Allie

OI#2 Poetry Out Loud September 21, 2009

I recited a poem, “Playing Dead”, by Andrew Hudgins. I interpreted the poet’s emotions behind the poem and conveyed it to the audience. Overall, I think I did a decent job conveying the basic meaning of the poem. However, my introduction was not well-memorized and had many flaws.

I performed a few parts well. I incorporated some non-verbal expressions into my piece (for example, at 1:42). My voice changed according to the mood. When, the speaker thought his father had died, my posture changed and tone of voice lowered. My rate also changed according to the various moods When the mood was somber, my speed slowed.

However, many aspects of my performance needed improvement. The volume of my voice lowered as I neared the ends of sentences. I looked down to my script for long intervals of time, therefore, I lacked in audience eye contact. My introduction was not fluent. I stopped in the middle of phrases to look down at my manuscript. As I rushed towards the ends of phrases, my words were not articulated as clearly as they should’ve been. I also noticed how I slouched after mistakes in my introduction.

The line at 1:42, “He’s dead!” seemed over exaggerated. I dropped to the ground then “punched my father in the jewels.” This took me far out of my non-verbal expression comfort zone. My voice was too loud for the mood of that section of the poem. The child was sad and shocked, but my voice seemed only shocked.

The “brain fart” was one of my worst nightmares and it happened during this performance. This performance refueled my fear of speeches.

From this performance, I’ve learned that practicing in front of an audience is crucial. I thought I had my introduction memorized, but once I stepped in front of an audience my brain froze over and I was forced to read off my manuscript. Fluency and poise, my main weaknesses, would improve along with more practice. During this performance, I really wanted to just quit and take a low grade, but had to continue on. For the next performance, I’ll have a well-memorized introduction. Overall, I think I deserve a B or B-.

October 16, 2009

Oral Interp: Self-Written Poem In my oral interpretation of my own poem, “Ugly Truth”, certain areas of delivery decreased in quality from my past performances. Non-verbal were minimal and some basic delivery skills were lacking. I felt a few delivery aspects such as eye contact, vocal expression and poise were decent. I knew my poem well enough to be able to glance at my speech for a second, then recite a line or two without looking down. I used varying tones of voice and fluctuating volume and rate to express certain emotions throughout the poem. I was poised in that my lines ran smoothly and that I didn’t fidget. Many aspects of delivery could’ve been improved. As I neared the ends of lines, my volume decreased and rate increased, thus making certain parts inaudible. On top of that, volume throughout could’ve been a bit louder. I also could’ve incorporated more non-verbal expressions. For example, when I was in fear, I could’ve wrapped my arms around myself. Because I wrote this poem, selection was completely my decision. Overall, I was satisfied with my poem. I could’ve written the poem so that non-verbal expression would be easier for me to incorporate into my speech. However, I liked the message it conveyed as well as the personification used to capture the audience’s attention. Overall, this performance was another disappointment. I got very nervous and started shaking and making strange faces. From the first performance up until this oral interpretation, I feel that my performance anxiety has increased. For some reason, I feel greater stress than I did from our first oral interpretation. From this poem, I learned that you need to work on your strengths as well as your weaknesses. For this assignment, I focused mainly on memorizing my introduction since that was the aspect that was lacking most in the previous performance. Delivery skills such as volume and rate (which I applied well last performance) were lacking this time because I didn’t feel the need to practice them as much as I felt the need to practice my introduction. I need to improve on controlling my nervousness while I’m up there performing. I also need to improve on incorporating more non-verbal expression into my performance. I will do this by trying out a wide array of expressions while looking at myself in the mirror to see if these expressions appear natural. Throughout this poem, I had to overcome my nervousness (hence the strange face preceding my poem) which was a major factor affecting volume and rate. I think I deserve a mid to low B. I felt it was a slight improvement from my previous performance on which I scored a low B. A few delivery skills were lacking, but I felt as though I had enough expression to make the emotions of my poem clear to the audience.

Oral Interpretation #4 Evaluation October 25, 2009

My oral interpretation of a passage from my outside reading book, //Lovely Bones// by Alice Sebold, was an improvement from my previous oral interpretation. I felt more comfortable performing and some of the nervousness went away. Therefore, certain aspects of my performance improved, but still need some work. I will evaluate areas in which I have improved and reflect upon areas which need improvement. I felt I improved most in enunciation. Most of the words were comprehensible and my speaking, for the most part was clear and crisp (although at some points, volume made the words inaudible). I also felt rate improved, though was not perfect. I sped up to add expression to the dialogue and slowed down to highlight important parts. Many aspects of my performance need work. I wasn’t very poised. My posture was horrible since I sort of hunched over to look at my script. There was also a point in my speech with a long pause where I had difficulty turning my script to the next page. My phrasing was choppy, especially in dialogue with long sentences. Though I was focused on speaking loudly, I need to speak even louder. In some parts, volume was so soft that it made dialogue inaudible. I would often drop volume to make the mood sound gloomier, but I dropped it too much, therefore what I was saying was unclear. Non-verbal expressions were lacking. I still feel uncomfortable “moving to the text.” The few motions I did do (stepping forward, motioning with my hands) were very subtle. My verbal expressions were decent, but could still use some work. I need to make the emotions more obvious by using non-verbal expressions to compliment the changes in tone of voice I’m already doing. Eye contact was one of my weakest points. Since I hadn’t run through my speech a substantial amount of times before performing, I wasn’t 100% comfortable with my selection. I looked at my script for more than ten second intervals. My selection was a bit confusing. It didn’t fit my aphorism, “the dead are watching over us”. It skipped from various sections of the book. Though my excerpts were crucial points in the story, they didn’t compliment each other or the aphorism very well. The script was mostly narration by the main character and didn’t have much action to help capture audience attention. Because of this performance, I realize how much work I’ll need if I want to excel in speech. There are so few areas I felt I did well in. And even those areas need some work. I know I have the ability to excel, but am afraid to break out of my comfort zone. I’m afraid to do non-verbal expressions in fear it might make me look like a complete fool. However, the only way to really bring my speeches to life is to just move around and exaggerate my motions. My non-verbal expressions need the most work. Not having these expressions make my dialogue bland and uninteresting. For my next speech, I will exaggerate motions and add in motions even though they feel unnatural. I’ll also work on poise by separating my speech into phrases using markings on my manuscript. To improve eye contact, I just need to practice my speech and know it well. For this performance, I had to rush to put together my manuscript. We had little time to prepare and I sort of “winged” my performance, hoping I’d do well. Because I had little time to prepare, I had to improvise my introduction “on the spot” and surprised myself by doing it smoothly. From this performance I’ve gained knowledge. I’ve learned that without non-verbal expressions, an oral interpretation is basically the same as just reading the a passage from a book. I think I deserve a B because my basic delivery skills were decent but could have used some improvement. My selection had some expression, but still could’ve used a lot more non-verbals. Also, my selection didn’t compliment my aphorism well (“the dead are watching over us”).

Hands Only Speech Self Assessment November 1, 2009

This was my first speech without any manuscript. I taught the audience how to “turtle” someone’s bag. I felt more comfortable while performing, therefore some aspects of my performance improved. I will identify areas that need improvement and reflect upon my strengths. From this speech Since I didn’t have a manuscript to look at, my eye contact improved the most. However, I could have looked around at more people instead of focusing solely on the people in front of me. I felt my volume was decent, though it faded in some parts where I was making up dialogue “on the spot.” Because I had no dialogue that I had to stick to, I was able to speak in a more natural voice. For the most part, my articulation was clear and crisp. However, in a few parts, I began to speed up, so some of my words were unclear. I felt my poise didn’t improve much from my past performance. My speech was somewhat choppy when I made up some dialogue “on the spot”. I also had a couple awkward breaks in the middle of phrases where I’d forget what I was saying or lose my train of thought. In terms of rate, I felt that some parts, especially about on how to “turtle” a wallet, were rushed. My non-verbal expressions still need the most work. The few motions I did only involved my hands. I also had a tendency to make unnecessary hand motions to try to put emphasis on certain words. Choosing to demonstrate how to “turtle” a bag helped me feel more relaxed while performing. It is something I am familiar with. Also, because it is a prank, it is slightly humorous, which helped me feel more relaxed while demonstrating it. If I had been demonstrating something more serious such as how to cook something, I would definitely feel less comfortable while performing. Overall, I was pleased with my selection since it helped me to feel comfortable as I performed my first speech without a manuscript. This first speech without notes did not turn out as badly as I thought it would. I didn’t have any major memory slips, as I had feared. Out of all my speeches, I felt most relaxed delivering this one because I didn’t have to worry too much about eye contact or sticking to a manuscript. I have hope that this type of extemporaneous speaking will be my strongest area of speech. From this performance, I have learned a lot about making speeches without notes. Most importantly, I learned that you cannot be tense when doing these types of speeches. If you are, you’ll freeze up and loose your train of thought. You just need to be familiar with what you’re talking about, have a few lines in your head and have some sort of basic organization (introduction, body and conclusion). For future extemporaneous speeches, I will need to work mainly on non-verbal expression. I need to adjust to new types of hand motions because extemporaneous speaking is a different from oral interpretation. To improve, I will try video taping myself and see which movements appear natural and fit the context of the speech. Overall, I am proud of myself for overcoming my first speech without notes but I know that I need to improve in many areas of extemporaneous speech, especially non-verbal expressions. I think I deserve a B because most areas of my speech were decent with minor things such as rate and poise that could be improved upon.

English 9 Inspirational Speech Evaluation

Overall, I was disappointed with my inspirational speech because how I had practiced my speech was not how I performed it. I did my speech on switching schools and how that relates to taking a risk. I will evaluate areas that need improvement and pinpoint specific things I can do to help improve my performance in those areas. I felt I improved in some areas of delivery. Eye contact improved most. I didn’t look down at my note card too often. However, during the reading of my inspirational text, I could’ve used a bit more eye contact. I also noticed how I made eye contact with the back of the chapel (instead of the audience) a couple of times. My volume, I felt, was decent. It may have been because of the microphone, but my voice was clear and audible. However, when I was uncertain about what I was saying, my volume would get lower. I felt my articulation was clear for the most part. However, like with volume, when I was uncertain of what I was saying, I began to mumble. Many areas of my performance however decreased in quality from the previous speech. Poise and phrasing were choppy in some areas, especially when I was composing dialogue on the spot. In another part, I said “ummm, I don’t know” when I was unsure of what to say next. That made it obvious I was lost. I also fidgeted a lot throughout the entire performance, with my hands above the podium. My rate could’ve used a lot of improvement. When I rehearsed my speech, it went over the time limit, so as I was performing, I cut out some sections to try and meet the time limit. However, I went below, finishing my speech before 3 minutes. I made up everything after my inspirational text on the spot, which was obvious by watching the recording. There were some pauses and my sentences didn’t flow as well. My voice had some variation, but the general “mood” it portrayed stayed the same. My weakest point was nonverbal expression. I didn’t move much and all my hands did was fidget. Hearing my classmates’ inspirational stories, I felt I could have done my inspirational speech on something more inspiring and personal. I wasn’t as connected to my story as others were to theirs, and it showed in my performance. If I could redo my speech, I would talk about something else that involved feelings closer to my heart. I look at extemporaneous speaking in a new light because of this performance. I used to feel it was less stressful than doing an oral interpretation. However, I realize how dependant I am on a manuscript. Because I didn’t have a manuscript, I skipped over some of the important points I meant to make. It was also very nerve-wracking making things up on the spot. From this performance, I learned that extemporaneous speaking takes practice. It’s something that comes naturally to certain people, while others (like myself) sort of freeze up when forced to create dialogue on the spot. I start off with this speech and hope to improve by the end of the course, to the point where I can speak naturally and effectively make my point. To improve, I will practice and rehearse my speeches more and hopefully, nonverbal expressions will come naturally. To help improve my poise, I will need to have sentences already created in my head so that they flow without pauses between them. A major obstacle during this performance, for me, was dealing with my nervousness. I had to take a few pauses here and there to compose myself and get my nerves under control. Overall, I think I deserve a B/B-. Many aspects of delivery were decent, and only a couple (nonverbal expression and poise) needed major improvement.

Allie Kim English 9 What Makes Me Me Speech Self Assessment

In this assessment, I will evaluate my performance of my What Makes Me Me Speech. I will identify areas in which I felt I improved and specify ways in which to improve in other areas. I will also evaluate the content of my speech. In terms of delivery, my rate and eye contact were my strongest points, but still could use work. I paced my speech so that I didn’t have to rush through any one subtopic in order to make the time limit. I also didn’t have to stall to meet the time limit. My eye contact was also decent because I wasn’t reading off my note card. However, I put the card on the table provided, so I had to turn my head to glance at it every so often, making it obvious that I was using a note card. Most points of delivery need improvement. My poise was poor because I stopped frequently when I didn’t know what to say and used “fillers” a few times. I also sometimes held my note card with two hands. My volume could have been improved, especially for my very last line, because at that last line my voice faded out towards the end. In terms of vocal expressions, my voice was rather monotonous in some areas. It sounded like I was just stating a bunch of fact unrelated to me. My non-verbal expressions were lacking. I appeared stiff while performing and it was obvious that I was nervous since I stuttered a lot. In terms of articulation, I felt it was decent in some areas except for the ends of sentences and where I was unsure of what I was saying. I felt the content of this speech was the best of all my speeches so far. I chose to talk about piano because I felt emotionally connected to my topic. I also chose piano because it was very different from everyone else’s topics. This topic was a good choice for me because I felt strongly about what I was saying and could have talked on about it if needed. In preparing for this performance, I was really able to reflect on the impact of my culture, music, on me. I have realized just how much it is a part of my everyday life. To improve all areas of delivery, especially poise, articulation and volume, I will write out a brief manuscript so I have sentences drafted so I don’t need to make them up on the spot. This will help me smooth out my speech and hopefully reduce my pauses and “filler” words. I overcame many obstacles. I had an especially hard time organizing all my thoughts. I had a lot to say about music but had to do many outline drafts to finally get my ideas together into the three subtopics. As a performer, I gained valuable experience in extemporaneous speaking, this speech being our third extemporaneous speech. I feel as though I’m improving. I feel I deserve a B. My delivery wasn’t the best but I felt I still made my point about culture and how strongly it has impacted me.

Impromptu Speech Self Evaluation

I will evaluate my performance in my impromptu speech on school holidays that should be given. Most areas of delivery needed improvement, so I will pinpoint ways in which I can improve. There were many areas of my speech that I didn’t do well. First of all, my poise was poor. I had awkward pauses in the middle of phrases and also had a long pause where I was uncertain of what to say just before the two minute mark. I also fiddled with my flashcard. My volume and articulation were both poor, especially when I was unsure of what I was saying. Rate could have used improvement. I met the time limit, but I rushed through the body and had a very long and time consuming pause towards the end. My nonverbal expressions were lacking as well. I stood still most of the time and didn’t make many hand gestures. I had a few areas in which I felt I was stronger in. I felt my strongest point was eye contact. I didn’t look down at my note card much. However, I didn’t look at the audience; I looked mainly at the wall in front of me. In some ways, I felt my vocal expression improved. I seemed more relaxed and less “stiff” while talking. My topic was school holidays that should be given. I felt I was given a good topic since it could easily be organized into three supporting ideas. I chose to organize it into three separate holidays to be given and elaborate on each holiday and why we should have it. This performance was our first real impromptu speech. We got a topic and had a couple of minutes to basically create an outline for a two minute speech. This speech was very significant since it was our first true impromptu and was very different, in my opinion, from the extemporaneous speeches we have been doing. From this performance, I have learned that the key to impromptu speeches is just relaxing while you’re up there. Because I was relaxed, I was able to focus more on my speech than my nerves. To improve eye contact, I will try to focus on a few people instead of a wall. I will also focus more on articulating my words. I overcame the obstacle of having to draft a speech in less than two minutes. It was very stressful and I had to relax my nerves before performing. As a performer, I gained insight to impromptu speech. I think I deserve a B/B-. My delivery wasn’t the best, but I feel I made my three main points understandable.

Book Talk Speech Self Assessment Overall, I felt that this was one of my worst speeches. In this assessment, I will evaluate my performance on my book talk speech on the book, Joy Luck Club and specify ways in which I can improve. Many areas such as poise, verbal and nonverbal expressions and rate were lacking. My delivery of this speech, I thought, was poor. My poise was poor because I often had pauses and used many fillers, especially when answering questions. I also made weird faces. My nonverbal expressions were lacking. I stood still and held onto my notecard and manuscript with two hands throughout most of my speech. My vocal expressions were also lacking. My tone didn't have much variation. My regular speech and interpreted passages from the book sounded similar. Oral interpretation skills were definitely lacking. My rate of speech was poor because I tended to rush towards the ends of sentences. I also skipped over some minor points since I knew, beforehand, from practicing, that my speech would run over five minutes. Some areas were decent, but could have used minor improvement. My volume could have been a bit louder, but my speech was still audible. I noticed that, when I was answering audience questions, my volume went down and I sort of mumbled. I felt my articulation was decent because my words, for the most part, were clear and understandable. However, I had some pronunciation problems and stumbled over a couple of words. I chose to read Joy Luck Club and I actually did enjoy it. The book was a good choice for me because it was filled with characters that I could relate to. However, my manuscript was overwhelmed with quotations from the story and my three supporting details weren't made clear in my speech. I tended to get wordy in some areas and also said "um, okay so here's a passage from the story that illustrates this" as my transition into book excerpts. This was a major speech for me because I didn't talk about personal experience in this speech as much as I had in previous speeches. This was often difficult because I had to do some research to help construct my speech. It was also my first persuasive speech so I had to find evidence to help support my position. From this speech, I learned more about the difficulty of presenting a speech based on research. You can't just talk off the top of your head; you actually need to present facts. To improve for my next speech, I will work mainly on poise. I will stop making faces and will write out my transitions on my outline so I have solid transitions. To help vocal expression, I will practice using tone variation instead of just sort of mumbling my speech to myself. Time was a major obstacle when I was preparing this speech. The first time I rehearsed it, my speech ran over six minutes, so I had to cut some sections out. I think I deserve a B- for this speech because I feel my speech wasn't entirely convincing but had the potential to if my delivery were improved.

March 13, 2010 Now and Then Speech Self Assessment In this self assessment I will evaluate my performance in the Now and Then partner speech on the social issue of beauty. I will identify the areas in which I felt I did well in and suggest ways to improve areas in which I was lacking. I feel a few areas of my delivery were decent. For the most part, I spoke audibly. I faded a couple of times, however, when I wasn't sure of what I was saying. Having a partner really helped, because I used her as a guideline to how loud to speak. I felt that my enunciation was decent. My words could be understood. However, in some areas I felt as though I was rushing towards the end of a sentence, especially when I was certain of what I was saying (I was eager to reach the end of the sentence). I felt that my eye contact during my introduction was strongest, however could've used improvement throughout the body of my speech. My rate of speech also remained generally constant and was slow enough for words to be understood and not bunched together. Our group's timing also made it within the time limit. Many areas had room for improvement. I seemed rather stiff while performing, therefore could've used more nonverbal expressions. It also seemed as though I was simply stating facts. My tone of voice was rather monotonous and could've used more energy. In terms of poise, my speech didn't flow well because I had a sense of nervousness in my voice. There were short pauses here and there when I forgot what to say next. I also shouldn't have laughed when my partner made a mistake. My eye contact was decent during my introduction, however towards the middle of the speech I looked at the slides instead of maintaining eye contact with the audience. This topic selection was good because it was interesting to research beauty and, being female, it is a topic I can relate to. The content of our speech was decent. However, I felt we could've used a little more facts to help support our point that internal beauty is what counts. This speech had a large impact on me as a speaker because it gave me experience in speaking with a partner for the first time. It gave me insight into working in collaboration with someone who has different ideas to discuss and prove one point. Sometimes, I realize, you just need to let your partner say what he/she thinks and find a sort of medium for both ideas. I've discovered that partner speaking is much less stressful because if you forget your lines, a good partner (like my partner) will be able to fill in for you. As we were practicing, we would catch each other's mistakes and fill in each other's lines when either of us "blanked". Having a partner was also very helpful because while I was speaking, my partner listened and later (after we did a run-through) gave me suggestions on how to improve. A major obstacle my partner and I had was putting two different viewpoints on one topic together and just overall agreeing on certain aspects of our speech. I need to improve on simply putting more energy into my speech. To do this I need to put confidence into my ideas and say everything (even though it may not make sense) with energy. Overall, I've gained more experience in working in collaboration with someone else while performing and while drafting the speech. I need t For this speech, I feel I deserve a B because though some areas of delivery could've used improvement but our speech, I felt, got our ideas effectively across to the audience and left them with new insight on what "beautiful" really is.

English 9Call to Arms Speech 1 Self Assessment In this assessment, I will evaluate my performance in our Call to Arms Part One speech on sex trafficking. I will target areas that I really need improvement in and other areas which I did relatively well in. I was very disappointed in my overall delivery. First and foremost, my eye contact needed the most improvement. My eyes were glued to the screen and my back was facing the audience nearly the whole time. I seemed rather stiff while performing and did not use much variation in tone in my voice. My rate varied and I had a few pauses here and there. I sped up in parts of my speech where I was most confident. My poise needed some improvement as well. In addition to my odd face that I made when I messed up, my speech didn't seem to flow. I had many pauses and often repeated myself. My nervousness was also evident throughout the entire speech, especially in my introduction. My sentences were often very choppy. There were a couple of areas in which I felt I did a better job in. I spoke at an audible volume. My articulation was also clear, for the most part, except for in places where I wasn't sure of what I was saying. I felt I did a good job overall in writing my speech. The topic I chose was an interesting one that was unique from many other topics researched. Personally, I felt it was a good topic choice for me because it is a topic that interests me, so I enjoyed researching and learning more about sex trafficking. I feel like I did a good job outlining the problem itself and the causes of the problem. This was a very important performance for me because I learned a lot about performing with a visual aid since this was my first solo performance with one. The most important thing I learned was not to rely on the visual aid too much. Because I was so dependant on the visual aid, my eye contact with the audience decreased drastically. With a visual aid, I learned that I should make use of a copy or projection of the slides somewhere in front of me instead of the actual projection that the audience sees. Nervousness was a major factor that contributed to the areas I needed improvement in for my speech. Once I started my speech, I became so nervous that I could barely speak. This, in turn, affected my delivery in terms of poise, eye contact and rate. In order to improve future speeches I will first, pretend like I'm simply speaking to myself while performing to reduce nervousness and second, make use of a copy of the visual aid somewhere in front of me to improve eye contact. Throughout the performance, a major obstacle I faced was trying to calm down. I had to take a few pauses to relax because my heart was racing so fast that I could barely speak. As a performer, I realize that there will be disappointments. For this speech, I felt like I could have nailed it because I had practiced the speech over and over again and felt I had a good speech written out. I may have been over-confident in myself. I feel like I deserve a B because I got my ideas across but my delivery wasn't the best. I feel like I did a good job overall of informing the audience of all aspects of sex slavery: the problem and what causes it.