Speech & Debate Tract

The Introduction to Public Speaking and Debate course teaches students to succeed in speech making and argumentation by helping students overcome their fear of speaking in public. As the fear of public speaking is often what holds many speakers and presenters back in life, this course will require students to make intro-level speeches, focusing largely on the style of speaking rather than the specific content. Through weekly speeches and basic argumentation exercises, students will learn to think of public speaking as a natural event and by the end of the class make it through speeches with ease. Furthermore, students will be taught what a “good” speech entails on the very basic of levels. Students will be required to watch at least three good speakers throughout the semester and write a report on them – thus analyzing what exactly a good speaker is. Finally, students will learn basic formats of speeches and will be required to make at least three format-speeches during the year.

This course will also teach students how to argue and the proper structure verbal argumentation, which can be carried over into their writing. By utilizing real SAT prompts as debate topics, students will not only learn argumentation skills, but also learn to develop organized and well-supported arguments that can easily be used later on the SAT. Through multiple in-class debate exercises, students will learn first hand how arguments work in a professional setting, and how to form critical ideas and progressive arguments based on logical reasoning, a skill highly stressed particularly on the SAT/ACT essay.

Students in the Introduction to Speech and Debate class will be required to participate in the novice level of debate tournaments. Either the ACES novice tournament, or any middle or high school tournament to come. (More information on these tournaments will be available later on throughout the semester.)

Aces speech courses aim at teaching students an array of viable speaking skills both used in performance events in tournaments, and in real life settings such as business meetings, and presentations. Students in both the first and second parts of this class will be required to build upon the basic knowledge learned in the Introduction to Public Speaking and debate class, and students will learn many new skills such as mannerisms, walking, inflection, and speech tempo. Much like in the basic class, students will be required to advance their knowledge through giving speeches, and students in this class will be expected to give a speech every week. Furthermore, students in this class will be required to attend at least two tournaments, one of which being the ACES novice tournament as extemporaneous judges, and the other being any high-school or middle school tournament.

Students in the Public Speaking and Oral Interpretation I and II classes will be taught by an interp coach and will engage in various speaking events, such as Pros and Poetry, Extemporaneous speaking, both foreign and domestic, Dramatic and Humorous Interp, and duet acting. Furthermore, students will be required to bring their own news materials to class every day for warm ups and other activities, (news materials being newspapers and acceptable magazines such as Time, the New Yorker, and The Economist.)

ACES goal with the public speaking and oral interp chain is to get students ready for any walk of life that will involve presenting and speaking to an audience, and by the end of the Public Speaking and Oral Interpretations stage, students should have the ability to speak near flawlessly, and have a great ability to read their audience, and understand their inflections, tempo, and overall performance as a speaker. Compared to the I and II classes of public speaking and interp, students in the Advanced class will be required to write more speeches, and to provide critiques and analysis of their mistakes, enforcing better speaking. Furthermore, students in this class will be required to participate at more tournaments, at least four, and students will be assigned more speeches and work per week. Students in this class will be expected to stay up to date with current events, as needed for extemporaneous speaking, and students will be taught more in depth analysis of arguments in order to make better speeches. Instead of just focusing on the speaking and their style, the advanced class will spend a lot of its time working on the students substance, making sure they know how to write a substantial speech with excellent information and great warrants and arguments.

Students in this class will also be required to bring their own materials, and have access to a computer for outside resources.

These intermediate level Speech and Debate courses focus on enhancing students’ debate skills by analyzing how arguments work, their functions in society, and teaching students how to quickly analyze and formulate strong counter-arguments and rebuttals. This course aims to develop students’ understanding of the various types of arguments, requiring students to write one Lincoln-Douglas case and one public forum case, both complete with core values and weighing mechanisms, respectively; furthermore, this class will require the students to compete in one policy debate either in class or at a tournament. Students in this class will be required to attend two tournaments, both the ACES novice tournament as judges, and any high-school or middle school debate tournament in any debate event. (Students may also enter in an “Individual Events” speech event if they feel prepared to do so)

As students progress through both the first and second part of this class, their knowledge of argumentation will increase, and their understanding of the structure of arguments will as well. This course will more firmly stress the advanced essay prompts of the SAT/ACT so students will be able to more adequately analyze the nuances of the prompts and create more critical and articulate responses. Students will be able to recognize arguments by their uniqueness, brightline, inherency, and topicality, and they will be able to use these to their advantage in speech writing, and case writing. By requiring the students to write cases and speeches, the students- over time- will pick up the skills needed to become better debaters and thinkers.

The final part of this course will require the students to build upon all their knowledge, and use all of the skills they’ve received throughout the debate chain to compete on a high-school level. Students will be taught the final level or argumentation analysis taught in high-school and will learn advanced topics such as framework, theory, and the kritik. Students will be required to attend at least four debate tournaments, one of which being the ACES novice tournament as judges. By judging, they will show how much they’ve learned, and by competing, the students will be thrown into an environment where they are forced to learn from their mistakes and improve with every win and loss. Students in this class will also be required to participate in an individual events speaking event, such as Extemporaneous, as this class will also focus on how articulation and better speaking lead to more refined and expert level debates.