I like honoring the voices my students bring to my classroom. In order to demonstrate how much I value their voices and their home languages, I offer them the opportunity to deliver their second speech (a special occasion speech) in any language where they have fluency. The impact this has on the student speaking and on the audience is beautiful! Students speak with emotion and tone that is real while audience members listen with intense eye contact in an attempt to understand... A Speech Teacher's Dream!!
In teaching/introducing this next fall, I will share Rodenburg's thought, "...the right to speak does not mean there is one right way to speak." Hopefully this will create even more space in the minds of my students and in our classroom for everyone's voice to be heard and respected.
Yes. There is no "right way" to speak. It was delightful to hear Laurina's story in Swedish this morning!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great assignment, Tzitel!
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