Course Profile - Curriculum Services Canada

LG2.03D - plan and make oral presentations to a small group or the class, selecting and using
vocabulary and methods of delivery to suit audience and purpose;
MD1.01B - demonstrate critical thinking skills by identifying the differences between explicit and
implicit messages in media works.
Planning Notes
Gather speeches from a variety of sources; a minimum of two is recommended. Some suggestions include:
Mark Antony’s “Friends, Romans Countrymen, Lend me your ears” in Julius Caesar; Martin Luther
King’s “I Have a Dream”; John F. Kennedy’s “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You”; Gordon
ed” in the film Wall Street; Jean Vanier’s “On Being Human”; The Massey
lectures on CBC; David Mahoney’s “Living to 100”, found in SightLines; the valedictory address from
your school’s last graduation ceremony.
Teaching/Learning Strategies
• Complete a socratic lesson on the nature of rhetoric and the conventions of speech writing, (i.e.,
purpose, audience, tone, diction, the rhetorical question, and the use of the following: the anecdote,
statistics, quotations, repetition, and figures of speech, such as metaphor and analogy). As well, the
importance of the strategies of delivery, such as pacing, expression, inflection, intonation, and emphasis
is a focus.
• Model the explication of one speech, either in combination with the delivery of the main lesson on the
conventions or as a follow up to it.
• Students form groups of four and explicate a second speech on their own.
• Students share their findings in a large group discussion.
• Students complete the writing of a two-minute speech on a topic of their own choosing. Encourage
students to select a topic that speaks to the issues that most concern them. Further, it is an opportunity
for them to continue in the development and articulation of their own personal voice and moral
conscience.
• Students share their speech in small groups or with the whole class. If time does not permit, it may be
filed as a sample in the writing portfolio.
Assessment/Evaluation
Formative Assessment:
• Informal observation of classroom discussion
• Roving conferences as students draft their personal speeches
Summative Assessment:
• Speech delivery via a checklist for use of rhetorical conventions and delivery style (optional)
• Questions of a summative nature on the unit test
Accommodations
• Audio cassette recordings of the speeches under study
• Audio cassette recordings of their own personal speeches
• Note-taking on NCR paper by a peer or educational assistant
Unit 5 - Page 13
•English - Academic