This is a reproducible lesson plan that GATE teachers, and teachers with students prepared for the rigors of public speaking can use as an opening public speaking exercise:
The Speech to Introduce Procedure
As your first step in becoming an effective communicator, you must stand up, walk to the front of the class, introduce yourself, tell a little about your life, and why you are taking this course, participating in this club or activity, or whatever other low-risk topic you might want to choose to write about. There is a 90-second time minimum.
The Strategy
Survive! Just live through this oral presentation and get it behind you. Before you go up to speak, you may want to try a few speaking tactics. Take a few slow, deep breaths. Force yourself to yawn a few times. Let your body go limp. Nobody is sure why these work, but they do seem to ease the tension.
Physiological Reactions of Public Speaking
As a student in a gifted class, you probably have a pretty good idea about human physiology, for now it is critical that you understand that the physiological reactions that occur when you are about to make a speech do not last on average for more than 90 seconds once you have started your presentation! This means that if you can “live” through the first minute or so of your speech all of the defense systems of the body start to relax. Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, I was nervous when I got up there, but after a little while I was fine." This happens because under normal circumstances there are no longer chemicals awash in your system after 90 seconds! The physiological reactions decline is a natural occurrence that you can rely on happening when you stand up to speak.
Armed with this knowledge, you can use your intelligence to consciously accept the fact that you will be nervous going into your speech; it is sometimes called called 'fight vs. flight.' You can also understand that if you can just get through the first minute everything will be all right. How do you do this? Practice the opening of your speech more than any other part so that you are almost on automatic pilot when you start. This will get the audience on your side and you will witness early signs of approval. When the internal chemistry dies down, you will be able to think more clearly and can make whatever speaking or reading adjustments you need to make.
A Reality Check
Nearly everyone does poorly his or her first time speaking before a group. You should expect it. Simply doing this speech will give you the courage to go on. Perhaps German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche's, "He turns all of his injuries into strengths, that which does not kill him makes him stronger…" may help put this into perspective for you.
What you must do is avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy here. After delivering a less than stellar performance on the first speech, some people take that as a permanent indication of their ability as a speaker. A poor performance on this first speech should not convince you that you are a total failure, but rather that you are quite normal!
The Example
"Hi! My name is Chris and I live about three blocks from here. I'm really pretty nervous about being up here, and I got into this course because my friend talked me into it."
"I like to play tennis and racquetball, and I like to scuba dive."
"That's about it...."
The Class’ Role
Now that you understand about the first ninety seconds of a speech and what the speaker is going through, you should be more empathetic than ever! Be supportive of the speaker, especially in the early going. Even once the nervousness time has passed, if a speaker sees too many frowns or signs of boredom, it will activate the brain (not the autonomic or endocrine system) that something is wrong and this could potentially lead to a downward spiral of problems for the speaker.
Resource:
Parker, Douglas A. Basic Public Speaking, 2nd Edition - The Roadmap to Confident Communications! (ISBN: 0-7388-5619-3). 2001. Xlibris, Random House Ventures.
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