Public Speaking Competition

Students in all grades were challenged to a public speaking competition. They learned how to create and present a speech. Focus was given to learning about effective non-verbal communication techniques as well as literary device use to augment content. Students then presented their speeches to their classes and then to their Houses. Students in each House rated each other’s speeches according to clarity, confidence, and content. Three students from each House were chosen to move onto the School Champion round where they had to present their speech to the whole school community. Teachers then deliberated on their top three choices and Neve F. (grade 6) won 1st place, with 100 points for her House by giving a speech about how her great great grandmother narrowly missed catching the Titanic voyage. Danae J. (grade 8) won 2nd place, with 75 points, by telling us about child marriages and four students tied for 4th winning 50 points each: Christopher P. (grade 7)  and Ethan R. (grade 7) gave speeches from the perspective of an Ancient Greek god, Franny H. (grade 8) persuaded us to take equality seriously, and James W. (gr 9) made us laugh with “lost boy” stories.

Congratulations to all of the students for taking up the challenge and doing such good work.

Victoria van Schouwen

Teacher

Here is a student reflection by Wylie on her experience:

Our public speaking contest was a way for all the students to express their interests, share stories, amuse their peers and present what they had been working on in class. Not to mention, it was a great way to show off some of the personal skills that each student had to offer. All in all, this competition was extremely fun and we all got to learn a bit about each other’s backgrounds, histories, and personalities. The grade sixes presented stories from their families or persuasive speeches (from great grandparents just missing the Titanic, to ravens suntanning); the grade sevens took on Greek gods/goddesses and presented monologues; the grade eights talked about world events that they were passionate about, and the grade nines were tasked with creating after-dinner speeches that ranged from humorous to informative. With new topics for each person, there were different themes, ideas, reasons to laugh and takeaways.

This competition, although dealing with a wide variety of topics, was a great way for all the students and teachers to come together and get a better understanding of each other’s interests, passions and skills.

Wylie S.

Grade 7 student