Speech and Debate I Course Syllabus

2014-2015

Ms. Flores

Course Description: Introductory Speech is a course for students who want to learn to think clearly and express themselves effectively before an audience, and prepares students for college and their careers. Students are provided opportunities to increase their fluency as a speaker, and develop their self-confidence. The course covers multiple aspects of public speaking and gives the student practical experience through participation. The course introduces the beginning speech student to a study of poise, use of body and voice, public speaking, oral interpretation of literature, and beginning argumentation. No text required.

Course Expectations: Students will be held accountable to be prepared to learn all presented material in class. This means that students will be required to arrive in class on time, take notes, complete homework assignments in a timely manner, participate in class, and prepare outside of class for presentations.

Required Daily Materials: A pen and paper. Work may be kept in folder or binder for another class.

Grading Policies: The following describes the category weights that will determine a student’s semester grade:

Presentations50%: Formal presentations will be graded only by the instructor and will be based off of a standardized rubric.

Participation 30%:This category includes three simple pieces of classroom etiquette: punctuality, respect, and engagement.

Homework 20%: This category covers all assignments that are completed outside of the classroom. This includes all drafts of speech and formal outlines.

MAJOR INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS

The student will have the opportunity to develop strategies and skills to enable them to:

  • gain self-confidence
  • be comfortable speaking before a group
  • speak in a clear and articulate manner
  • analyze an audience and their speech appropriately
  • vary tone for emphasis
  • maintain eye contact
  • use notes with ease without reading directly from them
  • use hands, face, and body to help in the delivery of their message
  • present an introduction that captures the attention of the audience
  • generate arguments to support a thesis
  • achieve objectivity by looking at both sides of an issue
  • organize ideas clearly and appropriately
  • choose language that emphasizes and supports his or her composition
  • generate an appropriate conclusion
  • organize and execute a group speech, where different orators are responsible for a part of a whole presentation
  • prepare a persuasive speech

COURSE SEQUENCE

A. Public Speaking - 1st Semester

Topics include: poise, body control, speech organization, topic selection, speech tone, speech types, how to introduce a speech, and speaker-audience relationships.

Major assignments: Personal Experience Speech, Impromptu Speaking Informative Speech, Current Event Speech, Multi-Media Speech, Introductory Speech, Persuasive Speech, Group Persuasive Speech, Historical Rendition Speech

B. Argumentation and Debate - 2nd Semester

Introductory material includes: debate as a decision-making tool, debate history, debate terms, how to debate policy propositions, how to debate value propositions affirmative case construction, negative arguments, the cross-examination debate format, research techniques, use of evidence, team debate, and ethics in argumentation.

Each student will research, prepare, and participate in a debate that will be presented in class.