Amy approached the podium and immediately began her speech, addressing us as if we were attending her parents' wedding. She began with a little snippet of a story, then paused to introduce her speech and let us know that it was for her parents on their wedding day, then went back to tell the story. Amy seemed calm throughout the whole speech and she didn't have any problems with nervous fidgeting or saying "um" too much.
"I'll give it a try"
her parents said many times.
Down-to-earth:
Chili's for a date,
engaged in the comfort of their home,
small wedding, and sensible.
In three short minutes
Its like I know them
Or it makes me want to.
Many times, her parents took a chance
It makes me wonder
Could I "give it a try"?
Amy started off with Journey lyrics, which effectively drew the audience's attention right away. Throughout her speech, Amy had a theme of "I'll give it a try". I think this was very effective and was a great use of repetition. There were moments of humor, like when her mom almost threw her dad's number away, or when there was the unknown man in the back of the chapel probably looking for free food. It helped that Amy smiled or chuckled slightly so that the audience knew it was a joke.I think that Amy did a really good job of portraying how her parents met in story-form without making it sound like she was just reading from a sheet of paper. There were a few moments when her voice got a little quieter and she said "um" once or twice, but it wasn't too distracting from the speech Amy had to take herself almost completely out of the speech because she wasn't born when any of the events she spoke of happened. Overall, I think she chose a difficult speech to make but she did it very well and effectively.
Alexander advocates for using a poetic or artistic response to evaluate student responses because it almost forces people to think outside of the box and be creative in their evaluations. He believes that performance is powerful and poetic responses are a good way to creatively portray responses to students. Poetic or artistic response not only effects how the person writes their evaluation but also how the person being evaluated receives their feedback. They can understand what the other person is not only thinking, but feeling too.
That is a very intuitive response and reaction to Amy's speech. I thought that this CPR perfectly described how Amy's speech was.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this awesome response, Norah! I think you brilliantly captured the tone and underlying message of my speech, especially in your poetic response. I appreciate the feedback as well, as it can be hard to recognize if we're saying "um," or if our voice gets quieter. Thanks again!
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