This page is one small part of Good Sites for Kids!
Meet Demosthenes (left) and Daniel Webster (right). Both were famous debaters and orators. "Webster Replying to Hayne", by Healy (1851), is about the Webster-Hayne Debate, "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress " (Wikipedia). Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina is just visible standing in the podium on the left side, while Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts is standing on the right.
American Phrases and Sayings Research the origins and meanings of dozens of idioms like "bury the hatchet" and search or browse for more. Interesting. Could be a help for ESL students, too.
American Rhetoric will teach you all about making speeches! An online database of 5,000 good speeches on every topic, with examples from history, the movies; full text, audio, and video database of the 100 top American political speeches of the 20th century! Hear the Pearl Harbor speech, FDR's Fireside Chats, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X; hear or read Ghandi, Gladiator, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Robert Gould Shaw, Joshua Chamberlain, Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth I, Martin Luther at Worms, Army-McCarthy Hearings, Maya Angelou, Marc Antony, Marlin Brando, hundreds more! Plus: "200+ short audio and video clips illustrating stylistic figures of speech ranging from alliteration to synecdoche. Clips are taken from speeches, movies, sermons, and sensational media events and delivered by politicians, actors, preachers, athletes, and other notable personalities." See how it's done, learn from the pros!
Common Errors in English Usage "The aim of this site is to help you avoid low grades, lost employment opportunities, lost business, and titters of amusement at the way you write or speak." You should read over the intro page at least once before going on to the list of errors. The errors list page is alphabetized and very comprehensive. A very useful tool and an aid to better American English. We should all thank Professor Paul Brians of WSU Pullman.
Fairy tale origins thousands of years old Fairy tales go way, way back. "Beauty and the Beast" and "Rumpelstiltskin" are 4,000 years old. "Jack and the Beanstalk" in all its versions, is over 5,000 years old. "The Devil and the Smith" is 6,000 years old! "The story has been dated at 6,000 years old, from the Bronze Age, making it twice as old as Homer's stories The Odyssey and The Iliad." - International Business Times
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples Ok, this site is a little above most elementary kids. Terms from Alliteration to Zeugma explained. It's a good source for language arts teachers, debate/forensics, or oral interp.
"I Have a Dream" speech, text and, audio, from American Rhetoric.
"I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, text, and audio, from American Rhetoric.
I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate A Spoken Word video from Suli Breaks, British recording artist. Over half a million people worldwide have viewed this video. Looks like maybe half of them left comments! A protest against standardized, one-size-fits-all education systems. It's a pretty gripping video. (Warning: This video will make you THINK!) Also an advocacy of finding a career that you enjoy, following your dream instead of being a wage slave. Don't want to put any more words in his mouth, out of respect. GSFK agrees with the plug: "You Have To Watch This!!" Choose your own POV and discuss this with other viewers.
Martin Luther King Speeches - Excerpts from King's most famous addresses. From infoplease.
Miss Mary Mack Good ol' kids' impromptu hand clapping! This particular song is American, but no one knows its provenance. Kids do this on playgrounds, at home, and anywhere they might get bored (such as in a line). The links all feature the lyrics and demonstrate the various invented clapping rhythms, such as in these three videos. Two sisters do their version on a sidewalk in this clip. Someday, someone will get an advanced degree in Linguistics analyzing these clapping songs.
Miss Mary Mack, Mack,
Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence
They jumped so high, high, high
They touched the sky, sky, sky
And didn’t come back, back, back
Till the fourth of July, July, July.
Prehistoric
Animal Brigade
This rhythmic little kids' song is from Australia! It's been popular down
under for many years. Watch the videos, see the movement, and you'll quickly
understand why! It's repetitive, gets kids up and moving, and it "Must
be sung loud and raucously, with not too much attention to correctness of lyrics."
This version, "Our
Keira singing the Prehistoric Brigade song", shows that even awesomely
cute toddlers claim the song as their own.
Alternate
version 1 A young lady sings while showing the hand and arm movements, as
she recalls them
Alternate
Version 2 Audio only, a female chorus sings, accompanied by a big band.
Alternate
Version 3 Audio only, part of the Josephine's Action Songs For Children
series, sound track written for dancing.
Watch them all, then make up your own! Going in Early
Learning, Homeschool, Literacy > ESL
and Speech and Speaking,
and Music.
The Prehistoric
Animal Brigade (M L Reeve)
Listen to the chorus,
Of the brontosaurus (some versions use "brachiosaurus")
And the stegosaurus
Down by the swamp.
Along comes a dinosaur,
Making such a loud roar,
Thumping with his feet and going
Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Pterodactlyl flapping,
Long beak clacking,
Big teeth snapping,
Down from a tree.
Here's a woolly mammoth,
Tusks all curly,
Joins the hurly burly.
Oh dear me!
What a noise! (What a noise!)
It's the boys (It’s the boys) (some versions: "It's the noise")
Of the Prehistoric Animal Brigade!
Public Speaking Five units/activities from Curriki.
Rhetological Fallacies from Information is Beautiful. "Errors and manipulations of rhetoric and logical thinking" This site breaks down the logical fallacies into six major* and myriad minor categories, to help you learn the exact ways you could be manipulated by a speechmaker or a debater. 100% graphics and nice to look at. The graphic organization of all this data is a sight to behold. (*They are: Appeal to the Mind, Appeal to Emotions, Faulty Deduction, Garbled Cause and Effect, Manipulating Content, and On the Attack. All the ones we know, such as Straw Man and Slippery Slope, are under one or more of these main headings.)
Signing Savvy THE place to go for ASL! "Signing Savvy is a sign language dictionary containing several thousand high resolution videos of American Sign Language (ASL) signs, fingerspelled words, and other common signs used within the United States and Canada." Watching a video of the signing is way better than looking at a picture with confusing curving arrows. This site will help you learn ASL! Includes search for words and phrases; or browse by letter. Look up fingerspelling, numbers, colors, animals, geography, baby signs, more! Free but limited access for guests. Full membership gives unlimited access to all site resources for $50 a year. Normally Good Sites would not run pay sites, but if you need to learn to sign this is worth it. Thanks, Corey.
Speeches For Kids Going
in Literacy > Speech
& Speaking
"Our collection of famous speeches for kids is guaranteed to inspire them."
Patrick Henry, Frederick Douglass, Chief Joseph, Bill Gates, Churchill, Malala,
Susan B. Anthony, JFK, MLK, Jobs, Lincoln, Gandhi, Mandela, and others.
"Speeches can be easily searched through by using our filtering methods."
Part of Mocomi, a very good site from India.
Taxonomy of Logical Fallacies from The Fallacy Files. This page shows the relationships between logical fallacy types in a taxonomy chart! Fallacies are arranged under formal and informal, the groups and subgroups are here. Great learning aid for forensics students and people who are interested in logic.
ZZCad Sentence Parsing Program "Type a sentence in the box below, and click on the button to see its parse." This will automatically break down a sentence into component parts and subsections, and show how they relate to each other. Parsing lets you choose words and word order, to convey shades of meaning. Parsing is a skill that can be learned.
I may not be the best public speaker, but I can make myself understood!
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