A hook in the first sentence · Martinとコード

The first sentence out loud catches the class. Hello my name is is not enough when you have minutes.

The first sentence is not an introduction. It is a hook.

People in the desks give you ten seconds before someone looks into a backpack.

You must not fill those ten seconds with a name and a subject they already see on the title. A name is enough for a second, or leave it on the wall.

With your mouth say a hook: a strange fact, a small conflict, a scene. The hook must connect to the sentence about what this is about. It is not a joke from chat that leads nowhere.

It is not the question “who likes bees”, after which three put a hand up and the rest stay quiet. Better: “Last week I almost killed a hamster with a good morning.” The class wants to know why.

The title can carry the sentence. The mouth carries the hook. Not the same thing twice.

Example: “My name is Tereza and I will talk about a hamster” — the class sees that on the title. “Yesterday I almost slept a hamster to death because I wanted to stroke it” — heads come up.

Today three candidates into notes. One true, school-safe, tied to the sentence. Say it to the wall. Over five seconds you shorten. Leave the name on the wall. The mouth must not read the title.

Tereza: “Good morning, my name is Tereza and I will talk about a hamster.” The class knew. It was on the title.

Jonáš: “Yesterday I almost slept a hamster to death because I wanted to stroke it.” The class lifted their heads. The sentence came right after: it sleeps in the day.

Tereza had better type. Jonáš had ears. Ears won the start. After the lesson Tereza wrote a hook and left the name on the title. She found that introducing steals the hook. Manners are enough with a one-second greeting, not a life story.

💡

Write the hook into the notes of the first slide. Let the title carry the sentence about what this is about. Mouth and wall do not fight over the same sentence in the same second.

Catch, do not introduce

A hook is the first sentence out loud that promises the speech will go somewhere.

Types: a small accident, a number that surprises, a ban that hurts, a scene. It is not animation. It is not “put a hand up who”. A vote swallows time and often proves nothing.

The hook should be short. One sentence, two at most. Then the sentence about what this is about, if it is not already on the wall.

Wall and mouth: either the wall carries the sentence and the mouth the hook, or the other way round. Do not read the title. The class sees the title. You add.

The hook must hang on the same world as the middle. If it promises an explosion and the middle is a definition from a textbook, the class feels cheated. A cheat kills trust.

A hook from your life or from a fact you can carry. You can carry it when it is yours. Someone else’s story from the internet as yours is a risk.

Jonáš: hamster hook, then the sentence on the title. Tereza after the fix: hook “An alarm clock is a hamster’s nightmare”, sentence on the wall.

A bad hook: a joke about the teacher. It does not connect. Bad: a minute introducing hobbies from nursery. That is a middle dressed as a start.

The start is one hook. The hook pulls to the sentence. The sentence pulls to scenes. Scenes to the close.

The hook may be sharp when it is true and school-safe. 学校-safe is not death in detail. It is almost, therefore. The audience filter holds. The hook after the filter.

⚠️

Do not lie in the hook for effect. “Almost died”, when it was a yawn, is a cheat. The class and the teacher will feel it when the middle comes.

Four things you will build in this course

The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only this:

🎯 A hobby in 5 slides

Five slides about something you like doing. One sentence about what it is. No paragraphs from your notebook.

Hobby: the first sentence is a scene, not “my hobby is”.

📚 A report

Eight slides for school: a start, three proofs, an end. The title on every slide is a sentence, not “Slide 3”.

Report: a hook from a fact, not from insulting history.

📊 Survey results

A chart from a table (not a screenshot from chat) and under it where the numbers come from.

Survey: a surprising number as a hook, not “we did a questionnaire”.

⚖️ A defence

You say one sentence, show proof, answer “and what if…”. If you do not know, you say I don’t know.

Defence: the first sentence is a claim or a conflict, not a life story.

Write a hook and say it to the wall

The product is the first sentence out loud. You do not rewrite the title into a novel. メモs hold the hook. The mouth tries it.

Into the notes of the first slide write three hook candidates. Each one sentence, true, tied to the sentence on the title. Cross out a joke the teacher could not carry. Cross out a minute of introducing. Leave one hook.
Check the title: is the sentence about what this is about there, not the hook. If the same thing is there, fix the wall to the sentence and leave the hook to the mouth. Size 40, contrast.
Stand up. Say the hook three times to the wall. Count seconds. Over five seconds you shorten. Goal: one breath, heads in the desks come up. Do not worry about a recording. Now the wall and a parent.
Present (F5): read the wall with your eyes, say the hook, do not read the title. Do not put the hook on the wall in small type as a paragraph. The wall would read with you. In PowerPoint almost the same: the hook in notes, not on the area.
Save. On paper the hook and the sentence under each other. An arrow: first the hook, then the sentence. When you are nervous, the paper in the bag. Not A4 at the board — paper steals eyes. Now it is enough to know the order.

A hook or hello

Hello may be. It must not be the whole beginning.

Cross out of the first minute the name, the subject and “I will talk about”, if that is already on the title.
Ask a parent whether they wanted to hear the second sentence. If not, the hook is weak.
Check the hook is true, not a painted catastrophe.

Now you 💪

The first sentence out loud is not only an introduction.
The hook ties to the sentence on the title and is true.
Title and mouth do not fight over the same sentence in the same second.

✅

Done when: I have a hook in the notes and I can say it out loud without reading the title.

What to take from this lesson

Ten seconds decide whether the class goes into a backpack.
A hook = a scene or a conflict tied to the sentence, true.
Do not recite the title.
An introduction is a second or the wall.
Practise out loud. In your head a hook always sits.
名前s in the examples (Tereza, Jonáš) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo on a slide.