Academic Year
Our academic year courses offer the students a chance to delve deeper to improve their communication skills in a challenging but secure environment tailored to their age and experience. The foundation built during the summer camps is the basis on which the academic year classes stand.
Intro to Junior Speech
- Timings - Saturday afternoon 2-3 PM
- Prerequisite - Students from the 2-day Intro to Junior Speech summer camp
Students in this age category (10 year olds) will build upon the basic tenets of Speech for both Platform and Interpretation categories.
They will learn about templates of speech, about verbal and nonverbal skills, and ways to avoid the common mistakes. Students will learn how to express emotion and to match their delivery tone with the appropriate emotion being projected in their speeches. In addition to the vocal delivery, coaches will teach eye contact, modulation, and physical presence while giving a speech.
Intermediate Junior Speech
- Timings - Saturday afternoon 3-4 PM
- Prerequisite - Students from 2025 Intro to Junior 2-day Summer Camps
To establish the fundamentals of public speaking we will teach two sub-categories of speech focused towards our 11-year students. Platform, as the name suggests, lays the foundation of speech and students will learn a Declamation speech and also undertake the Digital Expository category. We will be working on overcoming nerves and their fear of public speaking while being taught various facets of this art of public speaking and also presentations, while keeping in mind their age and ensuring that they are challenged appropriately than their younger counterparts.
Advanced Junior Speech
- Timings - Saturday afternoon 4-5 PM
- Prerequisite - Returning students from Intro to Junior Speech academic year club.
Students will build upon the previous years’ Intro to Junior Speech class and learn 2 new forms of Speech – a limited preparation Impromptu category, and a Digital Expository category.
These two new speech types will allow our students to become holistic speakers who will be able to adapt to different environments at school, competitions, or social settings, and speak with poise and clarity.
Coaches will teach similarities between impromptu and platform, how to formulate and structure the points, and how to think as they go. Digital Expository will help students build presentations and delivery skills using digital tools and students will learn tools for making them visually appealing and aesthetic.
Intro to Senior Speech
- Timings - Saturday afternoon 12-1 PM
- Prerequisite - Returning students from Advanced Junior academic year club or New students from Intro to Senior Speech 2-day summer camp.
Students will build further upon the basics of Speech for both Platform and Limited Prep categories; students will learn original content writing, organization, research, and analysis for each category with a focus on the 5 tenets of speech. Students will learn both the written and delivery skills necessary to give a great speech.
Intro to Senior Speech and Team Policy Debate
- Timings - Saturday Afternoon in-person 1-3 PM and alternating Wednesdays 7-8:30 PM online
- Prerequisite - Intro to Senior Speech & Debate 4-day summer camp.
Students will build upon the basics of Speech for both Platform and Limited Prep categories; students will learn content organization and analysis for each category with a focus on the 5 tenets of speech. Students will learn both the written and delivery skills necessary to give a great speech.
The debate portion will focus on understanding the evidence, writing the affirmative construct, issues and flowing the argument. Students will be introduced to cross-examination, writing the negative brief, refutation of the opponents points, voting issues, presentation and delivery in more depth.
Intermediate Senior Team Policy Debate
- Timings - Saturday Afternoon in-person 3-5 PM and alternating Wednesdays 7-8:30 PM online.
- Prerequisite - Returning students from 2024-25 Intro to Senior Speech & Debate academic year club.
The intermediate debate club will delve deeper into the new resolution, building the affirmative case, advanced structures and hit sheets. Students will build upon from last year with enhanced research, cross-examination and negative brainstorming skills. The all important evidence-less debate round along with enhanced voting issues and flowing will also be taught. To help our returning debaters have a well rounded understanding of the world around them both at home and overseas, we will also teach current affairs and cover geopolitical issues focused on Europe and Asia, the growing influence of the Arab nations, trade, war and peace and domestic issues like inflation, education, and civil rights. Knowledge of domestic and international issues will provide added tools for the debaters to lean in to support the broader base of debate cases.
Advanced Senior Team Policy Debate
- Timings - Saturday Afternoons 4-5 PM.
- Prerequisite - Returning students from 2024-25 Intermediate Senior Speech & Debate academic year club.
This club will transition our students into being entirely self-supporting in debate, to build upon the learned material from before and in mastering a specific skill set and/or gaining competency in a specific area. In this Advanced Debate curriculum, we will be teaching students to interact with argumentative objectives in a nuanced and comprehensive way. We will work on developing an understanding of emotional persuasion and to utilize personal viewpoints to one’s advantage. We will seek to further the debater’s ability to write in a rhetorically persuasive manner. We will teach students to analyze complex issues, and approach data with unique interpretations that extend beyond surface-level understanding. As we prepare our students for life beyond Zenith, we will also introduce skills like resume writing and college application essay.