Speech and Debate: IGNITE 2013 and Tournament

Well, as you may have noticed, things have been pretty quiet over here, on the blog that is!  Anything but quiet in the Grove home!  One of the new activities that has been keeping us busy this year is Speech and Debate!  I have wanted to do speech and debate for a LONG time, but the opportunity had not arisen prior to this year.  We are part of the Speak FIRST Chapter of the Institute for Cultural Communicators in Manassas, VA.  I love ICC because they have a big emphasis on serving the community with your communication.

All the speech students 11+ are working through a three phase curriculum called Young Speaker's Guild.  So, Jason and I are doing that, and our chapter is also working through The Art of Practical Debate this year with the older kids.  We (Jessica, Jason, Jeannine, and Julia) are also all working through Beginning Public Speaking.

As soon as Bible Bee was over, I had to work really hard to finish Phase I of YSG so that I could go IGNITE 2013 in January.
For YSG I, I gave 3 speeches:
-My Introduction Speech
-My Favorite Bible Verse Speech (Philippians 3:10-11; maybe I will post it up here sometime)
-Interpretation: Nehemiah 4:4-23 (this was one of my Bible Bee passages for Nationals)
I finished Phase I just a few weeks before IGNITE!  It was pretty crazy.

Four students from our chapter went: Daniel, Daniel, AnneMarie, and me, along with Mrs. M, who chaperoned us.  At IGNITE, there was a tournament the first day, and then training the next few days.
In the tournament, I debated with my friend, AnneMarie, gave an interpretation, and did Limited Prep.
Since my speeches were Phase I events, I only got critiqued on them, not ranked.  All the people from our chapter who went qualified for International Convention in all their speeches!  In other words, the top 40% of competitors at IGNITE get invitations to compete on at the International Convention in June.  Also, our chapter competed in the choral reading contest and we won first place!  Basically, choral reading is a focus on voices rather than movements.  Because we won first place, we gave our choral reading for the whole general assembly on Monday morning before driving home.

IGNITE was a lot of fun!  I made new friends from across the country and enjoyed seeing different people who are passionate about communication.  Also, I was blessed by seeing the bigger picture of the ICC mission and how the ICC team cares so much about helping every student to become a truly competent communicator for Christ!  Because I couldn't compete at the tournament at IGNITE, I was really inspired to work harder on YSG and get ready for the ICCFS(Institute for Cultural Communicators Forensics Society) Tournament in February.

Western Mountain Mystery Party at IGNITE: Speak FIRST

During IGNITE the debate resolution was changed, so this meant that in one months time, I had to prepare with my debate partner for a new resolution and prepare speeches to compete in.  (:
Three weeks before the tournament, I had my informative and interpretation speeches written for YSG II, two weeks before the tournament, my chapter sponsor suggested that I try and have my persuasive also written by the tournament.  I thought that would be pretty impossible, but God really helped me and by His grace, I had all my speeches (almost) platform ready by the tournament on February 15-16.  I hoped to maybe qualify for International Convention in one event, especially seeing as only the top 25% get invitations at tournaments and there is a much smaller amount of people.  So, I was very surprised when I got invitations for ALL 5 events I competed in: Public Forum Debate, Persuasive, Informative, Literary Interpretation, and Radio Broadcasting!!!  Oh, you may want to know my speech topics:
Debate: Resolved: that current copyright regulations support individual creativity.
Informative: Soap: Chemistry and History
Persuasive: Life Purpose
Interpretation: Sir Maggie the Mighty: A Book about Obedience

WOOHOO!!!

Jessica, AnneMarie, Mrs. H (our chapter sponsor), Daniel, and Daniel

So there is my little speech recap for y'all!  Maybe soon we can get some videos of speeches on the blog.  Hopefully soon we can give some updates on other happenings, but real life takes precedence over blog life...

Jessica

P.S. Coming up next month, we are hosting a Take Back the Land Conference, and if you live in the area and have not registered, you should do so soon because it will be wonderful, inspiring, and so much fun!!!  Early registration ends this month, so register soon!