Speech and Debate 101 - Becoming a Master Communicator, Part 1

"Communications" primarily involves four skills:  writing, reading, speaking, and listening.  Students get lots of training in school with reading and writing.  And they should - they are critical communications skills.  And yet, kids often get very little training in speaking or listening.  Despite the fact that studies show that up to 75% of all our communications in our life will be speaking and listening.  This class is limited to six maximum students in order to give a lot of attention to each student.  The class is intended to begin and/or enhance the students’ speech and debate skills so that they can later have a better chance for success in life.

Sessions 1 & 2:  Students will learn how to become a better public speaker and “debater” – and the importance of preparing .. listening .. thinking .. speaking.  After getting feedback from the students about what they think public speaking and debate is and what makes a good speaker/debater, they will learn the key concepts of what it takes to become a great speaker.  Students will learn how to decide what to say, how to say it, the importance of listening, and they will know they need to develop discipline to be consistent.  We will then go through each key concept and have them practice to get better at that concept.  The practice sessions will be both fun and engaging, while also seriously helping them better understand what speech and debate is all about.

Sessions 3:  Students will learn the key elements required in developing a speech for public speaking.  Students will be given exercises to apply what they learn in class and then each student will be asked to quickly organize a speech on an index card and then give a short impromptu speech, based on the instruction they learned in this session. Students will then learn what it takes to write an excellent introduction to a speech.

Session 4:  Students will each deliver a short speech and receive constructive feedback.  We will highlight the key elements and determine how well they applied them - individually and as a group.  Students will then learn what it takes to have a very strong body substance of a speech that can be followed easily by the listener and have a major impact on their thinking based on the student's message.

Session 5:  Students will each deliver a speech and receive constructive feedback.  We will highlight the key elements and determine how well they applied them - individually and as a group.  We will watch an example of a student giving a speech with all the elements we have discussed.  We will then have a discussion session to ensure the students feel confident they know how to best structure a speech in the future (structuring the speech in their mind or on paper).

Session 6:  We will discuss debate, with the focus on all of the major differences between debate and giving an informative or persuasive speech.  Students will engage in a simple debate with very little preparation - taking one side of an issue.

Session 7:  Today's discussion will engage in one final debate and focus on the importance of listening and how to listen effectively.  Students will engage in a debate, with the preparation they made since the prior Session 6 (when they were assigned the debate topic).

Session 8:  Students will present one final speech.  Then we will wrap up the eight-week session discussing each of the specific learning goals, plus each student will assess if they have improved their speaking skills and if they have a passion to continue speech and debate training (for example, my future class: Speech and Debate 202 - Becoming a Master Communicator, Part 2).

Note to parents: this class is primarily designed for students with little or no experience in speaking or formalized debate. It includes material in my 1-day and 3-day Outschool classes:  “Introduction to Speech and Debate, Speaking Clearly, Speech 101, and Debate 101.“  During the eight weeks, students receive six weeks of speech training and two weeks of debate speech training.