(4/2005) - It’s time. All the research, writing, rewriting, organizing, practicing and fretting are finished. The PowerPoint presentation is ready and loaded on your laptop, and the big screen has been set up behind you. You’re dressed up and your parents are sitting in the auditorium with the rest of the middle-school audience, waiting with their fingers crossed for you to begin. You’re nervous as you step to the wooden podium and adjust your note cards one last time. It’s time to give your eighth-grade speech.

The Speech has been a rite of passage for eighth graders for decades, one that most Lower School graduates readily remember. Speech length and manner of presentation have changed over the years, but the Speech’s purpose is still the same: to develop confidence and teach young people to speak clearly and persuasively on a topic they enjoy and have studied.

In this year’s eighth-grade class, Kyla, Ellen, Derek and Sean spoke about the value of organic foods, the place of the British monarchy in the 21^st century, affirmative action in college admissions and the merits of oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. They all said they had no trouble finding enough information to fill five to seven minutes, and all thought the speech project was easier and less frightening than they had expected.

“When I was younger I didn’t want to do it,” said Ellen, whose father, Richard ’79, had given his own eighth-grade speech and told his three children about it. “I wanted to skip seventh and eighth grades but my older sister told me it was a lot of fun to get ready for, if you choose a topic that you love,” Ellen continued. “She was right.”

Making the eighth-grade speech process easier and less frightening while teaching the students the basics of effective speech presentation is Margaret Zeigler’s goal. Zeigler, who teaches seventh-grade English, remembers students who were so frightened of the Speech that they felt unable to take part. So in 1994 she began assigning her seventh-grade students to make a short speech as a preliminary step before beginning the eighth-grade process. Now preparation for the big speech begins early in seventh grade.

“The speech program is now more guided with more emphasis on developing research, writing and presentation skills,” Ziegler said. Designed as a series of steps, the program follows a timeline as the students progress through the year. Shortly after starting seventh grade, each student draws a topic from a hat and gives a one-minute talk on that topic. The exercise helps students to get comfortable with standing and speaking before a group. Then each student makes a list of three topics he or she is interested in. A committee of three middle-school English teachers reviews the topics, screens out duplications or ideas used recently by other speakers, and decides which topic the student will use.

Then research begins. The students take about two weeks to delve into their topics, using the library and online resources. They learn how to write their first thesis and create a “statement poster.” Using posters help the students focus their arguments and show their supporting evidence so that their speeches become persuasive as well as informative.

Midway through seventh grade, the students “sprawl in the hall” as they spread out their note cards and figure out how to organize them. Then they draft, rewrite and practice with a stopwatch to make sure they are within the four-to-five minute time limit. “This teaches them how to write a good lead-in or ‘hook’ and a strong conclusion, to balance their argument and keep their audience in mind,” Zeigler said.

But organizing and writing a speech is only part of the process; presentation is the other major consideration. To help the students get used to giving a speech, Zeigler requires each one to give a one-minute summary to the class, which she videotapes. When she plays the tapes back, the students critique their classmates’ performances.

Sometimes watching yourself on tape is uncomfortable. “It was a little embarrassing to watch because Mrs. Zeigler points out all the flaws,” said Derek, “but she does it for everyone, and she tells you how to improve.”

By the end of April, the writing and practicing are finished, and the PowerPoint presentations are ready to go. Each student gives his or her speech in the Amato Auditorium to the class and the seventh-grade English teachers; classmates evaluate the speakers on content, creativity, visual aids and personal presence, while the English teachers give grades. Armed with all this feedback, the students are expected to take some time during the summer to do more research, increase their speech length to five to seven minutes and address any weaknesses in their presentations.

By the time the students, as eighth graders, give their final speeches, they (and their families) know them inside and out, backwards and forwards. In addition to making their speeches a little longer, students may use music, costumes and visual aids; eighth-grade English teacher Billie Kinney reviews their scripts and seventh-grade science teacher Hugh Hughes ’86 checks their PowerPoint presentations. The students also practice with Zeigler for one week before their big day.

In October, as Derek prepared to give his speech, his mother observed that he seemed nervous, but prepared. “This is a big day for him and the other students, and they take it very seriously,” she said. “But he is well organized and he knows what to do. He got a lot of good guidance from Mrs. Zeigler.”

After completing their speeches and accepting hugs and congratulations from their families, Sean, Kyla, Ellen and Derek said they felt happy and relieved. And they all expect they’ll remember their speeches for years to come.

“I’ll keep my notes in a box of school stuff that I think is important,” said Sean. “I spent many hours on my speech and rewrote the whole thing before giving it today. I thought it was a good experience.”

Kyla said that she, like many people, didn’t know much about organic foods before she chose that as her speech topic. But the more she learned about organic foods, the more interested she became, which made the process less stressful. “I thought it was harder to do the Speech in seventh grade than it was today. Today it was a lot easier. I just had to add some more facts to make it longer.”

Ellen began reworking her speech on the role of the British monarchy the previous July, spending a couple of days a week on the task and meeting with Zeigler to fine tune it. “I’ve been nervous my whole life about his speech because my dad went here and told me about it. I’m so happy I don’t have to give the Speech anymore.”

These days, as seventh-grade orators get ready to give their first formal speeches, they continue a practice that used to be commonplace in schools, gaining skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. This practice is one of the distinguishing aspects of a Wyoming Seminary education.