Public speaking is a daunting act for many. Some speakers worry about the audience, some worry about remembering everything they want to say. Others worry about delivering the information in an interesting and digestible way. In Nicole Ecker’s public speaking class at S.S. Seward, poetry was used as a tool to address each of these concerns and conquer any fears students may have had!

For this assignment, students chose a poem to analyze, understand and memorize. In class, students have been working on their tone, rate, pitch, volume and body language, all components of public speaking and poetry. Ecker thought this would be a great way for them to practice those skills before they are tasked with their first real speech. 

“I could tell that the students definitely froze when I told them they were going to have to memorize a poem and recite it in front of the class,” shared Ecker. “However, none of them took the ‘easy way out’ of the assignment; they were choosing Shakespeare, poems with over forty lines and poems that had to do with more challenging topics. Two of the students even chose to write their very own poems. I was blown away by how well they took to the assignment and it became evident that they wanted to do really well.”

To prepare for their performance, the class watched examples from national Poetry Out Loud competitions, where high school students across the country participate to improve their public speaking skills, help build confidence and teach them about literary history. 

The class decided to use the official Poetry Out Loud rubric for their own classroom scores and they took it very seriously! Using this rubric, students could reflect on how they speak in public settings in front of their peers.

“I kept reminding them, ‘You're all in this together!’ It was great to watch their confidence grow with this project, and I can't wait to see how they continue to grow throughout the rest of the course,” said Ecker.

While hesitant at the beginning, students ended up enjoying this assignment as well as excelling when it came time to perform! Ninth grader Dominique Thompson said, “This assignment teaches you many things once you perform your poem, showing you what you're really good at and what you really need to work on."