Standard 1: Speaking and Listening

Students will speak and listen effectively in a variety of situations including, but not limited to, responses to reading and writing.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students choose content that best fits their audience.

• Students list possible audiences during prewriting.

• Students organize information for both formal and informal presentations.

• Students give a presentation with a group or on their own.

• Students organize supporting details with main ideas, from least to most important/ impactful or chronologically if appropriate.

• Students identify supporting evidence that would be most effective for the presentation’s main idea.

• Students supplement text with photographs, graphs, statistics, and other infographics in order to create effective presentations.

• Students organize information by creating an outline.

• Teachers model how to and provide opportunities for students to choose content that best fits their audience.
• Teachers design activities that have students writing for different audiences.
• Teachers model and provide opportunities for students to use proper dialogue style for various speaking purposes.
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback about content selection as it related to the audience.
• Teachers model how to and provide opportunities for students to organize information for both formal and informal presentations.

• Teachers guide students in synthesizing information, which is creating original insights, perspectives, and understanding by reflecting on text(s) and merging elements from text and their existing schema.

• Teachers guide students to organize information compiled through research by first walking them through activities such as sorting into categories and scaffold instruction to eventually creating outlines.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to give a presentation with a group or on their own.
• Provide students with a rubric that clearly outlines expectations
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback about presentations through the use of rubrics or conversations.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

• In determining appropriate content for specific audiences, students need to be aware of the purpose of the presentation. It conveys what the audience has to gain by listening to the presentation.

• The audience is the speaker’s targeted listener or listeners. Students need to understand the role of the audience in speaking, or they may view all school presentations as only for their teacher.

• Students should be aware of the difference between formal and informal presentations. During formal presentations, students are required to share information in an organized and structured manner. Informal presentations are sharing information as you would with a group of friends. This is often conducted in smaller settings with interactive dialogue and participation from the audience. Students will need to be informed of these two varying types of presentation and the purpose and appropriate times for each.

• Students need practice giving presentations. They could practice in small groups before presenting to the entire class.

• Shy, hesitant students will need extra coaching and encouragement. They can build their confidence by talking to smaller groups first for increasingly longer amounts of time. 

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.