Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students

by Erik Palmer

All teachers at all grade levels in all subjects have speaking assignments for students, but many teachers believe they don’t know how to teach speaking, and many even fear public speaking themselves. In his new book, Well Spoken, veteran teacher and education consultant Erik Palmer shares the art of teaching speaking in any classroom. Teachers will find thoughtful and engaging strategies for integrating speaking skills throughout the curriculum. Palmer stresses the essential elements of all effective oral communication, • Building a Audience, Content, Organization, Visual Aids, and Appearance • Performing a Poise, Voice, Life, Eye Contact, Gestures, and Speed • Evaluating a Creating Effective Rubrics,  Guiding Students to ExcellenceWell Spoken contains a framework for understanding the skills involved in all effective oral communication, offers practical steps and lesson ideas that any teacher needs to successfully teach speaking in a variety of situations—from classroom discussions to  formal presentations—and includes a set of tools for students—from how to grab the audience’s attention to how to use emphatic hand gestures and adjust speed for effect.Discover why, year after year, students returned to Palmer’s classroom to thank him for teaching them how to be well spoken. You may find, after reading this book, that you have become a better speaker, too.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Professional Development, Nonfiction, Reference

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2011

About the author

Erik Palmer is an author, speaker, and communication consultant from Denver, Colorado. He works with teachers, trainers, and managers showing practical ways to improve their oral communication as well as the verbal skills of those they instruct and manage. He is a frequent presenter at conferences, and has given keynotes and led workshops for districts across the US and around the world.

Prior to becoming a consultant, he had a career in business (national sales leader for a prominent commodity brokerage firm and a floor trader on a Chicago commodity exchange), and a career in the classroom (21 years in the Cherry Creek School District as a teacher of English, math, science, and civics).

Palmer is the author of Well-Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students (Stenhouse Publishers, 2011), Teaching the Core Skills of Listening & Speaking (ASCD, 2014), Researching in a Digital World (ASCD, 2015), Good Thinking: Teaching Argument, Persuasion, and Reasoning (Stenhouse, 2016), Own Any Occasion: Mastering the Art of Speaking and Presenting (ATD, 2017), and Before You Say A Word: A School Leader's Guide to Clear and Compelling Communication. Palmer is a program consultant for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Into Reading and Into Literature language arts programs.

His educational background includes Oberlin College, University of Denver Law School, and the University of Colorado.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather simple and straightforward approach to public speaking, but it seems that speaking skills, along with vocabulary, are getting shoved aside thanks to the onerous demands of reading and writing workshops PLUS (lest we forget) test-taking strategies and skills. If you've done little public speaking instruction, I think this book will serve well as it is short and sweet with all the basics. If you have experience already, it is less desirable, as you might be disappointed in the lack of new ideas. That is, you may find yourself saying, "I could have written much of this."

Among the odd suggestions is that students write out an entire speech. When Palmer writes this, he is unclear whether the students should read it or not, and obviously, if eye contact is one of the criteria being graded, that would create a problem. So, when he gets to the eye contact chapter, the write-it-out suggestion is all but gone. Now he's more reasonably saying one or two index cards. How else can they practice looking up?

The other questionable idea is asking for a "good sport" willing to go up and wing it so the teacher can critique him. Palmer's so-called good natured "critique" consists of going up and exaggerating all the mistakes the kid just made. The class LOVES it, he assures us. Uh... duh. And as long as it's all in fun and the speaker agreed, that's cool, too, he seems to intimate. What he doesn't realize is how many kids "play along" and laugh with you only to go home mulling over the incident. Very. Bad. Idea.

Finally, and quaintly, Palmer suggests kids "dress up" on speech day to show the importance of the assignment. Guess the cover photographer didn't read the book. The speaker's in jeans. (Nice shirt, though.)

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

True story: At a sophomore in high school, I delivered a speech on the life of Charlie Chaplin. Since this was back in the 20th century, I rented a VHS of one of his old silent movies and played it on the TV behind me while I gave the speech. My master plan was to get the eyes off of me and onto the video. It worked. I read my speech.

I never received any true instruction in giving a speech; therefore, I tend to struggle teaching speaking skills. This book broke down the elements of public speaking in a way that will help me better teach my students.

I found his argument for explicitly teaching these skills persuasive; however, I felt he could have made more explicit and repeated connections between speaking and writing. That may have helped him persuade those who claim that there isn't enough time to teach speaking.

I found his suggestions on how to teach building a speech validated some of my other practices in the teaching of writing. However, I have been in the biz for quite a long time. I would imagine that his suggestions would be amazing for novice teachers.

Personally, his section on teaching the six components of speaking was invaluable. I felt that he broke down the elements in such a way that I can really teach students. The rubrics in the back are amazing. I may disagree with some of his suggested tactics for instruction, but the bigger picture outweighed that slight criticism.

[Thomas M. Burby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a re-read for me and while it is not a book my students would be interested in , it does offer a variety of public speaking ideas for almost any class, along with a manner of assessment that focuses on the presentation itself, not the content. School have focused on reading, writing and math so heavily that the skill of speaking has been ignored. We write, we read, but we speak more than these combined! This book allows the teacher the freedom to find opportunities for public speaking often, not just for use with major projects. I would give this book four out of five stars, but the last part of the book I would definitely give 6 stars if I could. The rubric is well-done.

[Ronni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well developed book on a crucial topic in teaching, esp for Language Arts and Social Studies (who am I kidding, for any subject where you might ask students to provide an oral presentation, even informally). Doesn't skimp on the how or the why - offers practical instruction - concise and economical - no gaping holes in the coverage of the topic - positive approach.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great way to re-think or solidfy that which is already happening in the classroom when teaching kids to speak. I'm going to start - DAY ONE - practicing the art of speaking well with my students. By the end of the year, I hope to eliminate the go-to words and phrases "like," "you know" and "um yeah." It's a tall task, but it will happen one student at a time.

[Katie Allender · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book -- not only because I can implement ideas presented in the book (re: oral communication) in the classroom, there are also some tactics presented that I hope to utilize myself. Palmer's writing style is not only informative, but very engaging.

[Mrs. Lapacka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great professional development book. I've read bits and pieces of it over this semester, and worked on including some of the strategies into my oral presentations. I'll be referencing it in the future.

[Emily Cave · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great resource for teachers! This needs to be a mandatory read for every teacher.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a valuable resource to help teach students invaluable speaking skills that benefit them inside the classroom, but most importantly, in the real world as well.

[Christen Mamenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, straight-forward book - can't wait to implement it this fall in my classroom!

[Jon Den Houter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Palmer's book is an easy read and eminently practicable. He divides speaking up into two components: Building a Speech and Performing a Speech (not Delivering a Speech; a speaker is not merely handing a package of content to an audience). He stresses keeping these components separate, especially on the rubric, for what help is it to a student who receives an 8/10 on the rubric item, "Speech is well organized with strong eye contact"? Were they 6/10 at one of those skills at 10/10 on the other? 8/10 at both? Keep them separate. In fact, Palmer says to keep all eleven of the sub-components, below, separate on the rubric.

There are five sub-components within Building a Speech:

Audience [Research]
Content
Organization
Visual Aids
Appearance

Three things stood out to me in these "Building a Speech" chapters. First, teachers to help teach students to present to their classmates rather than to present to the teacher while their classmates, horribly bored, eavesdrop: "In Classroom A an eighth-grade civics teacher tells students they will have to research a landmark Supreme Court case and give a speech about the case in class.... In Classroom B, an eighth-grade civics teacher tells students they will have to research a landmark Supreme Court case and give a speech about the case to the class... teacher [B] builds into the rubric a category for "audience" and explains to the students that they will be scored on how well they gear their speech toward the audience [their classmates]. The speeches in Classroom B will be significantly more successful than the speeches in Classroom A" (22-3).

Second, Palmer makes a solid case for not having students make visual aids (slides) in their speeches. He writes, "Visual aids can become a distraction in two significant ways. First, preparing a visual aid takes focus away from preparing the speech.... Second, visual aids can distract the listener. Rather than focus on the speaker, the audience focuses on the visual aid, and the speaker becomes subordinate to the picture" (47). I was surprised at first by his comments, but on reflection, I believe Palmer is correct. I do think there are techniques to use visual aids to support instead of overshadowing the speaker (less words, more images, blank slides between images when the speaker is not referring to the visual aid so that the audience focuses on the speaker, etc.), but these techniques must be explicitly taught.

Third, Palmer stresses that teaching the eleven sub-components should not be relegated to the one big presentation of the school year. On the contrary, "students need to get in the habit of thinking about all of these elements every time they plan to speak [even in simply speaking tasks class discussions]" (54).

The other six sub-components Palmer discusses in the "Performing a Speech" chapters. He organizes them using the handy acronym PV Legs:

Poise
Eliminate distracting behaviors
Move on purpose
Calm and confident
Don't sweat mistakes
It's okay to be honest about your nervousness–audiences are on your side

Voice
Talk conversationally but with more volume
Can you hear me in the back?
Enunciate

Life
Express passion and emotions with your voice
Try to make "Don't do that to your sister" mean different things

Eye Contact
Involve your classmates by making eye contact with them (not just with the teacher)
Look at each person in the classroom (not just in the front row or down the middle aisle)
Familiarization is better than memorization (being familiar will make you give a more conversational, versus canned, speech, plus you won't get flustered or lose your place if you don't say the exact words you've memorized)

Gestures
Like you do in a conversation with a friend, use gestures in your speech
Add gestures to the following speech: "They were huge—bigger than a car, even bigger than a house. Suddenly, there were three more of them. My heart started beating so fast I thought it was going to burst. I looked around for a place to hide. The killer hamburgers were after me."
Hand movements
Body movements (e.g. step forward to emphasize a point, step back to show fear or disgust)
Facial expressions

Speed
As with poise, just acknowledging the physical symptoms of nervousness helps students control their nervousness and fast-talking. They should acknowledge the following as normal if they experienced them when speaking:

Dry mouth
Butterflies
Shortness of breath
Rapid heart rate
Sweating
Hands may tremble
Knees may feel weak and wobbly
Voice unsteady and sound shaky
Giggles/smiling

It's harder for an audience to listen to a fast-talker. Slow down for your audience's sake!
Pacing is an advanced technique to speed up and slow down as appropriate
Pausing is an advanced technique
Write SLOW DOWN! and PAUSE on your notecard to help you

Finally, the last chapters and appendix of the book are devoted to frequently asked questions, practical examples of rubrics that separate out these 11 sub-components, and practical examples of classroom activities. My favorite of his suggested activities are as follows:

2. Analyze other speakers. I do this already with TED Talks, but I like Palmer's suggestion in 1. to use speeches by MLK to analyze.

10. Traveling debates. Like four corners, have students move to areas of the classroom to denote agree or disagree, then have the minority opinion start with a volunteer speaking for two minutes, trying to convince other students to come over to their side. Then the majority opinion gives a two minute rebuttal, again trying to convince students from the minority side to come over to their side. Tell kids not to look at the teacher, as the teacher does not take sides in this activity. Rather, give eye contact to your classmates you are trying to convince.

12. Object box. Have a box full of random items, out of which a student pulls a random item and gives an impromptu speech based on that item. (Elsewhere Palmer suggests giving a two-minute impromptu speech instead of the standard 30 seconds; two minutes gives student a hearty chance to combat the squirminess and the tendency to say umm and uhh.)

14. Demonstration speech without any props—gestures and pantomimes only!

15. Poetry Cafe. Students dress up and take their turn at the stool in front of the classroom (with parents and other adults invited) to recite a poem of their choosing (one they found or one they wrote). Students can sign up to bring food and drinks.

16. Commercials. Have students sign up (maybe for extra credit) to give a "sponsored by" commercial for a future class period. At the end of that class, the teacher says, "Today's class has been brought to you by Johnny. Johnny?" At which point Johnny stands up at the front of class and gives a 30 second plug for a product, either a mock one they came up with or a real one. (Palmer made his students do 30 seconds exactly; making them stand up there awkwardly if they finished early or get cut off if they went over 30 seconds.)

17. Read aloud—under this heading Palmer suggested doing Reader's Theater, which I love to do. One thing I will do differently, though, having read this book, is explicitly teach students how to use PVLEGS in their assigned Reader Theater role.

[Joy Kirr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was introduced to this book through Sandy Otto's presentation at USMSparks in June. My take-away from her session was that we often require "eye contact," "poise," etc. in student speeches, but do we really teach those skills? Do we even have mini lessons?? I know at 7th grade at my school, we currently don't. Hopefully, now that I've read this easy-to-digest book, we will.

Some strategies Erik Palmer suggests are easy to implement and have already started in my own classes. I no longer repeat students who are too quiet, so the rest of the class can hear. I now ask those students to speak up, because their voices are needed (and they need to learn how to project their voices). Other suggestions will not make it into our classes, as I think 7th graders already are embarrassed too many times to count during a day, and I won't be the teacher that does that to them. My next step is to loan this book to a former student who has a goal of speaking at graduation night in June!!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. He makes a great case for teaching public speaking and offers good advice on how to do that. Links speaking to reading and writing as well. Much of what he says can be fit into the regular classtime, but he often puts the speaking part first as if that will be the key to unlocking struggling readers and writers. Forgets that there is other kinds of talk as well. I have mixed feelings on this book. The first part was excellent; the second part only useful if you have the time to teach it.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well Spoken is a good book for teachers of upper elementary-high school who want to help prepare students for speaking with confidence in all sorts of situations. Even came away with a few tips I might be able to use with my younger students. Seems it would tie into writing as well...again for the older students. Worth the read if you have students in that age range especially.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great guide for learning how to teach speech to students from all ages in high school and middle school. I love all of the practical lesson plans and activities. Using PVLEGS makes teaching speech performance skills far easier. I am going to apply many of these principles myself that Palmer presents here.

[Andrew Shipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met Erik Palmer at a workshop last summer offered by my district and got this book for free. Palmer breaks down the process of giving a speech into "building" and "performing," with a set of traits that accompany each. There are good ideas for teaching those traits, as well as rubrics.

[Linh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very like

[Jovan Alvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This needs some adaptation for second language learners, but it is a clear and easily explained approach to speaking rubrics.

[Mr Osowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a teacher without a communication degree, this is gold. I do have done differences with done things (like writing the speech out). I found a few nice things to tweak.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text brought together many of the ideas I've considered or already do use in my public speaking class, but it offered me more ways to approach or handle them in class.

[Erika Reynolds · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I were a first year teacher, maybe this book would have been more useful. It’s pretty straight forward, common sense information that most people who have had to do any sort of public speaking already know. So it didn’t provide any new insights, but I did appreciate all of the activities included.

[Rob Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful for the novice teacher or the old pro. Great instructional and assessment ideas abound.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the absolute best single book I have ever read, for teaching public speaking to anyone of any age, anywhere!

[Christina Fakharzadeh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book full of information that I already knew. Good activities at the end of each chapter though.