Well Spoken

I wasn't sure how to teach my 9th grade homeschooler speech class, but this book really laid it all out and made it easy abd understandable. My son is shy about being "up front" but this approach really helped with his confidence, preparation and presentation and even with other everyday communication situations. Highly recommemd!

Well-Spoken was a GOD-SEND for this teacher of speech and theatre arts. Yet, Erik Palmer's Well-Spoken offers ALL teachers an amazing resource. In fact, Well-Spoken is my primary resource for the high school public speaking course I teach. Being 'well-spoken' and/or skilled in public speaking is a necessity. Erik Palmer makes case for preparing students for life beyond high school. Every high school student needs to engage in public speaking experiences. The book makes case that public speaking is our most vital means of communication. The need for public speaking will touch every student we teach at some time in his/her life. Communication skills, including public speaking, were ranked first among skills sought in the workforce. So, if students don't enroll in a public speaking class, Well Spoken offers any content teacher the means to teach students how to effectively build and deliver any type of talk. Well Spoken offers practical, engaging learning experiences for building talks and the amazing rubric of PVLEGS. Poise, Voice, Life, Eye Contact, Gestures, and Speed. For so many years, the rubrics used in my speech classes had way too many criteria. Erik Palmer has broken it down both Building and Delivering the Speech into a practical, yet important process. He offers instructional activities to teach students how to incorporate Poise, Voice, Life, Eye Contact, and Speed into every speech. Six basic delivery skills using an amazing acronym. There is a rubric/checklist of both areas of speechmaking: Building a Speech/Delivering a Speech. Students engage the process of evaluation speakers by completing the Building the Speech/ PVLEGS rubric while listening to a speaker. By doing so, the listener provides the speaker with critical peer evaluation that can positively impact his/her talks, too. ANY CONTENT TEACHER will enhance his/her instruction by purchasing Erik Palmer's Well Spoken and incorporating this wonderful resource into his/her teaching practices. A simple, honest, direct way of teaching and evaluating communication skills. I highly recommend the purchase of this book. It truly was a Godsend fo this instructor.

I’m teaching public speaking for the first time. This book was recommended by other educators and didn’t disappoint.

Erik Palmer's book does a good job of highlighting an increasingly neglected skill, public speaking. The shame is, most teachers are so preoccupied with teaching reading and writing that speaking has been all but squeezed out. Yet we'd all agree that modern society values effective speaking very much -- right or not, maybe even more than effective writing. Consider, for instance, the people who rise to the top in such areas as business and politics. I think public speaking also gets the squeeze in many classrooms due to high-stakes testing. What little time might have remained for it is now given over to practice tests, drills, and desk handouts, all in the name of higher scores, (no) thanks to the intense scrutiny these scores get every year.The book is straightforward and of greatest value to teachers who have done little with public speaking in the past. If you're a teacher who HAS taught public speaking, you probably won't find a lot of new ideas here. What you will find, however, are a few activities, suggested rubrics, and all manner of advice, some better than others. I disagree, for instance with Palmer's suggestion that teachers call on sporting volunteers to wing it in front of the class so that the teacher can follow with exaggerations of the common mistakes just witnessed ("um," "uh," rocking, pulling of shirt ends, etc.). While he's careful to say you must choose the right student and have the proper classroom dynamic, I think even "good sports" who play along might take it home and privately mull over it. Are you willing to take that chance? Overall, however, all the basics are here. Nothing fancy. Just speaking -- or as Palmer likes to put it, just "PVLEGS." That's Poise, Voice, Life, Eye Contact, Gestures, and Speed.

This. Book. Is. Gold. I've been excited to teach a speech class for the first time, but had no idea HOW to go about it. I found this book and devoured it! So much useful and teachable information. It's easy to read, relatable, applicable. I absolutely recommend it! It's fantastic! Actually, I'd love to see a revised edition. The first publishing was quite a while ago, so I'm interested how the author would revise content given the vast change in social media and the need for online speaking- zoom meetings, google meet, etc.

I will start by saying that I am an untrained, inexperienced speech teacher. (Although I am a trained and experienced history teacher.) Public speaking was assigned to me as an elective this year and I've enjoyed it so much, using this book as a guide. It was the *only* book I bought and there is plenty in it to fill a one semester class. My students enjoy the activities and the rubrics help guide them really well. I'm very satisfied with this book!

My early college students give oral portfolio presentations at the end of their freshman year. The PVLEGS rubric was very helpful. It is a quick read with lots of usable tips and examples. This resource is invaluable for teachers/students across all content areas. Communication is one of the necessary 21st century skills our students must have. This text can assist secondary teachers in integrating these skills into everyday classroom lessons. I ordered one for myself, our school library and our speech teacher. Highly recommended.

I loved this book. This summer I had to teach public speaking to foreign learners. I decided to make public speaking the central thrust of the class, but exactly how do you teach that? This book gave me t'he answers. In nitty gritty detail it spelled out how to organise and assess the teaching of public speaking. It gave me confidence to teach the course and it was a success. The students said that I was their favorite teacher .