by Harmony Devoe
The 7th graders at Harwood have just completed their oratorical unit in English. The oratoricals are research projects that students use to create speeches about topics they want to share with their peers.
Some of the many various topics were zoos, the lack of BIPOC-owned farms in Vermont, nightmares, and what would happen to the world if humans disappeared.
Mr. Potts, the 7th grade English teacher said that “The best thing is that students pick their own topics and learn about something that’s important to them, and it combines a lot of important skills” like researching, writing something to be spoken aloud, public speaking, citing your sources, and more.
He also let us know that we spent more time than usual this year because some students missed school because they were out because of covid, and some were busy with the high school musical.
To start the oratorical, you first had to choose a topic and research it, then combine your research and write a speech. Then you had to “learn, but not memorize” your speech to then share with your English class up at the lectern. Your speech was in front of you, but you were trying to make eye contact with your audience, and look down as few times as you could. You also had to cite your research sources on an attached page.
Mr. Potts’s “favorite thing in an oratorical is when the speaker connects with the audience on a topic that has new information in it.” He feels that “The best thing about the oratorical unit is being able to hear the speeches because they're really great, and speak for themselves.”
We also will have a celebration of learning on April 27th where a group of 11 selected students will share their speeches in front of the whole grade, and even families will be invited as well, and then there will be 3 speeches chosen as the “top 3 winning oratoricals”. The selected students are Cora Potts, Dahlia Jordan, Harmony Devoe, Ben Goldhammer, Jade Lawson, Sydney Schaller, Jane Schaefer, Tarin Askew, Emma Aither, Camille Edgcomb, and Emily Hill.
For most, this was a challenging but fun unit and project, and we are excited to have a celebration of learning in the future.