Motivational Speeches

Opening

• Start the day with an upbeat, motivational song and a short journal prompt.
• This lesson is about motivation so ask students a question like: “What motivates you?” or “How do you find motivation when you really need it?”

Motivational Video

• Select a TED Talk or another motivational video that you feel will inspire and motivate your class.

• Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders, Sheryl Sandburg
• We Need to Talk about an Injustice
• Kid President, “Pep Talk”

Evaluation

Lead students in a discussion of the elements of the motivational video that were particularly successful or unsuccessful in motivating them.

You may want to allow students to journal their responses first to allow think-time as well as to avoid one student’s opinion of the video swaying the discussion.

Planning and Writing the Speech/Script

Give students time to write their own motivational speech or video script.

Reflection

Consider the following prompts:

• What elements did you choose to add to your message to make it motivational?
• What was the process of writing a motivational message or speech like for you? What was easy about it? What was difficult?
• When and how will you present your motivational message or speech?

Follow Up

Schedule time with your class to share these speeches or videos for sustaining motivation.

You can create a #motivationmonday hashtag for your scholars to post their videos or motivational speeches to social media and/or a class web site.