It is time to begin our oral language program. Our plan is to assign a weekly topic. Attached you will find your child's assign-ed day and topics through December. Topics for these speak-ing events are directly related to you child's experience and should not require a great deal of preparation. However, it is your job to help them organize and practice. Notes on index cards, even in the form of pictures, are encouraged.

Our objective is to give each child experience in speaking before a group of peers. The children will also learn behavior expected of a good audience. We will work on using:

1. Organization ~ Have an introduction, content, ending

2. Good eye contact ~ Learn to scan the audience

3. Good projection ~ Talk to the back of the room

4. Acceptable grammar ~ Proper tenses, pronunciation

5. Good posture ~ Learn to stand without wiggling

The length of each presentation should be not less than a minute, but not more than three.

We encourage parents to not let the children know about "the fear of public speaking". The presentations will be more similar to a "show and tell" format rather than a staged mono-logue. We will have continuous dialogue regarding jitters, anxie-ty, nervous tummies, etc. We will video tape each presentation for weekly feedback.

Notes are to be encouraged, but only as reminders, and not text to be read to the audience (pictures work well).

Please post the weekly topic so that you and your child will be aware of the next week's assignment.

Thank you,
Pat Riley