What to Expect Coaching Extemporaneous Speaking
In Extemporaneous Speaking, students are presented with a choice of three questions. In 30 minutes, they prepare a seven-minute speech answering the selected question. Questions are related to current events in the United States (United States Extemp), international events (International Extemp), or in middle school, both (Mixed Extemp). Topics include political matters, regional concerns, foreign policy, and more. The speech is delivered from memory. Jacob Abraham describes what it is like to coach the event.
What makes coaching Extemporaneous Speaking unique?
No speech is ever the same, so no coaching session is ever the same. Extemporaneous speakers have to be on the cutting edge of reading the news and staying attentive to current events. Any topic that makes its way into Congress legislation or the debate topic committee discussions has probably already been addressed by an extemper in a draw room. The outline to every Extemp speech is unique, because the chances of getting an identically worded question more than once is slim to none. Students are building knowledge and skill in a different way each time they draw a question. Extemp also combines some of the rhetorical strategies we see in other events. Informative and Oratory slot into the informative and persuasive rhetorical frameworks. Extempers are educators on each topic, while also having to persuade the audience they’ve crafted the best answer to the question.
How does competing in Extemporaneous Speaking benefit your students?
To succeed in the event, students must have background knowledge on a wide range of potential topics. Extempers are constantly reading, which makes them exceptionally knowledgeable. They learn to analyze a wide variety of sources, which helps them to counter misinformation. Competing also helps students build research and organization skills. Knowing about a topic is half the battle. Extempers need to be clearly organized, excellent researchers, and incorporate supporting material appropriately. All of these skills make students better prepared for their advanced high school courses and beyond.
Jacob Abraham, Ph.D., is a two-diamond coach from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and has coached multiple extempers to the finals stage at the NSDA National Tournament. Jacob was previously the Director of Forensics at Florida State College at Jacksonville. As a student, Jacob competed in Extemp at George Mason University and made it to the finals at American Forensic Association (AFA) Nationals twice.
Extemp makes you a more patient person. Process matters way more than product in this activity. You can’t take a jet pack up to that final stage; it takes hours and hours of hard work, and doing that work in earnest makes all the difference.
What do you most appreciate about coaching Extemporaneous Speaking?
Extemp makes you a more patient person. Process matters way more than product in this activity. You can’t take a jet pack up to that final stage; it takes hours and hours of hard work, and doing that work in earnest makes all the difference. I sometimes compare improving in Extemp to climbing a staircase in a tall building. It’s not a steady climb; it’s staggered, step by step. Sometimes you will feel like you’ve plateaued in relation to someone a few floors higher up. If you try to jump up too many steps at once, you risk falling down the whole staircase. Recognizing that taking a moment to relax on a landing between floors is part of the process of getting up to that next floor.
What should a new coach know about coaching Extemporaneous Speaking?
Hold students to the highest standards of the event from the outset; if you lower the bar, you lower their potential. Avoid letting a student restart or become dependent on a note card. Keep that stopwatch going and keep giving time signals until you get to that seven-minute mark. Students are usually afraid they will forget a citation or the tagline to a main idea, but that’s okay. It’s better for students to navigate the angst and pressure in the safety of a practice session. Meandering their way through the speech is always better than quitting. The more they prepare outlines of speeches and learn to rely on themselves, the better they will get. In addition, encourage students to work together. For example, consider an Extemp book club. Assign each of your extempers a new book about something going on in the world or a book that will give them historical context to an ongoing crisis. Then, have them share book reports with one another. The more they share knowledge with each other, the easier it will be for them to prepare speeches faster. Thirty minutes of prep goes by faster than we realize. Making the most of that time will always make them better speakers.