Graduation Speech Assignment

You are 20 weeks away from completing 13 years of education – time to celebrate! It is a natural time for reflection and introspection. Your assignment is to share those thoughts with your classmates in a farewell inspirational speech.

Your speech should :

- have a TITLE that reflects the THEME of your speech

-TWO typed copies of your outline (This should be very detailed, and pretty much include everything in your speech – I’ll be following along to make sure you don’t deviate too much.)

-have an attention-grabbing introduction

-keep in mind your audience (but still be school appropriate!)

-have a central inspirational theme (but be organized)

-have an anecdotal stories to prove your point (theme)

-have a definitive conclusion so the speech feels ended

-be ORIGINAL!!!!

-be 2-3 minutes long (you will be docked 1 point for every 30 seconds under or over the time allotted)

-be given in a clear voice, at a good speed

-have lots of eye contact and not sound like you’re ‘reading’

-have natural movements (not stiff)

Rhetorical Devices – Label them in your speech, then on a separate piece of paper, explain: why you used the technique/device AND what you hoped it would accomplish. MUST HAVE TWO!

Example:

1. I used anaphora when I said, “that’s the person you’re trying to impress, that’s the person you will always have to live with.” It is anaphora because I repeated the phrases “that’s the person…”. I hope people would see the importance of living up to their own expectations by repeatedly pointing out it is themselves they need to worry about impressing.

Have fun with this assignment, and best wishes for your success! Please keep your speeches uplifting, positive, respectful and interesting. You are required to show evidence of effort and preparation.

** Your overall speech must have some sort of message (turn failure into triumph, try something different, always do your best) – preferably, one that you have personally lived. Otherwise, why would we take your advice?

SAMPLE OUTLINES:

“Best tests can’t be graded”

I.Introduction

  1. how long we’ve been in school
  2. approx. 2,250 days
  3. roughly 15,187 hours
  4. what have we learned in school
  5. basics – arithmetic, history, science
  6. extras – music, art, sports
  7. most important things learned
  8. survived Common Core – all about testing
  9. have past 2,250 days been just about that – no
  10. most important stuff – things NOT tested

II.Personal experience

  1. Experience many of you had
  2. Last honors class – paper due
  3. Waited until last minute – usual M.O.
  4. Produced something generally acceptable – not my standards
  5. Grade received was bringing my perfect grade to a B
  6. NOT ACCEPTABLE – for me
  7. OK if I had tried, but I had not
  8. Opportunity to redo – took it
  9. Stayed up all night (again – took me a while the first time) and re-wrote paper
  10. Got an A – mattered to nobody except me
  11. Learned lesson
  12. First time pride came into play
  13. Intrinsically motivated
  14. Achievement meant nothing to friends (already checked out), parents (still had good grade, teachers (understood senioritis), Frontier (already going to give me my diploma) – mattered to ME
  15. Remembered always – don’t want to feel that way again
  16. Was a lesson I didn’t know I needed – most important lesson of all

III.Final message

  1. Encourage everyone – find your inner motivation
  2. Not for grades, impressing your friends, sucking up to teachers
  3. Next time inclined to slack – look in a mirror
  4. Know - that’s the person you’re trying to impress, that’s who you will always have to live with
  5. Nice to be able to look the reflection in the eye and know that did your best
  6. if you can do that – doing your best - all the other ‘lessons’ will fall into place
  7. may have taken 2,250 days to learn it– but learned that lesson well
  8. too bad THAT wasn’t on a test – I would’ve aced it

“Failure is OK”

  1. Introduction
  2. First day – feelings
  3. Nervous, scared
  4. Schools (and people!) keep getting bigger
  5. 6 ft tall seniors and football players
  6. Lunchroom is bigger – look for any friends?
  7. Coming up on last day – feelings
  8. Nervous, scared
  9. Schools (or life) keep getting bigger
  10. Lunchroom time almost over – still worry about if you have anyone to eat your chips with
  11. Decisions have to be made – fear of failure
  12. Failure – learning to deal with it – important lesson
  1. Personal experience
  2. Senior – musicals and plays four years
  3. Loved director – family friend
  4. Had some talent singing and acting – leads in plays, All-County awards
  5. Waited for lead part senior year production of Annie
  6. Figured – had earned it
  7. wanted particular part
  8. good audition, really good
  9. callbacks – killed them
  10. pretty positive getting the part
  11. Surprise!
  12. Cast list went up – wanted to cry right there in the hallway
  13. Did not get it
  14. New girl who “just wanted to try out” the musical go it
  15. Yes, better singer – yes, better actor
  16. Still angry, hurt, wanted to quit, embarrassed
  17. dealing with it
  18. eventually saw better for the show
  19. kicked BUTT part I had
  20. learned - hard work and ‘deserving’ something does not make it so
  21. people are going to be better than you – better at math, faster runners, better singers
  22. can only do YOUR best, and find satisfaction with that
  23. can’t compare yourself to others
  1. Final message
  2. Life isn’t fair – how you respond to it that counts
  3. Always something to be nervous about
  4. New job
  5. New relationship
  6. New class
  7. hope I fail at lots of things yet to come – it means I’m trying new things and putting myself out there
  8. don’t get me wrong – nice to succeed, too
  9. sometimes, the win is in the attempt
  10. can only do the best you can do with the talents you have and can acquire
  11. after that – chips fall where they may