Well Spoken

When I received Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students in the mail, my first thought was, "Yes, just in time for our annual speech work samples!" As soon as I opened up the book it did not take me long to see that such thoughts are exactly what Erik Palmer would like to change, as he would like teachers to see the value in supporting students in becoming better speakers throughout the whole year.

I loved that the forward was by Kelly Gallagher, one of my favorite Stenhouse authors. I always love to see what he has to say, and I admire him for his insightful thoughts that advocate for what is best for students in the long run vs. focusing on test performance. For this particular context, he said, "Multiple-choice assessments have driven deeper reading out of our classrooms, and writing has been pushed to the back burner. But of all the language arts, there is one that has been especially shortchanged by this blind adherence to state testing: the art of speaking" (VII).

I loved Palmer's argument that aligns with Gallagher's thoughts, such as, "[...] the  mission of education should not be to make students better at school but rather to prepare them for life" (4). Palmer continues on to explain how vital speaking is as a life skill.

After laying the foundation for a rationale for dedicating classroom time for speaking, Palmer breaks speaking down into two portions -- building a speech and performing a speech. Then he has a section to explain different classroom strategies and procedures to implement his concepts.

I appreciate that Palmer focused on showing that speaking is important all year long. While I do integrate speaking all year and remind students of speaking expectations, both for speakers and as audience members, I could be much more intentional, so Palmer's ideas are an excellent resource for those who would like to improve in this area.

I have been able to use the ideas that I was reading in helping my own students build their speeches, and today we are going to transition into focusing on preparations for strong deliveries. His thoughts align closely with my state's speaking rubric, which also aligns closely with our writing rubric. I always start by emphasizing the connections between writing and speeches before focusing on how speaking is distinct from writing with the delivery trait. However, I look forward to seeing how Palmer's ideas will enhance my teaching of and in effect, the students' performance of their speeches. I have already seen an improvement based on his ideas for building a speech that enhanced what I was already doing.

*Copy provided by publisher