Poetry and public speaking contest on Wednesday, February 23rd, at 9:00 am in the St. Jude's Academy Auditorium - all parents and friends are welcome.
Public speaking, reciting, giving a monologue, or acting with a group - all require some form of stage presence and eye-contact, albeit with different people or things, depending on your selected form of delivery.
Children need to understand that as they enter the stage, they assume a certain role, posture, or presence in order to deliver some type of material to their audience.
Eye-contact is critical based on your positioning. For instance, with speeches, the students are front and centre requiring direct eye-contact with the audience. Several tricks can be used to maitain this, but also to allow for relaxation and to maintain focus.
For younger children, they need to be made aware of what their stage purpose requires. They also need to learn the difference between interacting with their fellow cast members versus the audience.
As most do not yet differentiate that stage is a different medium from the classroom, the car, the livingroom, the restaurant, they feel "their whole world is a stage". It's just that sometimes they are seen and heard, while other times they are not. To have them distinguish this, is what we hope to accomplish.
JK's
The JK's are practising circle formation, and maintaining this by respecting the actor in the centre. See SK below.
SK's
Due to the enormous difficulty this group has in forming a circle, we are playing games teaching formation. The chlidren are then taking turns showing the group something from withing the circle.
The children are first starting off with a traditional European circle game which they seem to really enjoy. This allows our circle to form. We respect the hibernating bear in the centre, thereby having the circle maintain its shape, and learning to later respect the performing actor in the centre.
The children then present something in the centre as a group of 3 or 4, again respecting the boundaries of the human formation. They learn to express themselves to everyone by moving about and maintaining eye-contact with the entire group.
Grade 1's & 2's
This group is practising for its poetry recitation.
We listened to everyone's poems and focused on maitaining eye-contact as well as giving meaning to the poem by the way we modulate our voices, through use of slight hand gestures, tone, etc. The children were very good in maintaining proper posture, and there was hardly any fidgeting.
They are taking their work seriously and trying very hard to work on their delivery. My recommendation to this group is that they focus on increasing their volume. I would also recommend they blow their noses prior to speaking.
Grade 3's & 4's
This group has the grade 3's preparing for poetry recitations and the grade 4's for speeches.
The boys and girls in this group do know their material well. It would be better if they took the time to really understand it. Most have a good idea as to the subject about which they are speaking, but an indepth analysis would help them place the correct emphasis where needed.
Diction, volume, and elocution are areas in need of work. This would be possible if they were to slow down their speaking.
With this age group the posture and stance are starting to show signs of disintergration as more nerves are present than among the younger grades.
Grade 5's, 6's, & 7's
These grades are preparing for speeches.
The main problem with this group is the age - they are the most nervous of all the grades and are fidgeting nervously in ways that are nearly beyond their control.
Certain gestures and tics are beginning to merge with their characters, making these habits difficult to break when delivering a speech.
Slowing down, thinking and understanding their selected subjects, will help them present better. Once the aspect of memorization has been achieved they will only then be able to use voice modulation more naturally.
Elocution is key http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-elocution.htm
Good luck to everyone!
Stand up straight!
Hold your hands in front, at your sides, or behind your back!
Maintain eye-contact!
NO GUM!
Know your subject!
Tell your story!
Use clarity of speech by talking slowly, loudly (not shouting) and distinctly!
Best Regards,
Mrs. Deras
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