good speeches for middle schoolers

10 Great American Speeches for the 7-12 Classroom

Readability and Rhetoric Ratings of Literary and Informational Texts

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Speeches can inspire students. Teachers in every subject area can use the texts of inspirational speeches to increase their students' background knowledge about a variety of topics. Speeches also address the  Common Core Literacy Standards for Science, History, Social Studies, and Technical Subject Areas as well as the  Standards for English Language Arts . They also guide teachers to ensure that their students understand word meanings, appreciate the nuances of words, and steadily expand their range of vocabulary and phrases.

Here are 10 great American speeches that helped define America during its first two centuries with a link to word count, readability level, and an example of a prominent rhetorical device that is contained within each text. 

The Gettysburg Address

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Abraham Lincoln gave this speech , which began with the famous line, "Fourscore and seven years ago . . .," at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery near the battlefield in Gettysburg. The address occurred four and a half months after the  Battle of Gettysburg .

Delivered by : Abraham Lincoln Date : November 19, 1863 Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Word Count: 269 words Readability score :  Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease  64.4 Grade Level : 10.9 Rhetorical device used : Anaphora : Repetition of words at the start of clauses or verses.

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground."

Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address

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The dome of the United States Capitol was unfinished when Lincoln delivered this Inaugural Address beginning his second term. It is notable for its theological argument. The following month, Lincoln was assassinated.

Delivered by : Abraham Lincoln Date : March 4, 1865 Location: Washington, D.C. Word Count: 706 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 58.1 Grade Level : 12.1 Rhetorical device used :   Allusion : A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance. 

"It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged." 

Keynote Address at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention

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The  Seneca Falls Convention  was the first women's rights convention organized to "discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman."

Delivered by :  Elizabeth Cady Stanton Date : July 19, 1848 Location: Seneca Falls, New York Word Count:  1427 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 64.4 Grade Level : 12.3 Rhetorical device used :  Asyndeton (" unconnected" in Greek): A stylistic device used in literature to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain grammatical accuracy. 

"The right is ours. Have it we must. Use it we will."

George Washington's Response to the Newburgh Conspiracy

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When the officers of the Continental Army threatened to march on the Capitol to demand back pay, George Washington stopped them with this short speech. At the conclusion, he took out his glasses and said, “Gentlemen, you must pardon me. I have grown old in the service of my country and now find that I am growing blind.” Within minutes, the officers-eyes filled with tears-voted unanimously to express confidence in Congress and their country.

Delivered by : General George Washington Date : March 15, 1783 Location: Newburgh, New York Word Count:  1,134 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 32.6 Grade Level : 13.5 Rhetorical device used :   Rhetorical Questions : Asked for effect or to lay emphasis on some point discussed when no real answer is expected. 

"My God! what can this writer have in view, by recommending such measures? Can he be a friend to the Army? Can he be a friend to this Country? Rather, is he not an insidious Foe?"

Patrick Henry 'Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death'

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Patrick Henry's speech was an attempt to persuade the Virginia House of Burgesses, meeting at St. John's Church in Richmond, to pass resolutions favoring Virginia joining the American Revolutionary War.

Delivered by : Patrick Henry Date : March 23, 1775 Location: Richmond, Virginia Word Count:  1215 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 74 Grade Level : 8.1 Rhetorical device used : Hypophora:  Asking a question and immediately answering it.

"Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other."

Sojourner Truth 'Ain't I A Woman?'

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This speech was delivered extemporaneously by Sojourner Truth , who was enslaved from the time of her birth in New York State. She spoke at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851.  Frances Gage , the president of the convention, recorded the speech 12 years later.

Delivered by : Sojourner Truth Date : May 1851 Location: Akron, Ohio Word Count: 383   words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 89.4 Grade Level : 4.7 Rhetorical device used : Metaphor:  To make an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. Metaphor of pints and quarts to discuss the rights held by Black women in comparison to others.

"If my cup won't hold but a pint, and  yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?"

Fredrick Douglass 'The Church and Prejudice'

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Douglass was enslaved from the time of his birth on a Maryland plantation, but in 1838, at age 20, he self-liberated in New York. This lecture was one of his first major anti-enslavement oratories.

Delivered by : Fredrick Douglass Date : November 4, 1841 Location: Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society in Massachusetts. Word Count:  1086 Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 74.1 Grade Level : 8.7 Rhetorical device used : Anecdote : A short and interesting story or an amusing event often proposed to support or demonstrate some point and make readers and listeners laugh. Douglass tells the story of a young lady recovered from a trance: 

"...she declared she had been to heaven. Her friends were all anxious to know what and whom she had seen there; so she told the whole story. But there was one good old lady whose curiosity went beyond that of all the others—and she inquired of the girl that had the vision, if she saw any Black folks in heaven? After some hesitation, the reply was, 'Oh! I didn't go into the kitchen!'"

Chief Joseph 'I Will Fight No More Forever'

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Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, pursued 1500 miles through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana by the U.S. Army, spoke these words when he finally surrendered. This speech followed the final engagement of the Nez Perce War. The transcript of the speech was taken by Lieutenant C.E.S. Wood. 

Delivered by : Chief Joseph Date : October 5th, 1877 Location:   Bears Paw (Battle of the Bears Paw Mountains), Montana Word Count:  156 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 104.1 Grade Level : 2.9 Rhetorical device used : Direct Address : The use of a term or name for the person spoken to, as in securing the attention of that person; use of a vocative form.

"Hear me, my Chiefs!"

Susan B. Anthony and Women's Right to Vote

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Susan B. Anthony gave this speech on multiple occasions after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then fined $100 but refused to pay.

Delivered by : Susan B. Anthony Date : 1872 - 1873 Location:  Stump Speech delivered in all 29 postal districts of Monroe County, New York Word Count: 451 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 45.1 Grade Level : 12.9 Rhetorical device used : Parallelism : The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter.

"It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household..."

'Cross of Gold' Speech

This "Cross of Gold" speech thrust William Jennings Bryan into the national spotlight where his dramatic speaking style and rhetoric roused the crowd to a frenzy. Reports from those in the audience noted that at the conclusion of the speech, he thrust his arms wide, a visual representation of the speech's last line. The next day the convention nominated Bryan for President on the fifth ballot.

Delivered by : William Jennings Bryan Date : July 9, 1896 Location:  Democratic National Convention in Chicago Word Count:  3242 words Readability score : Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 63 Grade Level : 10.4 Rhetorical device used : Analogy : A comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it.  Gold standard to a "crown of thorns" to "crucify mankind." 

"....we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold ."

National Archives for Education

The National Archives for Education offers thousands of primary source documents—including speeches—which can be used as teaching tools to bring history to life.

• 20th Century American Speeches as Literary Texts
• 6 Speeches by American Authors for Secondary ELA Classrooms
• Biography of William Jennings Bryan
• Biography of Lucy Stone, Abolitionist and Women's Rights Reformer
• Sojourner Truth Quotes About Abolition and Women's Rights
• Chief Joseph: Tagged ‘The Red Napoleon’ by American Press
• Definition and Examples of "Exophora" in English Grammar
• Abraham Lincoln's Greatest Speeches
• Biography of Sojourner Truth, Abolitionist and Lecturer
• Biography of Maria W. Stewart, Groundbreaking Lecturer and Activist
• A Reading Quiz on the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
• Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address
• Facts and Myths About the Gettysburg Address
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quotes
• Bimetallism Definition and Historical Perspective
• Frances Dana Gage

My Speech Class

Public Speaking Tips & Speech Topics

224 School Speech Topics for All Grades [High School, Middle School, Elementary]

Jim Peterson has over 20 years experience on speech writing. He wrote over 300 free speech topic ideas and how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and speech writing assignments at My Speech Class.

In this article:

High School

Middle school, elementary school, school speech topics checklists, list of school speech topics.

• Girls are under more pressure in high school.
• Schools must not sell unhealthy foods.
• Cyberbullies should be suspended from school.
• Peer pressure will help students grow.
• Parents must not pay kids for good grades.
• Students don’t spend enough time reading books.
• Class sizes make a big difference.
• Schools must get involved with obese students weight issues.
• All students should join the gym.
• Schools should offer rewards for good test scores.
• Cheerleading isn’t a sport.
• The media is to blame for the pressure of girls wanting perfect bodies.
• Mass-shooting in schools can be prevented.
• 16 is an appropriate age to start dating.
• The in crowd is usually the most insecure group.
• Failing is a blessing in disguise.
• Students do not know how to live in the moment.
• Fashion isn’t all that important.
• The methods used to deal with bullies are not effective.
• Private schools are not better than government schools.
• Co-ed schools are better than single-gender schools.
• Recess time must be extended.
• Standardized tests are not a measure of a students ability.
• Textbooks shouldn’t be replaced by technology in high schools.
• Students shouldn’t be graded for gym.
• Birth control should be available at schools.
• Cheating at school is getting worse.
• Sugary drinks should not be sold at school.
• Healthy school lunches are a lost cause.
• Boys hide their body image pressure.
• Smoking makes students outcasts.
• ‘Name and shame’ does not change teenage behaviour.
• Bystanders must be held responsible for not intervening when there is trouble at school.
• Gay students need older gay role models.
• It should be illegal for under 21’s to buy cigarettes.
• Grouping students by ability only benefit the smartest ones.
• Students are less religious than their parents.
• It is important to have a mix of friends to socialize with.
• Kids purposely make parenting hard.
• Helping a friend isn’t always good.
• Not every teacher has the ability to inspire students.
• High school kids don’t need helicopter parents.
• High schools don’t recognize a student’s full potential.
• Class sizes should not exceed 20 students.
• Extra online classes are worth it.
• School should be all year round.
• Parents embarrass their kids too much.
• Attractive students have an advantage over others.
• Students have no interest in government matters.
• Hard work is more important than talent.
• The morning after pill shouldn’t have an age restriction.
• Group work in class should be kept small.
• The best way to learn is alone.
• Teachers don’t use technology to its full potential.
• Dropping out of high school should be an illegal offense.
• The racial make up of a school is important.
• Outings to museums have no educational value.
• Creativity isn’t something that can be taught.
• Students have too much workload.
• Untidy handwriting is a sign of intelligence.
• Student’s interests will change in high school.
• It is important to take career assessment tests.
• Students do not have to get involved with everything in high school.
• Weekend jobs make students more responsible.
• It is important that students volunteer in fields of interest.
• Students must know their place in the classroom.
• Teachers want to create leaders.
• Tutors are necessary even with good grades.
• Locker room talk is demeaning to female students.
• Driving must be taught in High School.
• Plagiarism is getting out of hand.
• The importance of not being a follower.
• Students should focus school work ahead of a social life.
• Students should leave a team if they are never chosen to play.
• Leaving high school with no clear career path isn’t a bad thing.
• Students should always have condoms with them.
• Never shrug off small assignments.
• High school should be treated as if it were a job.
• Web filters at school are not restrictive enough.
• There is too much focus on sports in high schools.
• All students should get involved in exchange programs.
• Group projects only cause conflict.
• Teachers should be allowed to refuse problem students in their classes.
• Principals don’t help develop teachers enough.
• Corporal punishment is abuse.
• Robotics now and in the future – is it helpful in the daycare business?
• Your most embarrassing moment at school and the way you saved your face, solve and fix the awkward situation.
• Amazing discoveries or facts you have never heard of before and like to introduce to your class.
• Adventure racing and famous heroes on motorbikes – so-called off the road movie clips could be nice video aids Such as Steppenwolf.
• Astronomical signs and their meanings. Make it personal by asking a volunteer to give all the info you need.
• Nursing your parents when they get older. Lots of young people do that in their spare time, and they do not often speak about it. Take a chance and show them the world of voluntary care by friends, children, and neighbors.
• Islands in Oceania, in the tropical Pacific Ocean region. There where the date line starts.
• Railroads and trains from 1850, and great train builders and engineers is a high school speech topic to work out.
• How to visit and enjoy an art museum with an audio guide tour on your ears.
• Strange experiences in a restaurant or bar and the moral lesson you draw after that.
• Hurricanes, how they start and their international accepted standards for name giving (boys and girls names from a to z).
• Food photography is much difficult than you think.
• A narrow escape from trouble …
• How to organize surprise parties.
• Why are television soaps popular – did you know a whole team of scenarists writes the storylines – often three per edition?
• I want a new law on … Well feel free to repair and remedy abuses.
• What do you think about often when you enter the school?
• What have you always wanted to do and did not have the courage to ask or really act?
• What would you like to change and why? This one is especially good as graduation input and output.
• Things we can’t understand.
• What are your community activities?
• Suggestions for a school field trip in the autumn.
• Dream explanation, ask for dreams, explain them. Consult dream reading professional and keep away from the shabby occult business.
• Rhetorical questions, Socratical debating techniques.
• Great places to go in the world.
• Hiking trails nobody knows and you want to share.
• See Europe in seven days after high school!

Middle school speech topics for public speaking and oral writing assignments from outdoor activities to Greyhound racing and Rodeo riding to sports games. I have brought into being several themes, suggestions and easy to develop ideas for school:

• My hobby and pet peeves.
• Free time activities that you can recommend.
• What brands or products are popular in this school and why?
• Unusual experiences in the last year.
• Outdoor activities, and indoor activities on a rainy day.
• Why we are no longer kids but are called young adults.
• Suggestions for fun weekends.
• Animation characters and their voices.
• Antarctica research of penguins.
• Aviation pioneers.
• Celebrities, actors, and actresses.
• Computer games are great middle school speech topics if you have an interested audience who likes to game at home.
• Flying discs tricks on the beach side.
• Foreign flags and their story – perhaps you should play the anthems too for a full picture.
• Reasons to abandon grounding rules.
• Rodeo riding: how to survive more than 30 seconds on the riding machine 🙂
• Strange world records set in history.
• Skateboarding tips and tricks, safe on the sidewalks.
• Greyhound racing and the bet systems that are used.
• The world would be a better place if … (fill in your highest dreams)
• Environmental problems in our community.
• Fashion trends in the last century.
• Pen pals or email pals; how traditional patterns have changed.
• My favourite sports games on television.
• My checklist for if you move to another town.
• Kid cooking is cool – if you know how to prep recipes 🙂
• My trip abroad to Europe or Latin-America.
• Monitoring butterflies in the field outside and in our garden.
• Aztec masks and their amazing stories and secrets hidden inside.
• Mythological monsters such as the Minotaur and Nymphs.
• How to organize a fun weekend for the whole family.
• If I was born hundred years ago, I would be …:
• African masks and their meaning in holy rituals.
• Ancient Chinese emperors and their interesting uniform and dress looks.
• The Ice Age; when, how and the causes are good K-6 subjects to come across.
• Pollution sources in our world, and what to do about them in a cost-friendly way at home.
• A Day In the life of a kid in Ancient Rome, compare it with your own modern life.
• Discovering caves are cool grade 6 speech topics to tell something more and show them the work of speleologists.
• Traditional fairy tales from around the world – remember the thick book of the Grimm Brothers?
• Puppets and their funny looking but indeed very serious theatrical performances from Java, Indonesia.
• The Diary of Anne Frank (book or movie) and the meaning today.
• My penpal or better: email-pal from the other side of the world.
• The secrets of the Egypt King Tutankhamun.
• If I was a journalist, I should investigate …
• If I won one million dollars, I would …
• When I am grown up I want to become a / an …
• Last weekend I was at …
• The funniest thing that ever happened to me this month or year.
• Things that make you happy right away if you have the power to buy or dictate.
• Ways I use to relax.
• Favorite sports moments.
• The character I want to be in a movie the hero with heroic courage / or the villain who gets the worst of it in the end.
• My most memorable vacation trip till now.
• The best summer camp games I have ever played and enjoyed very much.
• My favorite spot in the woods near our cabin.
• Your most favorite memories are also great grade 6 speech topics too to talk about in school.
• When you take a walk in the woods, you can see more than you might think …
• Recipes for kids, orally like your favorite meals and food.
• Cool home computer games I like to play, criticize, review and share in class.
• The day I was sick and I must see the doctor.
• Pot and care for a plant or small vegetable ishard labor and needs patience.
• How to make a marionette puppet – a grade 8 speech topic for the artistic
• Birds in our backyard, you’re perplexed about the miles they flew to get there.
• Oceans of the world: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic gulf streams.
• A ride in a truck for transporting heavy objects.
• What is a decent dress code for a serious dinner at official moments:
• My musical instrument and the lessons I take.
• Why giraffes have long necks.
• Animals I should take in Noah’s Ark – and the philosophy behind it.
• Why I like to dance my favorite dance.
• I cope with fear of public speaking for this grade 8 speech by … (secret tactic)
• Magic tricks with simple playing cards for every unexpected occassion.
• Exotic fruits and vegetables in grocery stores; look up where they come from.
• Best 3D paper models: cars, robots, spaceships, airplanes, buildings.
• Things to expect when your mother is pregnant.
• Birds, bears and rabbits spend the winter by sleeping, why?
• My first visit to a dentist: the correct way to brush and floss your teeth.
• Family members I admire: uncles, aunts, nieces or nephews.
• Music festivals and the big logistics puzzle of the organizing parties involved.
• History of the Panama Canal, and the way the pilotage handle very big ships.
• How does global warming affect the icebergs?
• If I was my father or mother for one day.
• My favorite era in history.
• What’s in my room at home.
• The school field trip I would like to make.

Elementary school speech topics on animal keeping, favorite things to do at home or the playground and specific hints that lead to innumerable variations:

• What makes me happy.
• Our last vacation trip.
• Fairy tale characters you would like to talk with.
• Magic tricks you can show.
• Funny things my pet has done. A great quantity of this special theme is to be sorted out of animals and keeing them at home. Do consult your atending if you may bring an animal in class. In case of hesitation – do not cross this line:
• My favorite family story.
• Oceans in the world.
• My neighbourhood.
• Funny Halloween costumes, inspires to lots of funny elementary school speech topics.
• A visit to the doctor, dentist.
• How does it feel to wake up an being a giant?
• Places I lived.
• Why I want to travel in space to the interstellair universe.
• The best paper airplanes withput less folding work.
• How boomerangs return to their sender.
• Circus clowns in all sorts and characters.
• My one-day internship at the fire department.
• Fireworks on New Year’s Eve.
• The best fishing spots.
• My best birthday ever.
• I am good at …
• This is the song I like to sing every day is: …
• Making puzzles of thouands pieces and the tricks I have learned.
• Police uniforms or fire department attire outfits.
• What can you see in the zoo?
• Musical instruments in an full orchestra.

School speech topics tips for verification and 1-2-3 step checking at the secondary middle, high and elementary public speaking homework assignments on teaching skills. In a nutshell: they are easy to answer questions to make a better choice for creating the best result.

Also on this page, you will discover tips to concrete communication issues and education resources. They lead you in the right direction; you only have to use your fantasy.

Let the imaginary juices flow in your brains!

Can We Write Your Speech?

Get your audience blown away with help from a professional speechwriter. Free proofreading and copy-editing included.

Read all my checks for writing subjects and after you have completed that task follow all secure education idea links to the online education lists I have shaped and modified in class education material:

More aggravated lists of themes and valuable information regarding different subjects for future generations education are below. As well as a summary of the implications and / or requirements of what you have found, and school speech topics you could analyze in class.

You can sort out any ideas you like to talk about in oral lessons, scan the possible suggestions and think about what your audience like to hear you talking about: cite short passages and quotation excerpts from well-known experts in the field of research, or refer to good knowledge illustrations and sustainable proof.

Learn to gather material from outside sources about your thread for grades 9 through 12 learning, and deliver your opinion strongly and concisely. Give plain reasons for something you believe. Foster support for your solution, theory or device.

This is principally beneficial for achieving higher education institute assertiveness when you are on stage and put two or more views together, and provide a reason for putting them together by logical reasoning. Another method is approaching the subject matter in both positive and negative lights.

Tracing how something has induced artificially from an earlier state to its current form could welcomed by higher pedagogic instructors.

Next tip: workout extensive information on indoor and outdoor recreation activities to tempt your public to explore other activities than dating, dancing and drinking in a local bar.

Sports is a candidate for finding senior graded school speech topics. E.g. sport as profession to earn a living. With a scientific twist you make it more sophisticated, and because you’re highly qualified and have an actively learning attitude you are able to get their thesis commitment.

Some moves that matter in lower classes are the so-called critize teaching skills, often described as asking and wondering through critical inquiry:

You can help your teacher and fill her or him with enthusiasm by going extracurricular in proposing a particular judgment on a certain top topicality and examen the validity of the arguments by criticizing. This has been in practice in the late seventies – when things went the old-fashioned and more severe way 🙂 – but this technique has made a terrific comeback and is now used in grades 5 through 8 homework assignments.

Many of my visitors look for sixth grade inspiration, or class 6 if you live in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, Primary 5 or 6 in Singapore, and 6ГЁme in France for example. Anyway, in what country you are right now does not matter; all school speech topics are created for children in the range of eleven and twelve years old.

The same holds good for class conversations of (usually) thirteen to fourteen years old who try to cover explanations of various objects and their meaning in the accustomed world of the eight grade population.

Children speak the truth, is often said 🙂 And that saying is more than true. Give them something to chew on in public – from colouring plates to planting and caring for trees – and it is so easy, a younger persons can do it 🙂

More for girls and boys – although it depends on the specific age or progress of the pupils – can be found at this index number two. Help them to be able to get to know the material, and to make the first steps on the path of learning the rudimentary public speaking skills (that are valuable for their whole life).

I have shaped a list that also contains some reference information for nursery and primary and kindergarten material.

10 Tips to Write the Best High School Valedictorian Speech

Ceremonial Speech Topics

9 thoughts on “224 School Speech Topics for All Grades [High School, Middle School, Elementary]”

The topics are 1: the worst day in my life 2: how can we take care of our elders at home. 3: good qualities about your classmates. 4: how I learnt cycling. 5: if you are alone at home and a stranger enters what would you do.

My topic ideas are: Why I hate speeches (for middle school or elementary school) My favorite type of music (for elementary school) Why parents shouldn’t spank their children and better ways to punish children (for elementary school)

The key to success is positive thinking

My favorite holiday

Wow. Just wow.

mental health is an important issue

“Prayer should be compulsory”…that’s my suggestion of a topic

At school there should be a free period where you can do anything you want

Why is the canteen so expensive?

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My Favorite Speeches for Rhetorical Analysis: 10 Speeches for Middle School ELA and High School English

Teaching rhetorical analysis is one of my absolute favorite units to complete with my students. I love teaching my students about rhetorical strategies and devices, analyzing what makes an effective and persuasive argument, and reading critical speeches with my students. Here is a quick list of some of my favorite speeches for rhetorical analysis.

I absolutely LOVE teaching rhetorical analysis. I think it might be one of my favorite units to teach to my high school students. There are just so many different text options to choose from. Here is a list of some of my favorite speeches to include in my rhetorical analysis teaching unit.

10 Speeches for Teaching Rhetorical Analysis

1. the gettysburg address (abraham lincoln).

Some notable things to mention in this speech include allusion and parallel structure. To make your analysis more meaningful, point out these devices to students and explain how these devices enhance the meaning of the text.

Teaching Resource : The Gettysburg Address Rhetorical Analysis Activity Packet

2. Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech (Lou Gehrig)

This speech is one that many of my athletes love to analyze, and it is an excellent exemplar text to teach pathos. And like The Gettysburg Address, it is short. This is another speech that you can read, analyze, and even write about in one class period.

When I use this speech in my class, I have students look for examples of pathos. Mainly, I have them look at word choice, tone, and mood. How does Lou Gehrig’s choice of words affect his tone and the overall mood of the speech?

3. I Have a Dream (Martin Luther King,  Jr.)

In the classroom, it is important to point out the sermonic feel to the speech and also to have your students look for calls to action and pathos. Have your students look for tone, allusions, and word choice to help them notice these rhetoric expressions throughout it.

Teaching Resource : I Have a Dream Close Read and Rhetorical Analysis

4. Speech at the March on Washington (Josephine Baker)

This is another important speech that held a lot of importance for the changes that needed to be made in America. The speech is a shorter one, so in the classroom, it will not take as long to analyze it, and students can understand the significance of the use of rhetoric in a shorter amount of time than some other speeches.

When teaching this speech, I like to remind my students to search for devices that portray an excellent example of the pathos that is so present in this speech. Some of these devices could be mood, repetition, and diction.

5. Steve Jobs’ Commencement Speech (Steve Jobs)

In class, it is good to have your students annotate and analyze the speech just as they have done for the others. The organization of the speech will help them to notice the similarities and differences between each point Jobs makes.

6. Space Shuttle Challenger (Ronald Reagan)

This speech represents a strong sense of pathos as a movement to help the American people cope with loss after the deaths of the astronauts aboard the Challenger. It is another speech that is not too long, so it should not take a long time to both analyze and annotate the entire speech.

When teaching this speech in class, be sure to mention how pathos is the driving force behind the speech, through the tone and the diction. How does Reagan use emotion to focus on the astronauts as humans, rather than solely focusing on the tragedy?

7. The Perils of Indifference (Elie Wiesel)

This speech is a good one to teach because it both makes students question their own lives, but also how the world works. The speech relies on pathos, and a little ethos too, to get the audience to feel the full effect of the tragedy of the Holocaust and what the speaker went through. It is a long speech so it may take longer for the students to fully grasp all the details that make it such a persuasive speech.

When I teach this speech, I like to have students annotate every place they notice an example of pathos, and then have them explain why in their annotations this makes them feel an emotion. The same with the ethos, and then we can further analyze the rest together.

8. 9/11 Address to the Nation (George W. Bush)

This speech shows another example of the use of pathos in the midst of a tragedy. The President wanted to show the American people how much he was feeling for those lost in the tragedy of 9/11. It is not a long speech, but the amount of emotion within the words is significant for students to notice.

When teaching this speech, it is essential that students look very closely at each part of it, noticing each piece that reveals tone, mood, and other literary devices. How do the different devices add to the pathos of the speech?

FREE TEACHING ACTIVITY : September 11 Address to the Nation Sampler

Teaching Resource : September 11 Address to the Nation Rhetorical Analysis Unit

9. We are Virginia Tech (Nikki Giovanni)

This speech is probably the shortest speech on this list but provides one of the most emotional and pathos-filled rhetoric. This describes another tragedy that is spoken about with pathos to give the audience a safe feeling after such an emotional thing. Students can spend time analyzing the different devices that make the piece so strong in its emotion.

In the classroom, make sure your students make a note of the repetition, and what that does for the speech. Does it make the emotion more impactful? How does it make the audience feel like they are a part of something bigger?

10. Woman’s Right to the Suffrage (Susan B. Anthony)

This is another short speech that holds a lot of power within it. A lot of students will enjoy reading this to see how much the country has changed, and how this speech may have some part in influencing this change. It is a great speech to help teach logos in the classroom, and it will not take a long time to analyze.

Make sure your students notice, and they also understand, the use of allusions within the speech. These allusions help to establish the use of logos, as Anthony wants the use of American historical documents to show how logical her argument is.

Ready-For-You Rhetorical Analysis Teaching Unit

You might also be interested in my blog post about 15 rhetorical analysis questions to ask your students.

Teaching rhetorical analysis and speeches in the classroom is a great way to teach informational text reading standards.

Rhetorical Analysis Teaching Resources:

These resources follow reading standards for informational text and are ideal for secondary ELA teachers.

• Rhetorical Analysis Unit with Sticky Notes
• Ethos, Pathos, Logos: Understanding Rhetorical Appeals\
• Rhetorical Analysis Mini Flip Book

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Middle School Speech

Making a speech is never meant to be easy. It is perhaps one of the most daunting tasks that you could ever ask  a middle school student to do.

• Speech Examples in Doc
• How to Start a Speech

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Middle School Graduation Speech Example

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It is not only in terms of the topic, but also about the content and how the speech is going to be structured. But worry not, this article may be of some help to you as it will help you go through the step-by-step procedure in drafting a said speech. You may also see some examples of speech templates for further reference.

The Basics of Speech Writing

1. choose your topic well.

Take a moment and a breather to think this through. What might be a suitable topic for middle school students? For one thing, it has to be inspirational to the point that students are willing to do better not only in their academic work but also with their private life as well. An example of a good topic would be about the value of hard work in finishing your studies, which does not involve cheating. Middle school students are able to relate to this topic as they are still studying. You may also see examples of writing a welcome speech for further insight.

2. Find Purpose or Thesis

Why are you giving a speech on this topic? Otherwise, there would be no point in delivering it the first place. They say that everything has a purpose and that there is no such thing as an accident. What is the end goal that your speech is trying to achieve? A good speech is made for a good reason: to inspire, to instruct, to rally support, to lead to action, etc. These are noble purposes — and not merely to sound off; feed the speaker’s ego; or to flatter, intimidate, or shame anyone. You may also check the 8 steps needed in speech composition  should you need further assistance.

3. Get Organized

Speaking a disorganized speech would only make things worse. Start small. Make a point. Eventually, you will get there. Start with the introduction.  Make it catchy and make it snappy because the attention span of today’s students is rather short. One of the best and famous ways that people start their professional speech is with a joke. Once you’ve got their attention, go on with the body and end strong with the conclusion.

• The body of the speech. State at least three points to support your argument. If they build on each other, good. Make a list and pick out the strongest arguments later when writing the first draft. You may also check out wedding speech examples  if you happen to be selected as the best an or maid-of-honor.

4. Get Persuasive

There are two kinds of speeches: persuasive and informative. So with the topic you’ve chosen to deliver to the whole student body, look back and think as to whether the content of your speech is to inform or persuade the students. And how will you do that? Even if you have written a damn fine speech, but lack the emotional capability to deliver it, then all that effort and time would have been for nothing. You may also discover on writing examples of a dedication speech .

School Campaign Speech Example

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School Award Speech Example

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School Demonstration Speech Outline Example

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Making it Effective

1. choose words wisely.

Remember that your audience is middle-schoolers; not elderly gentlemen or young adults or parents or teachers. Speakers must exercise the precaution on carefully selecting what terminology they decide to use with the audience. Because if they are not so careful, the speaker might end up insulting or hurt the feelings of their audience without them realizing it. Should you wish to thank someone for the things they have done, you may research on how to write a good thank-you speech .

2. Grab their Attention

There are many ways to get the students attention other than a joke or a story. To the more creative ones, you can come up with a role play or let the students themselves participate in whatever game or activity you are planning. Just as long as you grab their attention, I am sure that they will be able to keep themselves fixed on you throughout the rest of the day. Yes, even making an introduction speech also needs to be practiced and worked on. Making an after-dinner speech also helps out in lightening the mood.

3. Focus on Your Message

Don’t forget that you are there to deliver your speech. That’s why it is important to focus mainly on the message at hand and not get sidetracked. Although it is perfectly understandable for a person to get lost along the way but you should know how to bounce back in any situation. The audience is not there to hear your ramblings and whatnot, they are there to hear your topic. If it really cannot be avoided, then make an outline as to help you keep track of where you are heading in the speech. You may also see on how to make a leadership speech if you’re into that sort of thing.

4. Illustrate

Show and don’t tell. You have to make them visualize the scene and not just tell them about it. When visualizing the given scene, it is important to try and add life to the scene with the use of adjectives, adverbs, and figures of speech.

5. Think in Pauses

Pausing is not all bad. There are 2 advantages that can be thought off when adding pauses in the said speech: First, it gives you time to collect your thoughts. Let’s admit it: there are one too many times that people forget what they’re supposed to say. By adding pauses to some of the words or lines in your general speech helps correct that issue.

But the main reason why people add pauses in their speeches is to give emphasis on that certain phrase or word that the public should know about. Once you start a pause right after a specific word, the whole crowd becomes silent to reflect and ponder about the certain situation, meaning that you have control of the entire room.

• Speeches need to be natural – not read off of a paper. And when you talk, you have pauses. This is not slowing you down or showing your weakness, it shows that you have this down so well, you’re talking about it like an old pro.

Forming Your Speech

1. start off with a strong introduction.

Introductions are perhaps the most important part of your speech as it is often perceived as the most crucial factor to whether the audience will get bored of your speech or pay attention to you all throughout. There are many ways to begin your introduction So just try to find out what you can about the audience and wing it from there. You may also see tribute speech examples & samples .

• Opening with important remarks or quotes will immediately establish credibility.

2. Use Inclusive Terms for Individuals

Point to “our” things — our team, our city/state/country, or our school, our class-year, our work, people, and product/candidate, etc. Your audience will feel more included and a sense of belonging. If “we” feel that way, they’ll feel the pressure to feel that way, too. You may also like appreciation speech examples & samples .

• In a speech by Nelson Mandela, he started off with, “Today we celebrate not the victory of a party, but a victory for all the people of South Africa.”Now that’s a man whose oratorical prowess cannot be questioned.

3. Build the Body of the Speech

This part should contain the main points of the issue and support for each one. That list you made earlier? Narrow it down to about three. Which ones are the most convincing?

• Start off with your strongest point. You want the audience to start off seeing zero holes through your argument. Get them on your side before they get the chance to nitpick what you have to say. You may also check out presentation speech examples & samples .
• Put your weakest argument in the middle. You’re sandwiching it here to make it the most forgettable. And, indeed, it will be.
• End with your second strongest argument. You want to vamp it up a notch towards the end. Reel them back in, rounding out your argument with your last piece of evidence.

4. Be Aware of Your Transitions.

Transitions should not only go in between points in the body, but also after the introduction and into the conclusion. Again, your speech is one cohesive work, not a series of points that work independently. Show your audience that by transitioning clearly. You might be interested in how do you write a speech?

5. End with a firm conclusion.

Conclude with a powerful nail-down, summarizing what you came here to say. Leave them with a question or thoughts of implications; leave them with something — what do you want that something to be?

• Repeat key ideas. Make the audience recall and get on the mainline. Be sure they leave with the ideas you don’t want them to forget. You may also see orientation speech examples & samples .
• Give your audience a sense of completion in what you write. Bring them back to the beginning, but with a louder spirit — after all, they have all the knowledge necessary to be passionate now, too. This can be done by starting the last paragraph with a strong, declarative sentence that re-makes your point. You may also like acceptance speech examples .

School Demonstration Speech Example

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School Valedictory Speech Example

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Making a speech if you’re a middle school student is certainly not easy. So we’ve compiled some sample speech templates and examples for you to use. Good luck with your speech writing!

Middle School Speech Generator

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Create a middle school speech for a new student orientation

2. Help me write a middle school speech for our annual sports day

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Persuasive Speech Topics for Middle School

The elocution or a speech competition is one of the most common competitions for school students. It helps improve your child's speech, social and leadership skills when they have to stand up on that stage, and deliver a speech that makes the audience want to hear more. This article has some persuasive speech topics for middle schoolers.

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The elocution or a speech competition is one of the most common competitions for school students. It helps improve your child’s speech, social and leadership skills when they have to stand up on that stage, and deliver a speech that makes the audience want to hear more. This article has some persuasive speech topics for middle schoolers.

When I was in school, there would always be this one kid every year in the annual elocution competition, who would belt out that overdone bit about ‘I Have a Dream’. No offense meant to Martin Luther King or his rather soul-stirring speech, but I have to admit that it used to get a bit too irritating hearing the same thing over and over. And I used to think back then, why don’t people come up with some original topics, and not the done-and-dusted ones about coming to bury Caesar and not to praise him?

So I had a dream myself to come up and suggest persuasive speech topics for middle school students. I can understand that perhaps at that age, they may not have the maturity to come up with topics of their own. So they can read on here, to get some really original speech topics that are not only interesting, but quite contemporary, too. And, if you write something on your own, rather than just blurting out another person’s speech, even the judges might find it quite impressive.

Preferred Topics for Middle School Students A good speech idea is one on which the students write on their own; something which is very contemporary to them, and they can easily connect with. It should be a topic, which students themselves feel very comfortable with, and hence they can speak about it better.

Current Affairs Current affairs make really good speech topics because, along with the elocution abilities of the student, they also bring out their thought process and thinking abilities. Here are some speech topics for current affairs.

• Isn’t Health Insurance the Right of All Americans?
• Should Violent Video Games be Banned?
• Is Death Penalty Inhuman?
• Euthanasia and the Right to Die
• Some Thoughts About Human Cloning
• Pros and Cons of Adoption
• The Grim Reality of Climate Change
• Should an Extra Language be Made Mandatory in Schools?
• Should Hunting be Made Illegal?
• Should Sportsmen be Allowed to Use Steroids?
• Is it Right to Ban Fur Clothing?

Student Life There are some students who prefer talking about issues that are specific to people of their generation. This is because, students can directly associate with some of these things, and for them, such topics tend to become an interesting subject to talk about.

• Are Websites like Facebook or MySpace Substituting Face-to-Face Social Interaction?
• Should Homework be Banned?
• Television is a Bad Influence
• Pros and Cons of Co-education Schools
• Importance of Finding a Career
• Is There a More Effective Punishment than Grounding?
• Should Schools Make Uniforms Compulsory?
• Sex Education in Schools
• Teen Pregnancy
• Best TV Shows for Middle School Students
• Should Students’ Lockers be Checked?
• Does Television have a Positive Influence on Students?
• Should Exams be Replaced by Other Forms of Testing Performance?
• Is Internet Dating Harmful?
• Should Cell Phones be Allowed in School?
• Should the Minimum Wage be Changed for Adolescents or Teenagers?
• Should Teachers be Paid on the Basis of Performance?
• School Violence
• Homeschooling
• Internet Chat Rooms
• Dating Campus Issues
• Academic Dishonesty

Funny Topics There are some students that just cannot pull off the intensity, which is needed for serious topics, and it would be best that they don’t try those. So here are some light-hearted yet funny topics for a middle school speech.

• Unusual Career Choices
• Why Some Brands are More Popular in Schools than Others?
• Some Funny Experiences of the Last Year
• Celebrities Who Have the Greatest Pull on American Students Today
• A Critical Evaluation of Our Superheroes: Batman, Spider-man or Superman?
• What if There was No Harry Potter/Twilight?
• When I Grow Up …
• Stupid Things My Pet Keeps Doing
• Is There Life After Death?
• Is There Life on Mars?
• Are Vampires Real?
• Do Aliens Exist?
• Do Ghosts Exist?

Social Issues According to the current scenario of the world, a student must be well-informed regarding the issues related to our society. They must be well aware of the evils of society that affect lives of people to a great extent. The middle school students would definitely like to speak on such topics, which will not only be informative for the other students, but also create an impression on judges.

• Abuse of the Elderly
• Abused Women
• Women’s Rights
• Working Women
• Age Discrimination
• Aging Population
• Air Pollution
• Alcohol Abuse
• Birth Control
• Child Labor
• Social Welfare
• Vaccinations
• Single Parent Families
• Disabilities Act
• Animal Welfare
• Drug Policy
• Foster Care
• Bilingual Education

Crime-related Topics For a teenager, topics like these will give them a complete insight about the crimes that can ruin their lives. Usually, people don’t discuss such topics, and hence the teenagers remain oblivious of such hideous crimes. These will be interesting and rare subjects to discuss.

• Battered Women
• Animal Rights
• Ethnic Violence
• Family Violence
• Juvenile Crime
• Media Violence
• Organized Crime
• Drunk Driving
• Prison Regime
• Term Limits
• Alternative Imprisonment
• Animal Experimentation
• Chain Gangs
• Death Penalty
• Domestic Violence

Political and Global Issues Being part of a particular country and a responsible citizen, the students must be aware of the issues related to their country. They must be well-equipped with the global knowledge and the issues related to it. This will prove to be another informative topic to talk on.

• Arab-Israeli Conflict
• Armed Conflicts
• Fat Tax On Food
• Government Fraud and Waste
• Homeland Security
• Homeless in America
• Immigration
• Agricultural Policy
• Legal System
• World Trade
• Cameras in Courtrooms
• Capital Punishment
• Church State Issues
• City Curfews
• Civil Rights
• Climate Change Policy
• Foreign Oil Dependence
• Foreign Policy
• Endangered Oceans
• Endangered Species
• Islamic Fundamentalism
• Medical Ethics
• National Tobacco Settlement
• Racial Profiling
• Religious Right
• Tobacco Industry
• Urban Terrorism
• War On Drugs
• Water Resources
• Welfare Reform
• Women in the Military
• Academic Freedom
• Afghanistan
• Airline Safety
• American Education Reform

Science and Technology Keeping pace with the accelerated development in the field of science and technology, today’s generation would love to speak on a topic as good as this.

• Nuclear Technology
• Space Exploration
• Aliens and UFOs
• Biodiversity
• Voluntary National Testing
• Biological and Chemical Weapons
• Atomic Energy

Medical and Health-related Topics Well, this can be an interesting pick for science students, and specially for those who desire to have a lucrative career in the medical arena.

• Organ Donation
• Infectious Diseases
• Health Care Policy
• Reproductive Technologies
• Alternative Medicine

General Topics Finally, here are some universal topics to choose from:

• Rainforests
• Transportation
• Beginning of Life Issues
• Bermuda Triangle
• Body Piercings

As you can see, there is life beyond the done-and-dusted topics. These were some middle school level speech topics, which will be a much-needed breath of fresh air, not only for you, but also for the audiences and the judges!

Privacy Overview

6 Famous Historic Speeches Students Should Read Before Graduating

Nov 24, 2022

You know the saying that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it?” This quote is often paraphrased and attributed to different philosophers including Edmund Burke; however, the line is originally from Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana. The fact that the attribution is often misremembered is ironic considering the statement’s message! Clearly, r emembering and knowing the past is important, particularly when it comes to Famous Historic Speeches!

So much of our lives and those of our students were decided by people who lived long before us. In order to understand those decisions and find ways to support or subvert them, it’s important to have familiarity with US history and the famous historic speeches that mark those moments. 

Additionally, public speeches are great mentor texts for studying rhetoric and the use of pathos, ethos, and logos . In examining these important historical speeches, students can analyze how speakers used emotions to convince their listeners to take action or what facts were used to support opinions that, for some, seemed rebellious in their moment. Through that analysis, students can apply their learning to their own persuasive writing. Who knows? One day our students may produce Famous Historic Speeches!

To that end, here are six famous historic speeches that every student should study before they graduate from high school!

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Table of Contents

6 Famous Historic Speeches

1. patrick henry’s “give me liberty” speech –.

This 1775 speech features the famous line “Give me liberty or give me death!”  During a time of British oppression, Patrick Henry calls for war. The above iconic line is delivered after a discussion of whether or not peace was possible, and it demonstrates a passionate plea from Henry to leaders in colonial America. That line alone makes the speech one of the most Famous Historic Speeches. It is monumental and worthy of study, particularly for an examination of pathos, logos, and ethos .

Use this bundle of activities to complete a summary, ensure reading comprehension, and explore the use of rhetoric in the speech. 

2. FDR’s “Infamy” Speech –

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech on December 8, 1941–the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces–drew the United States into the Second World War. His reasoning and call to war were necessary for a tumultuous time! Reading and writing activities for this speech might focus on parsing fact from emotion, particularly when the day before is considered through a historical lens.

This bundle of activities with a focus on emotions versus facts also encourages students to examine the author’s purpose. It will save you time and effort when teaching this speech in your History, English, or Social Studies classes.  

Need help with teaching rhetorical analysis beyond Famous Historic Speeches? Click to read “ 5 Simple Steps for How to Do Rhetorical Analysis”  for help!

3. Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” –

Delivered in Pennsylvania at Gettysburg National Cemetery during the Civil War, this speech by US President Abraham Lincoln is a key part of American history. From its opening line in reference to the signing of the Declaration of Independence–“Four score and seven years ago”–to its conclusion a short 10-lines later, the speech is impactful despite its brevity.  As a result, studying the use of connotation to establish tone is an ideal way to analyze it.

Check out this bundle of activities with no-prep activities to guide your students in understanding Lincoln’s famous historic speech. 

4.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments” – One of the most defining famous historic speeches for women’s rights!

This 1848 speech was given during the first women’s rights convention in Seneca, New York. The Declaration itself is so named for its similarity to the US Declaration of Independence . One idea for a lesson featuring this speech is to compare it to the wording of the historic document. You could begin such a lesson with these summary activities that focus on rhetorical analysis . In small groups, students could then break down the language that is shared between the two documents to discuss the speech’s effectiveness.

5. Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman? –

Delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Ohio, Sojourner Truth’s speech focused on equality based on both race and gender. As an abolitionist and women’s rights activist, Truth’s speech is now well-known, but it took more than a decade after it was first delivered to gain widespread popularity. It is noteworthy though that there are discrepancies between the original text from 1851 and the reproduced version in 1863. This fact would make for a great lesson for any high school class.

Begin your study of the speech with these comprehensive resources for content, comprehension, and analysis . 

6. Florence Kelley Child Labor Speech –

An activist for women’s rights and child labor reforms, Florence Kelley’s 1905 speech is a formidable addition to a list of famous historic speeches. Speaking to the National American Women Suffrage Association, Kelley advocated for an end to child labor in the United States. The speech provides ample opportunity to examine pathos, particularly with Kelley’s repetition of the line “While we sleep” to draw the listener into the experience of those little children who were not sleeping but rather at work in textile mills.

Use this activity to closely read Kelley’s speech . It includes a version of the speech in chunks to differentiate for the students in your class to write effective one-sentence summaries. Then with this step-by-step lesson, reading activities, templates (leading to an essay), and teacher examples , teaching rhetorical appeals is quick, easy, and stress-free!

Why Teach These Famous Historic Speeches?

The value of studying any or all of these famous historical speeches cannot be understated. Reading and examining speeches from history provides a window into the speeches of today. The use of the same rhetorical devices, appeals, language and more are drawn from history. Recognizing and acknowledging history is vital to personal growth, the development of critical thinking, and having an impact on our society. The issues raised in each of these speeches may feel distant in terms of timing but in a lot of ways, the content remains as relevant today as it did when the words were first spoken!

WANT AN EVERYTHING DONE FOR YOU BUNDLE, WHICH INCLUDES 6 FAMOUS HISTORIC SPEECHES? CLICK BELOW!

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Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Traditionally, teachers have encouraged students to engage with and interpret literature—novels, poems, short stories, and plays. Too often, however, the spoken word is left unanalyzed, even though the spoken word has the potential to alter our space just as much than the written. After gaining skill through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write an essay that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as What makes the speech an argument?, How did the author's rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?, and Why are the words still venerated today?

Featured Resources

From theory to practice.

Nearly everything we read and hear is an argument. Speeches are special kinds of arguments and should be analyzed as such. Listeners should keep in mind the context of the situation involving the delivery and the audience-but a keen observer should also pay close attention to the elements of argument within the text. This assignment requires students to look for those elements.

"Since rhetoric is the art of effective communication, its principles can be applied to many facets of everyday life" (Lamb 109). It's through this lesson that students are allowed to see how politicians and leaders manipulate and influence their audiences using specific rhetorical devices in a manner that's so effective that the speeches are revered even today. It's important that we keep showing our students how powerful language can be when it's carefully crafted and arranged.

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

Materials and Technology

• ReadWriteThink Notetaker
• Teacher Background and Information Sheet
• Student Assignment Sheet
• List of Speeches for Students
• Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech with Related Questions
• Historical Speech Research Questions
• Peer Response Handout
• Essay Rubric

This website contains audio of the Top 100 speeches of all time.

Included on this site is audio of famous speeches of the 20th century, as well as information about the speeches and background information on the writers.

The "Great Speeches Collection" from The History Place are available here in print and in audio.

This website includes information on finding and documenting sources in the MLA format.

Preparation

• Review the background and information sheet for teachers to familiarize yourself with the assignment and expectations.  Consider your students' background with necessary rhetorical terms such as claims, warrants, the appeals (logos, pathos, ethos), and fallacies; and rhetorical devices such as tone, diction, figurative language, repetition, hyperbole, and understatement. The lesson provides some guidance for direct instruction on these terms, but there are multiple opportunities for building or activating student knowledge through modeling on the two speeches done as a class.
• Check the links to the online resources (in Websites section) make sure that they are still working prior to giving out this assignment.
• Decide whether you want to allow more than one student to analyze and write about the same speech in each class.
• Look over the  List of Speeches for Students to decide if there are any that you would like to add.
• Look over the suggested Essay Rubric and determine the weights you would like to assign to each category.  For example, you might tell students that Support and Research may be worth three times the value of Style. Customize the Essay Rubric to meet the learning goals for your students.
• Reserve the library for Session Three so the students can do research on their speeches.
• President Obama’s Inauguration Speech.
• Former President Bush’s Defends War in Iraq Speech.
• Former President Bush’s 9/11 Speech.
• Former President Clinton’s “I Have Sinned” Speech.

Student Objectives

Students will

• analyze a speech for rhetorical devices and their purpose.
• identify an author’s purposeful manipulation of language.
• identify elements of argument within a speech.
• write an analysis of a speech with in-text documentation.

Session One

• Begin the lesson by asking students what needs to be present in order for a speech to occur. Though the question may seem puzzling—too hard, or too simple—at first, students will eventually identify, as Aristotle did, the need for a speaker, a message, and an audience.
• The class should discuss audience and the importance of identifying the audience for speeches, since they occur in particular moments in time and are delivered to specific audiences. This is a good time to discuss the Rhetorical Triangle (Aristotelian Triad) or discuss a chapter on audience from an argumentative textbook. You may wish to share information from the ReadWriteThink.org lesson Persuasive Techniques in Advertising and  The Rhetorical Triangle from The University of Oklahoma.
• Next distribute Queen Elizabeth’s speech to the troops at Tilbury and use the speech and its historical context as a model for the processes students will use on the speech they select. Provide a bit of background information on the moment in history.
• Then, as a class, go over  Queen Elizabeth’s speech and discuss the rhetorical devices in the speech and the purpose for each one. Adjust the level of guidance you provide, depending on your students' experiences with this type of analysis. The questions provide a place to start, but there are many other stylistic devices to discuss in this selection.

Discuss the audience and the author’s manipulation of the audience. Consider posing questions such as

• This is a successful speech.  Why?
• Elizabeth uses all of the appeals – logos, pathos, and ethos – to convince all of her listeners to fight for her from the loyal follower to the greedy mercenary.  How?
• The tone shifts throughout the selection.  Where?  But more importantly, why?

Martin Luther King, Jr. uses an appeal to pathos in his “I Have a Dream” speech through his historical allusion to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.” This is particularly effective for his audience of people sympathetic to the cause of African American men and women who would have been especially moved by this particular reference since it had such a significant impact on the lives of African Americans.

Session Two

• Continue the work from the previous session by distributing the  Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments handout and discussing the assignment and what it requires. See the  background and information sheet for teachers for more details.
• Tell students they will be getting additional practice with analyzing a speech as an argument by showing a short  10-minute clip of a presidential speech . Ask students to think about how the particular moment in history and the national audience contribute to the rhetorical choices made by the speaker.
• Lead a discussion of the speech as an argument with regard to purpose and intent. Work with students to identify warrants, claims, and appeals.
• Ask students to consider how the author manipulates the audience using tone, diction, and stylistic devices. What rhetorical devices aided the author’s manipulation of his audience? Discuss a particular rhetorical device that the President used and the purpose it served.
• Share the Essay Rubric and explain to students the expectations for success on this assignment.
• Allow students to select a speech from the List of Speeches for Students . If they wish to preview any of the speeches, they can type the speaker's name and the title of the speech into a search engine and should have little difficulty finding it.

Session Three

• Take the students to the library and allow them to research their speeches. They should locate their speech and print a copy for them to begin annotating for argumentative structure and rhetorical devices.
• What was the speaker up against?  What is the occasion for the speech?
• What did the author have to keep in mind when composing the text?  
• What were his or her goals?  
• What was his or her ultimate purpose?  
• What was his or her intent?
• Remind students that the writer of the speech is sometimes not the person who delivered the speech, for example, and this will surprise some students. Many people assume that the speaker (president, senator, etc.) is always the writer, and that’s not always the case, so ask your students to check to see who wrote the speech. (They might be surprised at the answer. There’s always a story behind the composition of the speech.)
• Help students find the author of the speech because this will challenge some students. Oftentimes, students assume the speaker is the author, and that’s sometimes not the case. Once the speechwriter is identified, it is easier to find information on the speech. Help students find the history behind the speech without getting too bogged down in the details. They need to understand the climate, but they do not need to be complete experts on the historical details in order to understand the elements of the speech.
• If they wish, students can use the ReadThinkWrite Interactive Notetaker to help them track their notes for their essays. Remind them that their work cannot be saved on this tool and should be printed by the end of the session so they can use it in future work.
• For Session Four, students must bring a thesis, an outline, and all of their research materials to class for a workday. Remind them to refer to the Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments , the Essay Rubric , and any notes they may have taken during the first two sessions as they begin their work.
• The thesis statement should answer the following question: What makes this speech an effective argument and worthy of making this list?

Session Four

• Set up students in heterogeneous groups of four. Ask students to share their outlines and thesis statements.
• Go around to check and to monitor as students share their ideas and progress. The students will discuss their speeches and their research thus far.
• Have students discuss the elements of an argument that they plan on addressing.
• Finally, have students work on writing their papers by writing their introductions with an enticing “grab” or “hook.” If time permits, have students share their work. 
• For Session Five, students should bring in their papers. This session would happen in about a week.

Session Five

• In this session, students will respond each other's drafts using the Peer Response Handout .
• Determine and discuss the final due date with your students. Direct students to Diana Hacker’s MLA site for assistance with their citations if necessary. 
• Remind students that their work will be evaluate using the essay rubric .  They should use the criteria along with the comments from their peer to revise and polish their work.
• During the process of analyzing  Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech , consider showing the related scene from the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age . Though the text of the speech is drastically cut and altered, seeing one filmmaker's vision for the scene may help reinforce the notion of historical context and the importance of audience.
• Allow students to read and/or perform parts of the speeches out loud. Then, they can share some of their thinking about the argumentative structure and rhetorical devices used to make the speech effective. This activity could happen as part of the prewriting process or after essays have been completed.
• Require students to write a graduation speech or a speech on another topic. They can peruse print or online news sources to select a current event that interests them.  Have them choose an audience to whom they would deliver an argumentative speech.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• After peer response has taken place, use the essay rubric to provide feedback on student work. You may change the values of the different categories/requirements to better suit the learning goals for your classroom.
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Students explore the ways that powerful and passionate words communicate the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination, and the American Dream in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.

Useful for a wide variety of reading and writing activities, this outlining tool allows students to organize up to five levels of information.

This strategy guide clarifies the difference between persuasion and argumentation, stressing the connection between close reading of text to gather evidence and formation of a strong argumentative claim about text.

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Speech Topics for Middle School

The elocution or a speech making competition is among the most typical competitions for varsity students. So what are the coolest persuasive speech topics for middle school? Read on in finding it out.

Once I was at school , there would always be this one kid annually inside the annual elocution competition, who would belt out that overdone bit about ‘I Have a Dream’. No offense meant to Martin Luther King or his rather soul stirring speech, but I must admit that it used to get slightly too irritating hearing an analogous thing over and over. And I used to think back then, why don’t people give you some original persuasive speech topics for middle school as opposed to the done and dusted ones about coming to bury Caesar and not to praise him?

So I had a dream myself to come back up and suggest persuasive speech topics for middle school students supported by custom essay . I will be able to remember perhaps at that age, they might not have the maturity to return up with topics of their own. A good way to read on here, to get some really original speech topics which can be not only interesting but quite contemporary too. And I suppose, the judges might find it quite impressive too, in the event you write something to your own, in place of just blurt out someone else’s speech. So on that note, listed here are some interesting persuasive speech topics for middle school students.

Good Persuasive Speech Topics for Middle School Students

a great persuasive speech idea is one on which the students write all alone, Something that is very contemporary to them, and they and other students can connect to. It’s going to be an issue, which students themselves feel very ok with and hence they may discuss it better.

Persuasive Speech Topics on Current Affairs Current affairs make great speech topics because, at the side of elocution ability of the scholar, additionally they bring out the idea process and thinking ability of the coed. Listed here are some speech topics for current affairs. Isn’t Medical insurance definitely the right of all Americans? Nuclear Proliferation: Will Development of Nuclear Weapons Fuel a Third World War? Violent Video Games Must be Banned Is Death Penalty Inhuman? Euthanasia: The perfect to Die? Some Thoughts About Human Cloning. Pros and Cons of Adoption. The bleak Reality of Climate Change. Use of Cell phones in Schools. Should one more Language be Made Mandatory in Schools Persuasive Speech Topics on Student Life There are some students who prefer talking about issues which can be specific to people of their generation. As students can directly go together with all these things, they generally tend to become excellent persuasive speech topics for top school students. Are Websites like Facebook or MySpace Substituting Face-to-Face Social Interaction Homework Must be Banned Television is a foul Influence Pros and Cons of Coeducation Schools Importance of Finding a Career Is There a More advantageous Punishment than Grounding Should Schools Make Uniforms Compulsory? The Cons and Cons of Junk Food. (‘Cons’ repeated twice for effect.) Sex Education in Schools Teen Pregnancy Best TV Shows for Middle School Students. Funny Speech Topics for Middle School Students There are some students that just cannot pull off the intensity, that’s needed for serious topics and it might be best that they don’t try those. So listed here are some light-hearted yet funny persuasive speech topics for middle school. Unusual Career Choices Why Some Brands are More Popular in Schools than Others? Some Funny Experiences Last Year. Celebrities Who Have the Greatest Pull on American Students Today. A Critical Evaluation of Our Superheroes: Batman, Spiderman or Superman? What if There was No Harry Potter/Twilight? After I Grow Up… Stupid Things My Pet Keeps Doing. Is There Life After Death? Is There Life on Mars? Are Vampires Real? For more interesting and persuasive and speech topics read on List of Persuasive Speech Topics for college students Interesting Speech Topics to speak about Topic Ideas for Middle School Science Fair Projects Editorial Topics for Middle School .As you can find, there is life beyond the done-and-dusted topics. These were some persuasive speech topics for middle school students, to be able to be a far needed breath of unpolluted air, not only for you, but in addition for the audiences and the judges!

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One thought on “Speech Topics for Middle School”

IEY speech club? I don’t think Isaac Young has a speech club.

We have been looking over the list here —

IEY — 21st Century Clubs

Seems odd to us that they start at 3:30pm and school ends at 2:30pm, though. The non-21st Century kids have to go home and then come back or stay in the library to participate in clubs.

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Middle School and Freshman Declamation

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Declamations

GRADES 6-9: DECLAMATION

A declamation is a 2-3 minute minimum recitation of a literature selection.  Grades 6-8 perform their declamation in front of the middle school and students in grade 9 perform their declamation in front of the whole school community.

Time Your Declamation

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16 Public Speaking Tips for Students

Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety. She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology.

Aron Janssen, MD is board certified in child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry and is the vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry Northwestern University.

Public speaking tips for students aim to reduce anxiety that can interfere with giving presentations or speeches in class. These tips can also be helpful for those with social anxiety disorder (SAD)   who have difficulty speaking in front of a group or telling a story among friends.

Public Speaking Tips

If you have SAD and need to give a speech  in elementary school, high school, college, or university, it helps to be as prepared as possible . Beyond preparation, however, there are strategies that you can use to reduce anxiety and fight the urge to stay home with a fake illness.

Even great speakers practice their speeches beforehand. Practice out loud with a recording device or video camera and then watch yourself to see how you can improve. If you are feeling brave, practice in front of a friend or family member and ask for feedback.

• Talk about what you know : If possible, choose a topic for your speech or presentation that you know a lot about and love. Your passion for the topic will be felt by the audience, and you will feel less anxious knowing that you have a lot of experience to draw from when other students ask you questions.
• Concentrate on your message : When you focus on the task at hand, anxiety is less likely to get out of control. Concentrate on the main message of your speech or presentation and make it your goal to deliver that message to the other students in your class.
• Grab the audience's attention : Most of your fellow classmates will pay attention for at least the first 20 seconds; grab their attention during those early moments. Start with an interesting fact or a story that relates to your topic.
• Have one main message : Focus on one central theme and your classmates will learn more. Tie different parts of your talk to the main theme to support your overall message. Trying to cover too much ground can leave other students feeling overwhelmed.

Tell Stories

Stories catch the attention of other students and deliver a message in a more meaningful way than facts and figures. Whenever possible, use a story to illustrate a point in your talk.

Being prepared to speak in public can also be important if you have social anxiety disorder. Feeling confident and prepared to give your speech may help lessen your feelings of anxiety. Some of the things that you can do to prepare include:

• Visit the room : If you have access to the classroom where you will be speaking outside of class hours, take the time to visit in advance and get used to standing at the front of the room. Make arrangements for any audio-visual equipment and practice standing in the exact spot where you will deliver your speech.
• Rack up experience : Volunteer to speak in front of your class as often as possible. Be the first one to raise your hand when a question is asked. Your confidence will grow with every public speaking experience.
• Observe other speakers : Take the time to watch other speakers who are good at what they do. Practice imitating their style and confidence.
• Organize your talk : Every speech should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Structure your talk so that the other students know what to expect.

Manage Your Anxiety

Taking steps to deal with your feelings of anxiety can also make public speaking easier. Some of the things that you can do:

• Tell someone about your anxiety : If you are speaking in front of a high school or college class, meet with your teacher or professor and describe your public speaking fears . If you're in elementary or high school, share your fears with your parents, a teacher, or a guidance counselor. Sometimes sharing how you feel can make it easier to overcome stage fright.
• Visualize confidence : Visualize yourself confidently delivering your speech. Imagine feeling free of anxiety and engaging the students in your class. Although this may seem like a stretch for you now, visualization is a powerful tool for changing the way that you feel. Elite athletes use this strategy to improve performance in competitions.
• Find a friendly face : If you are feeling anxious, find one of your friends in class (or someone who seems friendly) and imagine that you are speaking only to that person.

Press Play for Advice on Finding Courage

Hosted by therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares a strategy to help you find courage when you need it the most.

Follow Now : Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts

Maintain Perspective

Remember that other students are on your side. Think about a time when you have been an audience member and the student delivering the speech or presentation was noticeably nervous. Did you think less of that student? More likely, you felt sympathetic and wanted to make that person more comfortable by smiling or nodding.

Remember—other students generally want you to succeed and feel comfortable. If for some reason the audience is not on your side or you experience bullying or social exclusion, be sure to discuss this with a parent, teacher, or guidance counselor.

Be Confident

Sometimes just knowing what makes a good speech can help you feel more confident. Focus on some of the following elements and practice them before you have to speak in public.

• Develop your own style : In addition to imitating good speakers, work on developing your own personal style as a public speaker. Integrate your own personality into your speaking style and you will feel more comfortable in front of the class. Telling personal stories that tie into your theme are a great way to let other students get to know you better.
• Avoid filler words : Words such as "basically", "well", and "um" don't add anything to your speech. Practice being silent when you feel the urge to use one of these words.
• Vary your tone, volume, and speed : Interesting speakers vary the pitch (high versus low), volume (loud versus soft), and speed (fast versus slow) of their words. Doing so keeps your classmates interested and engaged in what you say.
• Make the audience laugh : Laughter is a great way to relax both you and the other students in your class, and telling jokes can be a great icebreaker at the beginning of a speech. Practice the timing and delivery of your jokes beforehand and ask a friend for feedback. Be sure that they are appropriate for your class before you begin.
• Smile : If all else fails, smile. Your fellow classmates will perceive you like a warm speaker and be more receptive to what you have to say.

Don't Apologize

If you make a mistake, don't offer apologies. Chances are that your classmates didn't notice anyway. Unless you need to correct a fact or figure, there is no point dwelling on errors that probably only you noticed.

If you make a mistake because your hands or shaking, or something similar, try to make light of the situation by saying something like, "I wasn't this nervous when I woke up this morning!" This can help to break the tension of the moment.

A Word From Verywell

It's natural to feel frightened the first time you have to speak in front of your class. However, if you fear continues, interferes with your daily life and keeps you awake at night, it may be helpful to see someone about your anxiety.

Try talking to a parent, teacher, or counselor about how you have been feeling. If that doesn't get you anywhere, ask to make an appointment with your doctor. Severe public speaking anxiety is a true disorder that can improve with treatment .

Spence SH, Rapee RM. The etiology of social anxiety disorder: An evidence-based model . Behav Res Ther. 2016;86:50-67. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2016.06.007

By Arlin Cuncic, MA Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety. She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology.

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How to Make a Middle School Graduation Speech

Last Updated: April 10, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alexander Ruiz, M.Ed. . Alexander Ruiz is an Educational Consultant and the Educational Director of Link Educational Institute, a tutoring business based in Claremont, California that provides customizable educational plans, subject and test prep tutoring, and college application consulting. With over a decade and a half of experience in the education industry, Alexander coaches students to increase their self-awareness and emotional intelligence while achieving skills and the goal of achieving skills and higher education. He holds a BA in Psychology from Florida International University and an MA in Education from Georgia Southern University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 430,734 times.

We all know giving a graduation speech can be nerve-wracking, but it is also an exciting opportunity. You get to highlight the important moments that your class has experienced over the years. To make a middle school graduation speech, you should write a speech that thanks your teachers, parents, and peers and also highlights some important moments throughout the year. Your speech will be more memorable if you include a few jokes, quotes, or words of advice.

Writing Your Graduation Speech

• You could say something like “Good afternoon Principal Jacobs, teachers, staff, family, and most importantly my fellow graduating class.”

• Encourage your classmates to always remember and cherish the good times you had together.

• For instance, you could say “During the fall charity drive, our class made history by raising over three thousand dollars.”

• Say something like: "I want to thank the teachers, staff, Principal Nolan, and, of course, my parents for a wonderful Lemon Valley experience. Without your support and guidance we would not be where we are today."
• You could add: “I would especially like to thank my classmates for making middle school one of the most fun and rewarding experiences of my life."

Elevating Your Speech

• For example, you should say “We will always remember when Mr. C. made a perfect dunk on the basketball court” instead of “I will always remember when Mr. C. made a perfect dunk of the basketball court.”

• Avoid making insulting jokes that may offend someone in the audience.
• You could tell a quick story that highlights a funny moment from the last year. For example, "Mr. D was so eager to come to school and teach us that one day he wore his shirt inside out."

• That being said, it is okay to give a tribute to someone if they deserve special recognition. For example, perhaps the entire graduating class had the same teacher. In this instance, you can mention that teacher individually.

• Alternatively, you could choose a quote that was hung on your classroom wall and talk about how you can apply this quote to future successes.

• For example, you could quote a piece of advice from a celebrity commencement speech.
• Alternatively, you could say something serious like "The journey ahead may not be easy, and most of us will stumble at some point. The important thing is that we get back up and keep working towards our goals and dreams."

Delivering the Speech

Expert Q&A

• Stay Confident! Never let your audience think you are nervous or shy. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Keep the speech lively. Nobody wants to fall asleep at their own graduation. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• It may help to take a deep breath before starting your speech. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Make sure the content in your speech is respectful to all. Thanks Helpful 30 Not Helpful 2
• If you are going to tell a story or joke about an individual, you may want to run it by them first. That way you will not offend them during the graduation ceremony. Thanks Helpful 26 Not Helpful 3
• Do not chew gum while speaking because it may be difficult for people to understand what you are saying. Thanks Helpful 28 Not Helpful 4
• If you want your speech to be a surprise, do not practice with your friends. Thanks Helpful 24 Not Helpful 8

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/speech-introductions
• ↑ http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/style-and-usage/graduation-speech-writing-outline.html
• ↑ Alexander Ruiz, M.Ed.. Educational Consultant. Expert Interview. 4 August 2020.
• ↑ http://www.jostens.com/grad/grad_cp_hs_grad_guide_graduation_speech.html
• ↑ https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/be/commkit/public-speaking-how-to-practice/
• ↑ https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/graduation-speech-ideas with https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/be/commkit/public-speaking-how-to-practice/

About This Article

To make a middle school graduation speech, start with a greeting like "Good morning, everyone!" Then introduce yourself, since not everyone in the audience will know you. You can then share some of your favorite memories of middle school by talking about important things that happened or notable school events. Also, include some positive comments about the future, like how excited you are for high school. Before your time is up, thank those people who made middle school a great experience, like your teachers or principal. To learn how to add jokes or famous quotes to your speech, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Middle School Graduation Speech Examples

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Celebrate the excitement of moving on from middle school with a fun or inspiring speech to your classmates at graduation. Use the example speeches as is by clicking on the image of the one you love to download and print it. If you run into any trouble using the sample graduation speeches, check with the Adobe Guide for troubleshooting.

Funny Middle School Graduation Speech

In this trendy speech, you'll compare middle school to the game Minecraft. Since you're probably a noob at giving speeches, have a little fun with your speech to help ease your anxiety because funny graduation speeches are usually audience favorites.

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Customization Options

By adding in a few specific details and examples, you can take this speech from generic to unique.

• Provide specific examples of the "blocks" you gathered such as quotes from your favorite teachers or the principal's catchphrase.
• Expand on what you've created by including examples of group projects completed by your grade.
• Add in your school's full name and the name of the high school you'll be moving onto.

Inspirational Junior High Graduation Speech

Get your fellow classmates fired up and excited about the next chapter of your lives with an inspirational junior high graduation speech. If you're giving a speech at a more formal or professional ceremony, this example is a great way to show your mature side.

The point of a motivational speech is to show where you came from as a class and where you can go together in the future.

• Add details about the different social groups at your school to make it more relatable to other students.
• Give an example or two of something you all achieved together like winning spirit week or collecting donations for a charity.
• Expand on the storm theme by adding more elements of a storm, such as lightning or hail, and how those can be related to your class.

How to Create a Great Graduation Speech

You can also use these examples as inspiration for the length and tone of your own unique middle school graduation speech. Follow the general format, but choose your own theme and word things in your own way.

What to Include

Every great middle school graduation speech includes a few key things:

• An attention-grabbing first line
• Thank you to classmates, school, and/or families
• Memorable shared middle school experiences
• How you've grown
• An inspirational ending that excites everyone about high school

Theme Ideas

Choose a theme you are knowledgeable or passionate about to make your speech more impactful. Include quotes or graduation poems to further connect your theme.

• Favorite school subject
• School mascot qualities
• Pop culture trends
• School motto or song
• Things that are in the middle
• Measurements

What to Avoid

Since you'll be giving your speech to a crowd, you want to try to keep it short, politically correct, and interesting. When writing your speech, avoid:

• Teasing classmates or teachers
• Using foul language or offensive terms
• Giving too many personal feelings and examples that only apply to your experience
• Off-topic rambling
• Angry or embarrassing experiences or stories

End on a High Note

You've survived middle school ! End your last days of junior high with a great speech kids, parents, and teachers will remember for years to come. Take the opportunity to look back on the past years and what they've meant to you and your classmates.

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125 Winning Debate Topics for Middle School Students

Teach students to make effective arguments.

When students learn to debate, they gain valuable life skills. Debates teach kids to research their topic, make informed choices, and argue effectively using facts instead of emotion. This list of middle school debate topics encompasses both serious and lighthearted ideas for kids ages 10 to 14. Each topic includes a link to an article from a reliable source that provides pros and/or cons to help kids make their arguments.

School and Education Debate Topics

Technology and entertainment debate topics, life and ethics debate topics, fun and funny debate topics.

• Controversial Debate Topics
• It’s better to be good at academics than to be good at sports.
• Homework should be banned.
• Schools should require all students to wear uniforms.
• We should punish students for using curse words.
• Year-round school is better for students.

• Schools should require physical education (gym class) through 12th grade.
• All students should be required to volunteer in their community.
• Junk food should be banned in schools.
• All middle school students should learn a foreign language.
• Single-gender schools are better for students.
• Math is the most important school subject.
• Letter grades should be abolished.
• Teachers should be replaced by computers.
• Students should be graded on their handwriting.
• Kids who get better grades in school will be more successful in life.
• Sometimes it’s OK to cheat on homework or a test.
• Students who fail a test should be given the chance to take it again.
• Students should be allowed to grade teachers.
• Kids should be able to bring their pets to school.
• Schools should give middle school students more recess time.

• The school day should be shorter.
• Schools should eliminate dress codes.
• College should be free for everyone who wants to attend.
• Schools should be allowed to ban some books from their libraries.
• Book smarts are better than street smarts.
• All people should have free internet access.
• Playing violent video games makes people more likely to be violent in real life.
• Reality television depicts real life.
• The minimum age to own a smartphone should be 16.

• Students should be allowed to use phones in class.
• Macs are better than PCs.
• Androids are better than iPhones.
• Kids under 13 should be allowed to use social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.
• Students should not be allowed to watch TV on school nights.
• Social media does more harm than good.
• Video games are better than board games.
• Reading books is better than watching TV.
• All paper documents should be replaced with electronic versions.
• Books are always better than the movies that are made from them.
• Parents should use their kids’ cell phones to track where they are.
• Playing video games makes you smarter.

• Scientists should try to develop a way for everyone to live forever.
• Paper books are better than e-books.
• Schools should have surveillance cameras in classrooms and hallways.
• Movie ratings (G, PG, PG-13, and R) should be done away with.
• Professional athletes and celebrities deserve to make more money than the average person.
• People have a responsibility to help one another out.
• No one should ever tell a lie.
• Girls face more peer pressure than boys.
• We should lower the voting age to 12.
• Every member of a family should have daily chores.
• All museums and zoos should be free to everyone.
• All people should be vegetarians.

• Democracy is the best form of government.
• All Americans should be required to vote.
• Cigarette smoking and vaping should be banned entirely.
• Parents should be allowed to read their children’s private diaries.
• Giving is better than receiving.
• Receiving a regular allowance is good for kids.
• Parents should be punished for their children’s mistakes.
• Real Christmas trees are better than artificial ones.
• We should not keep animals in zoos.
• All kids should play on the same sports teams, regardless of gender.
• It is better to save some of your allowance than to spend it all.
• Kids should be allowed to stay up as late as they want.
• Happiness is more important than success.
• The driving age should be lowered to 14.

• We should completely ban plastic bottles.
• Parents should have to take a parenting class before having a child.
• If you find money on the ground, it’s automatically yours to keep.
• It is better to be kind than to be truthful.
• All kids should have a playground or park within walking distance of their home.
• Kids should be allowed to have credit cards.
• It’s important to spend money exploring space.
• All families should have a pet.
• Dogs are better pets than cats.
• Summer is better than winter.
• Pepperoni is the best pizza topping.
• Teachers shouldn’t give rewards and prizes in the classroom.
• Clowns are more scary than funny.
• Every home should have a robot.
• There is intelligent life on other planets.

• The egg came before the chicken.
• Pop music is better than classical music.
• Xbox is better than PlayStation.
• Peanut butter is better than Nutella.
• Football is better than soccer.
• Everyone should make their bed every day.
• It would be better to be able to fly than to be able to turn invisible.
• Harry Potter is better than The Lord of the Rings .
• Pluto should still be considered a planet.
• Santa Claus’ elves should be paid minimum wage.
• Hot chocolate is better than a chocolate milkshake.
• Fruit counts as dessert.
• People should be allowed to go barefoot anywhere if they want to.
• Fiction is better than nonfiction.

• Everyone should learn to play a musical instrument.
• Werewolves are more dangerous than vampires.
• Kids shouldn’t have to go to school on their birthdays.

Controversial Middle School Debate Topics

These middle school debate topics are pretty contentious and might not be appropriate for all students or every classroom. But if your middle schoolers are ready to take on more serious debates, try these important questions.

• We should abolish the death penalty.
• Stricter gun control laws help stop mass shootings.
• It’s necessary to continue building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
• Segregation still exist in the United States.
• Religion does more harm than good.
• We will never achieve world peace.
• We shouldn’t allow young children to play contact sports like football.

• Parents shouldn’t be allowed to pierce a baby’s ears.
• Beauty pageants are sexist.
• Kids shouldn’t get participation trophies for sports.
• It’s possible to be an ethical hunter.
• Some stereotypes are accurate.
• People have a responsibility to step in when they see a crime in action.
• War is sometimes necessary.
• There are times when we must limit freedom of speech.
• Security is more important than freedom.
• We should do away with gender-specific public bathrooms.
• Anyone over age 12 should be tried as an adult in court.
• Electric vehicles are better than gas-powered ones.

• Our society has a harmful “diet culture.”
• All countries should have to give up their nuclear weapons.
• We should ban testing on animals.
• We should ban the use of fossil fuels.
• Human cloning should be legal.
• Vaccines should be mandatory.

What are your favorite middle school debate topics? Come share in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out 75 funny debate topics for kids of all ages ..

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10-minute demonstration speech topics

100 + short 3-10 minute how to speech ideas

By:  Susan Dugdale   | Last modified: 02-17-2023

If you've been asked to put together a 10 minute, or less, demonstration speech for your speech class, look these 'how-to' ideas over. They're perfect for preparing short show and tell presentations to teach a new task succinctly and quickly.

Use the quick links below to get around the page easily. The topics are arranged in four batches. Begin with 'Why demonstrate something simple and ordinary?'. It could save you a lot of time!

What's on this page

Why demonstrate something simple and ordinary.

• 25 10-minute demonstration speech topics

25 ideas for short how-to speeches

26 topics for show-and-tell speeches.

• 32 demonstrative topics for 3 to 10-minute speeches

How plan and prepare your demonstration speech

• Get an adaptable printable demonstrative speech outline

Other topics for demonstration speeches

Before you settle on a topic, please don't overlook demonstrating a skill or a process you regard as commonplace.

If we already know how to do something competently, we have an understandable tendency to dismiss whatever it is as far too simple, and too ordinary to turn it into a demonstration speech.

And yet, that assumption can be so wrong.

There are audiences who will want to know how to do some of the things we do so efficiently and easily, that we forget we had to learn how to do them in the first place!  Many of those things are on this list.

For instance, a group of people who don’t spend a lot of time online, could find why and how to set up a safe password valuable knowledge to have. It might stop them from being hacked!

Likewise teaching people who intend to explore the great outdoors, and haven't had much prior experience, how to use a portable gas stove safely is extremely useful.

Or showing parents of children with long hair how to plait it. That will save a lot of time and tears when it comes to brushing.

And I'll always be grateful to the person who showed me how to give medicine to my beloved cat, without being scratched to bits!

Think about your audience. What would be useful for them to know? Sharing something of real benefit and value will help keep them actively interested.  *

* For more on how to choose a great demonstration speech topic .

Return to Top

25 3 to 10-minute demonstration speech topics

Once you’ve got your topic be sure to collect a printable demonstration speech outline to help you prepare your speech. You’ll find the link for that at the foot of the page. The outline will help you efficiently plan, organize and deliver a well-structured speech.

Now here's the first batch of the 100, and more, topics. 

• How to set up a safe password
• How to avoid ID theft
• How to use Google docs well
• How to set up Google analytics on a website quickly
• How to create a simple presentation using Microsoft Powerpoint or Apple Keynote
• How to back up your important files
• How to set up a wifi connection
• How to report online bullying
• How to fill out online forms well
• How to clear cookies off your computer
• How to identify and report spam
• How to set up a Spotify account
• How to use online banking
• How to use a credit card responsibly
• How to use online grocery shopping to save
• How to defend yourself against a random personal physical attack
• How to pack a travel bag efficiently
• How to help someone who is choking
• How to lift heavy objects without damaging yourself
• How to make a perfect cup of tea
• How to shop for groceries efficiently in a supermarket
• How to use a dryer to make your own dried fruit
• How to can vegetables safely
• How to freeze excess produce
• How to make perfect fruit jam

• How to chop vegetables safely and quickly
• How to carve a chicken, turkey...
• How to store raw chicken in the fridge safely
• How to prepare a simple healthy meal from basic ingredients
• How to plan an affordable weekly dinner menu
• How to iron a shirt
• How to tie a neck tie
• How to sort laundry, use a washing machine and dry your clothes
• How to hand wash delicate fabrics
• How to use a knife and fork correctly
• How to use a pair of chop sticks properly
• How to know what cutlery to use when you’re at a formal dinner party
• How to plait long hair
• How to brush a long-haired dog or cat well
• How to brush your teeth correctly
• How to do a press up correctly
• How to choose a haircut to suit your face shape
• How to a jacket to suit your body shape
• How to dress well on a limited budget
• How to make a simple healthy dessert
• How to ice a cake simply and effectively
• How to upcycle a tee shirt
• How to mend a fallen hem
• How to sew on a button
• How to make a bookcase from recycled materials

• How make a simple personal budget
• How to grow kitchen herbs in a window box
• How to escape from a sinking car
• How to use a blanket to move heavy objects
• How to sharpen a knife
• How use a thermometer correctly
• How to use a compass
• How read a simple topographical map
• How to use a portable gas stove safely out of doors
• How to put out a stove top fire
• How to change a light bulb
• How to clear a blocked sink
• How to clean a bathroom well
• How to make a bed
• How to use the local public transport system
• How to hold a baby properly
• How to change a baby’s diaper
• How to dress a baby
• How to dress a wound
• How to make an emergency call
• How to administer first aid for burns
• How to treat hypothermia
• How to handle frostbite
• How to handle someone having a seizure
• How to use CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
• How to shine a pair of shoes

32 demonstrative topics for 10-minute speeches

• How to book a taxicab
• How to arrange flowers in a vase
• How to sow flower or vegetable seeds
• How to re-pot an indoor plant
• How to take a cutting from a plant
• How to prune a rose
• How to dry or press flowers
• How to forage for edible plants
• How to set a mouse trap
• How to make good lecture notes
• How to set a meeting agenda
• How to run a meeting efficiently
• How to read body language – what shows a person is unsure, shy, angry, confident...
• How to effectively and easily join a conversation between people you don’t know at a gathering
• How to make a personalized greeting card – birthday, wedding, anniversary, Christmas...
• How to make paper flowers
• How to make touchstones for children
• How to make a personalized birthday crown
• How to make colorful party bunting
• How to make a yarn ball
• How to make finger puppets
• How to felt wool balls for a garland
• How to decoupage a box, tray...
• How to make a pasta necklace
• How to make personalized pencil and pen holders from tin cans
• How to mend a tear in a favorite piece of clothing
• How to organize your wardrobe, kitchen counter, pantry...
• How to give medicine to a cat or a dog safely
• How to see a situation from another person’s point of view
• How to encourage and practice creative thinking
• How to make a friendship bracelet
• How to make a family pinboard

To be really effective you'll want to plan and prepare your 'how-to' speech thoroughly - even if you know the subject inside out!

Demonstration speeches that haven't been thought through and practiced carefully have a nasty habit of suddenly sliding sideways super-fast. Then what you want to happen and what actually does are miles apart - two quite different things. 

To avoid that read  planning, preparation & delivery of your demonstration speech . 

Get the printable demonstration speech outline 

Click the link to access to printable demonstration speech outline .  (It goes to the same page on planning and preparation linked to above. While you are there be sure to read the FAQs, especially the information about cue cards. If you haven't given a demonstration speech before you'll find it useful.)

If you've not found the how-to speech idea you want here, here's the link to access four more pages of demonstration speech topics . Collectively, that's 100s of suggestions! They include soft skills: the skills we need to communicate well with each other.

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Middle School Speech Challenge Topics 2021

Middle school speech challenge topics, middle school pro con challenge.

Students will write a 3-5 minute affirmative case and a 3-5 minute negative case on the National Tournament topic for LD, PF, or CX. They will read both of those speeches within a time limit of 10 minutes and submit it through the recording process.

• LD Topic – Resolved: A public health emergency justifies limiting civil liberties.
• PF Topic – Resolved: In the United States, social media is beneficial for democratic values.
• CX Topic – Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.

Middle School Congressional Debate Authorship Challenge

Competitors will select two pieces of legislation from the High School National Congressional Debate Docket and construct two authorship speeches 3-5 minutes in length. They will read both of those speeches within a time limit of 10 minutes and submit it through the recording process.

Middle School Prepared Mixed Extemporaneous Speaking

In Prepared Mixed Extemporaneous Speaking, students select one question from the list below, prepare a 7-minute speech, and submit it through the recording process.

• What must the Indian National Congress do in order to win India’s next national election?
• Why has Syria’s civil war proved so intractable?
• Why has Europe’s vaccine rollout lagged?
• How will Ecuador’s politics change following their latest presidential elections?
• What does Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment to Director-General of the World Trade Organization mean for women in Africa?
• Will new sanctions effectively deter Russian hacking attacks on the United States?
• Is Joe Biden living up to his promise of creating more humane immigration policy?
• How serious a threat does inflation pose to the United States economy?
• Should the federal government forgive $50,000 of student debt per borrower?
• How will concerns over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine affect our ability to significantly curtail the transmission of COVID-19?

Middle School Prepared Prompt Speaking

In Prepared Prompt Speaking, students select one question from the list below, prepare a 5-minute speech, and submit it through the recording process.

• “People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” – John C. Maxwell
• “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” – B.B. King
• “The future belongs to those that believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” – Rosa Parks
• “Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” – Winston Churchill
• “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” – Maya Angelou
• “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.” – Alice Walker
• “Words have incredible power. They can make people’s hearts soar, or they can make people’s hearts sore.” – Dr. Mardy Grothe
• “There is only one way to go now: forward, into the unknown” – Christina Moracho
• “Success is a collection of problems solved.” – I. M. Pei

Middle School Storytelling

Students competing in Storytelling may use any theme/topic area.

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Home » Blog » Lesson Plans » Being a Good Sport Discussion for Middle School

Being a Good Sport Discussion for Middle School

In middle school, learning to be a good sport is as crucial as academic achievements. As special educators, we have the unique opportunity to instill values of sportsmanship in our students. This blog post outlines an engaging Being a Good Sport Discussion for Middle School , designed to teach middle schoolers the importance of fair play, respect, and camaraderie.

The Importance of Good Sportsmanship

Why Focus on Sportsmanship?

Good sportsmanship is about more than just playing fair. It’s about showing respect, empathy, and grace, whether you win or lose. It helps students develop a positive mindset and learn how to interact respectfully with peers, both in sports and in life.

Lesson Plan Overview

Objective: To engage middle school students in discussions about sportsmanship, using discussion prompts from Everyday Speech.

Materials Needed: Being a Good Sport Discussion Questions PDF

Duration: 30 minutes.

The Lesson Plan

1. Introduction to Sportsmanship (5 minutes)

• Start with a brief discussion on what being a good sport means.
• Share examples of sportsmanship from sports and everyday life.

2. Discussion Prompt Activity (15 minutes)

• Distribute the Being a Good Sport Discussion Questions .
• Break students into small groups and guide them through the seven discussion prompts.
• Encourage open, respectful conversations about each prompt.

3. Group Sharing (10 minutes)

• Bring the class together and have each group share their thoughts.
• Focus on common themes and insights from the discussions.

4. Reflection and Closing

• Conclude with a reflection on the importance of sportsmanship in daily life.
• Encourage students to apply these principles in school and beyond.
• Pair this discussion with a video from Everyday Speech.

Being a good sport is a valuable life lesson that extends beyond the playing field. Through this “Being a Good Sport Discussion for Middle School,” we can help our students embrace the values of respect, empathy, and resilience. Such discussions not only enrich their school experience but also prepare them for the broader social challenges of life.

Sample Video

Students learn best from watching real students their own age model skills. Try out this sample video-modeling lesson below. We offer our entire Social-Emotional Learning platform free for 30 days here !

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Building Social Communication: Pragmatic Skills Goals in Middle School

Free Social Skills Exercises for Middle School Students: A Practical Guide

Middle School Social Problem-Solving Made Easy with Videos

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10 Scripts for Middle School - Instant Download

Seven comedies and three dramas from our unmatched library of scripts, each selected with stories suited for middle school students . many of the scripts are perfect for duo or duet performance, as well..

These pieces are great for novice performers, but they don’t shy away from big laughs and real drama. There are plenty of opportunities for young students to learn how to create characters, build suspense, and captivate an audience. These scripts are for students ready to learn the craft of acting.

And of course, every play is ready for competition and proven in rounds, meaning you can start rehearsing and performing right away!

Comedies The Merchandise King  Rhymes with Orange Hot Dog Time Machine Beauty Boot Camp STOP!   Hamilton Sasquatch Dr. Wilderness 

Drama Taller To-Day Front Porch Chronicles My Tiny Dancer’s Hands

Note: The publisher and authors have authorized middle school performers to make any necessary language adjustments or small changes to plot in order to fit standards for a middle school competition. 

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Parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley both sentenced to 10-15 years for involuntary manslaughter

PONTIAC, Mich. — The first parents to ever be charged , then convicted, in their child’s mass shooting at a U.S. school were both sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 15 years in prison after they faced the victims' families at a sentencing hearing in a Michigan courtroom.

James Crumbley, 47, and his wife, Jennifer, 46, were sentenced one after another by Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews as they appeared together for the first time since they attended joint hearings before their landmark trials were separated last fall. Their son, Ethan, now 17, pleaded guilty as an adult to the 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit and was sentenced to life in prison.

Matthews' sentencing decision was in line with what Oakland County prosecutors had asked for after both parents were found guilty on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each of the students their son killed.

Matthews told the Crumbleys that the jury convictions were "not about poor parenting" but about how they repeatedly ignored warning signs that a "reasonable person" would have seen.

"These convictions confirm repeated acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train," she said.

The couple will get credit for time served in an Oakland County jail since their arrests in the wake of the shooting on Nov. 30, 2021. The pair sat apart at the defense table with their lawyers beside them as the families of the four students who were killed asked before sentencing for the maximum terms to be imposed.

"When you texted, 'Ethan don't do it,'  I was texting, 'Madisyn I love you, please call mom,'" Nicole Beausoleil, the mother of shooting victim Madisyn Baldwin, 17, told the Crumbleys. "When you found out about the lives your son took that day, I was still waiting for my daughter in the parking lot.

"The lack of compassion you've shown is outright disgusting," she added through tears.

Jill Soave, the mother of another slain student, Justin Shilling, 17, said the parents' inaction on the day of the shooting "failed their son and failed us all."

Justin's father, Craig Shilling, said he was troubled by Jennifer Crumbley's testimony during her trial in which she said she would not have done anything differently, even today.

"The blood of our children is on your hands, too," Craig Shilling said.

James Crumbley wore an orange jumpsuit and headphones to help with his hearing, and Jennifer Crumbley wore a gray-and-white jumpsuit. He did not look at his wife, while she glanced in his direction.

In Michigan, prosecutors said, felonies that rise out of the same event must run concurrently, so the most Matthews could have imposed is 15 years in total. And while prosecutors wanted the parents to receive sentences that exceeded the advisory guideline range, Matthews had the ultimate discretion, weighing factors such as past criminal behavior and the circumstances of their crimes.

Before she was sentenced, Jennifer Crumbley told the court that she felt "deep remorse, regret and grief" about the shooting, but she also deflected some of the blame onto school officials and took offense to the prosecution's strategy portraying her as a neglectful mother .

"We were good parents," Crumbley said. "We were the average family. We weren't perfect, but we loved our son and each other tremendously."

James Crumbley also addressed the court, explaining to the judge that he did not know beforehand about his son's planned attack on his school and telling the victims' families directly that he would have acted differently on the day of the shooting.

"Please note that I am truly sorry for your loss as a result of what my son did," he said. "I cannot express how much I wish I had known what was going on with him or what was going to happen."

Matthews said during Tuesday's sentencing that the family would not be housed together and that the state Corrections Department has indicated James and Ethan Crumbley specifically will not be in the same facility given their relationship. Ethan is being held in a state prison 17 miles from Oxford High School. Jennifer Crumbley would be sent to the state's only women's prison.

James and Jennifer Crumbley have not been able to communicate as part of a no contact order since their arrests.

In both parents' cases, prosecutors wrote that their "gross negligence changed an entire community forever."

They both could have prevented the shooting with "tragically simple actions," prosecutors wrote, adding that they "failed to take any action when presented with the gravest of dangers."

Legal experts had suggested James Crumbley could have faced a harsher sentence than his wife after prosecutors said he made threats in jail.

During his trial, Matthews restricted his communication to only his lawyer and clergy.

The sentencing memo for James Crumbley referred to allegations that he made threats against the prosecutor and said that "his jail calls show a total lack of remorse" and that "he blames everyone but himself."

The memo details the expletive-ridden threats he is alleged to have directly addressed to the prosecutor on multiple recorded jail calls. In one call before the trial, he said, "Karen McDonald, you're going down," according to prosecutors. In other calls, he threatened retribution, they said.

James Crumbley’s lawyer, Mariell Lehman, wrote in court documents that the calls did not include threats to physically harm the prosecutor but that he expressed his desire to ensure that McDonald is not able to continue practicing law as a result of her actions in the case.

"It is clear Mr. Crumbley is venting to loved ones about his frustrations related to the lack of investigation done by the prosecution prior to authorizing charges," Lehman wrote, saying her client is understandably angry at his situation.

The prosecution's memo also says James Crumbley asserted his innocence in a pre-sentence report, indicating a lack of remorse.

"I feel horrible for what happened and would do anything to be able to go back in time and change it! But I can't. And I had nothing to do with what happened," he wrote, according to the prosecution memo. "I don't know why my son did what he did. HE is the only one who knows."

Lehman has not said whether she plans to appeal James Crumbley's verdict, while a lawyer for Jennifer Crumbley, Shannon Smith, has written that she will.

Two separate trials

James Crumbley did not take the stand during his trial. His wife testified that she placed the responsibility of securing the 9 mm semiautomatic handgun used in the shooting on her husband.

Asked whether she would have done anything differently, Jennifer Crumbley told jurors, "I don't think I'm a failure as a parent."

Prosecutors argued that she knew of her son's deteriorating mental health and social isolation and that he had access to a gun but that she cared more about her hobbies and carrying on an extramarital affair than about being present at home.

Her defense lawyer attempted to portray her as a caring mother, albeit one who did not know her son was capable of such violence — suggesting instead that his school failed to fully inform her of his troubles and that her husband was responsible for the weapon.

Smith continued to defend her client in her sentencing memo.

"Criticizing Mrs. Crumbley for being 'rarely home' is a sexist and misogynistic attack on a mother," Smith wrote.

In a pre-sentence report, Jennifer Crumbley said she has the hindsight now to know she would have handled things differently.

"With the information I have now, of course my answer would be hugely different," she said. "There are so many things that I would change if I could go back in time."

Both her and her husband's trials centered on the day of the shooting.

A day after Thanksgiving, prosecutors said, James Crumbley bought their son the handgun, while Jennifer Crumbley took him to a gun range that weekend.

On Tuesday, a teacher said she had found a note on Ethan's desk with a drawing of a gun and a person who had been shot, along with messages including: "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."

That discovery prompted the school to summon the parents for a meeting, but school officials testified that they declined to bring him home because they had to go back to work.

The officials also said that if the parents had informed them that their son had access to a gun, they would have been more authoritative to ensure immediate safety.

Ethan would go on to commit the school shooting later that afternoon, killing Baldwin; Shilling; Tate Myre, 16; and Hana St. Juliana, 14.

Victims' families want accountability

In the aftermath of the trials, the victims' families have demanded further accountability. They are seeking changes to governmental immunity laws that protect schools from being sued and want to see a requirement for independent reviews after any mass shooting.

Oakland County prosecutors have said they do not plan to charge anyone else in connection with the massacre.

Buck Myre, the father of Tate Myre, said during Tuesday's sentencing that families still want a government-led investigation.

"It's time to drive real change from this tragedy," he told the judge.

Later, James Crumbley stood and addressed Buck Myre directly when he was given the chance to speak.

"It is time that we all know the truth," he said. "I, too, want the truth, because you have not had it."

Selina Guevara and Maggie Vespa reported from Pontiac and Erik Ortiz from New York.

Selina Guevara is an NBC News associate producer, based in Chicago.

NBC News Correspondent

Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.

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• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
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How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam

A mexican drug cartel is targeting seniors and their timeshares..

Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Produced by Asthaa Chaturvedi and Will Reid

With Clare Toeniskoetter and Lynsea Garrison

Edited by Brendan Klinkenberg and Michael Benoist

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Rowan Niemisto ,  Dan Powell ,  Pat McCusker and Will Reid

Engineered by Chris Wood

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Warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

A massive scam targeting older Americans who own timeshare properties has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars sent to Mexico.

Maria Abi-Habib, an investigative correspondent for The Times, tells the story of a victim who lost everything, and of the criminal group making the scam calls — Jalisco New Generation, one of Mexico’s most violent cartels.

On today’s episode

Maria Abi-Habib , an investigative correspondent for The New York Times based in Mexico City.

Background reading

How a brutal Mexican drug cartel came to target seniors and their timeshares .

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The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

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Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

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