Job interviews. Wedding toasts. Graduation speeches. Pitches and demonstrations at work. Court testimony. School board and town hall meetings. Eulogies. Introducing a friend. These are just some of the ways you or your child will use public speaking in life. As important as this skill is, you’ve probably heard your child question the importance of public speaking skills, especially today when so many things can be done over the internet. The next time they question public, speaking, you can rattle off this list of occasions where it is necessary. Even more than that, you can explain to them how public speaking can actually help their writing skills as well.
Speeches Make Writing Public
Writing for an audience completely changes the way students write. When they know nobody else is going to read their writing, they’re not as careful about what they say. When they are acutely aware of the fact that they will have to get up in front of a group of people and deliver their writing, though, they think through it much more thoroughly.
A great strategy that many writers use to catch errors in their writing is to read it back out loud to themselves. This is helpful, but even with this strategy, they often miss mistakes. Adding in that extra layer of reading it out loud in front of an audience helps students catch those mistakes.
Peer Feedback
Another great benefit of public speaking is the feedback aspect. It doesn’t matter if the audience is below, at, or above the level of the speaker, they will be able to provide helpful feedback. Feedback from peers below the speaker’s level often helps students realize when they need to slow down and explain things more thoroughly. Feedback from peers above the speaker’s level helps students understand how they can make their writing more eloquent and sophisticated.
Students can also improve their writing through public speaking by hearing the writing of others and providing feedback. Often, students don’t realize how they can improve, what they can do differently, or what other ideas they could write about until they hear from their peers. It’s one thing to hear feedback from their teacher, but that is often meaningless until it is substantiated by their peers. Students can learn how to emulate better writers, and they can also see mistakes others make, so they can avoid those mistakes, themselves.
How We Help
In Genie Academy’s Reading Genie program, we use public speaking as a way for students to express themselves and improve their writing. Students receive a prompt, respond to the prompt in writing, and then present their writing to the class. We use peer feedback throughout the process to help students develop their writing skills and thoroughly ponder the topic at hand. Whether you sense your child is struggling, or you just want to get or keep them ahead, Reading Genie is the perfect program to meet your child where he/she is at and help him/her grow.
