Public Speaking for Kids 1st Video Rehearsal

Now it’s time to practice your talk.

Your presentation your speech.

But I need you to do it in a very specific way.

Now when I was a kid I never did this.

I couldn’t do it because the technology didn’t exist.

I’m talking about video recording yourself.

So when you practice your talk your presentation don’t just state it out loud.

Don’t just state it out loud in front of a parent or a friend or a classmate.

Don’t talk it out in front of a mirror that really doesn’t do much good.

What you need to do is practice your speech on video.

Now these days you can find from someone a cell phone video Web cam if you’re watching me now you have a computer so a webcam is only about ten dollars these days at the grocery store.

But this is really the most important part of this whole process.

You can ignore my advice on a lot of things but if you just practice on video to the point where you like what you see you’re going to feel so much more confident.

So that’s what I want you to do now is practice your talk.

Your presentation doesn’t matter if it’s two minutes long it doesn’t matter if it’s 20 minutes long but practice your speech as if you were doing it for real.

Whether it’s to your classroom whether it’s graduation speech to everyone in your sixth grade whoever is the audience.

Let’s go ahead and practice that right now just with one family member friend but captured on video.

It doesn’t have to be a fancy video production.

All we need to do is to be able to see you and hear you.

Once you’ve recorded your cell phone video I need you to watch the video and I need you to grade yourself and be a fair critic.

Don’t just look at the negative.

Look at the positive too.

I want you to write down everything you like about how you’re coming across.

So if you see an interesting put it down.

If you’re easy to understand.

Put it down.

If you’re speaking speed is good and not rushed.

Put that down.

But I also need you to come up with a list of things you don’t like.

Sometimes people are nervous they speak too quickly make a note of that or people get scared and they speak so softly that it’s hard to understand them.

If you’re speaking so softly make a note of that.

If you’re fidgeting with your fingers the whole time or hands and look nervous.

Put that down.

So that’s your homework.

I need you to video record yourself.

Watch it.

Giving your speech.

Write a list of what you like and what you don’t like.

And if you want to ask a parent classmate someone else to do this with YouTube.

Fine.

Sometimes it’s hard to judge ourselves.

It’s good to get independent feedback but we’re not looking for just criticism and we’re not looking for all praise.

We really want to get an accurate sense of what’s working and what isn’t.

Do that now.