Saturday, November 30, 2013

Judge's Decision Extra Credit

Just a little more practice and a chance for extra credit.  Watch the judge's decision for the death penalty debate.  Write an evaluation similar like the one for the last blog post.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Judge's Decision

Last week we began debate, and we watched the middle school debate banning boxing.  While the kids were still young and some of their arguments not very good, I think it was good to see how a parliamentary debate flows, how points of order work, how heckling works and the speak slow enough they are easy it is easy to take notes.  While I will expect your own debates to be well thought out and mature. I think we can gain some insight into the world of debate by watching these students learn the basic. One reason I have chosen middle school debaters over high school or college, is that debaters tend to talk incredibly fast.  I think while introducing and learning to take notes it is easier to go with a little bit slower speaker, than the more advanced.  However, I encourage you to watch some college and high school debates on Youtube, some are quite good and you can learn a lot about style, argument and how debate works. You all have opinions on the students did on the debate, now you will listen to the judge tell the students how she thinks they did on the debate.  I think she makes a few good points.  I also would like to hear your feedback on what you think not about the topic, that is simply your personal opinion.
Your blog this week will be:
1. Watch the judge's decision and comments.
2. I want you to compare what the judge has to say with what you think about their arguments, refutation, presentation etc.
3. Write your blog telling me what you think about how the students debated compared with what the judge said, use your ideas from number two and write them down.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Eulogy Self Evaluation


Your Eulogy is in your student folder.  Take some time to watch it carefully.  After watching your speech, you need to comment on your speech in several areas. Be specific and thorough. You will not receive full credit for short/one-word answers. I am looking for true analysis and critical thinking.

1. What did you notice about your use of gestures (Did you use them? Did you use enough?
Were they distracting? Did they match what you were saying? Were you needlessly
fidgeting?)?
2. What did you notice about your voice (i.e. volume, tone/vocal variety, rate, etc.)?
3. How did you feel about the content of your speech (Was it interesting? Did it make sense?
Etc.)?
4. What were the strengths of this speech?
5. What were the weaknesses of this speech?
6. What will you work to improve for next time? Here you may also express any final overall
impressions of your speech that you did not discuss in the previous questions. If you wish to
state how successful you were, this is the place to do it.
7. How well did you thank or pay tribute in your speech?

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Self Evaluation of Special Occasion Speech


Your Special Occasion Speech is in your student folder.  Take some time to watch it carefully.  After watching your speech, you need to comment on your speech in several areas. Be specific and thorough. You will not receive full credit for short/one-word answers. I am looking for true analysis and critical thinking.

1. What did you notice about your use of gestures (Did you use them? Did you use enough?
Were they distracting? Did they match what you were saying? Were you needlessly
fidgeting?)?
2. What did you notice about your voice (i.e. volume, tone/vocal variety, rate, etc.)?
3. How did you feel about the content of your speech (Was it interesting? Did it make sense?
Etc.)?
4. What were the strengths of this speech?
5. What were the weaknesses of this speech?
6. What will you work to improve for next time? Here you may also express any final overall
impressions of your speech that you did not discuss in the previous questions. If you wish to
state how successful you were, this is the place to do it.
7. How well did you thank or pay tribute in your speech?

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Self-Evaluation of Recorded Speech


After watching your speech, you need to comment on your speech in several areas. Be specific and thorough. You will not receive full credit for short/one-word answers. I am looking for true analysis and critical thinking.

1. What did you notice about your use of gestures (Did you use them? Did you use enough?
Were they distracting? Did they match what you were saying? Were you needlessly
fidgeting?)?
2. What did you notice about your voice (i.e. volume, tone/vocal variety, rate, etc.)?
3. How did you feel about the content of your speech (Was it interesting? Did it make sense?
Etc.)?
4. What were the strengths of this speech?
5. What were the weaknesses of this speech?
6. What will you work to improve for next time? Here you may also express any final overall
impressions of your speech that you did not discuss in the previous questions. If you wish to
state how successful you were, this is the place to do it.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Braveheart Freedom Speech



Watch the speech. Then in a formal blog post summarize the speaker's purpose and then identify three rhetorical techniques and their intended effect on the audience. Discuss how well their chosen techniques worked or what he could do better.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Advertisement Analysis

For this week’s blog you will choose an advertisement either print or television.  You will need to place the advertisement on your blog.  Then you will write your post answering the questions in an essay format. This should be one of the advertisements that you analyzed on the Advertisement Analysis Worksheet.


1. How does the advertisement attempt to get your attention?
2. What is it an advertisement trying to sell? (Note- This should include the product and anything else they are trying to sell: lifestyle, image, fun, newest, best, etc)
3.  Who is the target audience or demographics for this product? Explain their age, ethnicity, class, profession, interests etc.
4.  What is the “text” of the message? What we actually see and/or hear: written or spoken words, photos, drawings, logos, design, music, sounds etc.)
5. What propaganda techniques were used? Explain their usage.
6.  How does the advertisement try to convince you buy  this product. Does it use pathos, logos, ethos? Explain.
a. How does the message make you feel?
b. How doe the images reinforce this/these feelings?
c.  How does the music/ sounds reinforce this/these feelings?
d.   Is the name of the product significant? Explain.
9. What information do you think has been left out of this advertisement? Why?
10.  Rate this advertisement on its effectiveness- does it catch and keep your attention? If you were in the market for this type of product, would you purchase it from this company?Why or why not?
11.  What would you change about this ad?
12. Where was this ad used? Magazine? TV? Internet? Explain the reasoning the manufacturer probably chose this venue.
13.  Assess how ethical is this advertisement.