Speech (Declam)

Intro presentation and Information (in place of the canceled Info meeting 12/15)

Learn everything important and exciting about joining Speech at BHMS.

Watch THIS VIDEO to get some details about joining Black Hawk Speech team. It's fun, it's easy, and it only takes about one hour a week.

Here is a link to THE INTRO PRESENTATION so you can move through it at your own pace if you'd like to read over one of the slides or follow a link.

Finally, here is the link to REGISTER for the team! Hope to see you ALL THURSDAY, DEC 16 after school in the library.

If you have any questions please see Mr. McCay or Ms. Pixler We hope to see you there!

Join Speech!

Declam is a co-curricular speech activity in which each participating student chooses and prepares an interesting piece, present their selection at four Saturday morning tournaments and earn ribbons for their accomplishments. It’s that simple.

Who: All Grades

When: December to February. Coaches are available for practice EVERY DAY after school. Students just sign up for a 15-minute meeting with a coach once each week. See Meet schedule below.

Registration and Fees: Sign up in FeePay ($44), then complete the registration form.

Schoology Group Code: 66T2Q-52WZX

Speech Meet Schedule

SCHEDULE updated 1/4/22

Meet #1: Jan 15th @ Dakota Hills Middle School

4183 Braddock Trail, Eagan MN 55123

* Parents drop off at Dakota Hills Middle School doors by 8:15.

* Find the BHMS table in the cafeteria, get your 'code', find your rooms

* First round will start at 9:00!!

**Parents pick up by 12:00 or so (depending on rounds)

Meet #2: Jan 21st @ Falcon Ridge Middle School

12900 Johnny Cake Ridge Rd, Apple Valley, MN 55124

* Parents drop off at Falcon Ridge lower doors by 4:00 PM.

* Find the BHMS table in the cafeteria, get your 'code', find your rooms

* First round will start at 5:00!!

**Parents pick up by 7:00 or so (depending on rounds)

Meet #3 has been cancelled.

Meet #4: Feb 5th @ Northfield Middle School

2200 S Division St, Northfield MN 55057 (507-663-0650 (NMS)

* Parents drop off at Black Hawk Middle School lower entrance doors by 7:30

* We will take a bus to Northfield Jr High.

* First round starts at 9:00.

**We will arrive back at BHMS by 12:45 or so (depending on rounds)

OUR Ribbon ceremony will follow this 4th meet at Black Hawk Middle School starting in the MPR at 1:15-1:30PM.

Coaches are available for practice EVERY DAY after school. Students just sign up for a 15-minute meeting with a coach once each week. That’s all it requires. YES-you can participate in Declam at the same time as other co-curricular activities. Practice sign-up sheets are on the windows of the East Computer lab in the the media center.

We have meets on four consecutive Saturday mornings starting with the last two weekends of January, and the first two weekends in February. These meets are the celebrations of your efforts and work!

More Information

Why join?

Because it’s easy and rewarding! Declam will improve your self-confidence and help develop speaking abilities useful in many of their academic pursuits. Declam allows you to connect with other successful students promoting positive social connections at school. Declam is fun!

Get updates on your phone

In order to sign up for Declam notifications, choose text or email:

Text: Send '@bhmsdeclam' to 81010
Email: Send blank Email to: bhmsdeclam@mail.remind101.com

Advisor Contacts

Parent Involvement

Parents, we need you!

We’d love for you to be involved in your student’s experience in Declam- here are a few ways you can help:

Judging: In order to run each meet, we need to provide one judge per eight students. I estimate that we will need seven judges for every meet. Judging a meet is very fun and gives you a chance to see other students demonstrate their hard work. If you would be interested in judging one or more of our meets this year, please indicate this below. We will provide a short in-service about judging speeches at the meet.
Ribbon Ceremony: We could use help planning and coordinating the end of the season Ribbon Ceremony following our final meet. Responsibilities include ordering cake and punch, as well as set up & clean up. A one time planning meeting will be set up in early February.

Interested in judging?

Judging is a very rewarding experience and a great opportunity for an adult to see an example of a middle school student putting a tremendous amount of work into something and then seeing it pay off. It is refreshing to be impressed by this age group and you will absolutely be impressed by some of the speeches you hear !

At a Declam meet, all 500-600 students who attend are divided into their categories and then placed into groups of 7 or 8 within each category. Each group is then matched with a judge and put in a room. (All of this is done with a database ahead of time and all the judge has to do is find their room and wait for the students to show up!)

The students will take turns presenting their pieces to the room while the judge listens and critiques their presentation. Each student hands the judge a detailed rubric explaining all the elements the judge should look for and it is the judges job to see how close they come to mastering each individual element. The rubric sheet is very thorough and gives many examples of what to look for with each aspect of the speech.

To make it easier, each meet will have a judges meeting which explains the process, goes through the rubric and helps make sure everybody is comfortable. Any remaining questions can easily be answered by fellow judges or coaches. To top it off, you get a light breakfast and a stipend for the time you spend with us on a Saturday morning! Please consider judging a meet or two this year, but respond soon because these dates might be filling up!

Declam meets run from 8:30 a.m. until about 12 p.m.
Judges are paid a referee stipend for their time. Register here to help with judging!

If you would like to judge for one of our meets this year, please send an email to Michael.Mccay@district196.org and indicate which Saturdays you are available.

Speech Judges' Handbook

Faces with though bubbles on top of their heads

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