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SPEECHES TO INTRODUCE
Pupils create multimedia speeches of introduction which focus on women and Hispanics. They introduce their famous person and, using a video camera, video tape their speeches.
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Gandhi Speech Writing
Explore non-violent protest in this social values and world history lesson. After viewing the movie Gandhi, and discussing important events in Gandhi's life, young orators write a speech defending Gandhi's position on the value of...
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Speech! Speech!
Critical thinkers consider how word choice in speeches impacts the meaning and effectiveness of the message being presented. They examine and respond to some of the speeches made at the 2004 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
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"I Believe..." Podcast Style
Use this communication skills lesson to emphasize evaluating a speaker's main point and argument. After reading Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream Speech" and John F. Kennedy's speech, "I Believe in an America Where the Separation of...
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Breaking Barriers
Determine how African-Americans have broken barriers in this history lesson. Middle schoolers discuss the 15th Amendment and the American civil rights movement prior to analyzing Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union," taking care...
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"All Together Now" by Barbara Jordan
Cover the topic of race relations with these questions that go with Barbara Jordan's persuasive speech "All Together Now." These reading questions ask readers to think about her speech in a variety of ways by analyzing particular words...
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
Analyzing the Rhetoric of JFK’s Inaugural Address
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your. country.” Did you know that John Kenneth Galbraith, Adlai Stevenson, and Theodore Sorensen helped John F. Kennedy craft his 1961...
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Write Obama's Inaugural Address
High schoolers practice their public speaking skills. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students study speeches delivered by Lincoln, Wilson, F. Roosevelt, and Kennedy. High schoolers write the text Obama's inaugural address and deliver...
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Regulating Freedom of Speech
Students examine the nature and limits of the Constitutional right to freedom of speech. They read and analyze the First Amendment, discuss various case studies, and research and record their own opinion on discussion questions.
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The Civil War: A Nation Divided
Discuss the differences between the North and the South and how those differences led to the Civil War. Middle schoolers examine and analyze a famous speech or writing by President Lincoln in order to better understand the speaker's...
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Direct Express
Although the game cards are not posted at this time, you could easily create some to put this plan into action. Simply write a few starting lines from different speeches on each index card, and have learners guess if the speaker's intent...
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Free to Speak and Free to Post?
Pupils research on the Web and in books with city statutes or call city officials to find out the local ordinance on posting signs on utility poles. If illegal, students explore what has happened elsewhere when citizens decided to change...
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The Power of Speech
High schoolers prepare and deliver a speech on equal rights. They explore equal rights issues as they practice the skills necessary for public speaking.
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Actions Speak Louder than Words
Students examine and discuss how volume, stress, pacing, and pronunciation help deliver an effective oral presentation. They listen to a speech by Nolan Ryan, identifying why he is a good speaker, then practice reading their own short...
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Speech in the Virginia Convention
“. . .different men often see the same subject in different lights. . .” but the great orator Patrick Henry used all the skills at his command to craft a speech to convince listeners to see things as he did--that liberty was worth dying...
Freeology
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream"
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech "I Have A Dream" is hailed as one of the most eloquent and moving speeches of the 20th century. But what makes his words hit his listeners' ears in just the right ways? Young orators study Dr. King's...
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Recruiting a Few Good Citizens
Students write persuasive speeches to recruit soldiers for a Civil War company. In this Civil War U.S. history and writing lesson plan, students work in groups to create a recruiting poster and write a speech to persuade soldiers to join...
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Decision Making: Who Was Right?
Help your class explore the question "Is it ever right to disobey a law?" With a strong base of knowledge about the Civil War, anti-slavery movement, and Underground Railroad, your class explores civil disobedience in Marshall, Michigan...
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Persuasion and Political Debate by PBS
Students examine rhetorical strategies. In this political debate lesson, students research issues of presidential campaigns and deliver persuasive speeches about the issues they research. Students then participate in debates based on the...
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Whose Rite Is It?
The class explores and debates, from multiple perspectives, a petition to allow Hopi Indians to take golden eagle hatchlings from a federal wildlife sanctuary for use in a religious ceremony. Pupils defend their personal views on the...
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I Really Love This More
Young language arts learners choose between two activities and then attempt to convince their classmates of their choice as a way of practicing persuasive speech. This particular lesson uses Valentine's Day as a theme; learners chose...
Smithsonian Institution
Giving Speeches: George Washington's First and Second Inaugural Addresses
Students discuss the purpose of the President of the United States giving an inaugural address. They describe their impressions of any inaugural speaches they have heard or read. Students research events leading up to Washington's first...
PBS
Women's History: Parading Through History
Want to teach your pupils about debate, effective speech techniques, propaganda, and the women's movement? The first in a sequential series of three, scholars analyze real propaganda images from the the historic women's movement, view a...
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What Makes A Good Speaker?
Students write a response to a diagnostic assessment determining what they need to work on to become good public speakers. They listen to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech, I Have A Dream, and identify what makes a good speaker.