TODD Talks for Teachers

Creating a safe space for public speaking - In order to give students the reassurance that they should not be scared of public speaking, it is imperative that you make your classroom a place where they can take risks and make mistakes and it be OK to do so.

Effective Feedback for Public Speaking - in order for your students to get better at public speaking, the feedback you provide has to be such that gives them specific things that they can act on.

Creating Rubrics - Rubrics are a valuable way for teachers to assess students in non-traditional, performance-based assessments such as public speaking.

TODD Talks to show to Students

Advantages of Learning Public Speaking - public speaking is one of those skills that is very important to possess. The reason being that people who can speak in public are sought after by employers because of their ability to communicate ideas.

Basic structure of a speech - a speech needs to have a structure in order to be strong. This structure is very similar to that of the five paragraph essay.

The Importance of the Throughline in Your Speech - a throughline is the heart of your speech. Similar to a thesis in an essay, it is the main idea and/or focus of your speech.

Reading vs. Presenting in a Speech - when we have text in front of us, we sometimes read it in a very monotone manner, coming off sounding very robotic and without any emotion.

5 Things to Consider in Regard to Your Speaking Voice - there is more to speaking than just the words you say. How you say them is really important.

Answering the Rubric - Teachers provide you with a rubric and you tuck it away in your folder never to see the light of day. You are missing a prime opportunity because the teacher has given you a blueprint for how to be successful.

Details Matter - your teacher has probably said a thousand times to you, give me more detail, show your work, or explain more clearly. Details are the little things that paint the entire picture.

Are your visuals communicating what you want them to? - a picture is worth a 1000 words so they say. But is it communicating the 1000 words you want it to? If you decide to use visuals for a presentation, they should be meaningful and clearly communicate the ideas you are sharing.

Logos, pathos, and ethos - sounds like a folk group from the 60s but in reality, it stands for logic, emotion, and credibility. These are all tools you need to appeal to when speaking in public, especially if you are trying to persuade an audience.

Using counterarguments to strengthen your points - one way to make your argument even stronger is to offer the opposing sides and then refute what they might say against you.

Using transitions in your speech - in order for your audience to be able to follow where you are going in your speech you have to provide them with signposts that they can follow. These come in the form of transition words and phrases that indicate where you are at in the speech.

Appropriate Eye Contact in Public Speaking - Public speaking is more than just saying words. You have to make a connection with your audience and there is no better way to do that than making eye contact with them.

Communicating with Your Hands - there is much more to communicating with your audience in public speaking than just your words. There are your non-verbals including how you communicate with your hands.

The Opening of Your Speech - how you begin your speech is very important. You want to start things out on the right foot.

How to Close Your Speech - do you want to finish your speech with a whimper, or go out with a bang? Obviously you want the former but how exactly does one do that?

Your Movement While Giving a Speech - when an audience listens to a speech, they are in a very passive position, typically seated and not able to to move anywhere. This inactivity can tend to make people bored because they are simply not moving.

Strategies for Overcoming Stage Fright - For this Todd Talk, we have a guest speaker who comes all of the way from China. This is Verlin, one of the students to whom I teach public speaking. She is sharing 3 strategies that she uses to overcome stage fright.

How to Not Sound Like a Robot When Giving a Speech - there are a lot of aspects that go into a speech but one of the main deliverers of information is your voice. It is not the words you say necessarily, but how you say them that matters.

How to be more focused on your confidence while giving a speech - public speaking is supposed to build your confidence but a lot of this is done before the speech is actually given.

Example Speeches

Bio Speech - Why I am the person to be teaching you about public speaking - this is an example of a bio speech. In it I use the usual structure of a speech, an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Here are the TED Talks used throughout the book Letting Student Voices Shine: Using Online Talks to Teach Public Speaking.

What adults can learn from kids

Making data interesting

Great use of visuals

Opening with a rhetorical question

Speaking with passion

Use of audience members

Curator of TED talks about the secret to great public speaking