Parliamentary Debate and Extemporaneous Speech Class

Young Genius, Home of Bay Area Debate Academy is openings a Parliamentary Debate and Extemporaneous Speech class on Thursday from 6-8 pm. for 7-9 grade students.First class is on October 8st.

Parliamentary Debate and Extemporaneous Speech are the most popular formats of debate at high school and colleges.

This class capitalizes on the fact that “Parli” debate and “Extemp” both requires the ability to think quickly on one’s feet and to have a broad set of knowledge of current events.

Parli debate competitions feature the students, in teams of two, getting the topic for the debate round only 20 minutes prior to the start of debate. During this preparation time they may consult materials they have prepared in advance, but they may not be coached nor may they use the internet live in real time. Thus, they must know a little bit about almost any current event topic in order to debate with some expertise.

Extemporaneous Speaking is a speech event in which the students get the topic 30 minutes in advance and again must prepare without coaching or live internet access. At the end of 30 minutes they are expected to speak for 7 minutes, without notes.

As these two events are so similar, students can get instruction in both events in almost the same time and effort as preparing for a single event. In essence, this class is a two for one deal and a great value educationally.

Young Genius is proud to be the only program in the Bay Area with such a course offering. If Parli and Extemp are for you, this is your class!

The advantage we have at Young Genius is that we tailor our classes to the group of students we are instructing. There is no “class in a can” we work with each group of students adjusting to their level of ability and instructional needs.

Teacher of this class Mariel Cruz, Mariel Cruz holds bachelor degrees in both Political Science and History from Santa Clara University, and planning to continue her education at law school.

She is currently the Assistant Debate Coach for the Santa Clara University Debate Team and Young Genius debate coach.

Mariel has experience coaching and teach high school students was working for schools like Saratoga High, Gunn High School and Polytechnic School. She has also taught various debate and speech styles, such as Policy, Parliamentary, Public Forum, and Extemporaneous Speech at Santa Clara’s summer workshop for the last two years.

Mariel started competing in policy debate as a freshman at Santa Clara University and continued debating her entire college career. She competed successfully at various regional and national tournaments, earning various awards. Santa Clara University’s Policy Team had been inactive for almost ten years.

ongCratulations to Mariel’s Saratoga High School Parliamentary Debate Team which was “Literally only one ballot away from winning the whole tournament!” at the the 2015 California State Tournament.

If you have any questions please contact us at info@younggenius.org
call 650-563-4261 408-384-2419