Eighth Grade Declamations

List of 6 items.

• Why is this program a focus in eighth grade?

  As a school, we are keenly aware of the importance of communication and public speaking when preparing students for their futures in our global community. We communicate most successfully when we spend as much or more time listening to understand others as we do speaking. As eighth grade teachers, we are sensitive to the growing self-understanding and awareness that 13- and 14-year-olds experience daily. Their stories are actively being written with the pens of experience and action, and revised not with AI, but through reflection and understanding. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou wrote “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Eighth grade is the ideal time to seize the opportunity to tell one’s story and celebrate what realizations and lessons one has learned. We know young orators might feel self-conscious when speaking to peers and their families. So we infuse the program with speaking and presenting skills that build confidence and poise. Students progress through a rigorous content-development process that teaches the elements for a successful oral presentation: using one’s voice to blend language and storytelling techniques with insight and reflection to engage their audience.

• What is most rewarding about Declamations?

  Students dig deep to find a lesson or value that became illuminated by the light of a meaningful experience. Students work diligently to conceive, write, and present stories that show how reflective they are capable of being and how certain they are about a guiding principle of their lives. The Declamations present a chrysalis moment, one in which you can see a young student become someone more radiant, more enlightened, more aware of their humanity than they have ever been in your presence before, right before your eyes. Parents see it. Teachers and faculty see it. Students feel it.

• Why spend six weeks on public speaking?

  For many people, public speaking is fraught with anxiety. St. Luke's teachers take great care in helping students feel the transformation from fear to confidence through a stepped process. We recognize that telling one’s own story provides a strong foundation for presenting as it is already familiar. Furthermore, students have spent the year reading and analyzing engaging stories and the techniques used by master storytellers, so the crafting and telling of their own is their opportunity to synthesize what they’ve learned. We spend a great deal of time writing, conferencing, and revising to ensure the final product is exactly what students will be proud to share. Also, we spend tons of time practicing in front of peers and teachers in school, and probably almost as much in front of pets and mirrors outside of school. Although the pets and mirrors probably don’t talk back, teachers provide encouragement and feedback and help students develop qualities about their presentations unique to them, those parts of their character that shine through in that chrysalis moment.

• What specific presentation skills do students develop?

  Declamations teaches students to “bowl” with their eyes (eye contact), to trick their body into avoiding fidgeting (body language), and to breathe appropriately to project their voice so everyone in the audience can hear. The program is also about learning who you are and then sharing yourself with an audience. Allowing people to look at you, commanding their attention, and eliciting their empathy. Every student comes away with a sense of accomplishment, an understanding of presentation techniques, and a new confidence about their capabilities. If you know 13- and 14-year-olds, then you know this is the perfect time for such revelations.

• What is a recent Declamations highlight?

  We frequently receive the feedback from St. Luke’s faculty and staff and families that the students’ stories are moving, poignant, entertaining, humorous, and most importantly, that the reflection embedded in the stories demonstrates both vulnerability and maturity. We also hear that the stories students tell allow us to know them even better adding new depth to their personality and humanity.

• Beyond public speaking skills, what do students gain from Declamations?

  It's a shared experience that genuinely unites and builds a community of learners who support each other through the process. Sharing one’s story and hearing your peers’ stories is innately bonding. These students should be extremely proud. As impressive as each individual presentation is, we applaud the class as a whole for working together and for encouraging each other to reach a potential that might only have been realized through the support of peers. It's extremely rewarding for educators to see these students grow, mature, gain confidence, and develop character traits that will serve them far beyond our classroom walls.