High School Forensics Team Reflections

(Retrospection)

Near the end of my sophomore year of high school, we had to practice give speeches in English class. Although it does not seem like a big deal now, at the time it was one of the more traumatic experiences of my high school career.

I had given oral reports before in middle school, but I had been a couple years younger then and not quite so intensely self-conscious as I was at 15. Besides, I had come from a small middle school where everyone knew where everyone else stood, and a flubbed oral report wasn't going to change anything.

In high school, I felt like I always had a very precarious hold on everything, and the idea of making a fool of myself in front of my class mates terrified me.
That, plus the teacher in the back with the red pen judging you on form and style doesn't help the pressure.

I still remember standing up to give that speech, and feeling a cold drop of sweat slide down my side. I remember thinking how odd it was that perspiration should have a cold feeling when you're nervous.

However, on the plus side, we got to pick the topic for our speeches. We could choose the life of any famous person, and that was the kind of topic I could really get into as a history geek.

Many of my classmates chose people like Charlie Manson, John Lennon, or Bruce Lee. I opted for the Roman Emperor Caligula.

I was interested in Caligula at the time because he had been popping up in a lot of my reading material --"Pontius Pilate" by Paul Maier (A), "I, Claudius" by Robert Graves (A). Also we had been watching the mini-series "A.D." (IMDB) in Sunday School at my church.
(Hey, does anyone else remember watching "A.D." in their Sunday School or youth groups? I really enjoyed it at the time, but I'm not sure how it would hold up to my adult sensibilities.)

The historical geek in me loved reading up on Caligula and digging up all the gory details about his assassination, even as the public speaker in me was horrified about presenting it. I ended up with a speech that was more than double the time limit (I think it was supposed to be a 3 minute speech, and I was clocking in at about 7 minutes when I timed myself at home) but I was so in love with ever bloody detail that I was loath to cut any of it out. In the end I decided to just go over time and take the hit in my grade.
(Outline of my 10th grade Caligula speech is here).

Once I got up and started talking, I over came my fears a little bit and found my rhythm. Fortunately, my classmates found Caligula's life and death just as interesting as I did, and everyone really got into it.

My teacher also liked the speech, and I began hearing from friends in other classes that she was using my speech as a model example to all her other 10th grade English classes.

Since she was also the head of the drama depart and the Forensics team, she not only encouraged me to join the Forensics team, but even started telling her other classes that she thought I should join the forensics team.

I was very reluctant to do this at first, because I felt like I had just gotten done with the very traumatic experience of making a speech. The last thing I wanted to do was join the speech team.

...However at the time I was planning on becoming a history teacher when I grew up, and I decided I would have to get over my fear of talking in front of the class at some point, and that it would be good practice to join the Forensics Team--provided I could do all my speeches on history related topics.

I waited until the absolute last moment (the last day of class when we were handing in our exams) and then I asked my teacher for information on joining forensics the following year.

So, I was on the team for the last two years of high school only: 11th and 12th grade.

My event was informative speaking.
Most people in informative speaking give speeches about light, slightly silly topics. "How to ask a girl out on a date" and "The history of Fashion" were a couple of the other speeches I remember hearing.

I insisted, perhaps somewhat stubbornly, on doing something history related. My first thought was to write up something on the history of the "Trojan War", (something that had been one of my interests for a long time). The subject, however, was to big to do in a 5 minute speech. I wrote a few paragraphs, and then just gave up.
(Attempt at Trojan War speech here).

The Forensics coach suggested I do something very similar to the Caligula speech. "That had a lot of interesting details in it," she said. "You remember when you were giving your speech, people in the class were even gasping and saying things like, 'Did he really?'. Try and find a topic that really grabs people like that."

She may have been hinting that I just re-use that speech, and indeed I was tempted. But I figured history is full of interesting stories. I was reading Tacitus (A) at the time, and found a passage about a Mutiny of soldiers in the region of Pannonia. I don't think it was particularly historically important, but it was filled with just enough funny little incidents and twists of fate that I could turn it into an interesting speech. So I wrote it up into a speech.
(Mutiny in Pannonia speech here)

If I had had the same politics then as I do now, I would have been more sympathetic to the mutineers, but Tacitus portrays Drusus as the hero of the whole story, so I followed his lead.
I did not originally intend for any morals to be drawn from this story. It was just an interesting piece of history for the sake of an interesting piece of history (history geeks will understand). But many of the judges wanted me to add an introduction and conclusion telling them why this story was important, so I had to add a cheesy little "From this story we can learn the value of..." at the beginning and the end.

I got mediocre to poor marks at all of the tournaments, which is what I kind of expected. (I long suspected I was no public speaker). A number of the judges who weren't history buffs didn't appreciate the history lesson, and would have preferred the usual light and fluffy stuff.

It also turns out Visual Aids are a big part of "Informative Speaking" as well. In addition to being a public speaker, they expect you to be a bit of an artist and craftsman.
My first visual aid was just a flimsy piece of cardboard paper on which I had posted pictures of Roman statues I printed off the internet. When I saw how elaborate all the other visual aids were, I got the help of my friend Josh, who was nice enough to spend the a Saturday afternoon showing me where to get things like "stick on velcro", and thick posterboard, and how to make a really elaborate visual aid. We made map of the Roman army camp, that I would gradually peel away layers of to reveal the key characters in my speech.

My senior year I returned to the Forensics team (despite limited success the previous year). By that year, I was reading Livy (A), and was inspired by his stories of the birth of the Roman Republic. So I chose a couple events from the Etruscan War.
(Text of 12th grade year speech here). I got the same mediocre to poor scores.

At the end of the year, each school sends to students from each event to compete in district finals. My junior year, our school only had two students in Informative Speaking, so I qualified for districts by default.
In fact, it turned out the two of us were the only two informative speakers in the whole district, so we both qualified for regionals by default.

Once in regionals, I got quickly knocked out in the first round.

The following year, the other girl in Informative Speaking dropped out. So I was the only Informative Speaker at our school, and in fact in the whole district. So my Senior year I placed 1st in the district simply by default.
For the next couple years afterwards, if I was in a bragging mood, I would occasionally mention this to someone without the important qualifications. "Oh yes, I did Informative Speaking in high school. I got first in my district, you know."

As with "West Side Story", I enjoyed the social aspects of the Forensics team, despite really sucking it up in the competition. I have fond memories of bus rides to and from tournaments, and hanging out in the cafeteria between events. Along with "West Side Story" the Forensics team helped me make friends with a lot of the drama-type students, people I otherwise wouldn't have gotten to know. And, as most Christian high students go onto Calvin anyway, these were friendships I was able to continue at Calvin. (In fact a number of these people ended up in my dorm in Boer-Bennink.)

Below are some of my old score sheets from Forensics, in which you can read the judges comments.

*Thank you for dressing up. You might want to use a single hand raised and occasionally alternate raising the other hand. Good enunciation and eye contact. I really liked your modern interpretation of ancient Rome.
You seem a little stiff. Relax.
Your visual aids were really good. I doubt if I could remember the players without your "scorecard" visual. Overall a very good presentation.

*Intro--In the year 14? I didn't catch it--You said it too fast.
Eye contact with your audience is good.
Interesting topic--I don't think I've ever heard of Pannonia.
Visuals are well made. Could you do something different with them-rather than set them on the floor. It is distracting when you drop your cover sheets (the blue ones) on the floor.
Your speech is well organized--it is obvious you have done a lot of research.
In the beginning you started out speaking so fast I didn't catch everything you said, but as you went along your pace improved.
Congratulations on making it to regionals.

*When you do your intro, you speak very low and we missed some of it--You need to slow down so we can understand.
You're not giving us any sources for your information--Where did you get the info from?
Very different topic, but you were well organized--effective visuals.

*Interesting choice of topic. Since I saw this speech at Portage Central, I am looking for improvement.
This is a very well written and organized speech, and since I know nothing about it, it is very easy for me to be informed even a 2nd time. Very informative.
It is nice to see you've practiced and you slowed down enough that I can understand you better. I also like the movements and gestures that you added.
If you have time, it would be good to improve on your visuals. I liked it better this week than last week. Keep up the good work.

*Your introduction is too short. The subject matter is rather bland--you need to better tie the audience into your speech--make me care about your topic.
Your visual needs to add something to your speech. Your speech is more like a story than information.
The overall impact of your speech was like a documentary.
Good memorization with difficult names, etc.
Your gestures and movements were static.

*Physical Performance: seems very stilted and unnatural. You held your arms as if you were holding an invisible script. Relax! Watch those little meaningless steps. Remember--Movement needs motivation
Vocal Performance: no real changes in tone, volume, or inflection throughout your speech. Use your voice to make significant points or places of transitions.
Organization: Not totally clear. Help your audience at transitions ie "Now that we understand...one can consider..." Summarize as you go along. It will be much clearer. Maybe more visuals would help
Total effect: consider the above points to make it a little more exciting or listener friendly. Good luck?

*Movement: you may be going back and forth a bit much!
Very nice speaking rate and sense of sincerity
Roman Empire/ Breakdown--story is more than 3 min. You should write a separate paragraph just introducing what you are informing the audience of!
This is a nice history lesson. You will want to use the information to make a point. What is it I should walk away with regarding this time in Roman history?

* Very unique and a good choice. You are informing me of something I am not likely to know about.
Nice use of movement to demonstrate the actions of the soldiers. I feel you could improve by speaking with your hands more.
Try to slow down and emphasize the more important sections of your speech. Good job on the names.
Very well developed. Nice conclusion.
I was certainly informed but your speech lost some of its effect due to almost non-existent visuals and a monotone delivery.

* Make sure your foot movements are motivated. Use your visuals more, or add more visuals
You are lecturing at us. Try varying your sentence endings and don't always end on a downward inflection
You need an Intro! Maybe I missed it, but then it must hot have set your topic up. I think you might make this speech more effective by cutting your facts down. Focus on one battle or just a few characters, and go in depth into this. Make us feel how it would be to be in Pannonia at this time.
Drop your head at the end of your speech.

* Intro-needs to set up story better. Where are you going?
Never really sure where this was going. I need to know the significance of this story to you or me.
Vocal rate a little fast.
Nice clean delivery.
Physical: Good eye contact. Gestures are too literal. You don't need to act out movements of characters you are describing.
Visuals: clear, easy to visualize. Font and size should be the same on names.
Overall: all of this was new information for me. It was a lot to consume. I would like you to slow down and expand on this incident's important in history.

*Relax facial expressions a bit
Hands in same position too long.
Eye contact-3 second rule
Hands can hang naturally by your side for a while (or together in front of you)
Rate-variety is the key. talk to us like you really care. I can see some of this--but a bit fast in places.
As you walk back and forth, don't walk too close to your visuals
"another, another, etc"--let each build in intensity


Video of The Etruscan War HERE



Video of the Mutiny in Pannonia HERE