Term 3 Persuasive Speeches

All Room 8 students are required to write and present a persuasive speech on a topic of their choosing this term.  Year 4 speeches should be 2 minutes in length and Year 5 speeches should be 2 minutes 30 seconds long.  The speech finals for Years 4 and 5 will take place on Wednesday 11th September.  This means Room 8 students will need to have their speeches ready to present to the class on Monday 2nd September.  This will give us plenty of time to hear all of the speeches and decide who will be representing our class for the Year 4 and 5 finals.

Your first task is to choose a topic that you feel strongly about and that you have an opinion on.  You then need to plan and write a speech that will try to persuade your audience to agree with you.  Some examples of persuasive topics are below, you can find many more ideas by doing an internet search for "persuasive speech topics".
 - Athletes should stay loyal to teams
 - Be true to yourself
 - Best movie ever
 - Buying products that are made in New Zealand
 - Competitive sports can teach us about life
 - Community service should be compulsory for children
 - Fast food should come with a warning label

Once you've chosen a topic, you then need to plan and write your speech.  We have already begun to look at how writers try to persuade an audience to agree with their opinion.
They do things such as:
 - Give positive reasons why their opinion should be agreed with, e.g. "If you walk to school you will get fit."
 - Give negative reasons why it would be bad to ignore their opinion, e.g. "If you drive to school the car will pollute the environment."
 - Ask questions, e.g. "Is it really so hard for you to walk a few hundred metres to school in the morning?"
 - State facts and use 'expert' knowledge, e.g. "Doctors tell us that we should each get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day."
 - Make 'calls to action' to your audience, e.g. "So if you want to get fit, help the environment and spend more time with your friends, then start walking to school."
 - Make comparisons
 - Use humour
 - Make shocking statements
 - Repeat their opinion several times in different ways

I have attached the marking rubrics that will be used to mark your speeches below.  Having a look at these before you begin, and while you are writing your speech, will help you to create an excellent persuasive speech.