What’s inside: A fun look at the roles in a homeschool high school speech club where the kids run the club — we’ll compare the roles to the signs on a ski slope. This was given as a speech at the first club meeting to help everyone learn the roles!
When we started our speaking club, naturally no one knew how to run a club. But we learned quickly. At the first meeting, to help understand what to do, I gave this speech which introduced the roles the kids would be doing during the meetings. Our speech club was a part of Toastmasters.
Please enjoy this speech called “Knocking Down Trees with Your Face.”
Speech: Knocking Down Trees with Your Face
Dave Barry said, “Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face.” Lord Mancroft wrote in A Chinaman in My Bath, “There are really only 3 things to learn in skiing: how to put on your skis, how to slide downhill, and how to walk along a hospital corridor.” I personally think skiing is more fun without hospitals and face planting, so today, I would like to help you navigate the dangerous world of public speaking using the trail difficulty signs for skiing.
So let’s apply those green circles, blue squares, and black diamonds to the speaking roles you can sign up for in Gavel Club.
Green Circles
We’ll start with the green circles. In each Gavel club meeting, you have the opportunity to sign up for 12 different roles, plus there are usually 3 or 4 spur-of-the-moment bonus chances. Just as in skiing, some trails are easier than others. Let’s look at those bunny slopes of the speaking world:
- Timer
- Grammarian
- Ah-counter
- Table Topics speaker
These are great opportunities when you are starting out. Each says a small amount during the meeting and has little to no preparation.
More depth on easy roles
Timer will time speeches and report times at the end of the meeting.
Ah-Counter will count filler words used during speeches with a tally sheet. Filler words are like, uh, um, so, well, oh, uhm, you know!
The Grammarian actually has a bit of prep because they have to find a great word before the meeting, OR, if I were the Grammarian, a PHENOMENAL word. Print out 3 copies and define the word for the group. Then all the speakers try to use the word of the day.
Next on the Green slopes is Table Topics Speaker. This is a volunteer role that you don’t sign up for. You raise your hand to answer a question on the spot posed by the Topics Master. You have to answer for 1-2 minutes. So if the Topics Master asks, “What’s your favorite winter sport?” you can’t just stand up and say “Skiing!” It takes longer for you to stand up than to answer! But I just set up a poor example of a table topics question. A better question would be “What do you like or dislike about skiing?” Answering for two minutes is the only tricky part. You can’t prepare for this role—except for mentally determining ahead of time that you are going to raise your hand and answer.
Blue Squares
This brings us into the intermediate zone – the blue squares of the speaking club. Let’s look at Topics Master in more detail. As Topics Master, you have to prepare at least 3 questions and then initiate the conversation and set the tone for the club. You want to make questions that club members can feel comfortable answering, especially for the first few meetings while everyone is getting used to it.
The next intermediate speaking role is Speaker. Or is it an intermediate role? I’m going to say that Speaker covers a wide level of terrain. Certainly, the first speech is a green circle – maybe the kind of run that starts at the top of the mountain and goes slowly all the way down, but it’s still a green trail. The first speech everyone will complete is “The Ice Breaker” and it’s about yourself. So you know the material! Speeches range from green circles all the way through black diamonds. There are 10 speeches listed in the manual you will be getting – the Competent Communicator. A speech club manual is like ski lessons. The information in here will help you build skill upon skill as you progress through the speeches. And the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.
Black Diamonds
Finally, I’d like to talk about the black diamond speaking roles: Evaluator, General Evaluator and Toastmaster. Just like ski runs, there’s something tricky about each of these.
These roles require a bit more experience and skill. The speech club is designed to be encouraging yet gently helpful. Let’s look at that first black diamond – Evaluator. The Evaluator is key to improvement. Angel has graciously volunteered to evaluate my speech. What you don’t know is that I let my evaluator know beforehand which speech I was working on, and the specific areas that really wanted to focus on, in this case on transitions. Speakers are supposed to do this. You can show them the page in your manual (once you get them) with the details of your speech. That way, the evaluator is prepared to help you more effectively.
The Evaluator gives you their opinion of your speech, it’s not necessarily the only opinion. As we progress, you’ll see how this works. A word of advice – even if the speech stunk – you have to be helpful, no nagging or slamming down. Saying, “Wow! That stunk! That was the worst speech since the Gettysburg Address!” is not really helpful. Being specific on one thing to improve is better, like, “I liked your story about the time you were accidentally airborne on the ski run. I’d have like to hear more personal anecdotes like that—it makes your points come alive.”
So the Evaluator can be tricky—they evaluate the speeches, and the General Evaluator evaluates the general meeting and the Topics session. So Evaluators give praise and constructive criticism. Moms are good at this already, and probably some of you have some practice at this already too. By the end of the year, I expect that you all will be able to do this.
The Toastmaster is Master of Ceremonies
The last tricky speaking role is the double black diamond of Gavel Club: the Toastmaster. Some of you are ready for this right now. And if you don’t think you are, the best way to do it is to dive in!
I consider the Toastmaster role like a Master of Ceremonies. I think it’s demanding because the Toastmaster runs the whole meeting and sets the tone of the meeting. The Toastmaster is really responsible for the success of the meeting. They do this through preparation – they need a few mini-speeches, introductions for all the speakers and the Topics Master, and transition material for moving from one part of the meeting to the next. By the end of the year, you all will have handled this role.
Conclusion
Now, I hope I have given you a good idea of the various speaking roles we will have in our Speaking Club. We’ll have a signup sheet for the next two meetings that I encourage you to fill out. Go ahead and sign up for one of the roles at each meeting! You now know the Green slopes – Timer, Ah-Counter, Grammarian, and Speaker with the Ice Breaker Speech. You know the intermediate slopes of the Topics Master. And those more challenging roles of Evaluator, General Evaluator, and Toastmaster.
So let’s have some fun, without knocking down trees!
Related Posts
I hope you enjoyed this fun look at an informative speech. Keep on learning with related posts!