Ashley

OI #2 Poetry Out Loud 9/23

On Monday, I performed a poem called "Sheet Music" by Brigit Pegeen Kelly. This is a solemn poem with a confusing meaning. It is a poem that has to be looked at carefully and analyzed. Every line has a special meaning, but this poem has an interesting format too. The lines flow into each other creating a mysterious and confusing poem. After reading through it many times and separating each sentence, the poem finally made sense.

Although it was a deep poem with a lot of hidden messages, I feel like I delivered the poem well. Except for my first line of my introduction, my volume was pretty good. I could hear myself well through my poem. My posture was better this time and I didn’t sway too much. My nonverbal expression was good also. It got better during the second half, but overall, it was varied nicely. Most of the hand/body gestures I used looked natural which helped make my performance better. I also used more eye contact then I though I did. I felt confident during my performance and hope to feel more and more comfortable each time.

Even though there were many things I did well, there is always room for improvement. I forgot to say the title of my poem and author after my introduction and had to glance down at my manuscript a couple of times during my introduction. Next time, I need to work extra hard on memorizing my introduction. I had no excuse this time because my introduction was very short compared to others. I also could have slowed down a lot between my introduction and first half of my poem even though I would have gone over the time limit. The second half was better than the first because by then, most of the nerves were gone. A big thing for me to work on is enunciation. During my practices it is ok, but for the real thing I choke up and my mouth gets very dry. Once I learn to be more comfortable in giving oral interpretations in English class, I hope that improves.

“Sheet Music” was a respectable choice because the mood fits my personality. I am not an extremely bubbly person so a calmer poem was a decent choice. I don’t really like serious rhyming poems so this poem was one I enjoyed doing. There was another poem I wanted to do, but I couldn’t read it well because it rhymed.

After finally understanding this poem, the message sent out was a strong one. This poem is telling one to not always rely on the leader because sometimes they don’t know the way. One has to learn to trust in one’s self and continue on even it one is alone. Performing it helped me understand this poem even more.

Though this was definitely not my best performance yet, I did a decent job showing my poem to the audience. I learned that I need to work or memorizing and also work on having a strong first sentence to capture the audience. At the end of my performance, I need to walk away with confidence even if I don’t feel confident myself. I need to work on saying each word slowly and clearly. I am gaining new skills each performance, learning bits about myself, and acquiring more and more confidence with each performance. I would give myself a “B” for this performance, but am shooting for an “A+” next time. This was a harder project, but I know that I could have done a lot better then I did.

(599 words :D)

ORAL INTERP #3 October 17 (474 words) For this oral interpretation, we were asked to write a poem of our own and then perform in front of the class. Although this assignment turned out a lot better then the last, there are still many things I need to work on such as enunciation and making my nonverbal expressions look more natural. Even though I did well, there is always room for improvement.

It was easier to interpret this poem because I wrote it. My posture during this performance looked much better and my rate was also decent. I varied my pitch and rate enough so my performance did not become boring, but at times it was hard to understand what I was saying. Thankfully my volume was loud enough to hear every word.

I still need to work a lot on enunciating every word. It was hard to hear certain words or phrases because I slurred the ends of words. I need to work on saying the ending of each word clearly and then pausing between words or phrase. Although I was familiar with my poem, I did not hold eye contact that long. I did not captivate the audience because I was frequently staring at my manuscript and not looking into the eyes of the audience. I also need to work on making my nonverbal movements look more natural. They felt very natural, but some did not look comfortable.

This assignment was easier to perform and make original because we were performing a piece that we wrote ourselves. We knew exactly what the poem meant and the emotion behind it. I chose to do my phobia poem because it was the most personal. I knew the emotion to use and tried to convey that the best I could. I could have been more dramatic and really acted a lot more afraid, but I did not want to look “fake.” Watching my performance, I think it would have been better and helped if I had acted a little more. It felt a lot more comfortable and safe to perform a poem I wrote myself.

By watching my performance I realized what I need to work on to solve my enunciation problem. I need to work on clearly delivering each word from beginning to end, making sure I say the ending letter. I also realized that when I try to do a lot more movements, it ends up looking unnatural. I think my enunciation was better then the last performance, but I need to keep on working on it and hopefully it will get better and better.

I think I deserve a B for this performance because it was an ok performance, but definitely not outstanding. There will always be something for me to work on, and with each performance, I learn a little, gain a little, and improve a lot. J

OI #4 (547 words) For this last oral interpretation, each student was asked to pick a section from their outside reading. My book, //The Sword of Shannara//, was hard to relate to because it is a fantasy adventure book about a boy. I decided to do the passage where one of the characters gives a history talk. It gives a lot of background information. It was hard to connect with and express, but I thought it was an interesting section. In every oral interpretation I have done, I do something good one time, but the next one, I mess up again. The last oral interpretation, my posture was good, my expression was ok, and rate was good. For this one, I needed to work on my eye contact towards the end. I had memorized more of the beginning so toward the end, my eye contact became less frequent and the length shortened greatly. I could have also practiced a few more times because I looked and sounded extremely nervous, but that could have been because I was very cold that day. I had hardly any nonverbal expression, which caused my performance to become a little boring. My “mess up” caused me to forget to pace because at the moment I was supposed to begin pacing, I mixed up an extremely important line. Although a lot of things need to be improved, I did do a couple of good things too. My volume was good throughout most of my performance, but I did have a soft spot toward the end. Even though it wasn’t very good, my enunciation sounded a little better. I am improving! I thought my rate was all right, but could have been varied a little more. My verbal expression was pretty good. I had worked a lot on that because coming up with “natural” gestures was difficult. My selection was not one that I could easily relate to, but it was one I found interesting and the one I thought would be least confusing for the audience to follow. It was an ok selection, but I could have cut it differently. It sounded a little choppy in places and would have been easier to read if I had done it differently. I chose this section because it is the part that explains why the war and entire adventure occurs. It is the background history of the entire novel. I learned that if I concentrate too hard on improving one thing, I will forget about everything else. I was concentrating a lot on eye contact in the beginning and trying to enunciate better, but I messed up on a couple of lines and also messed up my original gestures. For the next speech, I need to relax and think a little about everything. I still need to work a lot on enunciation, but now I also need to work on the flow of my words. Making a bunch of words into a story the audience can draw in their minds is hard, but something I need to work on. I would give myself a “B” for this performance because it defiantly was not my best one. I need to work on getting out my nerves, practicing well, and appearing confident and proud to the audience even when I’m not.

OI #5 (600 words) For this assignment, we were asked to choose something we know how to do and teach the class how to do it. It was a how to, hands-on speech. I decided to teach the class how to make my family’s pancakes. My dad found this recipe and then taught it to me. This assignment was meant to be “casual,” but I was even more nervous because we were not allowed to have a manuscript of any kind. My hands felt so empty, but we were supposed to “act out” our performance, so it wasn’t too bad.

Since we were not allowed to have a manuscript, I could not write myself reminders to slow down, enunciate, and to not have unnecessary hand movements. I noticed that when I wasn’t doing a specific gesture about a step in my procedure, I was waving my hands. They looked like “jazz hands” and after a while, the unnecessary movement became distracting. Also, I need to still work a lot on enunciation. Although it does sound a little better each time, I still need to improve in that area. I also noticed that I didn’t have that much eye contact and looked at my own gestures a lot. It seemed as if I was checking my own gestures and I was not sure if I was doing each correctly. If I had been more comfortable with my performance, I could have had longer and more frequent eye contact. My performance got boring after a while because I was not having a conversation with the audience; I was talking at them. I could have also had a little more variation in my pitch. Although I went over about three seconds, the performance felt rushed. I probably could have taken out a few words in the introduction and conclusion and slowed down my performance.

My overall performance was all right and seemed comfortable, not awkward. I had ok volume, but I could have been a little louder. My voice did sound shaky, but I sounded like I knew what I was doing. My posture wasn’t the greatest, but I was moving around a lot, which helped. I thought my gesture could have been a little more natural, but were good. Throughout my entire performance, I was rarely standing still. I wasn’t swaying; I was just using a lot of gestures.

I am happy that I chose to teach the class how to make pancakes because it is something I enjoy doing and something I could do in my sleep. I felt comfortable and knew that I wouldn’t black out or skip an important step. Before deciding to do pancakes, I had considered doing a couple other things, but then realized that they did not have a step-by-step procedure. Pancakes seemed the easiest to teach and the gestures did not have to be huge or awkward.

For this assignment, we were asked to teach the class something we already knew how to do. It was a personal performance because we could choose something that we wanted to do. Sometimes it is hard to teach something because you know how to do it and don’t understand how hard it is for someone else to learn what you are trying to teach. I felt like I did a good job, but it is hard to know if the audience understood my performance.

I learned that I make unnecessary movements, still do not have great enunciation, and have bad eye contact on extemporaneous speeches. I would give myself a B. I did an ok job, but could have been much better.

Inspirational Speeches November 11, 2009 571 words This assignment was inspirational speeches and was to be performed in the chapel. The microphone was intimidating, but made me feel more confident at the same time. Public speaking is always scary, but standing on the podium, looking out onto the audience was somehow less frightening. I think it was because I was looking out over the audience. Because I was looking down to them, it made me feel “powerful” and overall less afraid. Even though the podium helped my confidence, the microphone had its ups and downs. First of all, the microphone made my enunciation terrible! It is a good thing that I worked especially hard on it because the microphone slurred a lot of words and drowned some out. Enunciation is still a big problem that I need to work on. I also need to work on my speed. It was an overall good, even speed, but I sped up in weird places that should have actually been slowed down. When I said “how can I fix this?” (2:10) I said is really fast. I should have slowed that line down a lot more. I also noticed that some of the parts I was really improvising sounded awkward. I did mess up on my quote and it was quite noticeable. I paused for a rather long time and stared blankly at my index card. Although the microphone caused my enunciation to become extremely bad, there were a couple of things I thought I did fairly well. I had really good eye contact for this speech mostly because there was nothing to read off of. I also had really good volume because I was on a microphone. I though I had good expression in my voice, but I could have had even more, which would have made my speech a lot more “moving.” I was very happy to hear myself say the author of my quote because after I finished my performance, I was sure I had forgot to say his name. I also thought my rate was good. It felt like I was taking extremely slow and it was a good thing I slowed down even more for my quote. I thought how I said “I am responsible” (2:20) was effective (the first time I said it). This speech was very emotional for me and thankfully I did not cry during the real thing. I did cry at home. I feel as though I did not get the full message across as clearly was I would have liked, but my peers told me they felt the emotion behind my speech. I am very happy we did this speech because I learned a lot about my classmates and myself. I realize that I still need to work a lot on enunciation because it is something you cannot hide. I was also happy to see that you could not tell I was gripping the podium. I also did not sway at all. For this speech I would give myself a B+. I though this speech was better compared to some of my previous speeches, but compared to my classmates, I could have been more “over the top.” Sometimes I am too afraid to take that risk because I feel that it will be too much, but every time I watch myself I see that I actually didn’t go out enough. I enjoyed the debates afterwards and cannot wait for more! J

Culture speech December 6, 2009 This speech was very open and could have been about almost anything. It was about culture, which is an extremely broad topic. For my speech, I chose to talk a little bit about my ethnicities. Being eight ethnicities gave me a lot of choices. There was only a note card and we had to use props. This was definitely not my best speech. I felt unprepared and could have worked on my introduction and conclusion a lot more because I could have gone on for another minute. If I had not had my “technical difficulty,” I think that I might have actually gone under. In my introduction, I said “we” without explaining who that is. I also did not explain exactly how each of my topics personally affects myself. My short introduction seemed jumpy and too rehearsed. Even though I moved around a bit, my posture was pretty bad and I was standing pretty still without many useful gestures. I could have talked a lot slower and emphasized important points. My volume could have been louder too. My technical difficulty was a disaster and I did make a lot of unnecessary movements. One good thing that I did was that I did not stop talking when I was passing out my objects. I kept my speech going. My speech also seemed very natural, like I was talking to the audience instead of at them. My transitions seemed to flow well and my enunciation was better. I think it was better because I was speaking more casually. I did not really need my note card and knew, for the most part, what I wanted to say. I am not sure that ethnicity was the best choice for this speech. I think I picked a boring topic. It was a topic that the audience cannot relate to and I cannot connect to. I should have picked something that means more to me every day. I think that if I had chosen something else to do, my speech would have gone a lot better. This speech did not have a big impact on me as a performer, I didn’t really enjoy it, and I am not very proud of my performance overall. I know that I could have done a lot better and wish that I had put more thought into it. I brought back a lot of bad habits in this speech because it was so casual. With each performance, I learn a little bit about myself and how I perform. For the next speech, I really need to choose a topic that has meaning to me. I need to pick something I can easily relate to and something I want to talk about. I feel like I almost picked a topic that was too simple. For the next speech, I should practice more and maybe even write a few bad habit reminders on my note card. I would give myself a B for this performance because I definitely could have done much better.

Ashley Ellison Stew 7 December 16, 2007 Improvisation Speech Self Assessment This speech was our first improvisation speech. Each student was given about 2-3 minutes to prepare after receiving his or her topic. We were allowed to write a few notes on a note card. The topics varied, some being harder than others. My topic was “why wouldn’t you want to be a millionaire?” Improvisation is a challenging task. It requires thinking off the top of one’s head and making all of one’s ideas flow easily and orderly. This speech did not go well for me. I found my topic extremely challenging and had a difficult time deciding on three points that I could expand on. My rate was a little fast and my volume a little soft. I had some nonverbal expression, but my enunciation was terrible! Because this was an improvisation speech, eye contact was inescapable. There were so many things that I could have done better but as soon as I stepped in front of the class, all of my bad habits followed me back up. After this performance I discovered that I am not good at organized improvisation. This means that it is difficult for me to come up with three good points on a topic I am extremely uncomfortable with. I would like to try again because now I know what to expect slightly more. I think that I deserve a B for this performance because it wasn’t too good.

A Call to Arms Speech Assessment The objective of this speech was to successfully inform the audience of a chosen issue and how it has affected people. The issue was supposed to somehow relate to me or other teenagers. The issue I chose was bullying. I have been bullied before and have also witnessed other teenagers be bullied. This speech was challenging because it was meant to touch and inform the audience, but a visual aid was also required. Unlike the last speech, this speech was done without a partner. My stance was stiff in the beginning and I could have had a lot more gestures. I was nervous and it showed through my performance. If I had been calmer, my performance would have seemed more relaxed and easy to listen to. My voice could have been a lot more expressive as well. Also, my enunciation was terrible. I should have been concentrating on enunciating. Because I was so nervous, my eye contact was strained. I looked at my note cards for long periods and also looked at the stopwatch numerous times. If I had practiced more and taken my time, my speech would have been better. Also, my main point about teasing did not have much to do with my speech and sounded unrehearsed. If I had expanded more on the effects of bullying and other stories then my speech would have had a bigger impact. There was not much I did well except for stay within the time limit and speak loudly. Although I looked nervous, I sounded as though I believed what I was saying. When I said that I wanted to stop bullying, I sounded believable. Also, my visual aid worked and I did not look at it at all. Since I put no words, the audience was not reading off of my power point; they were only looking at the pictures and hearing my words. Bullying was a good selection for this speech because it is a known issue, but most people do not know how serious it really is. Most of my classmates were not aware of how common bullying really is. It was a good choice for me because it is an issue that I care a lot about. Reading numerous stories and learning the facts opened my eyes to bullying that I see every day. This speech helped me to become more comfortable working with a visual aid by myself and also challenged me to give an informative, serious, and persuasive speech. I still need to improve my enunciation and after this speech need to work on relaxing so my speech does not feel tense or strained. I would give myself a B for this performance because it was informative and followed the guidelines, but the delivery could have been better.