Summer Academic Enrichment Eligible Programs

Goals

Many middle school students are trying speech & debate out for the first time, or are unable to compete in the activity until high school. In this camp, middle school students who are new to Speech will have a chance to learn the ropes of speech structure, audience adaptation, public presentation, and different speech occasions/styles. Our goal is to provide a welcoming, comfortable, low-stakes environment where students can try (and fail, and try again) to learn the core tenets of this challenging activity.

Students at speech camp: - Will become an effective and confident public speaker after attending. - Learn leadership strategies and public speaking decorum. - Master specific skills to help them craft and deliver persuasive, informative, and entertaining speeches to audiences of all ages. - Gain skills that allow them to excel in all academic courses and activities in which they have to present to diverse groups of people.

These skills and content knowledge provided at this camp directly translate to classroom work. Speech writing and structure helps prepare students for success in their English coursework. Students are asked to consider multiple perspectives in crafting the content of their persuasive and informative speeches. Participants gradually gain confidence in public speaking through repeated, low-stakes exposure to an audience. This skill becomes useful in all aspects of life, and in any courses where students are required to do public presentations. Middle school students can also bring these skills to later high school speech competitions and other oratorical contests.

As students move from distance learning to in-person learning, it is particularly important to re-engage their voices and face-to-face interaction. Students will also learn techniques to mitigate public speaking anxiety and ways to cope when overwhelmed during in-person presentations.

Activities

The core principle of MDAW is that debate is best learned by doing. Students will have an opportunity to speak publicly almost every day at camp. MDAW is where we learn new speech structures, research new topics, and try-on new ideas.

Each day, students will do small group, full group, and independent work, as well as fun speech games to help get them excited and make connections with others. Students will learn how to speak extemporaneously and memorize speeches, including: Informative Speeches, Persuasive Speeches, and Storytelling. Topic choices will be self-directed. Students will present in front of groups of increasing size to allow them to gradually become more comfortable with public speaking.

What sets the MDAW apart from other speech camps is the intentional community-building aspect. MDAW believes strongly in the importance of developing positive relationships between staff and students – along with growing our own leadership. The vast majority of our staff were participants themselves in MDAW.

While much of the day will be spent undertaking rigorous study and skill-building in debate, students will have intentional time for building relationships with others through free time and fun debate games. Campers can do fun activities like roasting s’mores, tie-dyeing T shirts, making craft projects, or simply playing frisbee on Augsburg University’s lawn. Frequent breaks and games will help keep students engaged as they return to in-person learning. Students who join us virtually will have frequent breaks through speech and drama games and icebreakers.

The camp will culminate on Saturday with an exciting mini-tournament, where they will get feedback from college speech alumni & expert judges. Students will have the opportunity to invite friends and family to watch them, and also receive trophies and medals for their work.

Program Dates

Held 07/05/2022 - 07/09/2022 from 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Can students reside on campus? No

Can students commute to campus? Yes

Can students take online classes? Yes