Introduction Speech Exercise
Past, Present, and Future Ice Breaker for Public Speeaking Classes
Here's a simple introductory public speaking assignment to help your students overcome speech anxiety and learn the basics of organization.
If you're teaching a public speaking class to middle school, high school, or college students, one of the biggest obstacles is that many of your students have a fear of public speaking and are terrified to go up in front of the class for the first time. A second obstacle is that most students have little or no experience with writing a speech, so they have no idea how to organize a speech in a way that makes sense easily to the audience.
Here's an ice breaker speech exercise that addresses both of these concerns. The "past, present, and future" speech is fun, so it's a less painful way to get used to getting up in front of the class. This is also a way for students to get to know each other, which is an important part of establishing a comfortable environment where students have less speech anxiety.
In addition, this speech has a very simple organizational structure, so you can use it to teach students to basics about thesis statements, main points, and transition statements. The speech also involves the use of visual aids, which is another important lesson.
The Past, Present, and Future Speech
For this speech, each student needs to find three objects that each represent a portion of their lives: their past, their present, and their future. The three objects can be unrelated, but for a more creative touch, the student can find three items that are related in some way.
Example #1: A student brings in three Beanie Babies: a swan, an owl, and a lemur. The swan represents her past as an "ugly ducking" who blossomed. The owl represents her current focus on getting an education and becoming wise. And the lemur, which lives in Madagascar, represents her future plans to travel the world.
Example #2: A student brings in three types of candy: a plain Hershey bar, a bag of M 'n' M's, and a Reese's peanut butter cup. The candy bar represents life in the small town where he grew up, which was sweet but too plain. The colorful M 'n' M's represent the new diversity of people and ideas he has encountered in college. And the peanut butter cup represents a mix: it contains the simple chocolate that represents the simple life of his childhood, which will always be a part of him--but it also has peanut butter mixed in, which represents an openness to new ideas.
Organizing the Speech
The simple premise of this speech makes it easy to organize and to make sure students understand organizational basics. Have students write and turn in a detailed outline of this speech so they can learn this important skill.
The outline (and the speech itself) should contain a simple thesis statement such as, "I'm going to tell you about three kinds of candy that represent my life: a Hershey bar for my past, M 'n' M's for my present, and a Reese's peanut butter cup for my future." The rest of the speech should follow along as previewed: first the Hershey's bar, then the M 'n' M's, and then the peanut butter cup. Students often find themselves quite confused about the function of a thesis statement, and this simple set up can help bring this concept to life.
This speech is also a good time to introduce students to transition statements. Students will need to include a transition between each point. They can either use simple transitions, such as, "Now that I've told you about my Hershey bar past, let me tell you about my M 'n' M present." They also can use more creative transitions, such as, "While there's nothing like a sweet and simple Hershey bar, these days I've come to appreciate the diversity in a bag of M 'n' M's."
The "past, present, and future" speech is a fun way to get to know your students and to help them get to know each other. It's also a good way to ease speech anxiety and to help them work on the basics of organization.
