It seems strange to look to Michelle Obama for exam success. But if you want to Pass Higher English, stick around.
It also looks as if I have a strange fascination with former First Ladies – comparing Hillary Clinton to Lady Macbeth in an earlier blog post,- but stay with me here.
Michelle Obama’s gave this speech in 2016. And it has some great lessons for us.
When we have to give a talk – as we do for Higher English – this is the way to go about it .
But even better, this talk is put together exactly the way we should structure our Discursive Essays for the Higher English Folio. For exam success.
Of course it’s not surprising that communication skills are transferrable – after all, if you’re a student of mine you’ll know a frequent refrain of mine is:
‘It’s important to do well in Higher English. After all, it’s the only exam you’ll study for this year that’ll give you skills for life. Think of all those essays at uni you have to write, not to mention business reports you’ll be writing…”
And on and on I go…
BUT sit up and take notice. From 2018 there will be a new assessed talk part of the exam.
This will involve you watching great TED talks in an effort to replicate great orators.
BUT here’s the thing – you should not simply find the talks entertaining.
You should be taking notice of the techniques involved that make it a great talk – because you can use these in your own talk as well as your discursive essay writing.
As I said transferable skills- skills for life!
And who better to start with than Michelle Obama? Click here to read more