Nick

9/22/09 p.8 OR #2 Poetry Out Loud For my second oral interpretation, I decided to recite //What I Would Do// by Marc Petersen. This poem interested me because when I first read the poem, I felt the anger that the poet tried to convey and I wanted to imitate it to the class. I wanted to do better than my previous performance so I tried to improve my weaknesses however, during my presentation, I didn’t do as well as I wanted to. The areas such as eye contact and hand motions improved from my last performance, but the fluency of my words could have been better. My delivery sounded confident at some times when I looked up at the audience but when I stuttered, I sounded like I wasn’t that well prepared. I memorized my introduction pretty well, but the one factor I could have changed was my feet. I thought that my hook was decent since I made some people giggle when I told them my brother rubbed his yogurt filled hair all over the white carpet. However, I took small steps back and forth which didn’t look practiced. Even thought the steps I took where small, it can get distracting sometimes when making a presentation. At the beginning of my poem, I tried to look up at the audience as much as I could, but I stuttered and miss said a word. When I was suppose to say “In all the door hinges in our house,” I forgot my line and instead said, “In all the door hinges in the wall.” Besides the small steps during my introduction, and my stuttering at times, I thought my performance was pretty good. When I was practicing my poem, I saw some lines that I could emphasize to make people like and some lines that I needed to practice because of the wording. The line, “and my hickory-handle hammer” I thought that the poet tried to put in a tongue twister. That one line was the hardest for me to get use to because of the weird coincident that the handle of the hammer was hickory. Another line that I practiced a bit was the lines that included turning up the volume of the stereo. Those lines were my favorite since I could raise my voice, which I thought was fun. This selection for my second oral interpretation was an excellent choice because I could express anger easier than most of the other moods I saw in other poems. The poet seemed like he was insane because he was going to eventually ruin his whole house, his car, motorcycle and his relationship with his wife all at the same time. When I researched that he writes poetry to clarify his love for many aspects of his life, like his cat and wife, this poem seemed very promising if his wife cheated on him. However, I didn’t feel disturbed that he was going to destroy all of his belongings and saw this poem as a chance to feel comfortable imitating his emotions. I learned that I work well with selections that have expressive moods and that I can imitate most of them very well with some practice. The areas that I know will definitely be improved will be my poise and my stuttering. If I can improve those areas, then I can look and sound more confident which will also improve my delivery. By getting to understand the poem better, I was able to surpass obstacles such as eye contact which was a problem last oral interpretation. I was also able to make out more hand motions and facial expressions. I know that I should get to know and connect with the material more, and then my performance will be heightened. The oral interpretation revealed aspects that I thought wouldn’t be a problem with me but should be taken into consideration the next time. The other factors such as voice fluctuation and hand motions were pleasing to me since I felt that they fit into the poem. The grade I would give myself would be an A- because of the improvement that I made from the last oral interpretation.

10/17/09 p.8 OI 3 Self Assessment For my third oral interpretation, I choose to perform a poem that I wrote. The poem had a different kind of mood than what I usually feel strong with. I tried to present a poem with a fearful mood compared to the vengeful mood that was in my previous performance. The fearful mood affected my performance through many factors including my tone and expressions. This new approach made me realize new aspects that I am strong at such as new hand and body motion, but also to keep my eyes on the audience. Trying to present a different mood made me also change facial expressions and tones in my voice. I had to change from being full of energy to being anxious. During the performance, I tried to look up to keep my classmates interested; looking up constantly after reading my manuscript to keep track of where I was. However, trying to concentrate on following the planned motions and fluctuation of my voice, I overlooked my eye contact. My eyes were stationed onto the camera whenever I looked up, instead of looking at my classmates. Besides my eye contact and a couple of smiles in my presentation, I thought my delivery went pretty well. The pauses I had in between stanzas were appropriate to show a change in thought or feeling. Since the mood is more low leveled energy, I tried not to bring up my volume so much. The only time I planned to bring up the volume of my voice was the climatic lines in which I wanted emphasis. Another strong aspect of my performance was the visual parts. During certain parts of my poem, such as “lifting slightly off the dirt,” I could physically show everyone by tippy toeing. This presentation affects me in a couple of ways such as how many different expressions there are when I change moods. In prior oral interpretations I saw a narrow range of expressions I could make. The useful ones such as raising my voice suddenly brought a lot of attention to my performance. Once experiencing a new kind of interpretation, I now have a broader range of approaches. Instead of being lively to get audiences to notice my performance, I could bring energy down but still have an impressive delivery. The preparation is probably most affects my delivery because I have to look at the audience as well as not laugh during the performance. Laughing or making unplanned pauses indicates that I didn’t expect it.

The fearful mood of my presentation can be noticed in some parts of it. However, I could have made some adjustments to make the interpretation totally effective. There are still some obstacles that I have to prepare more such as my eye contact. I can also build on my already strong features so that I won’t have a problem with it in the future. Based on my overall delivery, including my expressions, tone, and motions I used, I would give myself an A-.

Hi ms stew, here is my analysis
 * 1) My passage takes place in a different world called Camazotz. This is unknown to the characters that I am going to interpret so it will affect my performance as being scared but trying to be brave.
 * 2) When isn’t really addressed in my passage so it won’t be a factor in my presentation.
 * 3) The characters are trying to find Meg’s long lost father. They meet a red eyed guy that intimidates all three of them. The red eyed guy tries to hypnotize them, but only succeeds in hypnotizing the smartest of the three, Charles Wallace.
 * 4) The narrator is a neutral person. The narrator is like telling a story like in Lord of the Rings. The narrator knows everything that happens already so there isn’t anything hiding from them; there isn’t any secrets that will come up that they don’t know
 * 5) The mood in my selection is scary. The characters are going into an unknown place and where everything is dull. They don’t know what will happen. A red eyed guy just shows up and hypnotizes the smartest and bravest guy, which makes the other two even more scared.
 * 6) The climatic lines in my selection is when Charles Wallace takes the challenge from the red eye guy and as time goes by as they are staring at each other, Charles’ eyes become smaller and smaller. Soon he gets spellbound and Meg and Calvin get worried.
 * 7) The message in my story is to stay together and that you have to be brave when times are tough. When you are in an unknown place, the best thing to do is to stay strong and you will come out fine.
 * 8) There is none.

10/23/09 p.8 OI 4 SA For my fourth oral interpretation I decided to pick an excerpt from //A Wrinkle in Time// by Madeleine L’Engle. This passage caught my attention because of the tension that I felt as I read it and I thought that it would be fun to try to interpret it. After watching my performance again, I saw a couple of strong points such as body movement, rate of voice, and a change in character. However, there were some parts such as the beginning and the end which could have been practiced more. From watching the beginning of my performance, I could have increased my volume in my introduction. My introduction was pretty soft and that could be a problem if people don’t understand the situation that I’m trying to set up. I could also work on memorizing my introduction better so that I don’t have any pauses in my sentences. I would be able to know what I am supposed to say and say it with more confidence, which could also help my volume. Toward the end of the performance, when I was getting into the climatic lines, I noticed that I was trying to read my manuscript more than I was trying to look up at the audience. Starting the climatic lines, I was strong however, as I got more into it, I started looking down at my manuscript. The climatic lines were the main lines of my manuscript that I wanted to focus on. The lines were talking about Charles Wallace’s eyes becoming dilated more and more and then becoming hypnotized. I needed to look up at the audience to show them that the climatic lines were about the eyes of my character. If I had that perfected, my ending would have been better. As for the strong aspects of my performance, I observed that my body motion was great. I turned my torso more, learning from my first oral interpretation. That was key because there was a few characters that I presented and I didn’t want to confuse the audience with whose talking. In trying to distinguish who was talking, I tried to change my voice. For the man with red eyes, I tried to act very calm and intimidating. Meg was the shy girl, however she wanted her father, so I tried to act brave, but not forget about her fears. Charles Wallace was the brainy character, so I tried to act a little nerdy. As for my rate of voice, I thought that I varied it quite well. When talking as the guy in the red eyes, I slowed down the rate because he wasn’t afraid of anything. However, with Meg, she was anxious, so I sped up some parts. For the climatic lines, I sped up a lot to try to emphasis that Charles Wallace was losing control and becoming hypnotized. My OI 4 was a pretty fun one to interpret because of the whole idea of intimidation and trying to stay together as “One Team.” I thought that my performance was one of my better ones so I would give myself an A- considering my 3 second over the time limit.

11/1/09 p.8 OI 5 SA My fifth oral presentation was a little different from the interpretations that we did for the four previous presentations. Instead of finding a passage and just interpreting that, we had to make up a process along with interpreting it. I thought of a couple topics that would be extremely tough to tell the process for as well as interpret until I came across a very unique topic which I felt comfortable with; how to survive a Killer Bee Attack. This showed lots of my strengths and very few flaws. Out of all of the orals presentations that I did, I think that this one was my best of all. While I was watching my performance, I noticed that for some parts I hesitated to think of the next step in my presentation. I was uncertain with some lines which made me think twice with what I was going to say. The result was hesitant lines. I also think that I should keep a straight face on while I am presenting because my momentum slows down when I start to smile when people start laughing. If I keep a straight face on while everyone else is laughing, I won’t get caught up in the moment and make my delivery seem more professional. On the bright side, I loved my topic which made my performance a little easy and better presented than usual. My introduction had a variety of positive aspects such as change in volume and speed, hand motion, body movement, eye contact, and a “How will I survive this” mood. I started off slow with a normal talking voice and then I wanted to explode to get everyone’s attention. I am pretty sure that everyone got my topic after my introduction leading into the body of my presentation. As far as eye contact goes, I think that, that part of everyone’s performance was good because we didn’t have a manuscript so we were forced to look at the audience. The bulk of the performance included a lot of moving around and hand motions because I was showing how to survive a killer bee attack. I think that dodging the killer bees part was my favorite since I was able to add in some side comments not relating to the performance, but enhanced it. As an overall view of the presentation, I thought that my performance was really good. I think that I can work on remembering what to say next more, but the whole killer bees presentation was my best so far. I would have to give myself an A.

11/9/09 p.8 Speech 6 SA Out of all of the oral presentations that I gave, this wasn’t one of my strong confident speeches because of a number of reasons. I couldn’t emphasis lines that much because this was part of my own life. When I present other material, I can emphasis a lot and make the presentation more entertaining. This speech, I had many hesitations which could have been left out, and a not enough voice fluctuation. First of all my inspirational speech was pretty choppy. I had several parts where I was hesitant. I could work on the smoothness of my lines. By practicing what I’m going to say more, I could strengthen the flow of my speech. It won’t sound choppy like how it sounded when I presented on November 9, 2009. To add to the reasons for my pauses, my confidence level wasn’t as high as before. I had fun with the presentations before because I was able to make people entertained, but this one I knew wasn’t going to be funny which brought my confidence down. I tried to be as serious as possible because that’s what my context was supposed to be. I couldn’t make the performance a joke because it wouldn’t have fit in. The last part of my presentation and delivery that I could have focused on more was my hand motions. I liked that I tried to put up hand motions, but I could have done more to make the delivery stronger. However, I thought that during my related text, I made some very good points and my delivery for that part of my speech was pretty good. I liked the text from Winston Churchill because I couldn’t think I what to say next and I was able to work on my voice changing and my hand motions. During the time I was reciting the Winston Churchill speech I thought that I slowed down in the right spots and I emphasized the right areas. I tried to speak like Winston Churchill so I tried to present it in a manly voice that wants to boost the morale of Britain’s spirits. Even though my inspirational part of my speech wasn’t as strong as my previous oral presentations, I thought that my context was pretty good along with my interpretation of Winston Churchill. I had good voice fluctuation and hand motions. These points, made up for the points that I couldn’t make up during the part that I was trying to say about my mother’s determination. By keeping the speech serious, I thought that the context was right on the spot. I could focus a lot on my delivery when I started my reciting of Winston Churchill because the words were written our right in front of me. I would give myself a grade between a B+ and A- considering my lack of certain delivery points, but the compensation of a strong interpretation of Winston Churchill and the context of my speech.

12/6/09 p.8 SA culture speech In this self assessment, I will go over the positive and weak aspects of my “Video Gaming” culture presentation. This presentation wasn’t as strong as my best performances, but there were some highlights such as the part where I used my body and hands. This speech also helped me see very important areas in which I need to work on for upcoming presentations. While I was watching my speech, I noticed that my voice wasn’t as powerful as the speeches and oral presentations I had in previous performances. I was able to get people’s attention for some parts such as the “Pwnage” section of the speech. However, the delivery of the while presentation could have had more emphasis than what I presented. The volume was a big factor for the first half of my presentation. I could hear people moving their bags or chairs and that isn’t a good thing when you want people to pay attention to your topic. The second half got a little more volume because I got more comfortable with the little applauses, but there was still room for more volume. Besides the voice tribulations, another area in which I saw could have been more prepared was the fluency of my sentences. I saw that for a couple of parts, I hesitated, or I changed some words I said in the middle of the sentence. I have to practice with sentences that are strong enough to not forget, make me confident and that are on the point. On the positive side of the speech, I saw that my hand gestures varied, my pointing to the power point helped emphasis a couple of visuals, rate of my words was stable and my transitions were noticeable. The organization of the speech was pretty straight forward and since I added transition words such as “Lets start off with…” or “On to the…” I didn’t get the parts of my speech mixed up. The hand gestures, I think were one of the strongest areas of my speech because I saw many other speeches after mine, I noticed that some of my classmates didn’t move around as much or not at all which made the presentation seem less interesting. By making hand gestures or body gestures, the audience could easily see what I was trying to point out such as the sitting positions. With better practicing such as in front of the mirror or actually recording myself with a video camera, I can improve these areas that I felt should have been strong because they are naturally with me. I think that the delivery of my speech lacked in the voice area, but was compensated with the content that many of my classmates, especially the guys, could relate to. This speech helped me realize that the strong areas of my abilities such as my voice, still needs to be practiced for the best results. If I were to give myself a grade, I would give a B+ to an A-.

12/16/09 p.8 Impromptu SA In this self assessment, I will address the points of my impromptu speech that were challenging for me as well as the ones that I thought were strong. Organization was an enormous factor that was troubling me. Since the organization of my speech wasn’t strong and clear, the formations of sentences and supporting details were a bit off. I see many of my abilities to “think on the spot” need work to improve my skills to talk in everyday life. The major problem that I think needed improvement was the organization of my thoughts to make the content of my subject clear. I had noticeable introduction and conclusion, but there were parts of my speech that didn’t seem to flow like the introduction into the body. Quick thinking is an ability that I need to work on so that I can lay out a rough outline of my speech and then I can look over quickly for improvements or faults. When I am trying to give supporting details, I should think of details that are clear in my head so that when I say I’m going to give an example, I actually do; there was a part where I said “like this one part…” and then I tried to think of a scene but it just didn’t pop into my head. Other parts, I wasn’t sure what happened in the scene exactly, so I hesitated, when I should have just faked some of the points to show my confidence. I couldn’t even make the fluency of my supporting details to flow and then I tried to cover it up with side comments such as “its just so funny.” I didn’t find a lot of challenges for the delivery, except for the “pre-speech” stretch in the beginning and the small fidgeting with my fingers. On a positive note, I had a few hand motions and body movement as well as a change in my voice when trying to reenact the scene in the movie. I thought that the delivery part of my performance was a lot stronger than the structure and organization of the speech. Since there wasn’t much I could look at, my eye contact stayed the same as all the other speeches however, my hands became free to do whatever they wanted. Though the organization needed help, I saw that I made the basic parts of speech, I answered the question given, gave supporting details and had an introduction, body and conclusion. My goal was to make people laugh and enjoy my speech so that I could have fun with this impromptu speech, though many parts I failed. I would have to give myself between a B+ and an A-.

12/30/09 p.8 Speech and Debate Observation On Saturday 19, 2009 at Mckinely High School, I observed two different types of speeches. The first type I watched was impromptu which I had performed before the winter break started. The next type I watched was duo interpretation which I performed in the first quarter of school. I enjoyed watching both types of speeches because of the skills I saw the participants had been similar to what was expected in the English 9 oral communication speeches. From watching these speeches, I learned that many aspects of my speeches could improve such as movement, volume, rate, and hand motions. For the impromptu speeches, there were topics that the speakers picked right before they had to perform and had only a little time to prepare. There were two adult judges and one time keeper. Before any of the speakers begin their speech, they give their topic to one of the judges, write their topic on the board behind them and ask the time keeper if they are ready. The impromptu speeches that I watched, the topics were all about different famous people. I felt that the topics were extremely difficult because most of the topics I never even heard their name before. Most of the speakers had great delivery and structure of their speech, however, there was only one impromptu speaker that I felt wasn’t ready because she kept on repeating the same point over and over. On the other hand, the stronger speakers had several points. There wasn’t much to be disappointed from the impromptu speeches because all of them presented a speech way better than what I would have done if I was given their topic. For the duo interpretation, the topics were chosen before the day of performance and they had a lot of time to rehearse their performance. I thought that the duo interpretations were much more interesting than the impromptu speeches because of the liveliness of the performers and the text that they picked, matched them pretty well. The older performers presented interpretations of more serious topics such as relationships and the younger performers presented interpretations of more comical such as super heroes. I was really impressed that all of the interpretations seemed like the speakers were actually telling a story because they memorized the text. I liked one of the performances titled “Major Marvelous” presented by two young looking boys. This duo interpretation wasn’t the most professional, but I saw many delivery aspects such as volume change, eye contact, rate of voice, and great hand motions. The performance seemed like a play because the dialogue was perfect. There were no disappointments because everyone fell into their character and it seemed like the presenters practiced a lot. From the speeches that I observed on Saturday 19, 2009, I learned quite a few things that I could work on to make my upcoming speeches a lot better. After watching this event, I am eager to employ these skills that had been right in front of me, however unused. The speakers from both impromptu and duo interpretations used a lot of creativity which could help lot in my speeches. I could focus all of my new speeches around my creativity and then I would also have fun performing my speeches.

4/18/10 p.8 SA of Health Care Speech  In this self assessment, I will assess my presentation of health care. My presentation was not as strong as my previous presentations. The health care topic was a difficult topic to choose and accumulate information on which was one of the prime reasons why I needed to know the health care system and its issue concerning the U.S extremely well. The delivery of my presentation was usual compared to my preparation which seemed that it needed to be worked on. The biggest obstacle I encountered was the timing of my speech. By being more familiar and configuring my speech a little more before hand, I can plan on my last speech of the year to be the best one.  I had a couple of weak points of my speech such as sentence fluency however for the most of my delivery, I thought several speech tools where used. There were a couple of parts of my speech that I stumbled over. I knew my topic well enough however I should have practiced more to have the topic so well in my head that I can talk without any second thoughts. In the beginning, I had smiles on my face which are not expected while in a speech that is suppose to inform students and others about a serious national issue. By smiling I am expressing that the topic isn’t a big deal or that people shouldn’t care about it. I tried to engage the audience by changing the volume and speed of my voice. I also moved around the power point. Eye contact was another factor that I thought enhanced my performance. Knowing my topic well enough to take glimpses at my note card helped me to present the information about health care instead of reading information off from a power point.  From this speech alone, I learned quite a few aspects about speech presentations which will help my future speeches as well as my communications later on in life. I can’t be side tracked when I am presenting or trying to work on something. By looking up ahead is a trick that will help my eye contact as well as keep my mind on the topic. I should also practice over and over with a timer next to me so that I can configure my speech so that the time will not be an issue for my next speech. Lastly, I need to have more detail in my speech. I researched so much and gathered together several informative sources however, used the general parts except the part of the health care bill.  For the future of my speech presentations, I will promise to stick to a timer so that time will never have to be thought over. I need to be able to remember to stay on topic and not get side tracked and stumble of lines. As far as my voice and content, I can’t let those drop and keep them strong so that they won’t fall behind while other speech aspects improve. Considering that I saw several speech tools being used however stalling in the end I would give myself a B.