Talk Back: Public Speaking for Kids course

In yesterday’s first class of ‘Talk Back’, Pear Tree’s new public speaking course for kids, we started by studying two pictures of bullying.

Students had to using observation and critical thinking skills to dissect the picture, as well as to make inferences about things you can’t see, but can deduce (e.g. the tennis courts are empty).
They then had to make connections from each idea. The tennis courts are empty, so…. “So, there are no people to help; there are no witnesses”. Exactly!
We talked a lot about power, and the expression ‘There is power in numbers’ (a new expression to the students).
Overall, we talked about why we didn’t begin the class just doing public speaking, about why it’s important to have something interesting to say first.
Over the next 5 weeks, we’re going to work on how to write, how to design beautiful and stimulating presentations, and how to give a speech.
In the final few weeks, we’ll do some presentation challenges, where the students have to come up with the most amazing presentations when given previously unseen materials (a picture or text).
Public speaking for courses on a whole new level! Pretty cool stuff!