CHSSA Competition and Classroom Curriculum

Since its inception the California High School Speech Association has advocated for speaking and listening as being among the core skills that student’s need to become successful in their future careers. Although many perceive forensics as a purely competitive venture, it is our desire to transfer these skills into the educational curriculum so that they may be used by teachers and coaches alike in improving the lives of their students. For this reason we have worked diligently to create curriculum that answers both competitive and classroom needs. If you have any suggestions, or questions, please feel free to contact us.

CHSSA Curriculum Drive

To support teachers and coaches leading classes or clubs, the curriculum committee has put together a Google Drive with various speech and debate units and community-building instructional activities.  Each unit has an overview of the week(s) at a glance as well as individual detailed daily lessons and resource links.  There are also resources for communicating the value and nature of speech and debate in interactions with parents and administrators, such as our new CHSSA Speech and Debate Participation Statement.  We will add more resources in the months to come and we welcome your contributions!  (To contribute or inquire about resources, please contact curriculum@chssa.org)

Coaches’ Corner

As a coach member of the California High School Speech Association you are joining hundreds of coaches from across the state who are part of the greatest educational activity that our students can participate in. The coaches that make up the Forensics community are some of the best, and brightest educators in their fields. The Coaches’ Corner is a monthly video forum held by expert coaches from across the country to help build expertise in a variety of areas in the speech and debate realm. Click the link below to learn from these expert coaches.

Learn the Lingo

The world of Speech and Debate can sometimes be confusing with all the new names for speeches, events, and competition. Below we have put together a glossary of terms from across the speech and debate world to demystify the language of speech and debate.

UC Approval Guide (A-G)

As students pursue success in speech and debate they are better preparing themselves for their future careers, and academic pursuits. The University of California A-G approval process ensures that courses pursue the rigor, and academics necessary for a course to receive credit in UC applications. In order to help you and your school develop an A-G approved course outline, the curriculum committee has put together a UC Course approval guide that can help you to develop your own class that can be submitted. Although we cannot guarantee success, these tools have helped others to succeed in the past. Use this resource to help you attain UC course approval for the “F (visual and performing arts)” or “G (elective)” requirements.

Class Curriculum

Advocacy speeches allow students to take in information about a topic, and develop their own plan by which to respond to the issue they have learned about. Students in this lesson will be drafting a four paragraph advocacy for governmental change on a food related issue of their choice.  They must explain the problem facing society, why we should be concerned with it, the legislation they propose as a solution and how their proposed legislation solves the problem.  All of the necessary handouts and instructions are linked below.

Final Round Videos

Each year the California High School Speech Association holds the California Speech and Debate State Championships. The top competitors from across the state compete at this tournament where they hope to become state champions. The CHSSA Curriculum Committee has begun to film the final rounds of these tournaments to share with out CHSSA membership as a tool to visualize what the top level of performance looks like in the state. In conjunction with these videos, the curriculum committee has developed viewing guides to help guide learning as your students view these incredible performers.