The Greater Princeton branch of AYLUS (GPA) has been working with middle school students on important public speaking skills. We designed the class for beginners with the desire to improve their speaking skills. GPA members led by Alissa Wu and Grace Li teach these classes and create a schedule based on past roles and student preferences, update the class spreadsheet, design slideshows and activities, present informational videos, and deliver speech feedback. The class has 10 students, who spend most of the time doing speeches, but they also watch informational videos and do other class activities. The teachers facilitate classes and guide each student as they gain experience in a variety of public speaking aspects, such as prepared and impromptu speaking.
On November 12th (2 hrs), the class theme was “Jobs.” The class continued Project 7 Speeches; the aim is to present speeches after doing research to be knowledgeable about the speech topic. After the speeches were over, the teacher gave them advice on their speeches, such as ways to make slides more readable, or guidelines about how many words should go on a slide. They then continued practicing impromptu speeches with questions centered on the theme, such as “What kinds of things would you look for in a job?” or “What job would you want to do when you grow up?” Students would take a few seconds to think about the question, then give a 1-2 minute speech. After they finished, the teacher gave them feedback did, and pointers on what to improve.
