Caveats and Options
- Teachers will provide learners with options in preparing a persuasive or informational speech:
· Write about a historical figure (biographical; informational) providing the audience with historical details of this individual’s life.
· Take the role of a historical figure preparing and delivering an original persuasive speech to the audience during the same historical period.
The second option is geared toward more advanced learners because they must prepare a
persuasive speech rather than a biographical one (informational speech and
presentation).
Some dramatization and total physical response (TPR) might be appropriate.
This option might also be attractive to extroverted learners rather than introverted or
quieter learners.
- Alternative:
Teachers might want to include a third alternative for learners who are not as advanced in
English language skills.
· Write a biographical account as the informational speech of the selected historical figure.
· Include quotes from their historical figure – dramatizing these quotes. TPR might be applied whenever appropriate.
Though this modified assignment option is in the middle-of-the road, it might facilitate
preparing the speech and presentation by relying on brief original quotes rather than
creating a lengthier original writing.
Learners might want to take a risk in enacting several quoted excerpts of the historical
individual without experiencing increased anxiety in writing a persuasive speech.
This modification might help some learners who not risk-takers to experience a new way
to use English.