how to write a speech 4th grade

How to Write a Speech for the Fourth Grade Student Council

Lori furgerson.

Having a speech that gives your fellow classmates a reason to vote for you is important when writing a speech for fourth grade student council. With some research on what fellow students want and some planning, you are on your way to writing a speech that may get you elected to student council. If you find yourself needing to write a speech, following a few simple steps may lead you to success.

Begin your speech by welcoming your fellow classmates. Tell the audience your name, grade and the position you are running for.

Share with the audience the reasons you are running, what you want to accomplish while you are in office and how you will do it. For example, maybe you want to convince the principal and teachers that fourth graders should have more independence lining up outside from recess and coming into the classroom.

Provide the reasons why you will do well in this position. Give information about your personal background. State your educational qualifications, such as if you are on the honor roll. Share what activities you have been involved with in fourth grade.

Conclude your speech by recapping what you said and why you are the candidate that should be in office. End your speech with a catchy, memorable slogan.

About the Author

Lori Furgerson began writing for an educational company in 2005. She was a classroom teacher for 12 years and became a national literacy consultant, traveling the country to work with state departments, school districts and at the school level to improve literacy instruction. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies from California State University at Northridge.

Related Articles

How to Run For 4th Grade Vice President

How Do I Write a Homecoming Speech for Church?

How to Give a Good 8th-Grade Speech

How to Write a Speech for Class Secretary

How to Write a Class Vice President's Speech

How to Write a Speech for a Vice President in Middle...

How to Write a Middle School Election Speech

How to Run for Student Council in the Fourth Grade

How to Run for Class President in the 3rd Grade

How to Address a Letter to a Mayor

How to Write a Speech for a 7th-Grade Class President

How to Write a Speech for Running for Student Council...

How to Write an Election Campaign Letter

How to Create a Voter's Ballot Box

How to Do a Welcome Speech for the Church

How to Write a Class President Speech

How to Write a Letter to a Delegate

How to Find Out If I'm Registered to Vote

How to Write a Letter to a Dean

Regardless of how old we are, we never stop learning. Classroom is the educational resource for people of all ages. Whether you’re studying times tables or applying to college, Classroom has the answers.

• Accessibility
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Copyright Policy
• Manage Preferences

© 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Based on the Word Net lexical database for the English Language. See disclaimer .

MyTabstart > Favorites Directory > Education > Writing a Speech - Tips for 4th Grade Students

Related TabStart Pages

Examples of Senior Yearbook Writing From Parent

4th Grade Narrative Writing Rubrics

4th Grade Customary Measurement Worksheets

4th Grade Customary Measurement Length Worksheets

4th Grade Reading Level Books About Ocean Life

Writing a speech can be a daunting process, and putting your thoughts into a fun, informative speech takes some practice. This collection is designed to teach and guide 4th grade students on how to write a speech, including tips and tricks from the pros. Additionally, there are resources for students on writing speeches for 4th grade student council. And videos of speeches by 4th graders offer more ideas on how to write a good speech.

Tips for 4th Grade Students on Writing a Speech

Writing Tips from the Pros  - A helpful source that offers speech writing tips from teachers for students of all ages. Some suggestions include writing your speech the same way you talk and simplifying your speech.

How to Write a Speech  - This site offers a handy outline that teaches students how to write a productive speech. Offers a 7-step guideline to follow so students can organize their thoughts.

Kid's Speech  - Time for Kids offers "silly" speechmakers guidelines for students to make a campaign speech, a victory speech, or a mudslinging speech. Students choose the speech they want to give, then answer the questions asked.

Speech Writing for Everyone  - A 10-step guide that will teach students how to write a well-rounded speech. Steps include creating an outline and prioritizing of ideas.

How to Write a Speech for Fourth Grade Student Council

Writing a Speech for Fourth Grade Student Council  - This source offers a four-step guide for students writing a speech to give before a student council. Tips include: topic, time constraints, main points, and supporting details.

4th Grade Student Council Speeches  - Watch these videos of fourth grade students giving actual council speeches to gain ideas and initiatives.

Writing a Speech - Tips for 4th Grade Students

• Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

• Games, topic printables & more
• The 4 main speech types
• Example speeches
• Commemorative
• Declamation
• Demonstration
• Informative
• Introduction
• Student Council
• Speech topics
• Poems to read aloud
• How to write a speech
• Using props/visual aids
• Acute anxiety help
• Breathing exercises
• Letting go - free e-course
• Using self-hypnosis
• Delivery overview
• 4 modes of delivery
• How to make cue cards
• How to read a speech
• 9 vocal aspects
• Vocal variety
• Diction/articulation
• Pronunciation
• Speaking rate
• How to use pauses
• Eye contact
• Body language
• Voice image
• Voice health
• Public speaking activities and games
• About me/contact

How to write a speech for kids

 create an engaging presentation for children .

By:  Susan Dugdale  | Last modified: 04-28-2021

Writing a speech for kids and then giving it is relatively straightforward. Truly! Once you've gained some experience you'll find it fun, as well as hugely rewarding.

You'll follow exactly the same steps as you would when preparing a speech for adults but with minor, yet crucial variations. 

You'll plan, make an outline, write up your notes, prepare cue cards if you need them, rehearse and finally, deliver your speech.

However because you are presenting to children you'll need to adapt some of the processes. Kids are a very different audience!

Use the on-page quick links below to follow my 3 part outline, and you'll be fine.

What's on this page

Part One : Background & audience research

Part Two: Techniques to gain & hold their attention

Part Three: Rehearsal

Whoops, that went down like the proverbial lead balloon:   Traps for the unwary

Part 1: Background & audience research

Your first step is to consider your audience. The questions you'll want answers to are:

- What age are these children?

- What backgrounds do they mostly come from?

- What background, if any, do they have in relation to your topic?

- What common experiences do they all share that you could use as stepping stones into your material?

- What level of vocabulary will they readily understand?

- what grabs and keeps their attention?

To get the answers, ask the person or people, who invited you to speak.

• How long you're expected to speak for. This is critical. A child's attention span is not the same as an adults, and there are big differences between a 6 year old and a 16 year old. Find out more: Normal attention span expectations by age
• What the purpose is behind inviting you to speak. Are you being asked to inform, to persuade, to entertain ...?
• If the group has members with special needs you should be aware of like children who are deaf, sight impaired or emotionally fragile

Once you've got that information you're ready to begin shaping your material.

Return to Top

Part 2: How to gain & hold attention

Bear in mind the following as you plan:

• Keep the structure simple and clear: introduction, body of speech, conclusion. Kids, just like adults, appreciate knowing what is going on and knowing why they're being asked to listen.
• Use conversational language rather than formal. In your mind choose a child to give your speech to. This will help you keep it 'real'.
• Limit the number of main points you wish to make about your topic to one or two. 
• Keep the formal or structured part of your speech brief.
• Allow time for, and encourage questions.
• Relate the topic back to themselves, their experience, from the beginning. This gives them an anchor, a place they know and understand as a starting point for the journey you're about to take them on. 

Kids love to laugh

Use humor and personal storytelling to get your message across.  

Children of all ages love stories, especially personal ones. A story told well, with humor, will grab their attention faster and hold it longer than any other technique I know. Make it relevant, add characterization, (voices and appropriate body language), and you'll have every child listening.

You can find out more about incorporating stories into your speeches on these pages:

• storytelling  - How to choose and tell a story
• storytelling set-ups  - How to integrate a story into your speech
• characterization techniques  - How to make your stories come alive through gesture and voice.

Vocabulary choices, questions & props

• Use specific words rather than general ones. 'I love being outdoors' is less evocative than 'I love puddle jumping, building a bonfire at the beach...'
• Use inclusive words: 'we' and 'our' as well as personal ones: 'yours', 'you'
• Vary your sentence length and your word choice to keep it interesting to listen to. Children, like adults, appreciate variation.

Questions, instructions and involvement

Use interactive questions, and instructions, to ensure they're following you throughout your speech. For example:  'Have you got that? Nod your heads if you have.'

Or, 'Wave your hand like this ( d emonstrate ) if you can see the picture I put on the board.'

Get them involved by asking for volunteers to help hand things around.

Play simple chorus answer and action games like, 'When I say, who has got a good thinking brain, you say ME and pat your head. Let's try it now. Ready? Who's got ...'

Or, 'When I get to a scary bit in the story you're going to go ooooooh,oooooh in a very frightened sort of way and make yourselves very small like this.' ( Demonstrate .) 'Now, let's try it together...That's fantastic. I've never seen a better bunch of scared kids.' 

Props or visual aids

Where possible incorporate 'showing' as well as 'telling'. Take along things children can see and if at all possible, handle. This gives your speech another dimension. And don't be afraid to break out your silly wig, or a clown's nose ...

Check this page on using props well in speeches .

Once you have the basic outline of your speech planned you're ready for the next step.

Now you're going to trial your work.

Rehearsal will help you identify what you've done well and where you need to fine tune.

If you can, practice in front of several children of the same age and background you're going to talk to.

If they're old enough to understand, ask them before you give the speech, if they can help you make it better and collect their feedback at the end.

If they're not old enough, look for cues like looking away, looking puzzled, talking through it, or wriggling. If it's too long and without relevance or connection to them they'll soon let you know.

Children don't have filters. They'll show and tell you like it is. They're not being deliberately rude. It's actually quite simple. They're not interested and haven't learned to pretend otherwise, yet. Don't make the mistake of taking their responses personally! 

Before you go on to finalize your speech incorporate your changes.

If you'd like pointers on how to rehearse you'll find them here:

• how to rehearse

Do try and give your speech without a word-for-word script. It might feel safer for you but for children, listening to you read is not as effective as you talking to, or interacting with them, directly.

Use cue cards if you can.  Rehearse until you know it fluently and the cue cards are merely a safety net should you need them.

And finally run through the checklist below.

These are the pitfalls I've either fallen into myself or watched others tumble down. Knowing will help you avoid them.

Whoops - traps for the unwary

Learning the hard way; when it doesn't go like you imagined it would and a great dark chasm opens beneath your feet and you find yourself rapidly disappearing down it, silly wig and all.

It's ghastly, and an experience I've had more than several times in my teaching career.

Here's what I've learned. Blaming your audience is letting yourself off the hook! When a presentation lurches sideways it's not the children's fault. The hell hole is generally of our own making. Any of these factors could have caused it:

• assuming that because a child is a child and you're an adult you automatically know more than they do
• patronizing your audience through using either over-simplified or baby language
• talking over their heads by using either non-explained jargon or a vocabulary beyond their experience
• not rehearsing and then finding that your speech doesn't flow logically. Or it's too long.  Or that it doesn't have enough relevance so the kids are bored. Or the props you brought don't work as you wished. They're too small to be seen from the stage. And the stories you planned fall flat.
• introducing inappropriate subject matter for the group or an individual in the group. Always check.
• trying to fit too much information into the time allotted.
• inadvertently making fun of a child's comments and concerns therefore shaming them in front of their peers.
• exploiting their trust and naivety by presenting material persuasively that is ultimately of no benefit to them and at worst destructive.
• getting flustered by bit of very ordinary spontaneous child behavior (talking while you are talking, wriggling ...) and not knowing how to handle it and move on with ease
• not having established the rules of engagement at the beginning for asking questions, handling props, or any activity involving interaction ...

There is a common sense remedy for all of them. Trial your speech in rehearsal! And if it helps get a trusted and experienced colleague in to give you feedback!

• Return to top of how to write a speech for kids

speaking out loud 

Subscribe for  FREE weekly alerts about what's new For more see  speaking out loud  

Top 10 popular pages

• Welcome speech
• Demonstration speech topics
• Impromptu speech topic cards
• Thank you quotes
• Impromptu public speaking topics
• Farewell speeches
• Phrases for welcome speeches
• Student council speeches
• Free sample eulogies

From fear to fun in 28 ways

A complete one stop resource to scuttle fear in the best of all possible ways - with laughter.

Useful pages

• Search this site
• About me & Contact
• Blogging Aloud
• Free e-course
• Privacy policy

©Copyright 2006-24 www.write-out-loud.com

Designed and built by Clickstream Designs

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• This Or That Game New
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Education and Communications
• Personal Development
• School Leadership

How to Write a Student Council Speech

Last Updated: January 17, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article has 125 testimonials from our readers, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 2,014,392 times.

Being a member of the student council can help you help your school. However, it takes hard work to get into the student council . You need to craft a good speech that gives your classmates incentives to vote for you.

Sample Speeches

Writing the Introduction

• Do not merely start by saying, "My name is ___ and I'm running for student council." Your classmates will already know as much and this is not really a unique statement. There will be time to state the basic information after you've got the class's attention. [1] X Research source
• You can open with a question. Something like, "If there was one thing you could change about this school, what would it be?" Or a question that adds some humor , like, "I know what you're thinking. Why should I listen to this person?" and then proceed to lay out your credentials. Quotes on leadership, power, and guidance would also make good openings. However, make sure to double-check your sources and especially if you're finding quotes online. Many online quote databases, like Quote Garden or Brainy Quote, sometimes attribute quotes to the wrong sources. [2] X Research source
• If you're stuck, look up and read famous speeches. You can find many speeches from presidents, world leaders, civil rights activists, and others online. Pay attention to how they opened their speeches and ask yourself, "Was this interesting? Do I want to keep reading/listening? Why?" [3] X Research source

• State your name and grade in school. This may feel somewhat unnecessary if you go to a small school, but it's considered a formality. If you're missing this part of the speech, you may end up looking sloppy in comparison to other students. [5] X Research source
• State what you want. That is, what you're running for. Do you want to be the president , vice president , treasurer, secretary? Even if you think most students are aware of what position you're running for, make sure you state it here to remind them. [6] X Research source
• Try to keep this section brief as it's not as important as your qualifications and plans to improve the school . Even one sentence would suffice. For example, "My name is Ramona Hart, I'm in the 11th grade, and I'm running for treasurer of the student council."

• Any accomplishments relevant to the position warrant mentioning here. If you're running for secretary, for example, talk about your summer job filing papers in your uncle's law firm. If you're running for student council president, talk about your leadership experience being captain of the swim team. [7] X Research source
• While this section is important, try to keep it minimal. A couple of sentences laying out your qualifications is enough as the body of your speech is where you should spend the most time. For example, let's go back to the above example. From there, we could say, "I am currently enrolled in advanced placement algebra and I have been an honor roll student for three years. This knowledge of numbers and diligence qualifies me to have responsibility for finances for our student council." [8] X Research source

Writing the Body of the Speech

• You should list your ideas and then expand on them later in the body. It might take a bit of research to figure out what you want to change. Ask around the school, talking to students and teachers, and see where there's room for improvement. What are the concerns of the students? What are people happy with regarding the school? What would they like to see change? Asking these questions can help you get a sense of your audience and community.
• Remember, you should not make promises you cannot keep. Do not say anything just to get elected. While many students might want gum-chewing policies eliminated or for the lunch period to run twice as long, this is probably not necessary or possible. Try to focus on areas that seem important to keep your school running safely and efficiently. Concerns about things like bullying , academic standards, and extracurricular activities should be your concern over fun and games. [10] X Research source
• A good opening statement for your body would state the causes important to you and what you plan to do about them. For example, if you were running for president, you could say something like, "I understand we need to improve how we handle bullying, increase interest in extracurricular activities, and expand access to AP courses throughout the school. As your president, I would work to bring in speakers to talk about sensitivity in the classroom, increase advertising for basketball games and quiz bowl tournaments, and start a tutoring program to help students struggling with certain subjects." [11] X Research source

• Using the school library or computers, figure out the best means to tackle certain problems many schools face. How have other schools dealt with bullying? Poor test scores? Low interest in extracurricular activities? What can you reasonably do as a student council member to address these problems? [12] X Research source
• You do not have to have a point-by-point plan laid out, but a few sentences on some preliminary ideas can help you stand out from your peers. People are more inclined to vote for someone who's thought about how to solve problems in addition to identifying problems. [13] X Research source

Ending with a Strong Conclusion

• Do summarize, briefly, your qualifications but do not put the main focus on them. This is where you should sincerely state your passion. Students should not just vote for you because you'd do a good job but because you genuinely care about the school. State your passion for your community and how much you want to see other students succeed. Lots of students have high qualifications. You can set yourself apart by being a candidate who really cares. [16] X Research source

• Research what other student council speeches are like on video websites. This could help give you ideas.

Expert Q&A

• Only promise to do things that you really can do. Thanks Helpful 13 Not Helpful 2
• Practice reading your speech a few times, as you'll likely be nervous before giving it. Thanks Helpful 13 Not Helpful 2

• Even if you write a great speech, understand you may lose. Be prepared to lose graciously and sincerely congratulate the winning candidate. Thanks Helpful 101 Not Helpful 15
• Unlike in a governmental election, student council candidates should not attack each other, previous leaders, or other students. Otherwise, you could get into trouble and leave a bad impression on voters. Thanks Helpful 76 Not Helpful 16

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.studentcouncilpro.com/student-council-speeches.html
• ↑ http://www.write-out-loud.com/student-council-speeches.html
• ↑ Patrick Muñoz. Voice & Speech Coach. Expert Interview. 12 November 2019.

About This Article

To write a student council speech, start with an attention-grabbing statement such as a question or a powerful quote about leadership. Next, briefly explain who you are, what position you are running for, and why you are running. Then list any relevant qualifications, such as a summer job. In the body of the speech, discuss at least 3 ways to improve the school. For this section, make sure not to make any promises you can’t keep. Finally, end by briefly reiterating your main points and asking for the students’ vote. To learn more about how to support your ideas and research for your speech, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

• Send fan mail to authors

Reader Success Stories

Did this article help you?

Sep 27, 2017

Kyla Harvie

Jun 11, 2017

Nov 6, 2021

Gavin Sedey

Oct 13, 2017

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

Get the free weekly newsletter

wikiHow's Best Advice on Dating & Love

• Testimonials
• Gift Subscription
• Digital SLP Log In

Speech & Language Skills in 4th Grade: A Handy Checklist

• October 5, 2016

Do you know what speech and language skills your 4th grade students should be working on?  Odds are if you’re a seasoned SLP, then yes you probably do.  However, if you are a new SLP or perhaps have changed school settings and you’re working with different grade levels, you might need a refresher.  This information comes straight from  ASHA , I’ve just put it together in a pretty little printer-friendly checklist to help you out.  Click here to get it!   So, what skills should your 4th graders have or be acquiring?  Here’s the list of what they should be doing by the end of the school year:

Would you like this information in a black & white checklist that you can use with your students or send home to parents?  Sign up here  and I’ll send you checklists for K-5, straight to your inbox!

Grab your FREE checklists!

Would you like black and white communication skill checklists to use with your K-5th graders? Sign up for email updates and I'll send you your copy!

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ready to give the Digital SLP ®  a test drive?

Sign up for free today and join over 3,000 other SLPs.

Teletherapy platform-friendly activities and games for articulation, phonology, language, social skills, stuttering and more. 

Recent Posts

• Five Videos to Use in Speech Therapy in April
• Four Ways to Manage Mixed Groups
• Five Videos to Use in Speech Therapy in March
• How to Target Prepositions in Teletherapy
• Five Videos to Use in Speech Therapy in February

Recent Comments

• SockLeng on How to Cope with a Chronic Illness while Working as an SLP
• Mskispeech on How to Cope with a Chronic Illness while Working as an SLP
• SockLeng on My Beautiful Stutter with Ryan Gielan
• Marcia Getfield on My Beautiful Stutter with Ryan Gielan
• SockLeng on 8 Tips for Teaching the R Sound

Related Posts

Privacy Overview

Did you know email subscribers receive exclusive discounts, helpful tips, and free resources? When you sign up for our newsletter you'll gain instant access to a library of digital freebies!

We treat your personal information with respect and would never sell it to another party.

 Privacy Policy

Any call to action with a link here?

Speech Therapy Goals for 4th and 5th Graders

Are you trying to write speech therapy goals for your 4th and 5th grade elementary students and feeling stuck? No worries! In this blog post, I’ll dig deep and discuss some of the most important areas that I like to treat (hint, a lot of these areas involve expressive language and articulation), and I’ll also share some “get started” materials and resources you could use in therapy. Make sure to grab the PDF mini ebook version of this post for future reference, too!

Keep in mind, that these are simply ideas. You would always want to individualize these objectives for your specific student’s needs. For more information on writing objectives using the SMART framework, this n2y.com blog post is very helpful .

This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended.

Speech Therapy Goals for Articulation

If you’re working with upper elementary students (such as 4th and 5th graders), there’s a solid chance you’ll be focusing on either vocalic r or lisps.

That doesn’t mean that’s EXCLUSIVELY what you’d target, of course.

But as an SLP who spent 5 years of my career dedicated specifically to treating 4th and 5th graders, I can pretty confidently say there’s a high probability you’ll be treating these two areas of articulation.

Having a Game Plan for Treating Vocalic R in Speech

Many SLPs have reached out to me and asked how I specifically write my vocalic r goals.

First, it’d likely be helpful to understand my approach.

Therapy is meant to be individualized, and what works for one student may not work for another. This will ALWAYS be true, no matter what the area is.

If you are working with a student who has failed to make progress with r, and you need some fresh ideas- I highly recommend becoming familiar with the basics of orofacial myology.

Basically, this has allowed my students to:

• have a better understanding of the articulators
• realize they can control, shape, and move the tongue

I discussed how to treat r in this YouTube video , and also this blog post .

If you’re interested in earning CEUs, I highly recommend Sandra Holtzman’s Techniques and Interventions to Correct R course for SLPs.

How to Write Goals for Treating Vocalic R

You’d want to make sure to add components such as the prompts or cues you’d provide, the percentage you expect them to master (it doesn’t always have to be 80%), the number of sessions you hope they accomplish this, and more. Objectives must be specific and measurable , among other characteristics.

Here are some ideas:

• produce vocalic er in isolation
• vocalic er when paired with a variety of sounds/ blends in nonsense word combinations
• produce vocalic er in real words
• vocalic r (i.e. air, ear, ar, or, rl) in words

As you can see, I put a huge focus on mastering vocalic er before we move on to the other vocalic r sounds .

To establish vocalic er in isolation, I like to use flavored tongue depressors . I also find having a typodont on hand especially helpful, so I can show where lingual-palatal contact occurs. A third item you might find helpful is a mirror .

Goal Writing After Vocalic ER is Mastered

That said, once your student HAS mastered vocalic er in isolation, nonsense word combinations, and real words, I might write more specific vocalic r objectives, and even carryover objectives, such as:

• produce vocalic air in the final position of words
• say vocalic or in the initial position of words
• correctly produce vocalic rl in the medial and final positions of words

When your student is ready, you could move on to phrases, sentences, and carryover activities.

Examples might be:

• will produce vocalic /rl/ in the final position of words at the phrase level
• produce vocalic /or/ the initial, medial, and final position of words at the sentence level
• produce vocalic /rl/ in sentence read aloud tasks or carryover activities

By that time, you may only have a few specific vocalic r articulation targets to address.

You get the idea!

Here’s what I don’t recommend.

This is my professional opinion only, but…

I don’t recommend writing one huge, generic R goal, that expects your student to be able to say all the variations of R, in every position. At least, not if that’s your starting point. I highly doubt this will be attainable if your student has struggled with R for years.

That’s why I break things down with R : to make the objective attainable.

How to Write Speech Therapy Goals for Treating a Lisp

Now I’ll share how I write speech therapy goals for treating a lisp.

You May Want To Teach Normal Resting Posture First

Your student may have a lateral lisp or a frontal lisp , but it doesn’t matter: I always start with the same foundational skill.

This doesn’t necessarily need to be a “formal goal”- but it’s not a step I usually skip.

I like to teach my student what a normal lingual resting posture is (aka, proper resting tongue position).

The tongue needs to be in the correct resting posture because our resting posture is the starting point for speech. It shouldn’t be flat or resting against the back part of the front teeth.

Instead, it should live up within the dental arch.

Also, proper resting posture of the tongue is important for other reasons, as well.

In my clinical experience, if a student is demonstrating a tongue thrust or improper tongue resting posture and is also demonstrating a lisp , I find it useful to teach correct resting posture in addition to working on speech. It may be important to note that I have taken coursework in orofacial myology.

Ask Your Speech Therapy Student About His Normal Resting Posture

So basically- I make sure my student understands the correct lingual resting posture as a foundational skill.

The best part about working with 4th and 5th graders is that many are able to actually describe their normal resting posture.

I usually ask, “While you’re sitting there and not talking- can you tell me where your tongue is? Is it pushed against the teeth? Or is it up at the top of your mouth?”

Most tell me their tongue is pushing against their teeth.

To introduce this concept, I use a typodont .

I point out the alveolar ridge. We call the alveolar ridge “home”.

I explain to my student that the front part of their tongue should be resting against home when they are not talking.

This is a concept I teach if I feel it is necessary for success with s and z.

Here’s Why I Write the Lisp Goals I Write

Normal resting posture is important. It’s very important. And if you don’t at least mention it to your students, no one else will.

The goals I write, however, are geared towards speech.

I typically first work on “s” in isolation- however, I never call it “s” to my students . I call it a “whisper t” and a “long t”. We simply “add more air” to the “t” sound while remembering to keep the tongue tip “near home”. Once air has been added, you can hear the /s/ in isolation.

Next, I like to use “the long t” to elicit final “ts” words. I might say, “We’re going to say the beginning of a word, ‘ca’, then add ‘a long t’ to the end.” The resulting word would be cats .

Once this has been mastered, you could use co-articulation to elicit initial s words.

You might use “cats-see me” or “bats-say hi”.

But now that you understand a little bit about my approach, the articulation goals I write will hopefully make more sense.

Speech Therapy Lisp Goals

Here are some examples of speech therapy goals I have targeted while treating a lisp:

• correctly produce s in isolation
• final ts in words (example: cats, bats, hats)
• produce s in the initial position of words
• after listening to a clinican model or a speech recording, will identify between “distorted” or “forward” airflow

While working on any of these goals, they need to make sure they are:

• maintaining the correct lingual positioning (i.e. not “flat” or “pushing against or though the teeth”)
• directing the airflow forward and straight (i.e. not into the cheeks)
• controlling tongue movement and shape
• moving the tongue separately from the other articulators (lingual mandibular differentiation)

Your next question is probably, “but what about articulation goals for z?”

Yes, you definitely get there.

Basically, I break things waaaaay down before expecting my speech therapy student to produce s and z in all positions and all levels (i.e. words, phrases, sentences, etc) . Those more straightforward articulation goals occur after my student has mastered the foundational skills.

P.S. Want to dig deeper into some lisp therapy techniques? Make sure to learn about the straw technique for a lateral lisp .

Articulation Carryover Goals for Speech Therapy

Learning to self-evaluate speech.

By this point in speech therapy, many upper elementary students are likely working on articulation sounds at the carryover level. One task I like to use for articulation carryover is teaching my student how to self-evaluate speech performance.

An idea would be to record the student, then play the recording back. Let your student determine if any errors were made. This concept is not one I invented and has been around for some time in the field. Your goal might read like this:

• After listening to a recorded sample of his speech, the student will identify speech sounds produced in error

Letter to Sound Connection

Another articulation carryover idea might include having your student identify words that contain his or her targeted speech sound in written text.

I think it is important for our students to see the connection between the sounds we say and how they are written.

Vocalic r words, for example, are not always spelled how one might think. The words “hurt” and “germs” are spelled very differently, but both contain the vocalic er sound, whereas ‘cherry’ and ‘dairy’ both contain vocalic air spelled in very different ways.

I used highlighter tape and paired it with student textbooks or AR reading books- just have your student bring a book from class. I also often used a map of the United States – we located all states and cities containing our target speech sound.

P.S. Here is another fun articulation carryover activity to try. This one is a bit of a “challenge” and perfect for the competitive students on your caseload.

Example objectives could include:

• The student will identify written words that contain targeted speech sounds

Functional Structured Articulation Carryover Activities

You might also find it helpful to identify certain school activities that will require your student to speak in front of peers . One student I worked with was part of the announcements team. We practiced announcing the weather, birthdays, and lunch menu items in speech therapy the day before it was his turn to read them to the school.

Another idea might be checking with the teacher to see if any upcoming presentations or book reports will need to be presented to the class. I often paired this with the EET (expanding expression toolkit).

After we defined and described the topic, we went through and highlighted our target speech sounds. Then, the student would practice a presentation in the speech room , while focusing on correctly producing his target articulation sounds.

• The student will produce targeted speech sounds in structured carryover activities (examples include spoken presentations, book reports, reading the school announcements, and reading aloud from a classroom textbook)

Speech Therapy Goals for Grammar and Sentence Structure

Need some ideas for grammar and sentence structure goals?

This area can be overwhelming, but it’s really important to work on grammar and syntax in speech therapy .

I love to use this sentence diagramming program when I’m teaching sentence structure. This is such an amazing way for my students to really visualize how words and sentence parts work together to form meaning. This program provides an easy way for SLPs to scaffold grammar and sentence structure skills from the ground up.

Here are some example speech therapy goals for grammar and syntax:

• identify parts of speech or sentence parts within spoken or written sentences
• complete sentence fill-in tasks using targeted parts of speech or sentence parts
• arrange scrambled words into meaningful sentences

Here’s how these goals might look during a typical speech therapy session.

Teaching Grammar and Syntax in Speech Therapy

Let’s say you’re focusing on adverbs that day.

I start my session by explaining what an adverb is, exactly.

Then, I have some ready-to-go practice sentences – and my student finds the adverbs within the sentences.

After that, I let my students take a turn thinking of an adjective to use to finish a sentence.

Then, we take some scrambled up words and make a meaningful sentence out of those words. (And yes- that sentence does contain an adverb).

I follow it up with a nice serving of sentence diagramming.

Now, you might have noticed I used a more generic term like “parts of speech”. This allows me to cover a wide variety of areas.

Your student may need to focus on specific parts of speech, and that’s fine too. You can write your goals accordingly.

Speech Therapy Goals for Conjunctions

Although I tend to use the approach above (and cycle through a variety of parts of speech and sentence parts), there are definitely times where you want to hone in on specific area. For students who require more structured support, I like to do either fill-in-the-blank conjunction activities or “sentence starter” activities . When my students have the basics down, we practice in a more open-ended way, creating complex and compound sentences using conjunctions about pictures .

If you need a conjunctions review, coordinating conjunctions can be remembered using FANBOYS. Coordinating conjunctions include: for, and, nor, but, or, so, yet.

Subordinating conjunctions can help explain reasoning (because, since, so that), time (after, as soon as, until), make comparisons (whether, as much as), provide conditions (if, only if), and use concessions (though, even though). They also include relative pronouns (such as who, whoever).

Coorelative conjunctions are “pairs” of coordinating conjunctions. Examples include both…and, if…then, and either…or.

Example conjunctions goals might include:

• create sentences using subordinating conjunctions during sentence fill-in tasks
• create sentences using coordinating conjunctions when provided with sentence starters
• create sentences about a picture using target conjunction (ex: subordinating, coordinating)
• when provided with a sentence, choose the correct conjunction (ex: subordinating, correlative) to complete the sentence

Speech Therapy Goals for Defining and Describing

The ability to define and describe is so important!

It is important that your student is able to label the category for an item, but also be able to provide even more attributes. This task can be used for basic describing (A banana is a food that you eat. It is yellow), but can also be used for more advanced describing with older students.

Every year, my fourth graders had to write biographies on famous historical people. They had to research these people, then present a report explaining what they’d learned.

We would use the book recommended by their teachers and go through and find the important details to use in the report.

My students would identify the category for their famous historical person (a baseball player? a former president? an author?), important things they did, what they looked like, where they lived, and list out key events from their person’s life.

Defining and Describing Example Objectives

Example speech therapy goals for defining and describing could include:

• label the category for a named item or picture
• state the function of an object (explain what an item is used for, or what it does)
• describe the appearance (i.e. shape, size, color, etc)
• explain the location for a given item (where you might find it, where it is located)
• list parts or associated parts for a named item or picture
• complete analogies related to descriptive features/ attributes (i.e. dog is to animal as chair is to…furniture)
• identify an item or object when provided with descriptive features/ attributes (i.e. It’s an animal that gives us milk. It lives on a farm)
• define an object or item by providing the category and at least 2 additional attributes
• explain similarities and differences between named objects or items

I loved completing these analogy worksheets with my 4th grade students. The analogies were broken down into different areas (i.e. category analogies, object function analogies, etc).

Speech Therapy Goals for Semantic Relationships

Working on semantic relationships in speech therapy is important.

My 4th and 5th graders often have difficulty understanding spatial relationships, comparative relationships, and time vocabulary.

To address these needs, I write semantic relationship speech therapy goals such as:

• the student will answer spoken/ written semantic relationship questions which target comparative relationships
• the student will answer spoken/ written semantic relationship questions which target temporal- sequential relationships
• student will answer spoken/ written semantic relationship questions which target spatial relationships
• student will complete spoken/ written sentences using targeted spatial, time, or comparative vocabulary

You can make these objectives very functional.

Your student can answer semantic relationship questions related to time vocabulary using his own daily school schedule. He can practice understanding the difference between “before” and “after” by explaining if he has art class before or after lunch.

Spatial relationships can be targeted by simply looking around the room. You can talk about how the pencil sharpener is to the right of the door. You can talk about how today’s date is written on the top left corner of the board.

For ready-to-go practice, check out these semantic relationships worksheets .

Following Directions Speech Therapy Goal Ideas

4th and 5th graders (and even some middle schoolers) working on complex following directions can get- well – bored when doing the “same old, same old” following directions activities.

I like to challenge them- by using these complex following directions worksheets .

My students are engaged. They love trying to see who can finish the direction first. I often have to remind them- it’s much more important to listen carefully and focus.

Goal Ideas for Complex Directions Include:

• student will follow complex spoken/ written directions containing embedded temporal / sequential concepts
• follow complex spoken/ written directions containing embedded spatial concepts
• follow complex spoken/ written directions containing a) a variety of embedded concepts (to include spatial, temporal, or sequential) and b) multiple modifiers

More Upper Elementary Speech Therapy Ideas

Now that you’ve got some ideas for goal writing for your upper elementary speech therapy students, keep on reading to dive deep into the world of 4th and 5th grade! You can read about my favorite games for 4th and 5th grade – and don’t forget to learn about my favorite straw technique for tackling a lateral lisp .

Similar Posts

Challenging speech therapy activities for 4th and 5th graders.

Speech therapy activities for 4th and 5th graders can be tricky to find. You need resources that are effective but will also engage your students. The past 6 years, I have spent a LOT of time working with 4th and 5th graders in speech and language therapy, and I’ve learned a lot about what works-…

The Best Speech Therapy Worksheets for School SLPs

This article lists the best speech therapy worksheets for school SLPs to use with students.

The Advanced Grammar and Sentence Structure Program for Speech Therapy: Why Grammar and Syntax is SO Important

TWO. EXHAUSTING. MONTHS. It all started when I sat down and started thinking about how often I hear in IEP meetings: this student struggles with reading comprehension. Now, I WAS working on comprehension goals, but I felt like I needed to dig deeper. What SPECIFIC areas of language could I target that would best help…

Grammar Goals for Speech Therapy (IEP Objectives)

Need some ideas for grammar goals for speech therapy? If you’re feeling stuck, keep on reading! In this post, I’ll provide some suggestions you could use for writing iep goals for grammar and sentence structure. Think of this blog post as an informal goal bank- one you can use to get some ideas for goal…

The Helpful List of Student Strengths and Weaknesses for IEP Writing

Are you a speech-language pathologist or intervention specialist looking for a list of student strengths and weaknesses for IEP writing? Speech-language pathologists and special education teachers are two examples of professionals who are responsible for the IEP writing process and iep paperwork. Writing an effective IEP is important- but not easy. This blog post provides…

Here’s How I Teach Grammar & Sentence Structure in Speech Therapy

grammar and syntax speech therapy ideas

One Comment

• Pingback: BEST Books for Speech Therapy: 4th and 5th Grade - The Pedi Speechie

Comments are closed.

• Speech Topics For Kids
• How To Write A Speech

How to Write a Speech: A Guide to Enhance Your Writing Skills

Speech is a medium to convey a message to the world. It is a way of expressing your views on a topic or a way to showcase your strong opposition to a particular idea. To deliver an effective speech, you need a strong and commanding voice, but more important than that is what you say. Spending time in preparing a speech is as vital as presenting it well to your audience.

Read the article to learn what all you need to include in a speech and how to structure it.

Table of Contents

• Self-Introduction

The Opening Statement

Structuring the speech, choice of words, authenticity, writing in 1st person, tips to write a speech, frequently asked questions on speech, how to write a speech.

Writing a speech on any particular topic requires a lot of research. It also has to be structured well in order to properly get the message across to the target audience. If you have ever listened to famous orators, you would have noticed the kind of details they include when speaking about a particular topic, how they present it and how their speeches motivate and instill courage in people to work towards an individual or shared goal. Learning how to write such effective speeches can be done with a little guidance. So, here are a few points you can keep in mind when writing a speech on your own. Go through each of them carefully and follow them meticulously.

Self Introduction

When you are writing or delivering a speech, the very first thing you need to do is introduce yourself. When you are delivering a speech for a particular occasion, there might be a master of ceremony who might introduce you and invite you to share your thoughts. Whatever be the case, always remember to say one or two sentences about who you are and what you intend to do.

Introductions can change according to the nature of your target audience. It can be either formal or informal based on the audience you are addressing. Here are a few examples.

Addressing Friends/Classmates/Peers

• Hello everyone! I am ________. I am here to share my views on _________.
• Good morning friends. I, _________, am here to talk to you about _________.

Addressing Teachers/Higher Authorities

• Good morning/afternoon/evening. Before I start, I would like to thank _______ for giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts about ________ here today.
• A good day to all. I, __________, on behalf of _________, am standing here today to voice out my thoughts on _________.

It is said that the first seven seconds is all that a human brain requires to decide whether or not to focus on something. So, it is evident that a catchy opening statement is the factor that will impact your audience. Writing a speech does require a lot of research, and structuring it in an interesting, informative and coherent manner is something that should be done with utmost care.

When given a topic to speak on, the first thing you can do is brainstorm ideas and pen down all that comes to your mind. This will help you understand what aspect of the topic you want to focus on. With that in mind, you can start drafting your speech.

An opening statement can be anything that is relevant to the topic. Use words smartly to create an impression and grab the attention of your audience. A few ideas on framing opening statements are given below. Take a look.

• Asking an Engaging Question

Starting your speech by asking the audience a question can get their attention. It creates an interest and curiosity in the audience and makes them think about the question. This way, you would have already got their minds ready to listen and think.

• Fact or a Surprising Statement

Surprising the audience with an interesting fact or a statement can draw the attention of the audience. It can even be a joke; just make sure it is relevant. A good laugh would wake up their minds and they would want to listen to what you are going to say next.

• Adding a Quote

After you have found your topic to work on, look for a quote that best suits your topic. The quote can be one said by some famous personality or even from stories, movies or series. As long as it suits your topic and is appropriate to the target audience, use them confidently.  Again, finding a quote that is well-known or has scope for deep thought will be your success factor.

To structure your speech easily, it is advisable to break it into three parts or three sections – an introduction, body and conclusion.

• Introduction: Introduce the topic and your views on the topic briefly.
• Body: Give a detailed explanation of your topic. Your focus should be to inform and educate your audience on the said topic.
• Conclusion:  Voice out your thoughts/suggestions. Your intention here should be to make them think/act.

While delivering or writing a speech, it is essential to keep an eye on the language you are using. Choose the right kind of words. The person has the liberty to express their views in support or against the topic; just be sure to provide enough evidence to prove the discussed points. See to it that you use short and precise sentences. Your choice of words and what you emphasise on will decide the effect of the speech on the audience.

When writing a speech, make sure to,

• Avoid long, confusing sentences.
• Check the spelling, sentence structure and grammar.
• Not use contradictory words or statements that might cause any sort of issues.

Anything authentic will appeal to the audience, so including anecdotes, personal experiences and thoughts will help you build a good rapport with your audience. The only thing you need to take care is to not let yourself be carried away in the moment. Speak only what is necessary.

Using the 1st person point of view in a speech is believed to be more effective than a third person point of view. Just be careful not to make it too subjective and sway away from the topic.

• Understand the purpose of your speech: Before writing the speech, you must understand the topic and the purpose behind it. Reason out and evaluate if the speech has to be inspiring, entertaining or purely informative.
• Identify your audience: When writing or delivering a speech, your audience play the major role. Unless you know who your target audience is, you will not be able to draft a good and appropriate speech.
• Decide the length of the speech: Whatever be the topic, make sure you keep it short and to the point. Making a speech longer than it needs to be will only make it monotonous and boring.
• Revising and practicing the speech: After writing, it is essential to revise and recheck as there might be minor errors which you might have missed. Edit and revise until you are sure you have it right. Practise as much as required so you do not stammer in front of your audience.
• Mention your takeaways at the end of the speech: Takeaways are the points which have been majorly emphasised on and can bring a change. Be sure to always have a thought or idea that your audience can reflect upon at the end of your speech.

How to write a speech?

Writing a speech is basically about collecting, summarising and structuring your points on a given topic. Do a proper research, prepare multiple drafts, edit and revise until you are sure of the content.

Why is it important to introduce ourselves?

It is essential to introduce yourself while writing a speech, so that your audience or the readers know who the speaker is and understand where you come from. This will, in turn, help them connect with you and your thoughts.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your Mobile number and Email id will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Request OTP on Voice Call

Post My Comment

• Share Share

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Register with byju's & watch live videos.

Explore 4th Grade Speech classroom activities to inspire and engage your students

4th Grade Speech

46 activities, community activities - speech, browse teacher-created activities from our community of seesaw ambassadors and seesaw certified educators..

Elizabeth Akers

Tonya Kelly, M.Ed

Jennifer Tannenbaum

Tony Clarke

Shelly Mooney

Mrs. Rhoads

Ashleigh Keogh

Gary Reimann

Mrs McDonald

Miss Worling

Kirsty Macfarlane

Kellie Foote

Raghad Mohammad Abdel Rahim Al-

Browse By Subject

Browse by grade level.

• How to Cite
• Language & Lit
• Rhyme & Rhythm
• The Rewrite
• Search Glass

How to Write a Speech in Fifth Grade

In fifth grade, many students are introduced to the topic of speech writing. To write an effective speech, a student first must have a firm grasp on the chosen topic. This means that you need to do some extensive research on your speech topic before you sit down to write. As you write your speech, keep your audience in mind and make sure you present the topic in a way that your audience will understand and appreciate. These guidelines can be used when writing a speech in fifth grade or any time.

Read your teacher's instructions very carefully. The instructions might include what type of topic you need to pick, how long the speech needs to be and what the purpose of the speech is. For example, the purpose might be to inform your audience or to persuade them.

Choose a topic. Narrowing down your topic will make writing the speech easier. For example, the solar system is a very broad informative speech topic, while "Why Pluto is not longer a planet" is a narrow topic.

Write the introduction for your speech. The introduction tells the audience what the speech is about and goes over the main points briefly.

Develop at least three major points for the speech. These points directly relate to your topic. For example, one point from the above example might talk about what information is used to categorize something as a planet in the solar system.

Add additional details to each point that back it up. These details should come from your research on the topic, based on legitimate sources. The NASA website, for example, would be a legitimate source to go to for information about Pluto.

Conclude your speech. The conclusion goes back over your main points to remind your audience of everything you've addressed.

Read the speech you've written out loud. This will show you if any of your sentences or points are not complete or sound awkward. Practice your speech until you're comfortable saying the whole thing out loud.

• Write-out-loud.com: How to Write a Speech

Mike Johnson has been working as a writer since 2005, specializing in fitness, health, sports, recreational activities and relationship advice. He has also had short stories published in literary journals such as "First Class Magazine." Johnson holds a Bachelor of Science in education and history from Youngstown State University.

Tips for a Winning Student Council Speech for Treasurer

If you're running for student council treasurer, we've got everything you need to start your speech, organize it, and give it with confidence.

Lindsay is a healthcare writer who covers a number of topics including those that surround addiction and recovery, sleep disorders, and stress, among others.

Learn about our Editorial Policy .

Public speaking can be a little intimidating but don't worry. All it takes is some great planning to nail your student council speech for treasurer. It's actually really easy to put together once you know what elements make up a good speech.

If you need a little extra inspiration (who doesn't?), we've got a sample treasurer speech you can customize.

How to Write a Student Council Speech for Treasurer

Writing an effective student council speech means you need to connect with your audience and make a great impression. Chances are, these are people you already sort of know, so you need to convince them to vote for you with a well-organized and logical speech.

• Student Council Speech Ideas & Tips to Help You Win
• Funny Student Council Speech Ideas to Help Everyone Relate to You

Unlike those standard oral reports or presentations you might give for a class, your student council speech for treasurer is more of a persuasive speech. To get the job done, you need to not only get your point across but also receive the votes that will get you elected.

Capture Their Attention With a Good Impression

With everything we all hear all the time these days, you need to work a little harder to get people's attention. Consider starting your speech with a humorous story or something your audience will relate to.

• Talk about your background with managing money. This could include funny stories, such as selling lemonade as a kid or how you've saved allowance money.
• Discuss the importance of creating a budget for student council . Talk about something you've wanted to buy and how you made this happen.
• Be sincere as you speak and don't try to change anyone's mind. Let your audience decide for themselves that you are the top choice.
• Funny Intro Ideas for Student Council Speeches

Organize the Speech

Make sure your speech has a beginning, middle, and end that flow together. It can work nicely to start and end your speech with the same points and then have everything in the middle help to prove your overall objective.

These tips can help you figure out what you want to say and organize it in a way that will make sense to people.

• Create a list of everything important you want to say. Sort these into sections that go together.
• Try picking topic headings for each part of your speech and then write a few paragraphs or sentences below each one.
• Experiment with writing the beginning of your speech last. That way, you'll know exactly how to start it with a bang.

Use Logic and Emotion

You need to establish your credibility, but be emotionally relatable at the same time. There are a few ways you can make this happen.

• Research real goals. Do some research about your school and what might be possible for you to achieve as treasurer.
• Present different perspectives. Consider interviewing teachers or staff, taking a poll to get student opinions, and even researching  teen spending habits .
• Point out how the winning treasurer for student council will affect students and the entire school. Present this in terms of possibilities of what could happen.
• Get students excited about the types of things that a good treasurer can do. Rather than talking about it just from your perspective, keep the focus on how other students will benefit from you winning this role.
• Arouse emotion in students, such as happiness, fear or excitement. Notice as you write your speech when you start to get excited and focus on those points.

Winning Treasurer Speech Example

An example speech can get you started with writing a personalized one. This free editable and printable speech for treasurer provides a great starting point. Click on the image to open the document then select the download icon. If you have trouble downloading or printing, check out this guide.

You'll always want to take a sample and make it yours, adding personalized details.

• Insert your name where you see "Jenny Johnson."
• Start with an anecdote from your own childhood. Choose one that reflects your ability or passion in money management.
• Add in personal information about achievements and memberships. Stick to those related to the Treasurer position or leadership roles.
• Change the goals section to include your ideas on how to improve things at your school.

More Tips for Treasurer Speeches

Be sure to write your speech ahead of time and practice it. Once you get it down on paper, the process becomes much less overwhelming. You may even find yourself getting excited to stand up and deliver it to classmates. In the end, whether you win or lose as treasurer, learning how to write and present speeches is a skill you can use your entire life.

For the Maya, solar eclipses were a sign of heavenly clashes − and their astronomers kept sophisticated records to predict them

Associate Professor of Instruction, University of Texas at Arlington

Disclosure statement

Kimberly H. Breuer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Texas Arlington provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

View all partners

We live in a light-polluted world, where streetlamps, electronic ads and even backyard lighting block out all but the brightest celestial objects in the night sky. But travel to an officially protected “ Dark Sky” area , gaze skyward and be amazed.

This is the view of the heavens people had for millennia. Pre-modern societies watched the sky and created cosmographies, maps of the skies that provided information for calendars and agricultural cycles. They also created cosmologies, which, in the original use of the word, were religious beliefs to explain the universe . The gods and the heavens were inseparable.

The skies are orderly and cyclical in nature, so watch and record long enough and you will determine their rhythms. Many societies were able to accurately predict lunar eclipses, and some could also predict solar eclipses – like the one that will occur over North America on April 8, 2024 .

The path of totality, where the Moon will entirely block the Sun, will cross into Mexico on the Pacific coast before entering the United States in Texas, where I teach the history of technology and science , and will be seen as a partial eclipse across the lands of the ancient Maya. This follows the October 2023 annular eclipse, when it was possible to observe the “ring of fire” around the Sun from many ancient Maya ruins and parts of Texas.

A millennia ago, two such solar eclipses over the same area within six months would have seen Maya astronomers, priests and rulers leap into a frenzy of activity. I have seen a similar frenzy – albeit for different reasons – here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where we will be in the path of totality. During this period between the two eclipses, I have felt privileged to share my interest in the history of astronomy with students and the community.

Ancient astronomers

The ancient Maya were arguably one of the greatest sky-watching societies. Accomplished mathematicians , they recorded systematic observations on the motion of the Sun, planets and stars.

From these observations, they created a complex calendar system to regulate their world – one of the most accurate of pre-modern times.

Astronomers closely observed the Sun and aligned monumental structures, such as pyramids, to track solstices and equinoxes . They also utilized these structures, as well as caves and wells, to mark the zenith days – the two times a year in the tropics where the Sun is directly overhead and vertical objects cast no shadow.

Maya scribes kept accounts of the astronomical observations in codices, hieroglyphic folding books made from fig bark paper. The Dresden Codex , one of the four remaining ancient Maya texts, dates to the 11th century. Its pages contain a wealth of astronomical knowledge and religious interpretations and provide evidence that the Maya could predict solar eclipses.

From the codex’s astronomical tables , researchers know that the Maya tracked the lunar nodes, the two points where the orbit of the Moon intersects with the ecliptic – the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, which from our point of view is the path of the Sun through our sky. They also created tables divided into the 177-day solar eclipse seasons, marking days where eclipses were possible.

Heavenly battle

But why invest so much in tracking the skies?

Knowledge is power. If you kept accounts of what happened at the time of certain celestial events, you could be forewarned and take proper precautions when cycles repeated themselves. Priests and rulers would know how to act, which rituals to perform and which sacrifices to make to the gods to guarantee that the cycles of destruction, rebirth and renewal continued.

In the Maya’s belief system , sunsets were associated with death and decay. Every evening the sun god, Kinich Ahau, made the perilous journey through Xibalba, the Maya underworld, to be born anew at sunrise. Solar eclipses were seen as a “broken sun ” – a sign of possible cataclysmic destruction.

Kinich Ahau was associated with prosperity and good order. His brother Chak Ek – the morning star, which we now know as the planet Venus – was associated with war and discord. They had an adversarial relationship , fighting for supremacy.

Their battle could be witnessed in the heavens. During solar eclipses, planets, stars and sometimes comets can be seen during totality . If positioned properly, Venus will shine brightly near the eclipsed Sun, which the Maya interpreted as Chak Ek on the attack. This is hinted at in the Dresden Codex, where a diving Venus god appears in the solar eclipse tables, and in the coordination of solar eclipses with the Venus cycles in the Madrid Codex, another Maya folding book from the late 15th century.

With Kinich Ahau – the Sun – hidden behind the Moon, the Maya believed he was dying. Renewal rituals were necessary to restore balance and set him back on his proper course.

Nobility, especially the king, would perform bloodletting sacrifices , piercing their bodies and collecting the blood drops to burn as offerings to the sun god. This “blood of kings” was the highest form of sacrifice, meant to strengthen Kinich Ahau. Maya believed the creator gods had given their blood and mixed it with maize dough to create the first humans. In turn, the nobility gave a small portion of their own life force to nourish the gods .

Time stands still

In the lead-up to April’s eclipse, I feel as if I am completing a personal cycle of my own, bringing me back to earlier career paths: first as an aerospace engineer who loved her orbital mechanics classes and enjoyed backyard astronomy; and then as a history doctoral student, studying how Maya culture persisted after the Spanish conquest.

For me, just like the ancient Maya, the total solar eclipse will be a chance to not only look up but also to consider both past and future. Viewing the eclipse is something our ancestors have done since time immemorial and will do far into the future. It is awesome in the original sense of the word: For a few moments it seems as if time both stops, as all eyes turn skyward, and converges, as we take part in the same spectacle as our ancestors and descendants.

And whether you believe in divine messages, battles between Venus and the Sun, or in the beauty of science and the natural world, this event brings people together. It is humbling, and it is also very, very cool.

I just hope that Kinich Ahau will grace us with his presence in a cloudless sky and once again vanquish Venus, which is a morning star on April 8.

• Renewable energy
• History of science
• Solar eclipse
• Destruction
• Pre-Columbian
• Religion and society
• Ancient cultures
• MesoAmerica

Senior Research Development Coordinator

Audience Development Coordinator (fixed-term maternity cover)

Lecturer (Hindi-Urdu)

Director, Defence and Security

Opportunities with the new CIEHF

Watch CBS News

Is Trump's $175 million civil fraud bond valid in New York?

By Katrina Kaufman

Updated on: April 4, 2024 / 4:18 PM EDT / CBS News

When former President Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond in New York on Monday, it appeared that he had evaded a financial crisis. He had paused enforcement of the more than $460 million judgment against him following a civil fraud trial , while his appeal is pending. 

But the surety bond was missing vital information typically included in those filings, experts say. These standard elements include documents related to power of attorney for the bond provider, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, a financial statement from the company and a certificate of qualification from the Department of Financial Services.  

New York Attorney General Letitia James indicated in a filing Thursday, after the original publication of this story, that she, too, has concerns about the bond.

James took "exception to the sufficiency of the surety" given by Trump and the other defendants. She objected to the fact that the bond was issued by a company that is not an admitted carrier in New York, and lacks the certificate of qualification required by New York Insurance Law Section 1111. 

Trump attorney Christopher Kise on Thursday alleged James' filing was  "another witch hunt" and accused her office of "hiding out in silence" after an appellate court reduced the defendants' bond from more than $464 million to $175 million.

"The Attorney General now seeks to stir up some equally baseless public quarrel in a desperate effort to regain relevance," Kise said.

Within 10 days, Trump or the company must file a motion to "justify" the bond, meaning Knight must prove that it is financially capable of paying the bond.

"There seem to be serious issues," said Bruce H. Lederman, an attorney who has filed many bonds in New York, including for a real estate developer challenging a judgment. Lederman said he was struck by "glaring errors" in the bond.

"In all the years I've been doing this, you always have to have a certificate from the Department of Financial Services saying that you're licensed to issue a surety bond," he said, referring to the missing certificate of qualification. 

Lederman also noticed that Knight Specialty is not listed on New York's Department of Financial Services website. 

The company refiled its posting, as directed by the New York Supreme Court clerk, after CBS News published its report on Thursday and before James' took exception to the bond.  

On Wednesday, the clerk's office had returned to Trump's attorneys the bond filing "for correction." There was no reason publicly specified in the request.

Adam Pollock, a former assistant attorney general in New York, said, "This bond is deficient for a number of reasons." 

"Including that the company doesn't appear to be licensed in New York and doesn't appear to have enough capital to make this undertaking," Pollock said.

Knight Specialty is not licensed in New York to issue surety bonds, and Lederman noted the company's absence from the Department of Financial Services database. But the company contends it is nevertheless authorized to issue the bond.

The company also does not appear to meet a restriction under New York insurance law barring companies from putting more than 10% of its capital at risk.

Amit Shah, the president of Knight Insurance, said the restriction does not apply. He said Knight has over $1 billion in equity.

"Knight Specialty Insurance Company is not a New York domestic insurer, and New York surplus lines insurance laws do not regulate the solvency of non-New York excess lines insurers," he said. "So we don't believe we need the 10% surplus." 

The billionaire behind Trump's bond is Don Hankey , the chairman of Knight Insurance, which owns the subsidiary that wrote the bond. 

Hankey said that Trump used "cash" as collateral for the bond, a total of $175 million. 

"First he furnished about $120 million worth of bonds that we OK'd, so we assumed it would be investment-grade bonds and cash. But as it turned out, it was all cash," he told CBS News in a brief phone call on Tuesday. 

But Trump retained that $175 million cash collateral, according to Shah. He said the money is in an account that is "pledged" to the company. He would not specify the type of account. Trump paid a premium to the company that Shah declined to disclose. 

"It seems to me that the underlying case is about the [New York] attorney general requiring strict compliance with the law," said Lederman. 

"The law requires an insurance company posting a surety bond to be authorized in New York," he said. "And there are serious questions about if this bond was properly posted."

Under a New York law known as CPLR 2502, an "insurance company [shall be] authorized to execute the undertaking within the state." 

When CBS News asked Hankey about Knight Specialty's authorization to issue bonds in New York, the company's net worth and potential deficiencies in the bond filing for Trump, he deferred to Knight's president: "I'm chairman of that company. I've got several other companies that I own. Amit Shah would be the person to talk to."

Shah explained that the company is authorized to issue a surety bond in New York through the Excess Line Association of New York (ELANY). He said the company is approved by ELANY to issue bonds from its home domicile state of Delaware, where it is allowed to write surety bonds. 

"Our position is we're compliant," said Shah. 

Knight's compliance officer, Mike Pepitone, said that there are a number of insurance companies that do not hold a license in every state, but a company is able to write a bond in other states where they are not licensed on what he said is called "an excess and surplus lines basis."

"For court bonds, as regulated by the CPLR, the law is clear about in-state license requirement," said Pollock, who noted that there are surety bonds used in other industries like construction that would not be subject to that rule.

Shah initially said that the company had in fact submitted a financial statement with the bond. In its initial bond filing, Pepitone said the financial statement was not supposed to be included, but later, in its updated bond filing Thursday, the company shared its financial statement.

If Knight Specialty does not have Trump's cash collateral for the bond in its possession, Lederman questioned whether the company "could or would pay immediately" if Trump loses his appeal. Lederman said James should investigate to determine if the company is in compliance with state law requirements.

"The attorney general would have ample grounds to push back here," said Pollock.

The New York Attorney General's office declined to comment. But Lederman said, "The attorney general is now requiring Trump to follow the law and have the court approve the bond because as filed, the bond is not acceptable."

Knight's updated filing included a financial statement showing that the company's surplus to policyholders is $1 billion and a joint limited power of attorney signed by Hankey and Shah.

• Donald Trump

More from CBS News

Another Trump delay effort in "hush money" trial rejected

Special counsel pushes Supreme Court to reject Trump's immunity bid

Potential jurors in Trump's "hush money" trial will be asked these questions

Couple gets engaged on flight to see total solar eclipse

• FanNation FanNation FanNation
• Swimsuit SI Swimsuit SI Swimsuit
• Sportsbook SI Sportsbook SI Sportsbook
• Tickets SI Tickets SI Tickets
• Shop SI Shop SI Shop
• March Madness
• What's on TV
• NCAAB NCAAB NCAAB
• Home Home Home
• Scores Scores Scores
• Schedule Schedule Schedule
• Men's Bracket Men's Bracket Men's Bracket
• Women's Bracket Women's Bracket Women's Bracket
• Rankings Rankings Rankings
• Standings Standings Standings
• Stats Stats Statistics
• Teams Teams Teams

Caitlin Clark Had Classy Gesture for Fans While Leaving Court After Iowa’s Loss to South Carolina

• Author: Karl Rasmussen

In this story:

Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark played her final college basketball game on Sunday, ending her career in with a crushing defeat against Dawn Staley's undefeated South Carolina team in the National Championship , 87–75.

In the aftermath of the final defeat of her historic career, Clark displayed nothing but class, and she bid farewell to her faithful fans one last time before exiting the court.

Amid the agony of defeat—the second time in as many years that Iowa has come up shy in a national championship scenario—Clark could be seen gesturing to her fans, pointing to her heart in order to show them love before heading to the tunnel.

Caitlin Clark’s final NCAA walk pic.twitter.com/gfucvo8QAd — Gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 7, 2024

Clark scored a game-high 30 points, including five threes, while adding eight rebounds and five assists. She played every minute of the game, but her performance wasn't enough to topple the Gamecocks, who won all 38 games they played this season.

The 22-year-old set records throughout the Hawkeyes' tournament run, and although it wasn't the curtain call she'd hoped for, Clark made sure to show her appreciation for her supporters and was all class on her way off the court.

Latest NCAAB News

Former Kentucky Wildcats are favorites or near the top for every important NBA Award

Minnesota to face No. 1 Indiana State in NIT second round

Louisville Men's Basketball Head Coach Hot Board 2.0

The Auburn Tigers need to watch out for these two Yale stars

2024 NCAA Tournament: How to watch Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. McNeese State Cowboys, live stream, TV channel for first round matchup

• Mobile Site
• Staff Directory
• Advertise with Ars

Filter by topic

• Biz & IT
• Gaming & Culture

Front page layout

How to prompt friends and influence people —

The fine art of human prompt engineering: how to talk to a person like chatgpt, people are more like ai language models than you might think. here are some prompting tips..

Benj Edwards - Apr 3, 2024 11:30 am UTC

While AI assistants like ChatGPT have taken the world by storm, a growing body of research shows that it's also possible to generate useful outputs from what might be called "human language models," or people. Much like large language models (LLMs) in AI, HLMs have the ability to take information you provide and transform it into meaningful responses—if you know how to craft effective instructions, called "prompts."

Further Reading

Human prompt engineering is an ancient art form dating at least back to Aristotle's time, and it also became widely popular through books published in the modern era before the advent of computers.

Since interacting with humans can be difficult, we've put together a guide to a few key prompting techniques that will help you get the most out of conversations with human language models. But first, let's go over some of what HLMs can do.

Understanding human language models

LLMs like those that power ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot , Google Gemini , and Anthropic Claude all rely on an input called a "prompt," which can be a text string or an image encoded into a series of tokens (fragments of data). The goal of each AI model is to take those tokens and predict the next most-likely tokens that follow, based on data trained into their neural networks. That prediction becomes the output of the model.

Similarly, prompts allow human language models to draw upon their training data to recall information in a more contextually accurate way. For example, if you prompt a person with "Mary had a," you might expect an HLM to complete the sentence with "little lamb" based on frequent instances of the famous nursery rhyme encountered in educational or upbringing datasets. But if you add more context to your prompt, such as "In the hospital, Mary had a," the person instead might draw on training data related to hospitals and childbirth and complete the sentence with "baby."

Humans rely on a type of biological neural network (called "the brain") to process information. Each brain has been trained since birth on a wide variety of both text and audiovisual media, including large copyrighted datasets. (Predictably, some humans are prone to reproducing copyrighted content or other people's output occasionally, which can get them in trouble .)

Despite how often we interact with humans, scientists still have an incomplete grasp on how HLMs process language or interact with the world around them. HLMs are still considered a " black box ," in the sense that we know what goes in and what comes out, but how brain structure gives rise to complex thought processes is largely a mystery. For example, do humans actually "understand" what you're prompting them, or do they simply react based on their training data? Can they truly "reason," or are they just regurgitating novel permutations of facts learned from external sources? How can a biological machine acquire and use language? The ability appears to emerge spontaneously through pre-training from other humans and is then fine-tuned later through education.

Despite the black-box nature of their brains, most experts believe that humans build a world model (an internal representation of the exterior world around them) to help complete prompts and that they possess advanced mathematical capabilities, though that varies dramatically by model, and most still need access to external tools to complete accurate calculations. Still, a human's most useful strength might lie in the verbal-visual user interface, which uses vision and language processing to encode multimodal inputs (speech, text, sound, or images) and then produce coherent outputs based on a prompt.

Humans also showcase impressive few-shot learning capabilities, being able to quickly adapt to new tasks in context (within the prompt) using a few provided examples. Their zero-shot learning abilities are equally remarkable, and many HLMs can tackle novel problems without any prior task-specific training data (or at least attempt to tackle them, to varying degrees of success).

Interestingly, some HLMs (but not all ) demonstrate strong performance on common sense reasoning benchmarks , showcasing their ability to draw upon real-world "knowledge" to answer questions and make inferences. They also tend to excel at open-ended text generation tasks, such as story writing and essay composition, producing coherent and creative outputs.

reader comments

Promoted comments.

Channel Ars Technica