Speeches, Tongue Twisters, and a New Trimester at Ramsey

Before yesterday, it had been a few weeks since I've been to my placement because of Spring Break. This week, the students began a new trimester, which means some have switched classes. In middle school, moving evening one student has the potential to completely disrupt and/or change a class dynamic, as I saw yesterday. It used to be that first period was much smaller than the other sections, and much, much quieter. One of the louder, more impulsive students has been moved into that section, and the difference is remarkable. To put is simply, the noise level has gone way up. First period is now far more similar to the other classes, but the class that the noisy student used to be in has also balanced out a bit with fewer loud students. I think overall, the change in schedules worked in the teacher's favor because her classes are more balanced (if also more generally noisy) than before.
The students have started a speech-writing unit and spent Friday reviewing speech-writing tips, going over their topics of choice (and getting help as need be) for their own speeches, and using tongue twisters to practice speech-giving (specifically, annunciation). I really liked the idea of using tongue twisters to work on public speaking, but wish there had been a little more competition added into the activity (middle schoolers love a little friendly rivalry). The kids got up one at a time, picked a tongue twister out of a basket and had to read it three times to the class while standing at a podium. It was really difficult to keep thirty kids focused and respectful during this activity, because they all felt awkward about going up in speaking, it was towards the end of class, and there was not much incentive for them to pay attention. I think that incorporating the tongue twisters into some sort of game or activity could have kept the students more focused. For example, it might have been fun for the students to break into small groups and make little skits or freeze frames of the tongue twisters, where one student narrated to practice animation, interpretation, and annunciation in speech giving.
Some of the students struggled to come up with a speech idea, or did not want to participate for various reasons. I was working with one student, trying to get him to come up with a topic and was disheartened to see that he had written on his paper for the heading "speech topic": "Why I Hate Everything in the World". He was really sullen and unhappy, and refused flat out to do work. When I asked him why he did not want to work, he told me nobody cared if he was in school. I said I was pretty sure his teachers wanted him to do well and he said that all his teachers just wanted him to get out of school. I spoke to his teacher about it after and she said that this particular student has a difficult home life and you never know whether he will respond as he did with me or if he will show up happy and want to do his work and participate in the class. She seemed to have accepted the inevitability of this cycle and I am sure she knows far more about this boy than I do, but I found it troublesome that this boy was not getting more help. You don't write "Why I Hate Everything in the World" (he was not trying to be funny) if you don't have some pretty big issues to deal with and thirteen year olds have enough drama without the added weight of whatever this boy is going through. I feel like there has to be something else to be done for this student so he feels like he has someone he can talk to about his life, but I am not sure what a good approach would be. He clearly has a lot of anger but a good heart and he has a lot of walls up that nobody is trying to break down. I'll be interested to watch in the coming weeks to see if he makes any progress or changes his demeanor.