Public Speaking

Effective Teaching and Public Speaking
Crystal City Ward Relief Societies


WHAT YOU SAID
Challenges:
Fear
Hard to just be yourself
Afraid have nothing meaningful to say
Choosing what material to use and how much
Time management
Discussion management
(asking right questions, steering conversation)

Speaker/teacher traits that draw you in:
Personable
Great knowledge of subject
Sense of humor
Asks great questions
Uses personal examples (but not TMI!!)
Makes subject feel relevant to audience

Speaker/teacher traits that lose you:
Apologizes for not being prepared
Doesn’t seem really into the topic
Doesn’t convey sense of why topic is important now
Takes too long to get to the good stuff
Verbal or non-verbal ticks
Not good at discussion management

TIPS
It starts with the prep
· Who’s your audience?
· Manuals: they are guidelines, not scripts
· Let your brain spin on it and jot down thoughts before try to organize
· What gets you excited about this topic? Build from there…

Format your notes to present smoothly
· Avoid writing out if at all possible—if you have to, make it easy to read!
· Consider writing by hand, or at least marking notes by hand for easier accessibility

Know the topic well and feel passionate about it
· You want to feel confident enough to be flexible and lead discussion well
· Be personal—“I really love this passage bc…”
· Your goal: Emotional connection=action
· Don’t feel pressure to know all the answers!

Hit on key points and leave breathing room
· Outline talk/lesson with main points you want to make
· Fill out with good questions
· Let your lesson breathe to allow for time/discussion flexibility and guidance from the spirit

Humor: Just be you.
Not all words/ideas are created equal
· Use pacing, inflection, direct verbal cues to create emphasis (“here’s the point—“)

Discussion management
· Ask good questions that YOU would want to answer—give heads up for harder ones
· This is a conversation—learn together with class (expect to learn!)
· Use body language to encourage or discourage talking
· Respond to people’s comments—a little acknowledgment goes a long way
· Don’t panic if people don’t answer right away--Let it breathe --Toss out options, play devil’s advocate to jog thoughts