Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Ice Breaker/Introduction Speech--Fall 2015

Please reflect on your first speech by writing one well-written and thought out paragraph. Upper class students should be writing paragraphs with compound and complex sentences that are a minimum of six sentences long. Use complete sentences and correct grammar. 

Things to consider (you do not need to include all of them)

  • Eye Contact
  • Nervousness
  • Audience Feedback
  • Preparation (Enough? Not enough? What will you change for next time?)
  • Voice (Rate and Variation)
  • Gestures
  • Poise
  • Confidence level
  • Introduction 
  • Conclusion (Did we know you were done?)
  • Organization


What went well? What do you need to work on? Be as specific as possible. 


Please leave feedback for at least two of your classmates. Feedback should be constructive, original, and well-written. You may give extra feedback for extra credit.
Reflection: 20 points


Feedback: 10 points each

78 comments:

  1. I felt that my speech went well. I felt that there were a couple things that I could work on. To start, I think that I can work on is the way things flow in my speech. I know that I was kind of bouncing back and forth with my topics. A better flow would definitely make my speech better. Another thing I think that I can work on is the words I use in my speech. I feel that I could have definitely used betters words instead of um and sort of and so on. Other than that, the things I think I did well on would have to be the preparation I had. I came into the speech feeling confident and not nervous really at all. I am happy that I took this class and I am ready to get to know my fellow classmates even better.

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    1. I really liked your three topics and also how you talked about your grandparents farm and also how you liked being outside. I thought that tied together nicely. You seemed very comfortable and confident up there!

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    2. Great job! I could tell that you were very comfortable with the topics that you chose for your speech. You seemed very confident and we could all tell that you were well prepared. Also, you spoke at a good volume and I didn't have any trouble hearing what you had to say.

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    3. I liked your speech very much. You had so much confidence and poise at the podium that it was hard not to listen. You were obviously very passionate about the subjects you shared and it showed!

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    4. I really liked your speech because I can relate to everything you talked about. I love to be outdoors and fish and all that other stuff. Also my family means a lot to me and my faith is such a huge thing in my life.

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    6. I thought your speech went really well. You were very relaxed and it made me relaxed. When you were talking I was very interested in what you were saying.

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    7. Tyler, your speech made sense and was really well done. I learned some new things that I did not know about you from before. Although you did bounce from one subject to another and back, I think we all were still able to follow you pretty well.

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  2. I believe my speech overall was a success. I practiced 3 times, which definitley helped me a lot. Before my speech, I felt slightly nervous but once I was standing up there I felt more relaxed and natural the more I spoke, and even deviated from my notes a bit. I feel I made good eye contact and had good posture. I could work on my transitions a bit more, I sometimes was unsure of how to continue on to a different topic without abruptly changing subjects. I also feel I could have written out a stronger conclusion to my speech and not rushed walking away from the podium so fast. To conclude, I feel strongly about my first speech and look forward to further improvement!

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    1. I thought the flow of your speech was very nice! You seemed calm and comfortable being up there talking to everyone. I am looking forward to hearing more of your speeches!!

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    2. I really enjoyed your speech. The topics that you chose were very interesting and they flowed together nicely. At times, it was a little hard to hear you since I was sitting in the back. You seemed so comfortable up there and you rarely had to glance at your notes. I look forward to hearing more speeches from you this semester!

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    3. Kendra, I thought your speech went really well!! You kept great eye contact with everyone. you chose topics that were meaningful to you and your life, you did really great with having confidence and poise! great job!

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  3. I believe my speech went well! I do believe there are few things I should work on for the next time. Things like more gestures, better transitions, and more eye contact. I did actually change some things the night before I had to present. I feel like I could have practiced a bit more than I did. The night before and the day of is when I practiced my speech the most. I also feel like I could've given a better introduction. I did not feel like it connected with my story I was telling. I did have a lot of fun writing the speech and telling all of my classmates about my story. I am looking forward to the next speech and I am hoping to make improvement for next time!

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    1. Sarah, I thought your speech went really well. It was super interesting and you kept us listening the whole time. You seemed very calm, collected, and organized while you were up there. Your topic was established well and your conclusion tied it all together! I am looking forward to listening to more of your speeches to come.

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    2. Sarah, I really enjoyed your speech. It kept me interested and engaged. It is so cool how you were able to open up to the class about everything you went through as a child and then to see that you are still here today. It seemed like you were very comfortable, relaxed, and that you practiced a lot! I'm excited to listen to your next speech!

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    3. Sarah, your speech was great! It was neat that you were able to talk about a significant part of your life that you probably don't even remember most of. I could tell that you were well prepared and organized. I definitely look forward to your future speeches!

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    4. Sarah, I absolutely loved your speech! You seemed very confident and the personal stories you shared really grabbed my attention. Your eye contact was great and you seemed comfortable up there. It takes a lot of confidence to share the struggles you told the class, great job! :)

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    5. I thought your speech went very well sarah! You chose great topics to talk about, especially since they were about your lie and were very meaningful. Great job on keeping everyones attention. eye contacts and poise was very well also! great job sarah

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    6. Sarah, I thought your speech was both informative and interesting at the same time. I learned things that I didn't know about you from before. Your speech seemed to be smooth and flowed well with your transitions. You made eye contact with everyone and you kept everyone wondering how you were standing there that day.

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  4. I was so nervous before the night that I had speech. When I spoke in the class, I saw classmates eyes, and they gave me a lot of confident. They were paying attention to my speech, in spite of I have some ward was not saying clearly. I may had some part with wrong grammar. Their eyes just encouraged me. I felt so glad to take this class. Mrs. Dennert taught me a lot in my first speech. I will try my best to improve next time. I am very enjoying in this class. Everyone is sharing their stories, and many of their stories make me felt so touching.

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    1. Sharon, I absolutely loved your speech! My favorite part was the analogy with the square. I think it is amazing that you chose to go outside the square and create your own life. I noticed that you incorporated many gestures and spoke loudly, and these things made it easy for us to understand what you were saying. I definitely look forward to hearing more speeches from you. Keep up the good work!

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    2. Sharon, I enjoyed listening to your speech. I thought it was really cool to hear your family stories and how you and your sister want to live a life outside of the "safe square". You spoke clearly and at a good pace so it wasn't hard to understand you. I can't wait to learn more about you by listening to your future speeches!

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    3. Sharon, I really enjoyed your speech. I liked that you brought up the square and told us what it meant. The best part is that you are willing to go outside it. I would probably find myself in that square with little motivation to go out of it. I felt that you were well prepared. I really liked your speech. Nice job!

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    4. Sharon I thought your speech was fantastic. It takes a lot of guts to go up and talk about yourself or an intro topic in a language that is not your first language. It was inspiring to see you go up to the front and talk about taking risks. You surely inspired me to go out and take risks.

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    5. Sharon, I very much enjoyed your speech to the class. The use of the square really grabbed my attention, as did the topics you talked about. It was interesting to hear about life from your country and how you made sure you could come to America to learn, it really helped me put perspective on some things and I found myself connecting with the speech very easily. Awesome job for your first speech!

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    6. Your speech put me in your shoes and made me think of what it would be like if I was in your place. I thought your speech was so awesome.

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    7. Her speech was brilliant. I loved that she wants to make a change to society showing the public that bold action though sometimes indecisive may lead to beautifully creative and successful outcomes. Inspite of barely noticeable grammatical errors her speech was excellent and she had so much courage to speak about her life before and currently. About her dreams and what she thinks will happen too. Her speech reminds me of the hope of America a cultural mixing pot where everyone tries there hardest to become successful. I liked that she tried her hardest to annunciate and to control her speed perfectly so that I could listen intently without confusion. I enjoyed the phrase about (sorry if I butcher it) no jiu no dai which gave me context about her homelands philosophy.

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    8. I thought you did a great job on your first speech! I give you props because it must have taken a lot to give your first American speech! Very proud! :) You seemed like you knew what you were talking about and it looked like you had a lot of confidence. I really liked when you talked about being in the square of life and you wanted to break out of it! Great job on your first speech!!

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    9. I thought that your speech was great. I really liked your analogy of the square and I liked that you chose your own path. You seemed a little nervous and had a couple grammatical errors but overall great speech

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    10. Sharon, I thought your speech was impressive, it made sense and I understood what you were saying. You made eye contact with lots of us and you weren't reading directly off your note cards. Overall I believe that with some practice your can really grab our attention and help us understand more about yourself and the Chinese culture.

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  5. Overall, I believe my first speech went fairly well. The audience’s feedback was positive and I could tell everyone was paying attention to what I had to say. Also, I think my eye contact was good. I practiced three times the night before, but I think maybe once or twice more would have made me more comfortable with my speech. One thing that did not go as planned is that my hands started shaking really bad because I was trying not to get emotional after I mentioned my dad. Something that I believe I could have done better is including gestures. Because I was not super confident with my speech, I was not able to add many of these. For future speeches, I hope to improve the previously mentioned things and learn even more about my classmates.

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    1. Madeline, I thought your speech was really good. I could tell you had practiced. You had a calm, cool, and collected vibe. (I didn't even notice your hands shaking) I agree more gestures would keep the audience more engaged. I enjoyed learning more about you and can't wait to listen to more of your speeches!

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    2. Madeline, I loved your speech! It was very personal and well thought out. You did not seem nervous at all and you were extremely organized. Your speech flowed and it was obvious that you had practiced. I am excited to listen to more of your upcoming speeches!

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    3. Madeline, I felt that your speech really kept the audience trapped in to what you were saying. You spoke nice and slow and used an appropriate tone of voice to relate to your topics. I am excited to hear more from you!

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    4. I thought your speech was really well put together! You talked nice and loud so which made me stay interested in what you were saying. I learned some new things about you and I thought your speech gave a well representation of who you were! You seemed very poised and confident up there. Looking forward to hearing more of your speeches!

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  6. I thought my speech went well for the first one. I was a lot more nervous than I had anticipated. That nervousness caused me to forget some of my points. I think practicing more would've solidified some of the points I wanted to make. I also need to work on my eye contact, I knew it was going to be difficult because I'm not good at eye contact in normal conversations. I think the nervousness and the eye contact will get better as we give more speeches. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and the topics I chose to speak about. I look forward to hearing other speeches as well as improving on my speaking ability.

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    1. Alex I thought your speech went very well. To me you did not seem nervous, but rather calm and composed. I think your first speech went well and I can't wait to see your improvement by the end of the semester.

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    2. Alex, I really enjoyed your speech. It was very organized and it had a nice flow. Also, I didn't think you looked nervous at all! Overall, it was very nicely done and I look forward to hearing more of your speeches.

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    3. This was another very well crafted speech. I thought it was interesting how you mentioned your parents meeting. I thought it was very cool about how you have many different belief systems even though this may lead to a little conflict ( You mentioned you are not following Mormonism now so that really cool you know cause my religion doesn't particularly have the same ideas them). Yeah you did look over the crowd a little bit but towards the end you seemed more confident and were able to make contact with the eyes of at least a goodly portion of the class. Yeah that is awesome that you get the chance to travel a lot. I wish I could do that.

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    4. Hi Alex, I really like your speech. I think your experience is very interesting. I also lived in a circumstances with several religions. My family is Buddhism, but I am studying in a Lutheran school. It helps me better to understand several cultures. You looks calm and composure. You did good job on your speech!

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  8. I believe my first speech went very well! I think that I stressed a little too much over it the night before which caused me to practice more than needed which made me feel like it needed to be perfect. I was nervous, but seeing my classmates give their speeches before me helped calm my nerves. I definitely need some work on my eye contact and use of gestures. I think that my speech flowed well and that my transitions were strong. In conclusion, I hope to improve my speaking skills over the course of this class and to learn more about my classmates as well.

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    1. Brooke, I think your speech went really well. I loved how you just took a simple word from the assignment and related it to something you love. I could tell in your speech how passionate you are about running and that's a really cool thing to watch. Your speech was very organized, you were poised, and I could tell you practiced. Keep up the good work!

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    2. Brooke, I really liked your speech. I liked how you talked about sports. That is something I can relate to. It was a well organized speech. I could tell you practiced and it went smoothly. There is not much more I can say but good job!

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    3. Brooke I loved how you talked about track and your back to back state champ titles. I liked how smooth your speech was. You had really great transitions and you spoke with great confidence.

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    4. After hearing your speech, I could definitely understand why you are so passionate about track. It was interesting how you were able to relate it to different aspects of your life. You seemed very calm and composed, and you had great eye contact as well. Keep up the good work! I look forward to getting to know you better.

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    5. Brooke, my favorite aspect of your speech was how you tied your love of track into all the aspects of your life. I could tell how much you love running and your passion for it really shined through in your speech. You looked very calm and composed and made good eye contact with the class. Great job!

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  9. I believe my first speech went well. I believe I had a pretty good confidence level. Before I delivered my speech, I did think of a couple worst case scenarios, but I just blocked them out. I also believe I should have maybe practiced 1-2 more times. The thing that I want to work on the most is gestures and tone variation. Overall, I think I did great since this was the first speech of the year. I am looking forward to seeing myself and my peers improve in this class over the course of the semester.

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    1. Krista, I thought your speech went very well! You spoke at a reasonable level and had a good pace. You also seemed very organized and your speech had a nice flow. I look forward to hearing your future speeches!

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    2. Krista, I thought your speech was excellent! you were organized and poised at the podium. You had a great flow between your topics! Talking about faith is great its something everyone can relate to! nice job!

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  10. Overall I did not think my speech was that bad. I do believe that I should have spoken a bit slower with more confidence but I think that will come with time. I also think that I should practice more and step outside the box for my future speeches. Also for my future speeches I am going to try to stand away from the podium and make better eye contact.

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    1. Keilani, I enjoyed your speech. You were very organized and you seemed very calm and composed up there. Your topics were interesting and the transitions between each topic were smooth and well thought out. I look forward to getting to know you better throughout this semester.

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    2. I enjoyed listening to your speech. I thought by choosing the letter A, then picking three words that start with A and applying them to yourself was a different and cool way to give the speech. I agree with Madeline that your transitions and organization were both very good. I look forward to seeing you progress as a speaker and learning more about you.

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  12. Overall, I believe I did very well and I had a strong starting speech. When it comes to things I have to work on, I have many things. My transitions need to be stronger and I need to slow down my talking speed. At home, I finished the speech in around four minutes and at school, I finished in around three minutes. I need to work on speaking slower in order to really connect with the audience. I believe my hand gestures were great and I moved around the podium well. In conclusion, I believe my first speech went very well and I can't wait to learn more about my classmates.

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    1. Randi, your speech was definitely my favorite. You opened up the first speech of the year flawlessly, I could tell you practiced and you seemed totally natural and comfortable up there. It was very organized and I the opening caught everyone's attention immediately. I believe you'll be one of the strongest speakers we have this year, and I look forward to seeing your future speeches.

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    2. Randi, you had such a strong opening and I think that really clicked with the audience fast. Your volume could cover the classroom well so no one needed to pause to try and think what you said. You never stood in one place for a long time so that was great also. I am looking forward to every single speech you will present this year and I hope that you get to go first every time!

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    3. Randi, I thought your speech was a great kick-off for this semester of speech. You grabbed everyone's attention with your opening and kept us involved during the rest of the speech. You did seem to talk a little fast but I believe that will go away after you present more speeches.

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  14. I thought that I did fairly well on my first speech. The main thing that I focused on was to not use fillers, so my strategy was that every time my brain would come to a sudden pause, (resulting a reflex to translate a filler word such as like or um), I would just take a sudden pause for a second and process the next thing that I was intended to state. I remember using only one filler word so I am happy with that. When I started practicing for my speech, I had to change my note cards about four times. Nothing seemed to click. I then just used a sheet of lined paper and used a lot of arrows for my transitions. Speaking of transitions, I felt that I could've used better words. I also felt that I could've covered my topics with more intellectual detail. Overall, I was excited about this speech and I cannot wait to start my next one.

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    1. Vince, I thought your speech was great. I really liked how you talked about your relationship with your brother and that was very cool how you guys are so close. Also I can relate to you because we both have some of the same interest.

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    2. Vince, I thought your speech went smoothly. You seemed very comfortable which I thought was awesome because you were speaking to a room where you didn't know everyone. Learning about your family and your faith helped us to get to know you better. I look forward to learning more about you throughout the course of this semester.

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    3. Vince, it was clear to see that you really were passionate about your speech and every topic in it. It was really neat to see the way your face lit up when you started talking about Domi. You looked and seemed very very comfortable while presenting your speech. It was a very strong start and I can't wait to hear more speeches from you this semester.

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    4. Vince, you did a great job on your first speech of speech class. Everything flowed well and you tied in caring for your brother and your love for tennis very well. You made eye contact with almost everyone in the class and your gestures were flawless whether it be the description from Mr. Ed or the way you showed your first serve on a tennis court. I can not wait to see what you do next.

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  17. I think that I did just okay on my first speech. I was not very nervous but I feel that I wasn't very poised either. I think that there are a few things that I need to work on. First, I need to work on my pace. I start off at a good pace but by the end of the speech I'm talking very fast. I also need to practice more next time, I only practiced once before my speech and I think it showed. I also did a few things well. I think that I had good eye contact and was fairly confident.

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  18. I felt like my first speech went well. With this being my first speech of the year, I was a little nervous because I had to go second. When I got up there I felt very poised even though it may not have seemed like it. During the process of deciding what I was going to speak about I went up to my mom and she told me to talk about the sports I have played in the past. So I decided to go ahead with that idea and name all the sports I have played starting from day one until now. So with speech one being over with, I want to go up next time with better poise and also to try and make better eye contact.

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    1. In the first day of the speech, I learned a lot from you. Because I really did not know how to present my speech in the beginning. Although you went ahead, you did very well in your speech. So thank you for you speech for teaching me a lot of things that I could also share to everyone.

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  19. I thought my speech was decent. I practiced about 4 times to myself, but I still felt like I was too nervous for the speech. I thought I maintained good eye contact and looked around the room often. I definitely need to work on my "umms" and pauses. I also should have taken better notes because I didn't utilize the cards enough. Thanks for listening to my speech, guys.

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    1. I thought you did really well. You seemed a little nervous but you still delivered a good speech. You had good eye contact and overall it was a good speech

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    2. Zack, I though your speech was really well done, You didn't look nervous at all and I learned a lot about you that I did not know from before. Yes you looked a little nervous but you made up for it in the content of your speech. There is no question you will go far in speech class this year.

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  20. Audience feedback was as expected supportive but to be honest it felt fake. As far as preparation goes I read my speech twenty three times however I screwed up four or five times. I am going to practice even more so that I do not need my cards. When I talk I talk to fast, I begin to stammer and ramble. I just hope that did not effect my speech to badly. Gestures I don't remember having any gestures. Poise I was standing tall but my hands were shaking. Confidence I lacked very much so to the point that I almost got sick in class. Introduction was pointless and probably wreaked the speech overall. Conclusion if students and yourself were using context clues then everyone could tell when it ended. Organization is not really a problem.

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    1. David, you make it sound like your speech was a complete flop. It was not. You had everyone's attention (whether it was on purpose or on accident) and we all wanted to hear what you were saying whether you thought we were sincere or not. Although it may have been a little rough around the edges, the overall content of the speech was interesting and made sense. Hopefully by the end of the semester those rough edges will be clean and well rounded.

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  21. Overall, I thought my speech went well. I practiced 4 times to my mom and myself outloud. Although it was my first speech it was a little rough but i got over the bumps. I thought my eye contact was good and confidence could have been better.I felt a little worried about it but being in the middle of the three days helped a bit. Hearing others speeches also helped. A few things to work on for my next speech is to be more confident, more relaxed and lastly have gestures.

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  23. I believe that my speech went well. There were some points that I missed out of pure nervousness. I was very nervous for the speech just because this was the first time I have spoken to a group of this size in a while. I thought my eye contact was good but I think I could use more gestures. I practiced about three or four times in my living room but I did not practice with a parent or friend which I believe would be more beneficial for future speeches. There was a point during my speech where I got a little lost on my notes in my note cards (Even though I only had 3) I would like to get away from having to use the notes cards as much as possible and memorize my subtopics better. In the end I think that the speech was a good starting point for me, I still have a lot to work on but it felt more natural to speak to you than I was expecting.

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