Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← English
EnglishPersuading a real audience30 min★★★ difficulty

Taking questions after your speech

The spoken language assessment includes questions from the audience, and that is the part nobody practises. This lesson gives you four answer shapes, including what to say when you do not know, so the questions stop being the frightening bit.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Give short speeches and presentations, expressing their own ideas and keeping to the point

Key learning points

  • • Four questions, four shapes
  • • 'I don't know' done well
  • • Preparing the three questions you will get
  • • Body, voice and the pause

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

speechespresentationsexpressingkeepingquestions

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Taking questions after your speech

An English teaching video on this topic from TED Ideas Studio. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Give short speeches and presentations, expressing their own ideas and keeping to the point

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You can give a short prepared speech and keep to the point.

Recap: Giving a short speech that keeps to the point
3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Listening in full
Letting the question finish before you start answering.
Signposting
Saying how you will answer: 'Two things - first the cost, then the timetable.'
Conceding
Agreeing with a fair point without abandoning your argument.
Bridging
Linking a question back to something in your speech.
Hedging
Saying honestly how sure you are, instead of bluffing.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Four shapes for four kinds of question

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Four questions, four shapes

A question asking for information: answer in one sentence, then stop - the commonest mistake is answering for a minute. A question that disagrees: concede the fair part first, then give your reason. A question you already covered: bridge back - 'I touched on that; the key point is...' - without saying 'as I said'. A question you cannot answer: say so, say what you would need to find out, and offer to come back to it.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

'I don't know' done well

'I don't know' followed by nothing sounds unprepared. 'I don't know the exact figure. What I would want is the cost of the three schools that trialled it, because that is the number that decides it' sounds like someone in command of their own argument. Nobody expects a fifteen-year-old to have every statistic; they expect you to know what would settle the question.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

A question asking for information is best answered...

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

When someone disagrees, you should first...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Preparing, and handling the hard ones

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Preparing the three questions you will get

Before any speech, write down the three questions you least want. For the later-start argument: what about childcare, what about after-school clubs, and won't students just stay up later? Prepare one sentence for each. Almost every question you get will be a version of one of them, and having a sentence ready is what stops the long, wandering answer that loses the room.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Body, voice and the pause

Let the question finish, then pause for a beat before answering - it reads as thinking, not hesitation. Look at the questioner while they speak and at the room while you answer. Keep answers under thirty seconds unless asked for more. If two questions come at once, say which one you are taking first. None of this is performance; it is just making yourself easy to follow.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

The best version of 'I don't know' includes...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Pausing for a beat before answering reads as...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Long answers do not sound knowledgeable - they sound unprepared.
  • Conceding a fair point does not lose the argument; it makes you credible.
  • 'As I said in my speech' sounds dismissive - bridge back instead.
  • Bluffing a statistic is worse than admitting you do not have it.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Before any speech, write down the three ____ you least want.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Taking questions after your speech

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. 'Bridging' means...

  2. 2. How many likely questions should you prepare before a speech?

  3. 3. Answers should usually last under...

  4. 4. If two questions arrive at once, you should...

  5. 5. Bluffing a statistic is...

  6. 6. Where should you look while answering?

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Extract

The last bus

The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.

She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.

Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.

Original extract written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
  2. How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
  3. Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.

  • Reading response

    Reading

    Read the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.

    2 paragraphs (PEE)

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Write your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.

    250–350 words

  • Reading log

    Reading

    Note the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.

    20 minutes' reading

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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