JUDGE TRAINING & PARENT INFO
Judging is one of the most important elements of our activity. As a student, you are coached to adapt to judges and be able to present to a wide range of people. This aspect of persuasion and understanding one's audience is central to speech and debate translating to broad career and interpersonal skills.
As a parent, at local tournaments you are often required to be a judge on your child's behalf for tournaments to work efficiently. Your only responsibility is to be as impartial as possible and listen to the speeches or arguments presented to you. The best part: it is impossible to be wrong! If you aren't convinced or impressed, it is the student's job to deal with those issues.
Getting Prepared:
You can find basic descriptions of all of the events you might judge here.
Two great resources for Judge Training can be found here at the NSDA Judge Training Page and here at the NFHS Online Adjudicating Speech Certification Program.
At many tournaments the ballots you use have specific instructions. Lately we have been moving to an online balloting system for local tournaments, so if you have a smartphone or tablet device, those are ideal to bring with you to the tournament.
Speech:
You can see some sample speech ballots that the California High School Speech Association uses here.
You might also find it helpful check out sample videos of the different speech events - you can find those here.
Debate:
You can see a sample debate ballot used by the National Speech and Debate Association here.
Note taking in debate is often referred to as 'flowing' and you can also find tips and tricks on how to flow a debate round here. For a more advanced tutorial, you can look at this video.
You can watch a good introductory Lincoln Douglas debate round here. You can also check out Mr. Meyers' flow of that round.
Finally, here is a sample of a Policy Debate round with some explanation throughout.
As a parent, at local tournaments you are often required to be a judge on your child's behalf for tournaments to work efficiently. Your only responsibility is to be as impartial as possible and listen to the speeches or arguments presented to you. The best part: it is impossible to be wrong! If you aren't convinced or impressed, it is the student's job to deal with those issues.
Getting Prepared:
You can find basic descriptions of all of the events you might judge here.
Two great resources for Judge Training can be found here at the NSDA Judge Training Page and here at the NFHS Online Adjudicating Speech Certification Program.
At many tournaments the ballots you use have specific instructions. Lately we have been moving to an online balloting system for local tournaments, so if you have a smartphone or tablet device, those are ideal to bring with you to the tournament.
Speech:
You can see some sample speech ballots that the California High School Speech Association uses here.
You might also find it helpful check out sample videos of the different speech events - you can find those here.
Debate:
You can see a sample debate ballot used by the National Speech and Debate Association here.
Note taking in debate is often referred to as 'flowing' and you can also find tips and tricks on how to flow a debate round here. For a more advanced tutorial, you can look at this video.
You can watch a good introductory Lincoln Douglas debate round here. You can also check out Mr. Meyers' flow of that round.
Finally, here is a sample of a Policy Debate round with some explanation throughout.