We
believe public speaking skills should be taught early on in the primary
classroom. Giving students multiple opportunities to speak in front of their peers sets the foundation for lifelong literacy learning.  Plus, it hopefully helps them steer clear of the, “Just pretend everyone is naked!” public speaking technique. 😀

We
have never done the traditional “sharing” in our class. Instead, we use our
sharing time each week to practice and develop beginning public speaking skills with our
students through our Sharing Pages Program. This gives them opportunities to become comfortable when speaking in
front of their peers. The pages are also a great way to practice writing
components throughout the year.

  We have been using these pages in our class
for over 15 years as a weekly homework writing assignment. These pages can also
simply be used in class as a single writing assignment, center work, small
groups, independent work, etc. 

Each student is assigned a sharing day, which stays the same for the entire school year. We usually assign sharing days within the first few weeks of school, paying close attention to those who can handle sharing on a Tuesday and those who perhaps would do best with a little more time to complete their assignment and need a Friday share day. Our class takes their weekly sharing page home with their homework packet each Monday and we run sharing time Tuesday-Friday each week, with the exception of holidays, school events, etc. We divide our class among the sharing days, which for us is usually no more than 5 or 6 kids per day. Our sharing time takes 10 minutes tops once they get the routine down. We typically run sharing time immediately following our last recess at the end of the school day…We love it as a calm down and regroup from recess activity.  🙂

On their assigned class sharing day, they return their sharing page to be read and shared in front of the class. We have a turn–in basket right inside our classroom door and train them to turn everything into the black tray when they come in each morning. When it’s sharing time, we fan the day’s sharing pages out on the table nearest to the front of the classroom. We call the first sharer and then they are to call the next sharer from the top of the pile (no skipping around just to pick favorites!) up to the front of the classroom. So, it becomes a student led activity very quickly in our classroom! We usually stand in the back of the classroom and play Volume Controller, letting them know gently when we can’t hear them and encouraging them to pump up the jam raise their voices please. 

Once the week is over, we print our book covers, mount them on colored construction paper, laminate, and bind all of the week’s class sharing pages together to make class books that grow throughout the school year in our class library. The kids love sitting together and looking through their sharing books! They are giddy when they find their own pages and love seeing their friends’ work up close and personal.

We use binding combs and a binding machine for our books, but you could easily staple, put a binder ring in the top corner, punch 2 or 3 holes along the spine and tie ribbons…It’s really up to you!

Here’s our favorite part!

One of our absolute favorite activities is on the last day of school and it’s our Sharing Page Book Raffle. We usually end up with enough sharing books for each student to take home 2 to keep. We throw them out on the classroom rug and let the raffle begin! You can read all about how we run our raffle on the last day of school {here}.

 

Our Writing Prompts for Class Share Time Bundle provides writing prompts for the entire year. We send them home for homework and use the rest in class during our Workshop time which they share with their small group or in front of the class as time allows. 

Each month includes…

•Directions
on how to use Sharing Pages

•Direction
on how to use Cover Pages

•Family
Introduction Letter

•Class
Sharing Schedule

•8
Sharing Writing Pages (k-1)

•8
Sharing Writing Pages (2-3)

•8
Colored Book Covers

•8
Printer Friendly Book Covers

 You can see all of our units, and download monthly previews

{here}

We also created a back to school sharing page sampler so you can give them a try! You can follow our TpT Shop and download these back to school writing prompts for free {here}.

We’re excited to introduce something new to our students this coming school year! We just created these Public Speaking Skills Posters to hang up in our classroom and help our students get ready and willing to speak in our classroom.

Using visual reminders for our class helps build their confidence and independence as they gain a greater understanding and comfort ability while speaking in front of others. These Public Speaking Posters were designed to provide concrete reminders and visual support for our students as they share their weekly Sharing Pages in our classroom. 

We used the acronym SPEAK to teach our class what public speakers look and sound like when they are sharing. We created a one page poster and individual posters with each component on it’s own page…What can we say? We like choices! You can download a set of our Ready, Set…Speak! Public Speaking Posters for free from our TpT Shop {here}…Because honestly, the “Just pretend everyone is naked.” technique has got to stop STAT. 🙂