Book excerpt: Speaking Skills for Teens trains students to learn effective speaking skills and also motivates students to view themselves and their classmates in an optimistic manner. Because they can find only positives in each talk given by their peers, that is the way they start viewing each presenter even before the talk begins. Through active participation, students learn how to maximize their speaking skills, their poise, and their recognition of their own skills and abilities. In addition to learning actual skills—openings, evidence, closings, body language, and attitude training, participants learn how to use their voice to produce the greatest effect. They have the opportunity to practice being as they would like to be. Participants will learn far more than speaking skills. They learn how to take responsibility for how they feel, how they act, how they react. The training allows them to see people in a more positive manner. They learn how to “read” people and become aware of how they themselves are “read.” Students evaluate every speaker in writing immediately after their talk. Only positive comments are allowed—for substance, delivery, or impact. The teacher writes an area for improvement on a card and will add a positive statement immediately after each talk that only the speaker sees. At the end of the course, each student receives the evaluations from every classmate. While participants may eventually forget facts and figures learned elsewhere, they will retain much of what they master in this course, because they will have constant opportunities to be on their feet and institute that which they have learned. They will also have many opportunities to laugh, cry, and genuinely feel good—perhaps the greatest way to solidify their learning!