American History Speech Challenge


How’d you all do on the first Speech Challenge?  Did you all get a bit more comfortable speaking?  Great. Please share your experiences and ask any questions you may have here. Let’s move on to the next step. Sometimes you aren’t as much afraid to get up and speak as you are uncomfortable because you don’t know what to say.  So this week’s challenge is to pick a speech you like from American history and get comfortable with a small part of it.  Read it over several times and envision yourself speaking as if it were YOU giving the speech.  Then…stand up and give the speech!  The idea this week isn’t to memorize it or to deliver the entire speech.  The idea is to give about 2 minutes of it while perfecting your execution.  Maintain eye contact as much as possible. You can be reading it from your  notes, but practice it enough such that you can look back at it just to refer to and not to be reading directly from it. For more fun with speech communication, visit Art of Eloquence’s Speech and Debate Page!

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  • Carla

    Sounds like fun! As my US History 1 Class is just getting into the founding of this country, I think I’ll go bone up on some Patrick Henry. :) Good thing you said you could use notes, though. There is no way in all this snow I could remember two minutes worth. I had a student a few years back with a photographic memory. She could do five minutes with one tiny cue card and she barely looked down. Always amazed me! And she was GOOD. Delivery was animated with all the correct expressions in the right places. If I can do part of it half that well, I shall be a happy camper!


  • Cindy Holman

    I took a speech class in college. Part of me loved the challenge – part of me HATED that class. I remember writing some pretty cool things to compete in as our class would enter tournaments etc. I also got Mono that semester and was never able to finish the class. It was the spring before Greg and I were married the following September – so it’s been 30 years this year! I’d rather sing and write – then talk in front of people – but my Mary Kay training taught me good things and I was able to do it without being too nervous – it’s just not what I prefer. I like one on one better.


  • jojosblog

    Thanks for the RT, Elbert!

    Carla, that sounds like a speech master!

    Cindy, it’s not as difficult with Art of Eloquence studies. They’re fun and creative.


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