Starting Your Team

 First Speeches

Introduction

As you get students more comfortable with each other, you’ll want to ease them into public speaking. Policy debate requires students to talk in front of three strangers and one teammate each round, so they’ll need to get used to speaking in front of others.

Short speeches on basic topics are a good way to get students involved! You can have students give speeches about themselves, about opinions they have, or about current events, and we’ve included some lesson plans to help you accomplish that.

Listening is the other key part of public speaking. Only one debater gives a speech at a time, and your students must pay attention in debate rounds to know what arguments they have to answer.

Learning Objectives

In this section, students should:

  • Acclimate themselves with public speaking.

  • Write deliberate speeches that aren’t all improvised.

  • Give speeches that take up however much speech time is assigned.

  • Learn to avoid unnecessary pauses in their speeches.

  • Learn how to project their voices as necessary.

  • Be respectful when others are speaking.

  • Learn how to listen attentively for details.

Points of Improvement

Early in the year, you’ll be balancing loud students with quieter students. It’s smart to focus on speaking skills with quiet students and listening skills with your louder ones. Here are some tips for dealing with student engagement:

  • If a student seems shy or unwilling to speak, encourage them to give a speech on a topic of their choosing to help with their speaking skills. Some students are just unsure of a given topic, and they’ll be more willing to speak up when they are more familiar with the topic.

  • If a student tries to speak in every activity, that’s good! However, sometimes they can get overwhelmed with anticipation as they wait their turn. Consider making them the designated note-taker for a round of speaking activities. That way, they’ll still be involved with the activity while they can work on their listening skills.

Signs of Mastery

Here are some positive signs that students’ first few speeches have been going well:

  • Students are speaking with confidence in front of each other.

  • Students are talking for their whole speech time.

  • Students are putting thought into what they say.

  • Students are listening to each other during speeches.

  • Students can answer questions about what the other student has just said.

Lesson Plans