• Overview
    The speech team is an organization of students (grades 7-12) who learn the fundamentals and nuances of public speaking and performance in a variety of ways. Speech benefits the students involved in a number of ways: they learn poise in front of a group, they hone their interpretive and acting skills, they learn more about the world around them, they polish their writing ability, and they gain an enormous amount of self confidence!

    Speech is a Minnesota State High School League-sponsored event consisting of 13 categories. Those categories can be further organized into three basic groups: writing, draw, and interpretation.

    The Four Writing Categories: Creative Expression, Original Oratory, Informative Speaking, Great Speeches Students who are interested in formulating and sharing their own original thoughts do well in the writing categories. In these categories, students and coaches workshop a number of ideas and decide on a single focused topic for that student to write about. Once that decision is made, the student writes, writes, and rewrites until their script is perfect. Students who enjoy writing can express themselves through short stories and poetry (Creative Expression), research (Informative/Oratory), and analysis of other great texts (Great Speeches). Each writing category has a maximum time limit of 10 minutes.

    The Four Draw Categories: Storytelling, Extemporaneous Speaking, Extemporaneous Reading, Discussion
    Students who don't want to be "tied down" to a single speech for the whole season would enjoy the draw categories. In these categories, students draw three possible topics for their speech, choose their favorite one, and then prepare that speech in 30 minutes. Students focus their energies on researching current events (Extemp. Speaking), learning a list of folktales (Storytelling), or familiarizing themselves with a list of poems or short stories (Extemp. Reading). These categories (except Discussion) have a maximum time limit of 7 minutes. 

    Another draw category with a different set-up is Discussion; in discussion, students research a topic (this year's topic is "Science and 21st Century Technology"). With their research they engage in a discussion with other people about a certain task related to that topic. The group has up to an hour to come up with a solution to that task. (Note: "discussion" is not the same as "debate"; the point is not to win an argument, but to come to a consensus.) This category has an hour time limit.

    The Five Interpretation Categories: Humorous, Serious Prose, Serious Poetry, Serious Drama, Duo Interpretation
    Students who are interested in bringing an author's work to life woud thrive in the interpretation categories. In these categories, students dig through the millions of printed (published) materials available to them to find a text that speaks to them. From there, they learn that piece and deliver it in an interpretive performance. Students can perform hilarious sketches and stories(Humorous), moving poetry (serious Poetry), short stories and novels (Serious Prose), and movies and plays (Serious Drama). For those interested in working with a partner, there Duo Interpretation, in which two people prepare a coordinated interpretive piece. Duo pieces can be serious or humorous, and they can be from any kind of published source. These categories have a maximum time limit of 10 minutes.