
Blair Cadden
Welcome To Blair's Page

Blair Cadden is a Boston-based director, theatre-maker and teaching artist. She holds a BA in Theatre from Wofford College and an MFA in Directing from Boston University. Blair is originally from Charleston, SC, where she was the co-founding Artistic Director of the theatre company 5th Wall Productions. Blair has taught acting and public speaking to students of all ages, from kindergarteners to young adults, at Lexington Children's Theatre, Spartanburg Youth Theatre, Boston University, and more. Whether it sparks a lifelong love of theatre, or simply brings more confidence and creativity to their everyday lives, Blair is so excited to share her experience and passion with the young people here at WhizKid.me!
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my Classes
class plan
Week | Session Topic/Theme | Course Structure Students will do & learn: | Materials needed |
1 | Speaking with Confidence | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement
Content: Practice techniques for calming nerves, confident posture, and clear speech. Put all of these tools to use in a short speech introducing yourself to the class.
Closing: Review and recap – Why is confidence important? What can we do to feel confident next time we speak in front of a group? | Paper and a writing utensil |
2 | Speaking with Expression | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement
Content: Practice techniques for adding vocal and physical expression to your speech. Students will explore pitch, tone, volume, and tempo as ways of adding vocal expression; they will also explore gesture as a way of adding physical expression. Students will revisit their introductory speeches, looking for opportunities to add more expression.
Closing: Review and recap – Why is expression important? What are some tools we can use to add expression with our body and voice? | Paper and a writing utensil |
3 | Adding Detail and Examples | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement
Content: Students will discuss the importance of adding detail and supporting examples to a speech. They will revisit their introductory speeches, looking for opportunities to add more detail and provide examples.
Closing: Review and recap – Why is it important to make our speeches detailed? Why is it helpful to use examples? | Paper and a writing utensil |
4 | Speech to Teach: Organizing Your Speech | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement
Content: Students will prepare and share a speech teaching the class about one of their favorite topics. We will pay special attention to the best way to organize information to make sure our audience can understand and learn.
Closing: Review and recap – Why is it important to carefully organize a speech? What are some of the different ways information can be organized? | Paper and a writing utensil |
5 | Speech to Teach: Visual Helpers | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement
Content: Discuss and brainstorm visual tools (pictures, props, illustrations, graphs, etc) that can be used along with a speech to help our listeners follow along and understand. Students will revisit their teaching speeches and create three images to use as visual helpers.
Closing: Review and recap – What are some different kinds of visual helpers we can use? How did your classmates’ images help you understand more about their topic? | Paper and something to draw and color with |
6 | Speech to Teach: Q&A | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement
Content: Students will re-share their teaching speeches, then their classmates and instructor will ask questions about that subject for them to answer off-the-cuff. Speakers will focus on answering clearly and confidently. We will discuss and practice techniques for remaining calm, composed, and confident even when we might be surprised by a question.
Closing: Review and recap – What was challenging about answering questions without being able to prepare first? What tactics helped overcome that challenge? | Optional: Bring back the images you created last week as visual helpers for your teaching speech |
7 | Speaking with Enthusiasm | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for voice and movement.
Content: No matter the subject, a speaker should also appear enthusiastic in order to engage their audience. Students will practice speaking with enthusiasm and excitement by giving a speech “advertising” a boring household object, using vocal and physical expression to convince their listeners that this is an exciting object they can’t live without!
Closing: Review and recap – What did you see or hear a classmate do that helped show their enthusiasm? Why is it important to be enthusiastic when we speak? | A simple household object. The more “boring,” the better. |
8 | Storytelling: Adding Expression | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for voice and movement.
Content: Students will discuss and review techniques for speaking clearly, and for expressive voice and movement. Then, they will put these tools to use by telling their version of a fairytale or folktale. Students will focus on making the story as exciting as possible for your listeners by using their voice and body to show emotion and characters.
Closing: Review and recap – What tools did we find for making our speech exciting and engaging? | Paper and a writing utensil |
9 | Speech to Persuade: Convincing Tactics | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for voice and movement.
Content: Discuss strong tactics for persuasive speeches: what makes a speaker convincing? Students will use those tactics to create a short speech with the goal to persuade or convince your classmates to do something positive. (Like try your favorite hobby, volunteer for a cause you care about, etc.) Provide strong, convincing reasons for your classmates to take your suggestion.
Closing: Review and recap – What did your classmates say in their speeches that was convincing? What do you think you could add or change to make your own speech even more convincing? | Paper and a writing utensil |
10 | Speech to Persuade: See the Other Side | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for voice and movement.
Content: Students will revisit their Persuasive Speech and make improvements for an even stronger argument. One addition will include trying to stay a step ahead of those who may disagree.
Closing: Review and recap – Why is it important to think about how someone might disagree with you? What did your classmates say in their speeches that was convincing? | Paper and a writing utensil |
11 | Speech to Persuade: Adding Visual Helpers | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for voice and movement.
Content: Discuss different kinds of visual helpers that could add to a persuasive speech. Students will revisit their Persuasive Speech and add visual helpers to illustrate their points.
Closing: Review and recap – What kinds of visual helpers can we use? How did these strengthen your persuasive speech? | Paper and something to draw and color with |
12 | Speech to Celebrate | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for voice and movement.
Content: Discuss occasions when a speech or “toast” might be made to celebrate someone. (Wedding, birthday, graduation, etc.) Students will choose a family member or friend to honor with a speech designed to celebrate how special they are.
Closing: Review and recap – What are useful things to include in a celebrating speech? What are things to avoid? |
Week | Session Topic/Theme | Class Structure Students will do & learn: | Materials needed |
1 | Speech to Teach: Holiday Traditions Dec 5 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Students will deliver a short speech teaching the class about a favorite holiday tradition. We will focus on creating a well-organized speech, making sure information is given in the best possible order to help the listener understand. Closing: Review and recap – What are some important things to remember when deciding what order to give information in a speech? How can we help our listeners in this way? | Suggested: paper and pen or pencil |
2 | Adding Detail Dec 12 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Students will plan a deliver a speech to tell the class about their families. We will focus on including both big picture information and lots of specific detail. Closing: Review and recap – Why is it important to include detail and examples in a speech? What is the most helpful order to put this information to help our listeners understand? | Suggested: paper and pen or pencil |
3 | Show and Tell: Visual Helpers for Speeches Dec 19 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for voice and movement Content: Discuss and brainstorm visual tools (pictures, props, charts, illustrations) that can be used along with a speech to help our listeners follow along and understand. Students will prepare a short speech to teach us about something they know well, choosing 3 visual tools to help communicate the information. Closing: Review and recap – What did we learn? How did your classmates’ pictures help you understand more about their topic? | – At least 3 pages of blank paper. Markers, colored pencils, or crayons to draw with. |
4 | Speech to Persuade Jan 9 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Discuss strong tactics for persuasive speeches: what makes a speaker convincing? Use those tactics to create a short speech with the goal to persuade or convince your classmates to do something positive. (Like try your favorite hobby, volunteer for a cause you care about, etc.) Provide strong, convincing reasons for your classmates to take your suggestion. Closing: Review and recap – What did we learn? What did your classmates say in their speeches that was convincing? | Suggested: paper and pen or pencil |
5 | Debate Jan 23 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Students will be put into two groups to engage in a debate over a playful topic. Each group will work together to create a convincing speech with specific reasons and examples to support their side. After hearing both sides, students will also practice thinking quickly on their feet to respond to the other group’s speech. Closing: Review and recap – What makes for a convincing argument? What should we do and not do when having a debate? | Suggested: paper and pen or pencil |
6 | Storytelling Jan 30 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Explore or review techniques for speaking clearly, and for expressive voice and gesture. Put these tools to use when you tell your classmates a story about something exciting that has happened to you. Work on making the story as exciting as possible for your listeners by using your voice and body. Closing: Review and recap – What did we learn? What tools did we find for making our speech exciting and engaging? | Suggested: paper and pen or pencil |
7 | Speaking with Enthusiasm Feb 6 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: No matter the subject, a speaker should also appear enthusiastic in order to engage their audience. Students will be given a “boring” location. Using vocal and physical expression, they will deliver a speech to convince their listeners that this is an exciting place they must visit! Closing: Review and recap – What did you see or hear a classmate do that helped show their enthusiasm? Why is it important to be enthusiastic when we speak? | Suggested: paper and pen or pencil |
8 | Q&A Session Feb 13 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Students will choose a subject that they know a lot about, and their classmates and instructor will ask questions about that subject for them to answer off-the-cuff. Speakers will focus on answering clearly and confidently. We will discuss and practice techniques for remaining calm, composed, and confident even when we might be surprised by a question. Closing: Review and recap – What was challenging about answering questions without being able to prepare first? What tactics helped overcome that challenge? | Suggested: paper and pen or pencil |
9 | Speech to Celebrate Feb 20 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Students will practice celebratory speeches by imagining that they are giving a toast to a friend or family member. In their speech, they will celebrate that person by describing what makes them special and sharing some fun, positive memories with that person. Speakers will practice speaking with passion and specificity about someone important to them. Closing: Review and recap – What did a classmate say that helped you understand why their special person was so wonderful? What are helpful things to remember when making a speech to celebrate someone you care about? | |
10 | Vocal Expression Feb 27 | Intro: Introduce ourselves to our classmates. Warm-ups for diction, projection, and movement Content: Students will discuss the various tools for increasing vocal expression. We will then put these into practice through a series of exercises and finally a short speech where students will describe an experience in detail, using their vocal expression to bring that detail to life. Closing: Review and recap – What are the different ways we can add vocal expression? Why it is important to make our voices expressive when we speak? | |
11 | Intro: Content: Closing: | ||
12 | Intro: Content: Closing: |
Using The Class Plan
Please Note: Both Age Groups (if applicable) will follow the same class plan structure and content. The content delivery will be tailored to the age group.