Understanding the Audience
Topic: Situational Audience Analysis: Disposition
Objective: Students will guess the attitudes of their classmates through this activity and should therefore be able to have a better awareness of the attitudes and dispositions of the audience while giving a speech.
Materials: A basket, bucket or hat from which to draw slips of paper out of. Small pieces of paper.
Steps:
1. First explain the meaning of the word disposition. (Disposition is one’s natural attitude towards something.) Then explain the importance of being able to read an audience’s disposition.
2. For this activity, commonly called “Party Quirks,” have the students come to the front of the room in groups of four or five.
3. One person will be the “party host” and will be responsible for guessing the attitudes of his guests.
4. Have the remaining three or four people draw pieces of paper out of a container and then act out the emotion/attitude/feeling on the back of their slip of paper.
5. Once the host has guessed the correct attitudes of all his/her guests, have that group sit down and then continue taking turns until everyone in the class has had a chance to participate.
Results: After the activity, talk to the students about how easy/difficult it was to guess the attitudes of their “guests”. Ask them why they think it would be important to understand the disposition of their audience at a public speaking event. Ask questions: how would that effect the way that you would address them? (etc…)
Kit Mentzer
Sept. 23, 2009