Erik Palmer is available for

Public Speaking

Workshops

Keynotes

and more!

Hearing ≠ Effective Listening

What is your school doing to develop effective listening skills? Think of how the definition of listening has expanded. As students go online, they are bombarded with audio inputs to make sense of:


Sound and Soundtracks
Media: Images, Video
Arguments Needing Analysis
Reasoning to be Evaluated
Persuasive Techniques

Our students need help to become critical consumers of all that they hear daily.

Talking ≠ Effective Speaking

Students don’t speak very well. Class discussions, presentations, podcasts, videos, and digital storytelling suffer. Zoom classes are less engaging than they could be.

How can we give students help?

Resources are hard to find.

There are no classes in teacher education programs about how to teach speaking skills. It is never a topic on any in-service days either.

This site is designed to give you help developing oral communication skills. 

Speak Better

Erik is an author and consultant for
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s
into Reading and

into Literature
language arts programs

https://www.hmhco.com/programs/into-literature

Learn more...

Books written by Erik Palmer

Committed to sharing his ideas through new media, Erik has released two multimedia products:

A 60-minute DVD about oral communication

An Online Course about listening and speaking standards

Learn more about each book and buy them here.

Products by Erik Palmer

Speaking matters.

Erik has a wealth of experience teaching students to be better oral communicators. Now he brings that experience to his work showing teachers how to develop well-spoken students. Practical, proven, and engaging lessons and activities are a trademark of Erik’s products.

Learn more about each product and buy them here.

Testimonials

“One of the most wonderful things about this presenter is that he practices what he preaches. He was an EXCELLENT presenter, the subject matter was really important and – as he mentioned – frequently overlooked. In addition, his overhead presentation was perfectly minimalistic and fantastic! He also allowed us time to absob and take our own notes and also to interact with him. Excellent! By far the best on Friday. He’ll need a much bigger room next year if you get the word out!”

“I am in week 2 of teaching a public speaking unit based on Well Spoken,
and it is just fantastic so far because of Erik’s ideas.”

SaraDean of Faculty

“While you are a terrific speaker, I think your most fine tuned communication ability is listening.  You understood what we needed and then built an informative, entertaining, “spot-on” presentation for us.”

JanelleProfessor of English

“This is the most comprehensive book, written with delightful style and humor and above all with details that are specific and instructive. Well Spoken has the answers. I’m buying several copies for friends and family and grandchildren who are all in the arena of today’s corporate world. Everyone will benefit from this finely honed book!!”

Elaine S. Wienerfor the Gifted Education Communicator

“Our teachers absolutely love teaching PVLEGS to their 1st – 4th graders! We now use the PVLEGS oral communication rubric to help evaluate students in this area. We have seen marked improvement in our 2nd graders’ oral communication skills; specifically those that were exposed to the use of PVLEGS in 1st grade the year before…”

Sarina N. FierroHead of Lower Elementary (DK-2) Curtis School

“Palmer’s new book is perhaps the best resource for teachers of any content area. It is concise (only 148 pages), clear, and organized, with practical ideas and suggestions that can easily be implemented into any classroom, not just English classrooms. The question of how to teach oral communication skills more effectively seems to come up quite a bit in my English department, and Palmer’s book is the perfect little handbook full of answers and ideas to get teachers started!”

High school English teacher

“I should have been prepared for the utter lack of professional resources related to speech pedagogy. I was not. Fortunately, one of my students discovered your book and website…You have provided an indispensable professional resource.”

SMSU professor

“Well Spoken provides a thorough guide for any teacher or school interested in integrating speaking into the curriculum.”

Educationworld.com

“Palmer’s ideas are an excellent resource…I have already seen an improvement based on his ideas…”

Middle school teacher

“Wow. Incredibly useful and important information and very engaging presentation.”

“Ideas I can use right away.”

“Brilliant, funny, informative, helpful.”

“Wow.  Amazing.  Thank you for showing and not just talking.”

“Erik was a fantastic speaker.  I am enriched by it!”

“He was absolutely excellent–the best one.”

“Outstanding!!”

“Perfect!  So glad I didn’t miss this… Great & accurate & usable.”

“I have been recommending your work with teachers ALL OVER THIS CITY!  We use PVLEGS all the time…and refer to your comments/feedback frequently.”

(California school district)

“Let me start by telling you that I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation in Nashville this past week. Clearly you are embracing the tenets of what you preach.

I have found that the most obvious things in education are typically the ones overlooked, yet most important. Five minutes into your talk I found myself saying…DUH!, why aren’t we doing this? I think your work is going to be game changing for our students.”