Public Speaking
A series of seminars designed to equip talented students with the stylistic techniques needed to master the art of public address and presentation.
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Age Groups
This program is offered to students in grades 6-12.
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Sessions
This program features 12 sessions, each at a length of 2 hours.
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Format
This program is offered solely as private mentorship with in-person and online lessons.
Program Overview
When do you think your child might need to speak publicly? Perhaps it’s at a convention hall as an established entrepreneur, or in the courtroom as a talented lawyer. It seems like a specialty skill reserved for entertainers and titans of lucrative industry, but public speaking happens anywhere and everywhere. You’ll find it in Zoom meetings and debates, or at weddings and even your family reunion; beyond the stage, it is an unimaginably powerful and practical life skill. To many, it’s anxiety-inducing and best avoided at all costs, but for ambitious and talented individuals, the ability to speak in front of crowds, address boardrooms, and take the lead in meetings is an absolute necessity.
Articula’s private mentorship in Public Speaking is an intensive 12-week program designed to develop and refine individual students’ ability to captivate crowds through dynamism, charisma, and articulacy. Beginning with our customary seminar on empathy, students will first learn to identify their audience and play to their expectations and needs in a given context. They will then begin to master stage dynamics and presence management with an understanding of non-verbal communication (body language), voice modulation, and anxiety regulation. With these stylistic foundations in place, students will then move on to the developmental side of public speaking with seminars on topical selection, structure, visual aids, and data presentation. The final third of the program covers the advanced public speaking techniques of audience interaction, storytelling, impromptu speaking, and more.
While we’re proud of our professional and comprehensive program structure and learning methodologies, students benefit most from a renewed sense of confidence and self-assuredness. Public speaking, while incredibly useful across occupational contexts, is above all a catalyst for personal development. It’s an externalization of one’s identity. It’s the power to captivate and persuade en masse. It’s what makes leaders out of ordinary citizens. It’s a life skill that can set you apart in unimaginable ways.
Experiential Learning Policy
Despite that our programs are professionally designed, conceptually comprehensive, and expertly delivered by experienced instructors, interpersonal skill development isn’t complete without extensive practice opportunities and robust feedback procedures. Articula proudly prioritizes the participative demonstration of program materials through activities as well as stipulated standards for interactivity between instructors and participants. Feedback criteria are comprehensive and vary with lesson content and corresponding learning objectives. Students are provided with instructor-issued feedback forms for review and further independent development. Parents are welcome to request further consultation with instructors as to a student’s progress in any one of our programs.
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The program’s introductory session features Articula’s customary lesson on empathy, with adaptations for the public speaking context. In discovering the process of perspective-taking and situational re-framing from alternate viewpoints, students will learn to gauge their audience’s expectations as well as consider their interests and values. Doing so will heighten the exactitude with which they select topics, format information, manage their presence, and interact with audience members. Seeing that people differ immeasurably and thus need to be understood by speakers, empathy is at the heart of any communicational pursuit.
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Session two features a comprehensive discussion and demonstration of best practices in body language, also referred to as non-verbal communication. Students will discover the practical use of body language in extending their physical presence (taking up more space), maintaining audience engagement, and using visual emphasis to underscore ideas of importance. Our head-to-toe approach ensures that, from posturing to eye contact and gesticulation, students develop a comprehensive and personalized approach to body language. Ultimately, ninety-three percent of perceptible communication is non-verbal in nature.
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Session three features a comprehensive discussion and demonstration of best practices in voice modulation. Students will discover the practical use of voice modulation in bolstering their charisma, maintaining audience engagement, setting the right tone, and stylistically communicating subtextual meaning through verbally underscoring ideas of importance. Our use of a vocal toolkit ensures that, from intonation to projection and pace, students develop a comprehensive and personalized approach to making the most out of their voice. The voice is much like an instrument, and must be mastered through methodology like any other.
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Session four features a comprehensive discussion of the source of stage anxiety as well as how to overcome and mitigate it. Students will discover that the feeling of trepidation and nervousness they commonly experience when addressing others is a natural instinct rather than a rational response; our fear of public speaking ultimately results from the unconscious amplification of unnecessary negative thoughts. This lesson outlines a useful set of techniques to calm invasive and superficial anxiety-induced psychophysiological reactions to presenting in front of crowds small and large.
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Session five features a comprehensive discussion and practical hands-on process of selecting and developing a suitable speech or presentation topic. Students will first discover what makes speeches concrete, credible, and persuasive to audience members. Then, using a topic selection and planning framework, students will identify and begin to develop a captivating and informative speech or presentation for their upcoming class demonstration. Speech topics at the intersection of personal expertise, passion, and notability make for incredible and memorable performances.
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Session six is an extension of seminar five, wherein the structure of persuasive speeches and presentations is discussed and demonstrated. Students will first discover a curated variety of commonly-used structures that vary with the overarching objective and topic of a speech. Then, with continued use of our planning framework, students will begin to develop a comprehensive skeletal blueprint for their approaching class demonstration, complete with hooks, argumentation structures, and other important aspects. Students can expect extensive personalized feedback from our instructors in crafting an excellent speech or presentation.