Say What You Mean: A Creative Speech Course
Even Shy Kids LOVE This Speech eBook!
This Christian-based, 18 week (one semester) course teaches impromptu and prepared speeches!
Fear of speaking with others is timidity or what we call shyness. Many people mistakenly think that shyness is a character trait or a personality flaw. It is not. For the most part, it is the result of not being comfortable or experienced with certain aspects of communication for some period of time. The longer a person has experienced himself as shy, the stronger its hold over him.
Communication is actually a set of skills that can be learned and must be practiced to reach mastery. Anyone and everyone can learn them. The challenge is to find the appropriate key to unlock and let go of the shyness within.
I liken learning communication skills to swimming because the analogy is fairly accurate. When teaching a young child to swim, a common technique is to throw them into the ocean or pool. The child is supposed to use instincts to get to the other side as they are carefully watched over by their parent. The idea is that when they get to the other side, they realize that they didn't drown and actually accomplished the goal.
Unfortunately, that method works only about half the time! The other half of the time it goes like this: The child is petrified! They are thrown into the water and panic sets in. Instinctively they thrash about and somehow make it to the other side. Instead of feeling relieved and excited that they accomplished their goal of swimming, they are now terrified of water and they vow never to do that again!
So it is with speech classes. Some children run into my classes, sit in the front row and can't wait to get up to speak! The other half are kicked in by their parents, stand at the entrance wide-eyed resembling a deer in the headlights and sit down after some coaxing on my part. What happens inside that first speech class is critical! Will they feel comfortable enough to take more steps along the road to effective communication skills or will they grit their teeth and bear it making a solemn vow before God to avoid any further speaking opportunities that might come along?
The idea isn't to get them through a speech class, but to get speech skills through to them.
The goal is to create a more confident and powerful speaker who will have the spirit of power in the Lord! To that end, I teach with humor. It disarms the fear allowing them to forget that they expected it to be hard and scary. I don't throw them in the water. Instead, I have them stick their big toe in, giving them a chance to acclimate their body to the water's temperature. This allows them to take baby steps further in the ocean we call communication.
Where did I get my training for this? Some might think it was at California State University, Northridge where I got my degree in Speech Communication, but they would be wrong. It was from a little girl who was terrified to speak- not only in public, but one on one. It was that little girl who grew up lonely and afraid of so many things. It was that painfully shy girl who missed out on so much. She taught me a lot about what shy children need. Many of my students thank me for the training she provided. Her name? JoJo.
- Each lesson begins with a Bible quote that sets the stage for the lesson
- No teacher prep time. Very easy to use
- Just 1-2 hours a week!
- Great for thinking on their feet
- Great for students with ADD. It's fun and they get totally involved in the activities
- Perfect for shy kids who are intimidated by most speech courses because it's fun and the topics are creative.
- Even the prepared speech topics don't require a ton of research so they are not intimidating from that standpoint either. After all, the idea of a speech course isn't to learn to do research, but to learn to give speeches!
- Now with embedded links to new articles, tips and more!
" I highly recommend the Say What You Mean Speech Course for teens. I have two homeschooled sons, ages 13 and 15, using it this year and it is their first experience with a "speech" curriculum. Mrs. Tabares, through her curricula, has given my sons the tools, opportunity and feedback necessary to become confident and competent in their speaking, whether a one-on-one impromptu conversation or a prepared speech in a group setting. My sons love speech and have grown and learned so much and that says it all!" -Joann Oxenham
*NOTE*: You will be prompted at checkout to click through in order to download the eBook.