Speech I is an English elective that teaches communication and public speaking skills.
If you take the class, you’ll learn how to write and deliver speeches, interact with other people both normally and professionally, and communicate more effectively with others.
Since Speech I is an elective and not required for graduation.
However, the class teaches important skills (communication and public speaking) that you use in your everyday life– skills that other classes don’t primarily focus on.
Additionally, Speech I encourages students to be friendly with and support each other, leading to a tightly-knit and supportive class community where I personally made several close friends.
So, if you weren’t already planning on taking the class, here are some reasons why you should consider putting it on your roster.
The skills Speech I teaches are vital to everyday life
Communication is one of the most important skills you’ll ever have. Whether you’re talking to your friends, giving a graded class presentation, or delivering a graduation speech, knowing how to communicate is vital to everyday life.
Additionally, communication is an important part of the working world. The job and hiring education company, Prospects, ranks good communication as one of the most common skills employers look for in employees. Even something as simple as giving a work presentation requires good communication skills.
Along with communication skills comes the confidence required to give a speech or presentation. Speech I helps build your confidence for public speaking with different exercises and activities inside the community of the classroom, including writing and delivering speeches of your own.
You might not easily find these skills anywhere else
There’s only one active class here at Leesville so far that’s focused on communication skills as its primary subject. These skills are so vital to our everyday lives, yet there’s only one (and a pending second) class centered on communication out of the entirety of Leesville’s classes.
Unless you go to college and take a speech class there– which highly depends on whether the college offers one and whether or not you decide to take it– there isn’t really any other place to find these skills in a traditional school setting. Theoretically, you could try to learn them on your own, but that might be difficult seeing as the entire point of communication is that you’re talking to other human beings.
Another option might be to privately take speech lessons; however that likely requires more effort and work on top of school— as well as money. Taking a speech class for free here at Leesville gives you important public speaking skills and integrates the work into school, thereby likely requiring less effort– and money.
Speech I has a great community atmosphere
Amy Wedge is the Speech I teacher here at Leesville. When I took Speech I, the class had a vibrant, supportive vibe where everybody in the class was friendly with each other and helped each other. Though there’s no guarantee that every class will always be as close and supportive as mine was, the way she taught the class was what allowed us, as a group, to become so supportive and friendly. I have no reason to believe she’s changed her practices. I personally became close friends with several people in that class, and I greatly enjoyed taking Speech I with them.
Speech I helps you in everyday life and teaches you lifelong skills that will help you no matter where you go in the future. It’s a great opportunity to learn communication skills, and it’s structured to create a close-knit and supportive community of classmates. When you pick your classes for next year, you should consider taking Speech I.
Hi, I’m Blase. I like playing video games and running in my free time, and I have two cats.