Forensics Club
Teacher: Donna Szumila
Grades: The
club will be open to students in grades 9-12. In fact starting in ninth grade is
ideal as a student gets better with time.
Meets: M/W 2:45-4:45pm
Class Description:
Welcome to Forensics! A forensics
club offers students the greatest opportunity to improve their educational
foundation. In fact I know of no other activity that can affect the lives of
participants to such a positive degree in their academic, professional, social
and personal levels. The impact of speech and debate activities on our future
leaders is enormous to our communities and the future of our country. Joining
THEO Forensics will inspire students in ways they never dreamed possible and
impact their lives in the best possible way. In fact academically there exists
no other enrichment activity that can increase test scores in all areas of
academics more than speech and debate.
In forensic competition students
compete in areas of speech and debate. These areas include Dramatic
Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Poetry, Prose, Informative, Persuasive,
Original Oratory, Extemporaneous Speaking, Lincoln/Douglas and Team Policy
Debate among other categories. Competitive forensics requires a high level of
commitment from participants. Successful competitors spend hours researching,
reading, and practicing for competition. But it is a labor of love as the
students want to study and work to perfect their skills.
The THEO Forensics Club is a chance
for students to expand their horizons and have a great deal of fun in the
process. This club is an enrichment activity where students can come to perfect
their skills for competition. Yes, competition! Competition can be in the NFL
which provides loads of local tournaments, is extremely economical, and will not
interfere with co-op or community college classes as their tournaments are on
Saturdays. Yes, there are numerous homeschoolers who compete in the NFL and many
who win. Competition can also be in the NCFCA for those families that wish to
travel to tournaments and are not committed to community college classes as the
NCFCA has fewer tournaments and they can often be during the week. At all NFL
tournaments I will be with the students at all times as their coach. I will not
travel to out of town tournaments with the NCFCA. Either way our tournament year
will be exciting and open all new possibilities. Don’t worry about picking a
league now. We can discuss all of that at our initial meeting. Just take the
plunge! God will provide the way!
This is not a graded class. This is a
club. Students will need to be disciplined and self motivated. Club will be open
on Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 2:45-4:45pm. I designed this class for
student flexibility, meaning for students only competing in one interp or speech
event they only have to come one afternoon a week preferably Monday. Extempers
and debaters will, however, need to come both afternoons a week, no exceptions
on this one. I will try to be very flexible to work with each individual student
so don’t worry if you are involved in other sports or extra-curricular
activities as long as you can come to one afternoon a week this club will work
for you! The idea of THEO Forensics was to create a way for all kids who want to
compete in speech and debate to be able to even if they are also involved in
other activities that take up their time or those taking classes at the
community college.
Maximum number of students: 20
Cost: $50 a month
Please note: This first year of THEO Forensics we may forgo Team Policy Debate and just concentrate on L/D debate until we get established. Team Policy really requires the students to start preparing with debate camp in the summer and I am not sure of the response we will have just yet. If we get a good response I am willing to run a debate camp in the summer at THEO. So sign up early and let me know your preferences!
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