. The first action he gave was going to a meeting at a specific time to voice our opinions. This was a great idea, but I was a little unclear as to when this meeting would take place or what our plan of action was once we got there. But it was still a good starting point.
Michael's second plan of action was much more drastic and served as a kind of "attention-getter." He said that he planned for all of us to bombard Lowe's Motor Speedway on a certain day (which was once again a little unclear) and we would then begin building the drag strip ourselves. This was a fun way to get the attention of the audience and to make his speech more exciting. This crazy idea seemed even more realistic when he claimed that he had arranged with Amtrak for us to get free train rides down to Charlotte. However, this plan still seemed a little unrealistic to me, even though it was refreshing to have such a unique idea.
His last idea was, in my opinion, his best. He ordered us to meet together and picket or protest to those in control of whether or not the drag strip is built. I thought this was the most realistic plan of action and the best way for results to actually come of our action. I also thought it was great that he talked about how one person can't do hardly anything, but together, we can do a lot. This left a powerful impact on the audience.
Overall, I enjoyed listening to Michael's speech. He spoke in an extemporaneous style that was easy to listen to, because it didn't sound like he was just reading. He gave the audience lots of options of things we could do to help out the situation, and this made me feel personally responsible to take action. Good job, Michael!
Posted by maroyal [Peer Reviews] ( December 07, 2007 10:08 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]
Speaker: Kevin
Call to Action Speech
I believe I illustrated a very clear need for action on stem cells because I explained their importance to helping people. My proposed actions were specific, I made handouts of the specific information you would need to carry out my actions. I believe the audience had a clear understanding of what they could do and how to do it. I used good argumentation to move my committed audience to action by letting them know the benefits of stem cells and how they will help people. I do not think my style energized the audience because I did not look at them.
Posted by kmmakovy [Self Reflections] ( December 07, 2007 08:07 AM ) Permalink | Comments [0]