www.speechanddebate.org
debate coaches, and public speaking instructors in the communication arts, are even better. Email your colleagues a rubric for assessing oral presentations. Offer notable websites that can provide some specific skills. Peruse Palmer’s book about evaluating in the later chapters and pass along the information. Devise and deliver a mini-unit for a faculty meeting about attention-getting techniques. Encourage instructors to reward eye contact and vocal inflection. Demonstrate the difference between natural gestures and distracting ones. In other words, teach exactly what you already do so well, but, this time, do it for your peers. They may grumble a bit, but colleagues will appreciate your support for something instructors must do, but may not know exactly how to accomplish. The National Speech & Debate Association will be calling for curriculum resources from our membership to build and sustain a hive of best practices in rhetorical arts. All of us in our activity have learned from each other. Now you, as the trained professional, need to submit appropriate contributions in the process of sharing best practices. This can become a marketing tool for nonmember schools and other educational professionals. We are the professional organization for all teachers engaged in rhetorical performance, and we can build and sustain a bigger hive with your help. Have you shouted BINGO yet? If not, research those buzzwords unfamiliar to you and continue to keep up with the current rhetoric. Erik Palmer articulates it best: “If you have students talk in your classroom, or students present information in front of the class, or have your students leave school and compete in the global marketplace, then speaking skills are part of your teaching responsibility” (2011, p. 144). It is our obligation to shout out the BUZZ in the art of oracy.
References Burke, B.A. (2014, July 28). Listening & speaking: Top skills for college & career readiness. The Write Fix. Retrieved 02/23/15 from Baburke.edublogs.org Catapano, J. (n.d.). Why we still need public speaking. TeachHUB. Retrieved 02/18/15 from http://www.teachhub.com/why-we-still-need-public-speaking Curriculum and instruction. (n.d.) Retrieved 02/19/15 from Partnership for 21st Century Learning website: www.p21.org Developing oracy skills. (2013, May 9). Retrieved 02/23/15 from Class Teaching website: https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/developing-oracyskills/ Friedman, T.L. (2013, March 30). Need a job? Invent it. The New York Times. Retrieved 02/20/15 from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/opinion/sunday/friedmanneed-a-job-invent-it.html?_r=0 Kivunja, C. (2015). Exploring the pedagogical meaning and implications of the 4Cs “super skills” for the 21st century through Bruner’s 5E lenses of knowledge construction to improve pedagogies of the new learning paradigm. Creative Education, 6.2: Scientific Research Publishing Inc. Retrieved 02/16/15 from http:// dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2015.62021 MacMillan Dictionary Free Online Dictionary and Thesaurus. (n.d.). Retrieved 02/02/15 from www.macmillandictionary.com Massengale, J. (2014, January 16). 5 reasons everyone should take a public speaking course. College and Campus Life Section, USA Today. Retrieved 02/18/15 from http://college.usatoday.com/2014/01/16/5-reasons-everyone-should-take-apublic-speaking-course/ Mercer, N., Ahmed, A., & Warwick, P. (2014, October 4). We should be teaching kids public speaking in school. Washington Post. Retrieved 02/08/15 from http:// www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/04/we-should-beteaching-kids-public-speaking-in-school Palmer, E. (2011). Well spoken: Teaching speaking to all students. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Public speaking for teachers I: Lecturing without fear. (2008). Retrieved 02/09/15 from the Yale University Teaching Center website: http://teaching.yale.edu/ public-speaking-teachers-i-lecturing-without-fear Quick Tip Tuesday: Why is public speaking important? [Web log post]. (2011, April 5). Retrieved 02/08/15 from The Stonehouse Blog website: http://blog.stenhouse. com/archives/2011/04/05/quick-tip-tuesday-why-is-public-speaking-important/ Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need—and what we can do about it. New York: Basic.
In May 2014, Pam McComas retired as a 40-year secondary instructor of rhetorical arts and English in Topeka Public Schools. She is the former director of forensics at Topeka High School. She is a seven-diamond coach, a member of the National Speech & Debate Association Hall of Fame, and a member of the Association’s Board of Directors. Currently, Pam is an education supervisor for Emporia State University overseeing secondary student teachers. She received the National Federation of High Schools Region 5 Citation for speech, debate, and theatre in 2015.
Gail Naylor retired in May 2013 after 40 years as director of forensics at Silver Lake High School in Kansas. She is a former rhetorical arts and English instructor. Gail taught college level speech and composition for a local community college. She is a six-diamond coach and a member of the National Speech & Debate Association Hall of Fame. She received the National Federation of High Schools Region 5 Citation for speech, debate, and theatre in 2014.
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