Step 1: Select one of the following special-occasion scenarios.

1. At a New Year’s Eve dinner party, your host asks you to make a spontaneous toast to the New Year. Write out what your toast will be.
2. Imagine that a famous person of your choosing is coming to speak to your class and you have been asked to introduce them. Write out the brief introduction you will give.
3. You are giving an award to the most improved public speaker in your class. Write out the introduction you will give. Feel free to use the name of a current student.

Step 2: Comment on what you found to be particularly effective in one of your classmates posts.

Example Post:

The Auld Lang Syne song lyrics start with the phrase, “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?” As I look around this table of friends and family, it is not possible for me to imagine a world without you. May these acquaintances and this time, never be forgotten even in the face of a beautiful new year. Happy New Year, everyone. To dear friends, warm memories, and new beginnings.

Example Response:

I related so much to the questioning of that song lyric. I have often wondered why it is sung at New Years. After all, isn’t the point to be thankful and remember our friends and family?