This class will provide five lesson plans designed to improve student's critical thinking, listening, and public speaking skills. This class is only recommended for students who have taken our introductory programming or have prior debate experience. This class is designed to build upon the basics of speech and debate by using Percy Jackson topics to highlight thematic differences between the books and movies. Students will learn how to create a speech, conduct research, take notes, and respond to what their peers are saying. In addition to learning how to write speeches and debate, kids will also learn basic techniques of comparative literature in order to gain educational insight on what makes a good story, effective character development, and ongoing world building. Each day includes a short 5-10 minute lecture followed by two rounds of an activity geared to build upon the lesson for the day. During the first round of the activity students will be grouped by age, while during the second students will be grouped by skill. This will allow students to learn to speak to a diversity of different people in order to learn how to adapt their arguments to the audience they're speaking to. By the end of the course students will have developed their public speaking skills, logical reasoning, as well as their ability to listen to and understand others. A breakdown of the course is as follows...

Week One: Introduction, Ice Breakers, Recap of the Basics of Debate, Mini Debates
Week Two: Character Development and Debating Strengths
Week Three: What Makes for a Good Book, Listening, Note Taking, and Speaking Drills
Week Four: Companions, Partnerships, and Preparation
Week Five: Tournament Day at Olympus