Speaking and Listening ARE Standards

I taught high school speech for 22 years, so I’m probably biased, but I think having students practice formal and informal speaking in the classroom is critical. In fact, speaking and listening are part of the Common Core standards for English Language Arts. But, oftentimes more emphasis is placed on the reading, writing, and language standards and the speaking and listening standards are left by the wayside. I have a few theories as to why this is. It could be due to the fact that most English teachers do not have a background in teaching public speaking and so it may be out of their comfort zones. We have access to numerous methods of assessing reading, writing, and language, but far fewer for assessing speaking and listening. Perhaps, most importantly, the SmarterBalanced standardized tests assess reading, writing, language, and listening, but not speaking. As a result, students are often not given adequate opportunities to practice speaking.

Given that teenagers today often rely on non-verbal means of communicating with friends and family–texting, social media–it is even more critical that students are given time, space, and opportunity to practice conversing, speaking informally and formally to groups, and actively listening to others. They need practice presenting a variety of information in a variety of ways. Yes, many English classrooms require students participate in Socratic seminars and work on group projects with a presentation as part of the final product. But, all too often, students are not expected to speak before a group delivering both impromptu and prepared speeches. It is the frequency of practice that helps students overcome stage fright and gain confidence. Presenting a slide-deck report of information once a semester is just not enough.

Understand, I’m not bashing English teachers. I also taught high school English for 23 years. English teachers are tasked with teaching students to read critically and write in a time when reading has become devalued. High school English teachers typically have 150+ students. Consider the math here. If teachers spend a scant five minutes giving feedback on a single essay, this equates to 750 minutes to grade them. That’s 12.5 hours spent outside class time to grade. (Maybe some teachers can grade during class while students work on other assignments, but I never was able to do that with any efficacy.) That’s just one essay. Students should be writing many essays each semester. We know that they need to practice writing and need feedback, too. It should be noted, too, that most “ratings” of schools place heavy emphasis on the writing and literacy scores of students. This means there is even more pressure on English teachers to get their students where they need to be. That said, public speaking skills are not only  necessary for students, but the experience can also be an important interpersonal experience for students and give teachers the chance to evaluate organizational and critical thinking skills in a different way.

Teaching speech was always a source of joy for me (Okay, sometimes it was also a source of frustration. More on that in another post). I was fortunate to see nearly every student in my classes grow and gain confidence as a speaker and communicator. I also had the freedom to focus the curriculum in a way that is nearly impossible in a traditional English class. Students were given the opportunity to give impromptu speeches, formal speeches, group presentations, video presentations, toasts, eulogies, and practice job interviewing. They were up and speaking all the time. They could make mistakes and have a chance to redeem themselves. It wasn’t a one-time experience. With a wide variety of assigned speeches and experiences, students inevitably found some enjoyable and found others that challenged them. But, which were enjoyable and which were most challenging was different for each student.

Two factors were critical to the success of students in my speech classes–frequent practice and collegiality among them. Because the classes were typically comprised of a wide variety of students–grades 10-12, high-achieving-all-honors-all-AP-the time, star athletes, at-risk students, special education students, English learners, musicians, dancers, artists, gamers, students who hated school, and everyone in-between–no one recognized everyone in the class. This immediately caused all of them to be a bit uncomfortable and intimidated at first. This turns out to be a good thing. As they overcame their anxiety about speaking, they got to know each other and learned to encourage one another. They made friends they might otherwise have not.

Over the years I often hear from former students. They tell me what they are up to and sometimes talk about things we did in my classes that they remember most. But, the most positive feedback I receive is from former speech students. They will recount presentations they gave and connect those experiences to speech classes they’ve taken in college or interviews they’ve nailed or presentations they give at work. I don’t think their kind words are due so much to my teaching skill, but instead are a testament to the opportunity I was able to provide for them to practice and grow. And, I was lucky enough to watch it all happen.

But, not every school offers speech class (a real tragedy in my view). And, not every student has the ability to take speech even if it is offered. So, what can we do? This often falls (again!) on the English teacher. Building time for frequent practice speaking before the class can help. Build class culture so that students are polite audience members. Include low-stakes practice, especially at first. Give them the opportunity to “fail” without it costing them too much in grade or social currency. Something as simple as a “Monday Minute” (could be a “what I did over the weekend” sort of talk or have a particular theme or guiding question given beforehand) can help. Students get practice, they get to know each other, the teacher gets to know them, and the grading can be fairly simple. Specifically teach how to be a good speaker. This is key. It’s not enough to have a rubric for the content that must be included on a slide deck. Students must be taught about organization, eye contact, voice projection, body language, word choice, tone, pacing, and the value of the pause.

It can be tough to give up control to students, but it can enrich the lives of students and teachers. Not only do students get the chance to practice speaking and listening, but teachers get the chance to practice listening, too.  After all, speaking and listening not only are the standards, but at some point students are going to need to communicate without the aid of texting and social media.