Touro Communication Club Notes #35

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NEWS ABOUT TOURO COMMUNICATORS:

The winner of the 4^th Speech Contest, Simone Weber, was valedictorian of her class at Touro Berlin.

The winner of the 5^th Speech Contest, Lara Koerfer, is now in Japan on an internship with Volkswagen.

If you have any information about your own latest accomplishments, please email it to Hal Wicke and he will include it on the blog.

The announcements are really exciting news!. They indicate that our students who have been part of the Touro Communication Club are their Communication skills in a wide variety of situations. As those who come to our sessions regularly, there are so many situations, personal and professional, that Communication skills are used 24/7.

The Presidential campaign gets closer to the nominating conventions. With less that 100 days to the elections, both Senators McCain and Obama are ramping up their activities. McCain has increased his attack advertising on Obama’s lack of experience while Obama was greeted like a rock star in his whirlwind tour of the Middle East and Europe. McCain’s camp complained that Obama really didn’t say anything consequential in his Berlin speech before only 200,000 people. Obama is aware that, as a Presidential candidate, he cannot saying substantive about polic y before he is elected.

We are now entering the dog days of summer, alternating between sweltering heat and humidity and flash thunderstorms. These are days to relax and go to the beach or enjoy an outdoor concert. Our brains go to seed only to be braced by the jolt of post-Labor Day school. Enjoy while you can!

Here’s the upcoming schedule:

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 – 1 pm– Club – “Persuasion” an open-ended discussion about a volatile Communication activity. Hal makes the statement that “Everyone is always selling something.” Let the arguments begin. Follow the room signs.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 – 1 pm Debate –SPAR Instant debates continue – and maybe we’ll choose a new topic if we don’t get distracted. Follow the room signs.

What happened on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 – 1 pm – Debate

We had such a rip-roaring session with the SPAR debate format that we forgot to talk about our next debate topic. James Millner, Kazi Faltah and Lorinda Moore took turns debating. Richard Green, David Nussbaum and Hal Wicke were joined by Carlisle Yearwood (English) and Steven Gradman (Political Science) in adjudicating the debates and offering their comments.

The first topic was “Honesty is the best policy” with Kazi taking the affirmative position and using Biblical references as his main support while James took the negative and offered alternative evidence to Kazi’s stance. The judges voted that the Negative case won the debate. All manner of comment followed the decision.

The second topic was “The grass is greener on the other side.” Lorinda took the Affirmative position while James took the Negative. Lorinda said she was “blindsided” by the unexpected argument that James presented by taking the cliche literally with all the weeds that are among the grass. His logic was humorous as well unexpectedly switching from the metaphorical intention of the cliché.=2 0

These SPAR debates are wonderful training tools for our debaters. They require no extensive preparation, but demand close listening and the development of thought structures that prepare for an argument as well as surprise responses.

At the last minute, Hal remembered Lorinda’s earlier suggestion of questions to put perspective on the session. Everyone thought the session was exciting, fun and very useful in the future. Some thought we needed to work on how to use the short preparation time more effectively. Most people are not used to thinking in an organized fashion under pressure. We’ll work on this next time.

• These are Lorinda’s questions;

1. How did I feel about the discussion?

2. What part of the discussion influenced me the most?

3. Was there something that did not change the discussion?

4. What will I definitely do after this discussion?

Join us as we try to promote more light than heat! See you next time. Bring a friend!

Hal Wicke