Excellent A/A+ Good B/B+
Non-Verbal Skills
Eye Contact Student always maintains
eye contact with audience.
Body Language and Poise Student displays relaxed,
natural, self-confident
attitude.
Enthusiasm and Audience Speech is consistently
Awareness strong and engaging.
Speaker understands his
audience.
Verbal Skills
Volume and Intonation Highly appropriate;
student’s voice is effective
and expressive; there is
variation in volume and
inflection.
Elocution Student displays clear
voice and correct, precise
pronunciation.
Fair C/C+ Needs Improvement D/F
Student generally Student intermittently Student maintains minimal
maintains eye contact with maintains eye contact with or no eye contact with
audience. audience. audience.
Student displays relaxed, Student displays some Student displays obvious
natural, self-confident tension and nervousness; tension and nervousness;
attitude most of the time, he makes some mistakes he either doesn’t recover
allowing for some minor and has trouble recovering. from mistakes or has
mistakes from which he serious trouble.
quickly recovers.
Speech is generally strong Speech is at times not as Speech is hardly strong
and engaging. Minor strong and engaging as it and engaging. Speaker
lapses or digressions may should, yet the overall does not understand his
occur. Speaker effect is acceptable. audience at all.
understands his audience. Speaker does not
understand his audience as
thoroughly.
Appropiate; student’s Generally appropriate; Mostly or totally
voice is effective and student’s voice, volume, inappropriate; volume and
expressive; volume and and inflection are inflection are absent;
inflection are correct. acceptable. expressiveness is missing
altogether.
Student displays clear Student displays voice that Student mumbles;
voice and generally tends to be lower than it pronunciation is often
correct, precise should; sometimes he incorrect and the audience
pronunciation. pronounces incorrectly and has serious trouble hearing
audience may have some either most or all of the
trouble hearing at times. time.
Vocabulary
Content
Subject Knowledge
Organization
Integration of evidence
(this is applicable to oral
activities having to do
with presentations)
Student is thoroughly in
command; word choice is
strong, varied, and
implemented in a highly
effective and appropriate
manner.
Student masters content
and conveys it flawlessly.
Student maintains clear
focus; speech unfolds
naturally; structure and
order are present.
Whenever relevant,
student masters integration
of evidence such as visual
aids, charts, statistics,
etc… without distracting
from focus but enhancing
presentation.
Student is in command
most of the time; word
choice is generally strong
and varied; student
implements words
appropriately.
Student demonstrates
knowledge of content and
conveys it well.
Student maintains focus
most of the time; speech
unfolds naturally most of
the time; structure and
order are present.
Whenever relevant,
student handles well
integration of evidence
such as visual aids, charts,
statistics, etc… without
distracting from focus.
Student uses vocabulary in
a moderately effective and
varied manner; some
limitations as to command;
word choice may be at
times unsuitable.
Student demonstrates a
more superficial
knowledge of subject and
conveys it insecurely at
times.
Student is not always
successful in maintaining
focus but generally does;
speech unfolds in a
somewhat more forced
manner; structure and
order are basically present
although not as clearly.
Student may not always
integrate evidence at the
right moment and he may
display certain
awkwardness in doing so,
thus somewhat distracting
audience from focus.
Student uses vocabulary
ineffectively and poorly;
word choice is imprecise
and inappropriate.
Student demonstrates little
or no knowledge of subject
and fails to convey it
appropriately.
Student does not maintain
focus; speech does not
flow naturally and order is
either mostly or altogether
missing.
Student is unable to
appropriately integrate
evidence into his
presentation and confusion
increases.