About SAY WORD!

Art House Productions's Executive Director Christine Goodman and Jersey City's Recreation Department Director Kevin Williamson teamed-up to pilot a public speaking initiative offered to students participating in the city's Summer Fun program, a summer camp offered free to city residents serving children 7 to 13 years old. In the summer of 2016, the program serves 10 city public schools reaching 600 students! It has been rigorously documented that student achievement is at-risk of waning during the summer months. Literacy through the arts can help maintain student-focus and reinforce learned skills. The public speaking initiative helps support this necessary foundation. Furthermore, public speaking is more than an enrichment program; it is a life-skills program. Excellent oral and verbal communication skills are crucial to ANY person in professional and private life. In this course, impromptu speaking, interview skills, improvisation, critical and creative thinking will be developed. It is important for young people to learn and nurture how to speak in front of an audience, speak clearly and loudly, be able to think on their feet, speak from the-top-of-their head, and formulate and organize thoughts. These are life skills. This is an extension of creative thinking and the confidence preparedness brings. All it takes to be a great public speaker is practice. 

About the workshop facilitator:

Angela Kariotis is a nationally-celebrated performance artist however her theater and creative writing work burgeoned initially through public speaking first learned through the school activity--Forensics, commonly referred to as Speech & Debate. In Junior High and High School, Kariotis was a State champion in Forensics. She earned a scholarship to attend Seton Hall University competing for their Brownson Speech & Debate Team. The team travels to compete at tournaments hosted by Universities across the country. It was during her college experience that Kariotis became a national champion while competing at the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournaments. While at Seton Hall she earned her degree in Communication. After a winning Senior year where she won 2nd place in the country Individual Sweepstakes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she was recruited by the University of Texas at Austin to be one of their speech team coaches. While there, UT-Austin's speech team won 1st Place in the nation in 2001 and 2002. The famed UT tower was lit orange and with a number 1- it was the first time in the school's history for a non-athletic program to receive the honor after winning a Championship. While at UT, she earned a masters in Performance Studies. Returning to New Jersey, Kariotis has coached her alma mater Seton Hall, high school students at UT's speech camp UTNIF, and Seton Hall's Metropolitan Forensics Institute. Angela is committed to serving communities who need the support the most. Born and raised in a working class immigrant family where English was a second language, Kariotis learned public speaking from a lone-committed teacher whom she honors to this day. Kariotis hopes to create a public speaking curriculum implemented in schools with trained instructors culminating in a final seasonal performance.

Below is an overview of some of the topics and techniques visited in the workshops:

Filming a PSA: Stop the Drop, an anti-littering campaign!

Students will learn how to write and film a 30 second Public Service Announcement. 

A class will create a PSA encouraging citizens to recycle as part of an anti-littering campaign. Students will write, cast, create a shooting script and film their PSA. 

Interview Skills: Can I Ask You Something???

We all love to talk about ourselves! Students will learn the StoryCorps model of conducting interviews. Students will interview each other and upload interviews to SoundCloud. Everyone, EVERYONE!, practices alone for their BIG interview using a hairbrush as a microphone! In this series students will learn the value of documenting everyday-people’s stories in this oral history project. They will learn how to listen to each other, answer questions thoroughly, and learn the art of the “follow-up” question. Hopefully students will learn more about each other and how much we each have in common! 

Lincoln-Douglas Debate: I Love to Argue! 

This is learning how to argue in a good way! Students will work in pairs. Each pair will receive a resolution to resolve appropriate to their age. Following the model of the National Forensic Association’s L-D Debate, each student will write a “for” and “against” for the resolution. The pairs will present their arguments to the class, and the class will vote to resolve the resolution. Example resolutions include, Should recess be extended? Should the school calendar abolish summer vacation? Should students wear uniforms?  Everybody loves to argue and everybody has an opinion. This experience hopes to shape debate skills by “listening” to the other side, teaching debate manners, and arguing BOTH sides of an issue to develop empathy, and a well-rounded, example-based opinion. 

Informative Speaking: Tell Me Something I Didn’t Know!

We feel most comfortable talking about what we KNOW about. Can you tell us how to play Minecraft? About My Little Pony Season 6? Show us how to make a friendship bracelet or how to make a great birthday card for someone we love? After creating their “expertise” list of topics, students will pick a subject with which they are very familiar. They will then draft their set of ideas into a speech with an opening statement, a preview, supporting points, demonstration, and conclusion. 

Impromptu Speaking: Making It Up As You Go Along!

Working as a group, improvisational acting techniques such as freeze theater are used to develop impromptu speaking skills. Speaking off-the-cuff or from-the-top-of-your-head is a valuable lifelong tool. Students will learn how to budget their time while developing a response. They will first practice how to collect their thoughts, sketch out main points,  and demonstrate the bravery necessary to speak without paper in their hand.