I teach at a public charter school in Crown Heights that serves 400 phenomenal Black and/or Latino students, 75% of whom qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch.
One of my amazing students Esther is the Captain of Extemporaneous Speaking. Two years ago, she was my first student in seven years of teaching to try Extemp, one of the hardest categories in Speech. In Extemp, students are given a question on current events and they have 30 minutes to prepare their answer before they stand in front of a judge and deliver a seven-minute speech without notes. Through her hard work, Esther has become one of the top extempers in the state and has done well at national tournaments (qualified for NCFL Nationals and the Tournament of Champions her junior year.) In addition, she is currently leading about 15 Extemp novices in after-school practice and also in our elective class that meets every day.
This project will enable 23 students to compete at the Speech & Debate Tournament on 1/7/16. This tournament will be especially useful for the Varsity members of the team who at this point will be preparing to compete in some high-level national circuit tournaments (Columbia, Emory, UPenn, Harvard) as well as National Championship Qualifiers in February and March.
One of the most important skills kids will walk away from Speech & Debate with is the confidence to speak up even when the stakes are high, as they will be in this competitive, inter-league tournament. For my students in particular, who are all people of color, learning how to speak confidently in predominantly white spaces is a skill that will empower them in high school, college and beyond.
Additionally, the kids will hone additional skills related to public speaking, research, and developing arguments as they prepare for this high-stakes, competitive tournament.
In Their Own Words
This tournament is personal to me because no one has ever advanced to finals there from our school, and I want to be one of many of our teammates who does so this year. I want to show the novices that it's possible to advance at a very hard interleague tournament.
This gives me practice with being on my own for bigger tournaments because this tournament is much like a bigger national tournament even though it's not an overnight, and I need those skills for when I do compete on the national circuit. I want to show novices what it's like to compete outside the local level.
It's important because no one from our school has ever done well there and it would mean a lot for our team to rank among other top schools in New York City and on Long Island. Our school would get recognized as a competitive school before the national competitive season picks up.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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