Public Speaking

Avon Lake City Schools 

Curriculum Framework

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Course Overview:

Welcome to Public Speaking, a performance-based course designed to help students successfully develop confidence and organize, develop, and present ideas while speaking in front of an audience.  Students will have the chance to work on their body language, gestures, rate, tone, posture, eye contact, and vocal expression.  This class meets one period daily for ½ unit of credit; the class meets for a ½ year.  Below is a detailed list of units, required supplies, grading policy, assessments, classroom expectations, quarterly lesson plans, and communication with the teacher.  

Our yearly long-term goal is for students to use personal experiences and researched facts to present many three to seven-minute speeches to an audience of their peers, as well as learn appropriate discussion, interview, and parliamentary procedure methods.  Each speech will be assigned a point value depending on length and difficulty.  There is no extra credit.   

Textbook (Title and Publishing Company): 

None. Students do at times select their own reading material to review. 

Online/Supplemental Materials:

Google Classroom; various YouTube videos.

Assessments: 

Speeches performed in front of an audience

Written and objective tests/quizzes

Final exam/speech (cumulative) 

Content/Topics/Learning Goals

Subject to Pacing and Schedules

1st/ 3rd Quarter- 

NOTE: some speeches will be done twice - once for practice and once for a grade.

  • We will start with the citing evidence practice speech to get over the fear of public speaking.  By doing this speech, students can work on integrating quotations and acknowledging sources both verbally and through their writing.     

  • Next, we will perform our social media picture or video personal experience speech.

  • Our third item is the hero speech which focuses on someone the speaker admires.

  • We will perform our partner speech.

  • We will introduce the first speech without notes.

2nd/4th Quarter- 

NOTE: some speeches will be done twice - once for practice and once for a grade.

  • We will introduce the second speech without notes.

  • We will conduct a job interview.

  • We will introduce the virtual speech.  The speech will be a persuasive speech that tries to persuade an audience on a topic. The speech should develop an argument and use citations.  

  • We will introduce the process demonstration speech with Google Slides.  

  • We will introduce the impromptu speech and practice it in preparation for the final. 

  • Final – The final will be an impromptu speech. Having practiced impromptu speeches, we will perform them for the final. 

Note: Some of these speeches might be eliminated because of time.  If there is extra time available, we may add an award acceptance and/or dedication speech.  

Last Updated:

September, 2023