Renn

4/15/10 (word count: 681)  __Call to Arms Speech __ __Self Assessment __  For this //Call to Arms Speech//, I feel I have made some improvements compared to the previous one. But, I know I still have much to improve on before the final speech presentation. One difference from the last project, is that I really enjoyed doing the research. And when I was putting my outline together, I felt like I really had an idea of what I was talking about.  First, I would like to start off by listing the positive sides to my performance. I observed that when I first began stumbling, I tried to slow down and reorganize my thoughts in my head. This went relatively well, up until I lost focus and gave up on finishing my thesis statement. Another positive observation I made was how much movement I had with my hands. Most times I’m quite stiff and hold my note card too tightly. Going back to the beginning of my presentation, I also noticed that I had my introduction memorized pretty well. I didn’t have to read off of the words of my note card too much. My volume throughout the speech, I felt, was overall pretty good too. My tone varied in this speech more than any of my past speeches. I think that I’m finally getting the feel of putting more expression into my presentations. Lastly, I feel that I was able to use more personal dialect to connect to the audience and not keep everything strictly informational. As always, there is much room for improvement.  Secondly, I would like to share my less positive observations. In my introduction, I feel that the first sentence was presented in a weak manner and should have been a real attention-getter. Also, because of the fact that my volume sort of started low and soft, basically the rest of my presentation was low and soft as well. There were some points where I my volume did differ, but as soon as I lost focus, my voice got soft again and I my sentences started to flow less smoothly. The rate that I spoke at was a good pace, but I should vary my tone much more in my introduction and conclusion, making them stand out to the audience more. As I continued my observations, I noticed that I would step back and forth. This might have been distracting to the audience because as I was reviewing my performance, that’s something that really stuck out to me. Those movements look too unintentional and if I take a step somewhere, it should look bold and help support what I am saying. Another thing that really stuck out to me was the over use of the transition word “anyways”. When I practiced my speech, “anyways” was supposed to be used once in the last sentence of my conclusion. Instead, it turned out to be one of the only transition words I remembered and made my speech sound less professional. One last thing I need to seriously do, is know the time limit. If I just assume the time limit, I could end up way over or way under. In this case I was just ten seconds under the time limit.  Lastly, I think that the selection I chose was an interesting one that worked for me. I understood what happened when furloughs were put into effect but finding out deeper research about the situation was fun for me. Through this performance, I’ve learned that as long as you have your thoughts organized in your head, you know what you’re talking about and the ability to express your opinion and/or information, your speech will flow nicely.  For this performance, I feel I deserve a B- or C+ because of the fact that I just gave up and panicked when I couldn’t organize my thesis statement into a flowing sentence. Also, I deserve that grade because I was under the time limit and had an extra night to practice and take the time to go over last minute things, but didn’t use it to my full advantage. 

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(word count: 632 ) __**Self Assessment Partner Speech: Now and Then**__ For this speech, it was a fun experience to have a partner to help you present. I know I messed up when I skipped a paragraph and made Courtney jump to the next one. I feel that I have become more timid than I was in previous speeches. I would first like to talk about body language. My stance could have looked a little less nervous. I think that Courtney and I should have practiced one more run-through with our powerpoint presentation to figure out what to do. Also, another run-through would have helped both Courtney and I remember what cue words to listen for, so that we knew when it was our turn to speak. Then, as I continued to review my performance, I noticed that my volume was a little bit below what I was aiming for at the beginning. I think that with my tone, rate, and volume, the audience could tell that I was nervous. My sentences were more or less fluent but my tone could have made my ideas appeal to the audience more. I feel that my tone did not have much variation. As I watch more of my presentation, I notice that there are barely any hand gestures or deliberate movements. One good thing I’d like to point out is my eye contact. It remained quite well throughout the presentation. I also memorized the introduction very well and had one, maybe two, times that I stuttered. My conclusion however needed to be more complete. The sentence in which I was to restate the thesis should have been memorized better. Luckily, I was able to think of words to say so that I would not just stop talking. Improving that part should not have happened. I feel that my articulation as I spoke was relatively good. There may have been a few moments where I stuttered or something, but that didn’t happen very often. I think that the selection Courtney and I chose was not the best one. Suicide topics were slightly harder than others to research. Also, it was a little more difficult to come up with a creative way to present. Perhaps if Courtney and I got our actual work done a day sooner and worked on it at home, we could have spent more time in class planning our presentation. This topic was not too hard to talk about, but I feel that we weren’t able to relate it to Romeo and Juliet well. We didn’t talk about its relation to the story very often. For me, having a partner to help eachother present was a good idea. It was very helpful for me because it took some of the pressure off to have to remember each idea in the exact order. Although I could have prepped more, I was still able to present in an orderly manner. Through this performance, I have learned that having someone to rely on to help you out is a very nice feeling. I have also learned that even though you may have a partner to help you remember the speech, you still need to put it good effort to make sure that you and your partner are on the same page. I still need to work on delivering a speech that I know I can be totally proud of. My goal is to give a great performance that actually draws the audience in. I think that I deserve a B- for this speech. I did put in good effort, but I still need to improve on a lot. The content of the presentation was informational but could have been more entertaining. Also, I feel that I should have been more confident knowing that I have a partner who is doing the same thing as I am.

__Self Assessment Book Talk Speech__ (word count: 593) 1.13.10 This book talk speech was a fun speech to perform. Although I didn’t enjoy the research, I did enjoy listening to my classmates’ reasons on why they believe people should read the book they read. I feel that we, the students, should have been allowed at least 40 words for this speech because it is longer than any other speech we’ve previously done and the fact that there are a lot of important points to tell the audience and it is hard to really stick to an order. Considering all of my past performances I would say that this is not my best performance. I think that I had a steady stance, did well answering the questions from the audience and even with the stumbling, I had nice fluency to my sentences. My feet did not move and my weight barely shifted. When I answered the questions from the audience, I made sure I stayed professional as possible. And when I didn’t know the answer, I said I didn’t and avoided making something up just so it seemed like I knew all about my book. I noticed that when I had the order of my speech in my head clearly, my sentences had a nice flow and the rate was good. But when I lost my train of thought, I stumbled and used filler words or took obvious pauses. I still need to embrace the concept of improvising well. I think that the content of my speech was very informational. Also, I tried to keep it concise and interesting at the same time-like Ray Bradbury. The things I’ve done well on are a work in progress. But I still have a lot that is left to be accomplished. I realize that it is always easier to identify the relatively negative things about myself when I perform my speeches. I just need to apply this the next time I speak so that I progress efficiently. I should have been more calm in my speech to avoid stumbling, having brain-farts, incomplete sentences, laughing out of nervousness, etc. I know that I need to also work on relaxing my hands and how I hold my manuscript and note card, maintaining eye contact with the audience, confidence level, varying rate and tone and enunciating my words more carefully. I seemed very nervous and that caused me to feel insecure. Therefore, I lost my confidence and started to perform like I did when we first got into speaking. I think I can avoid having brain-farts by keeping the points I need to make, very simple when I think about it before I say it in my speech. The main key to performing a successful speech is actually just repetition- practicing it over and over again until you know it by heart. This way, you stick to your story and don’t get off topic. I seem to forget what I need to work on whenever another speech comes up. In this next quarter I plan to review my past performances and assessments, and work harder to improve what I really need to be better at. For this performance I feel I deserve a B- because even though I tried my best to give a good performance, I still did not do as best as I could have. But what I learned is that in order to give a good persuasion speech, you need to understand your book- and I did. I just need to convey my reasons in a more confident and interesting way.

12/16/09 (word count: 421) This being the first impromptu speech I have ever given, I feel that I have done okay. I was not able to present the best I usually feel I can do, but at least my speech-giving skills did not worsen.

As I reviewed my performance, I noticed that many of the criteria that I usually use to focus and present well, kind of went out the window. I was shifting my weight everywhere, fiddling with my tiny note card, the on-the-spot conclusion could’ve been way better, and even my volume went way down this time. Besides the presentation, I also think that the content of my speech sounded like I was about to discuss another topic- instead of why I don’t want to be a millionaire. When I got into detail about reasons why I wouldn’t want to be a millionaire, I felt like I was getting into too much detail. Although it was deemed necessary to add in any information that seemed relevant, I think that the way I said it makes it sound like I was ranting. When I started to lose my focus, I found myself swaying and leaning left and right. Usually, I would try my best to have a nice, stable stance. I think that I felt even more pressure for this speech than the others because we were still expected to perform well. From this pressure, I began to play with my note card. It was so small and yet I held it with two hands. My conclusion that I attempted to make up right there, was kind of wasted because at the very end, I just gave up because I felt I had nothing else that I could really come up with. Watching my performance, I was kind of surprised, in a way, at how low my volume seemed to go down. I wasn’t very satisfied with my performance.

Although I did not necessarily get to choose what I was going to talk about, I feel that the topic wasn’t that hard to come up with good examples that would support my statement. Honestly, this assignment was kind of fun because it was exciting to find out how people think as they write their normal essays and papers. It was also fun to show the class how well you can think on your feet. I think that I deserve a B- for this performance because I let all of the detail things slip. It made my performance look almost sloppy.

12/4/09

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__Self Assessment Culture Speech: What makes me, me__

In my speech “What makes me, me”, I feel I was very prepared to perform, but I was not in the best situation. As I was performing, the bell rang and I got out of focus. Even with this setback, I feel the content of my speech and the effort put in was still very good. As always, I have several things to yet improve on. The delivery of my performance was not the best I could have done. I was very upset that I wasn’t able to give a full performance. But I still think that before the distraction of the bell, I did not have as good eye contact as I usually do, my volume wasn’t as loud as before, and I seemed slightly more nervous than the previous speech. The rate that I spoke at, was over all pretty good. But towards the end, I tried rushing and began to stutter, so I not only spoke faster, but my speech sounded quite choppy and didn’t flow nicely. My enunciation was okay, but it could have been emphasized more. Especially the Japanese words- most people wouldn’t understand, so I would have to speak more clearly so that it is definite that I am not using English when I say a certain word. As I talked about different aspects of my culture, I felt that the transitions were not very good. From each idea to the next, the transition sentence was not there. My piece didn’t seem to be very fluent. My gestures were very limited. I think that I could have at least bowed when I said the opening line to my piece. I noticed that I kept fiddling with my note card and slowly took more pauses to try and regain my train of thought. I also thought that I sounded less confident right around the middle of my speech. One plus thing I identified was how I spoke authentically. I spoke with a good Japanese accent whenever I used a Japanese word. I feel I can still make many improvements and adjustments. For example, I can work on practicing good transition sentences, speaking loud enough, and keeping a strong voice throughout the performance. I think that my selection for this assignment was good because I already had an idea of what my Japanese culture was about and I felt I would have been able to explain the different aspects in my own words. I also find Japanese culture and traditions quite interesting and doing research on it was a good experience. I learned more about my culture and that even though it is tough to stay focused with a big distraction, the result of your performance will be that much better. For my speech, I think I deserve a B or a B+ because even though I had organized thoughts for my presentation, I ended up rushing, stuttering and forgetting that I had another visual- the food. I also could have delivered my speech with a more confident tone that showed the audience I was ready.

11/9/09 (word count: 469) **__Self Assessment__**
 * __Inspirational Speech__**

In this performance, I feel I have made the most improvements. I got better at fluency, change in rate, change in tone, body movements and confidence. I think that I need to improve on maintaining eye contact, varying vocabulary and not being redundant.

I was very satisfied with how I performed. Even though there are still certain things I need to work on, this is my best performance so far. In the beginning of my speech, I had a little trouble remembering what I was going to talk about. But as I told myself to calm down and just relax, my ideas started to make sense and flow into a sequence. Little by little I became more confident in my speech and felt more relaxed and not so tense. I was able to do body motions even behind the podium. Although they were not big gestures, they were still noticeable and got more attention from the audience than just standing in one spot and fidgeting. I feel as though I have connected with the audience better and conveyed my point of view more accurately than previous performances.

Although I have made many improvements, there is still room for more to be made. For example, I noticed that I had a bad habit of saying “and…” at the beginning of each sentence during the body of my speech. I got irritated with it and thought to myself, “wow I sound kind of annoying!” That was the initial thing I thought that I needed to work on. I also had a tendency to look up and lose eye contact with the audience. I looked kind of like I was having a lot of trouble choosing my words to say. I admit I had some difficulty picking the right words to be concise, but I also felt that I lost the connection I was trying to establish through my piece. A minor habit I noticed was that I still fidgeted with my hands behind the podium and shuffled my index card plus the manuscript around a couple of times. It made me look nervous- which I was, but I was still trying hard to stay relaxed.

I learned that presentation and body language is almost, if not a little more, just as important as the actual piece. The delivery affects the reaction of the audience. I think that I can work on being more concise and getting my ideas across more clearly by making a better outline that would state (in bullets) the key points I need to talk about. For this presentation I feel I deserve a B+ because I have made many improvements since my last performance but my delivery was not 100% there. I would still like to work harder to get better at presenting and public speaking.

10/30/09 (word count: 592)

__Oral Presentation #5__
In my Oral Presentation, I feel that I have shown much improvement compared to my last presentation. In this performance, I have many more hand gestures, body movement, volume change and more effective rate change. Also, my eye contact with the audience was well maintained. I noticed that I would unintentionally shift my weight at certain points as I was speaking. I feel I can work on more intentional body movements, facial expressions, less stuttering and making any mistakes look smooth. I felt a sense of accomplishment as I reviewed my performance. I noticed that I looked more confident in my body movements. I felt a better connection with the audience since I understood exactly what I was doing throughout my performance. I also remember that I felt confident about my performance since I knew what I needed to do in order for my instructions to be correct. My volume at the beginning of my performance was loud to grab the audience’s attention. As I continued to talk and get into the steps on how to pass a volleyball, my volume lowered to a more neutral level. This volume change was more effective than staying at one tone and not sounding interested in my piece. My rate varied effectively. At the beginning of my piece, I spoke faster than I usually would. When I explained my steps, my rate slowed down so that I made sure the audience would understand each step. Since I didn’t have a manuscript to read off of, this made my eye contact stay steady with the audience. I was able to concentrate more and not fidget with something in my hands- since I didn’t have anything to hold. I know I still need to work on fixing bad habits like shifting my weight as I speak. It makes me look nervous and unsure of myself. I also need to improve on making my facial expressions more bold and matching the mood I want to set for the audience. In my performance I stuttered a few times- like in the beginning when I tried to say “ball” I said “call” instead because I was nervous and pretty much only thinking about the next sentence I needed to remember to say. Lastly, I still need to find a way to make my mistakes look smoother. I understand that sometimes you just get a mental lapse and pause, but I want to make any long pauses seem intentional so that I don’t lose the audience’s focus on my instructional presentation. I wouldn’t want the audience to be distracted. To improve my habit of shifting my weight I feel that I can accomplish this by practicing any kind of presentation in front an audience or a mirror and be conscientious of each move I make. To avoid stuttering I think I just need to practice my presentation more and try to minimize any errors. Perhaps I need to find several more different approaches as to finding a way to smoothing over any pauses. The past attempts worked, but not effectively since I still listed that as something to work on. I learned that it is always easier to explain things to others in your own words when you know more about your topic. I’m glad that I have shown much improvement from my last presentation. For this performance, I would give myself a B or a B+. I think I deserve this because I really tried my best to be prepared and took everything I needed to work on into consideration.

10/26/09 (word count: 580 ) __OI #4__

For my fourth Oral Interpretation, I feel I have made improvements. Some are minor, but are still bringing me closer to my goal. I know I still need to work on varying my tone and rate more drastically to make my performance more interesting, not have any mental lapses, really try to work to cover up mental lapses if they should happen again, read my selection with more feeling to show the audience why that section was important to me, and have more motions and gestures. I feel I have improved on varying my rate, loosening my stance, making my body language and motions look more natural, showed two different characters speaking to each other, and varying my tone as I read the dialogue. As I reviewed my performance, I could tell that I was already having trouble remembering my introduction. My body language gave it away. I did have a mental lapse in the middle of my introduction, and even though I managed to cover it up, it was too long of a period of silence to not notice. Also, in my introduction, I made an effort to vary my tone as I listed what would go wrong with my essays. There were slight changes that I was able to identify. But as I can imagine, the audience (class) most likely did not notice it as much as I did. In my dialogue, I tried to vary my rate to show the frustration going on with the main character, John Yossarian. I know that I need to exaggerate my rate more so that I will be able to convey the mood better. On my manuscript, I marked in keynotes to remind me when and where I need to make gestures. As I was going through my performance, I failed to look at the notes and only remembered to do some of them. They were small gestures but still noticeable. As far as improvements go, I feel as though I have made progress compared to my first Oral Interpretation. For example, earlier, I mentioned that I have made slight improvements on my tone and rate. They weren’t major improvements but still enough to bring me closer to my goal. I have also improved on making my presentation look more relaxed and not so uptight. My stance is relaxed but still formal. I do not shift my weight as much as I have before. In this performance, my hand motions and gestures, in the dialogue I read, looked as if they naturally flowed into my piece. They were fluent and helped me get the audience into the mood I was trying to set. I have also gotten better at showing different characters talking in my piece. They do not look as if they are talking away from each other. I think this was a good selection to pick from my book. This was an important part that set the foundation for the rest of the story. Yossarian learned several parts to Catch-22. Although this was a good selection, I feel I could have performed better For this performance I would give myself a B-. I have shown improvement from last OI, but still need to work on several things. I was more prepared for my intro than before as well. I tried my best to perform my piece the way I wanted so that the audience would see its importance from my point of view.

10/17/09 (word count 475) OI #3 My performance did not improve very much. Going into this speech, I wasn’t as confident as I was with other speeches. I know that I need to work on fluency, articulation, vocal expression, making my body language more obvious, delivering the climax and memorizing my piece better. I feel that I did a much better job at my rate, even though I had a big pause at one point. Also, I think that I chose a good piece to present because it came from my thoughts and I knew it well. I just need to show it better.

I was very dissatisfied with my performance. I feel as though I was not well prepared despite the fact that I practiced my piece numerous times. I think that I was not fluent in my piece because I was so worried about getting my introduction down and memorized, that I forgot to express the piece the way that I wanted others to see it. I also need to speak more clearly so that my vocal expression will be more noticeable. If I speak in a monotone voice, the audience loses interest and eventually so do I. Plus, if I improve my articulation and vocal expression, the class will be able to understand and indentify my body language more easily.

In my actual poem, I had true intentions of presenting the climax well. But as I was performing, I got choked up over my huge pause from my intro, that I didn’t pay attention to my notes that reminded me of the actions I was supposed to do. I realized that I was presenting my piece in a boring way just as I got to saying the poem. I wish I had practiced an escape plan more so that I could cover any mental lapses better.

The main improvement that I could easily identify, was my rate. I did not rush through any part of my performance but I did have slight variations in speed. These variations were not very noticeable as I reviewed my recording. To me, as I was speaking, it seemed more obvious than it really was.

Overall, I know that I need to prepare for my next presentation better than I think is needed. I understand what I need to do and I’m going to work harder to improve. Hopefully, when I accomplish one improvement the rest will be easier to overcome. I learned that I need to produce more than I think I need to because the audience won’t know if what I’m doing is intentional or not. For this oral interpretation, I would give myself a C. It’s painful! But I know I don’t deserve any grade above this. Even though I tried hard, I just had a few accidents. And those accidents were very critical to my performance.

9.22.09

OI#2 Poetry Out Loud I feel my performance has improved since my last presentation. Although my articulation and rate still need work, my eye contact, poise, and body language has gotten better. For some reason, I tend to speed up when I memorize certain parts.

The most obvious slip-up I made, regarding articulation, was in my introduction. I knew my introduction very well, however, as I was saying my lines, I began to think too far ahead and lost my train of thought. Therefore, I stuttered. I think I can fix this problem by speaking slower. I could also rehearse my piece by using different words so I don’t panic if I forget the exact words from my manuscript.

I also remember that during the poem, my rate was very fast. Looking at the video recording of my performance, I see that the listeners will not understand everything you’re saying as fast as you think they can. To me, it seemed as if I was talking at a normal pace. But because I memorized my poem and because of the fact that it flowed nicely, I sped up. To prevent this from happening, in the future, I will practice my piece with a timer. This way, I can keep track of how fast I speak and go through my piece. In addition to rate I still need to work on enunciation. At some points in my poem, the words became unclear and I feel I was not able to hold my audience’s attention. In my next piece, I will exaggerate my enunciation so I will present my points clearly. As I was watching my performance, I realized that the transition between my personal experience and the introduction of the author wasn’t smooth. I did not reveal a clear connection with myself and the poem. In my next performance, I will be sure to give a personal experience to which I can directly relate.

What I really liked about my performance, was that I used gestures to emphasize important words. For example, at the beginning, as I stated items you may have lost, I held MY homework and extended it out to the audience. This illustrated my point while getting the audience’s attention since they knew what I was talking about.

My eye contact highly improved since my last presentation. I know I did better on this because I was able to memorize my piece and I didn’t rely on my manuscript for every word. I sustained eye contact with the whole class and did not focus in on a certain area.

I selected this poem for my presentation because I felt a connection to what the poet was writing about. First of all, the poem appealed to me because of its rhyme scheme. The couplets went well together. Second, I enjoyed how the poem began in iambic tetrameter and switched to trochaic once the tone changed. The poem’s use of metaphors was creative and intriguing. I especially liked the metaphor “And early though the laurel grows/ it withers quicker than the rose” (11-12). I feel I could interpret this piece better than my previous interpretation not only because I felt it was more relevant, but also because I learned from my last performance.