Speak Your Mind Formative Speech
The Horizon of our dreams has decided to share the morning announcements
through live broadcast, instead of through the intercom! Every morning, you watch
and listen to the morning news on your classroom’s TV. One segment that airs on
Mondays is called Speak Your Mind! During this 2-minute segment, students get to
share their opinions in a 30-60 second, persuasive, respectful, and informed speech.
For students to appear on the show, they must write their speech and submit it to
the Approval Board-Ms. McClain, Ms. Ullrich, and Ms. Gist. If their speech is 30-60
seconds long, and is persuasive, respectful, and informed, they will get to appear live
on Speak Your Mind! to present their speeches.
Since we come to school in real-Horizon and not dream-Horizon, we can’t air this
broadcast on TV. However, students with the best speeches will have the option of
sharing it over the morning announcements in February!
You will be scored on three criteria for your written speech: Organizing, Producing
Text, and Using Language. You will be scored again on Using Language for your oral
speech. Here are the level 7-8 descriptors for these criteria:
B: Organizing: The
student…
78
i.
ii.
makes
sophisticated
use of
organizational
structures that
serve the
situation and
purpose
effectively effectively
organizes
opinions and
ideas in a
reasonable and
logical manner
with ideas
building on each
other in a
sophisticated
way C: Producing text: The
student…
produces texts that
demonstrate a high
degree of creativity,
thought, imagination
and sensitivity and
perceptive exploration
and consideration of
new viewpoints and
ideas ii. makes perceptive
choices with the style of
language and grammar,
demonstrating clear
awareness of impact on
an audience iii. selects extensive
relevant details and
examples to develop
ideas with precision.
D: Using language: The
student…
i.
i.
effectively uses a variety
of appropriate
vocabulary, sentence
structures and forms of
expression ii. writes in a consistently
appropriate tone of
voice and style that serve
the situation and purpose
iii. uses grammar, sentence
structure and
punctuation with a high
degree of accuracy;
errors are minor and
communication is
effective To help you prepare for your written speech, complete the following brainstorming
notes:
Write down your opinion about three topics, and explain what you would try
to convince others to believe:
Opinion on a Topic
Persuasive Goal
Example: I believe that the
Example: Convince all middle
book, Moon Over Manifest, by
school students to read it.
Clare Vanderpool, is great.
Now that you have chosen a persuasive topic, complete this outline to prepare
you to write your persuasive speech. You should NOT write in complete
sentences:
Introduction:
-attention grabber
 a startling
statement
 a rhetorical
question
 a quotation
 a funny story
 a dramatic story
 a photograph or
other visual aid
-topic sentence (what do
you believe that you are
trying to convince us to
agree with?)
Body
-reasons that prove your
topic
 you should have
more than one
reason
 each reason needs
to be supported by
emotions,
examples, facts,
details, and/or
stories to help
prove your topic
Conclusion
-restate your topic with
new words
-explain your call to
action (what do you
want us to do?)
 Change our beliefs?
 Change our
actions?
 Do something to
help?
 Try something
new?