High School Students
Prepare for Forensics Tournament All Year.
Prep work is nothing new to the 2005 Forensics Tournament for high school
contestants. Students in Corona-Norco, Moreno Valley and Riverside Unified
School Districts tell us that their classes all year have been preparing them
for the speech events they wish to enter. Adding to this all-year prep idea,
Susan Phillips, Friends’ first vice president, Valley View High School’s
speech coach and Department of English Chair, lends a thought. She advocates a
handy aid , an ongoing practical research portfolio for all students. "This
portfolio helps students build a handy integrated reference base coordinating
all their subjects. It brings the students truths in everyday life," Mrs.
Phillips says, "besides being a foundation for the senior paper required of
all our graduates.
It’s
a natural place for tournament preparation. Students can find their
informative and persuasive speeches there, as well as great literary
references for interpretation and quotations for impromptu practice." Alice
Dupont will be a well-prepared entry from Moreno Valley’s Valley View High
School, in persuasion. Also in Moreno Valley, Mary Jones, a Friends
Scholarship Task Force leader and the Principal of Vista del Lago High School,
tells her students that every class should be a speech and English lab: "All
study rises from English proficiency in speaking, reading, writing and logic.
These learning areas and all student activities are the base for reaching out
to all the classes and every student interest." Other educators there concur,
such as Anthony Jones, the varsity football coach, an English major. The Vista
del Lago speech coach, Robin DuMouchel, also exemplifies this
interdisciplinary approach, which notably includes Avid, as her students
prepare for individual platform events, and have hopes for debate next year.
The contestants are Robert Hansen in impromptu, Larry Sears in humorous
interpretation, Janay Wilson in informative and, returning from last year,
Araceli Zamora in persuasive and impromptu. Moreno Valley High School’s coach,
Mike Kelley initiated the team’s participation with Bethany Peake’s entry in
informative speaking.
James Schauer, English and speech/debate teacher of Martin Luther King High
School, rates drama and debate as sure-fire speech team motivators, engaging
the students’ interests and touching all subjects. Kristan Culbert, president
of King’s team, and Jadrianne Noble enjoy all of their events (informative,
persuasive and impromptu), but are most excited by Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
"Debate is demanding and new to everybody, but worth the work," says Jade
Noble, noting also that some may be waiting to see others try it before
entering the frey next year. They like Coach Schauer’s quotation from
President Kennedy, that the give and take of debate is important training for
citizens in a democracy.
The
Corona-Norco schools highlight history, particularly on History Day and in
this tournament. Centennial High School, under coach Kelly Bustany, is
entering Tara Tran, who will speak about a continuing human rights challenge
as she experienced it in the tragic plight of her native Cambodia. Other
students also immerse themselves in their subjects. A year-long, double-class
preparation from Corona-Norco’s Santiago High School is highly valued by the
Principal, Ruperto Cisneros, who is also a dedicated Friends Scholarship Task
Force member. Tim Tuttle, a former National Teacher of the Year in Social
Sciences, and Drew Ward of Language Arts have joined their classes to evolve
"The Making of the American Mind Program." Extensive role-play segments based
on student logic and research, writing, art projects and oral reports bring
American History and Literature to life for these students, along with their
family and community audiences.
Julian
Cardenas will enter interpretation, using the famous words of a 70’s agitator,
Abby Hoffman. Robby Langstrom will enter informative and impromptu. Norco High
School’s principal, John Johnson, a long supporter of forensics activities,
now has a history teacher/coach, Angela Dillman, who sponsors a speech club.
"The courses at our high schools give us excellent background material for
preparation in all the events," Coach Dillman explained. "They show the past
in all subjects and cultures, but relate them to current perspective." Asked
if she hoped her high school would add a speech class next year to extend the
students’ speech training and practice opportunities, she said simply, "Oh,
yes. A speech class can pull the background and current information of all
classes and school activities together and focus on effective communication,
which helps our students in all their class work and jobs now, in college (if
they go), and in their future endeavors as well." Because of time conflicts in
school activities, only the president, Arnulfo Pablo, had the practice time to
enter this year, in interpretation. He and the others are already planning for
the tournament next year, highlighting agricultural subjects as well as
others, and debate.
Victoria
Phillips’ Corona High School students prepare in their usual proven way, while
hoping to repeat their sweepstakes performance of last year. Coach Phillips, a
history and speech teacher, an active member of the Friends Scholarship Task
Force, and a former forensics competitor herself, has helped many students to
build college savings by encouraging them to utilize their coursework to help
them prepare for competition in the service clubs and other organizations’
community contests. "These organizations choose timely, thought-provoking and
important topics which, in our speech class, we can easily adapt to the
tournament requirements and timing. They have generous awards, which are very
needed by the students trying to save money for college. These community
people give the students wonderful opportunities to grow as scholars, speakers
and citizens, whether they win the contest or not." She explains that "There
is nothing better than a tournament to provide a sharper learning and
polishing experience for students preparing for their various community
contests and the college and job interviewing they will face. Also, our
students really enjoy and benefit from the specific five events the RCC
Tournament offers, because the director of RCC Forensics and the Friends
consult with the high schools in each district and have taken care to tailor
these events specifically to our current high school needs. Many of my
students are applying to colleges where excellent speaking ability and
training are expected. Forensics experience, and especially the high school
one-on-one Lincoln-Douglas Debate as pioneered by the National Forensics
League, are recognized as valuable additions for the high school students’
college application resumes." Corona High has a team of five contestants
entering this time (missing some because of a History Day time conflict):
Chris Johnson, Robin Smith, Rebecca (Becca) Spiegel, Brisa Weaver and Tom
Wiltse.
In this high school over-view, the Friends hope to indicate some of the
preparation taking place, and the student excitement. One independent
contestant, Ana Malagon, is also entered. She is intrigued by the
Lincoln-Douglas Debate topic. She and others ask, "Is it inspired by the
Patriot Act?" The topic: "Resolved, that the individual claims of privacy
ought to be valued above competing claims of societal welfare" resonates here.
Privacy and safety concerns rank high with high school students, whether on
terror questioning, cell phones or closed door bedrooms! The teachers who are
coaching these students agreed in their meeting that much student motivation
will come from the Awards Assembly’s recognition of every contestant, as well
as the place winners. The students look forward to RCC’s unique medals based
on the Olympic custom of gold, silver and bronze. The Friends’ will award
certificates (every participant earns one) and cash awards of $100, $50 and
$25 for first, second and third places in each event.
The awards climax will be the first, second and third sweepstakes trophies.
But the greatest rewards, according to every teacher/coach, are the higher
value of how much concentrated learning, speech training and sheer fun a
tournament can bring to each student.
These coaches recognized, in an early meeting exchange of ideas, that a
tournament is a time of magic. They knew from personal experience and
observation that a tournament can change the lives of contestants by opening
doors to new friends, new perspectives, the excitement of competing on a
college campus in a college atmosphere, and a sense of increased depth in
performance and understanding. For these students, a new world begins to
unfold. Entering college after high school emerges as an attainable and
desirable goal for many who believed it impossible.
Ask any of the Toastmaster officers, such as the faithful Jamesons, the
Pauws, Bob Freel or Tom Forbush, or other Friends of Forensics who judge. They
would agree that seven simple words of Tagore*
express the Friends’ and RCC’s confident belief that this occasion will bring
forth (as tournaments are wont to do) what we all seek in forensics:
"Words Coming from the Depths
of Truth."
*Rabindranath Tagore was the Poet
Laureate of India and the 1917 Nobel Prize Winner, who bestowed on Ghandi
the name by which the world knows him, Mahatma, or Great Spirit.
Friends of
Forensics is a 501 (c)(3) Organization