One of the major problems facing speech and drama teachers is motivating the students to perform.  Special steps must be taken throughout the course to overcome students' fears about performing and to develop in students the requisite confidence to express themselves freely.  The following are suggestions for conducting performance activities in such a way as to lessen students' fears and encourage participation:

Begin performance classes with warm-up sessions.  Participate in these warm-up activities yourself and, by your manner, convey a spirit of enthusiasm and ease.

Stress repeatedly, throughout the course, that students must:
    --be attentive and use positive nonverbal feedback when other students are performing
    --be constructive in their evaluations of other students' performances

When students are required to perform individually, as when they give speeches, begin with students who are relatively self-confident.  Then after each performance, find something positive to say about what the student has done.  Make your positive comment as specific as possible.

Of course, one should always avoid making negative comments about student performances in front of other students.  Save such criticism for private, one-to-one conferences.  In these conferences, state suggestions for improvement in positive terms.

Share with students your own fears about performing and explain the techniques that you use to allay these fears.

Explain to your students that fears about speaking/performing in public are common among new speakers but usually go away by themselves after the first few performances.

Counsel students to think during performances not about themselves but about the task at hand.  A student who is busy thinking about matters such as speaking rate, emphasis, gestures, pauses, volume, or, as in an acting scene, thinking about the character's objective and the like will be too busy to fear his or her own failure.

Delay evaluation during the initial stages of instruction in any new presentation.  When possible, allow students to do trial runs and then evaluate themselves, through self evaluation and peer evaluation, before having them perform for a grade.

(from Communication--An Introduction to Speech, Allyn and Bacon)