Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Reducing Anxiety While Boosting Creativity: Lessons From The Progymnasmata, Bryan Blankfield

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The fear of public speaking is a widely shared among individuals. This can be difficult to overcome when students are assigned several large, heavily-weighted speeches with few opportunities to become acclimated to standing in front of an audience. Several times throughout the semester students are assigned a 2–3 minute long speech inspired by the progymnasmata (a series of rhetorical exercises from Ancient Greece). The speeches vary widely from presenting a fable to impersonating an individual.