High School Controversial Speeches

The 11th grade “Controversial Speech” is a capstone project in our High School. Students are tasked with studying rhetoric, analyzing historical speeches, drafting persuasive arguments, and researching opposing material. The culmination of their efforts is to take a definitive stance on a controversial topic (which may differ from their own view on the matter) and present their speech to a community of peers. 

At the end of each speech there is an opportunity for the audience to ask questions, often calling on students to demonstrate the wealth of knowledge they accrued in the process of researching their topics. They discuss the difference between debates and discussions, how with the former the focus is on winning the argument, while with the latter the emphasis is on winning over the audience. 

The richness of the Controversial Speech capstone project lies partly in allowing each student to find a topic that deeply resonates with them. Some students pursue their passions, while others look to produce the “most” controversial topic they can find, encouraging and savoring the potential pushback they will receive from their peers in the audience.

Recent Blog Posts:

Press – Our Pandemic Story

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“Our Pandemic Story,” installed inside the school’s new Reflective Classroom, gives students, families and staff the opportunity to share their individual pandemic stories and to create a shared, community-wide story, according to Head of School Jodi Grass.
Parent Ed, Social Relationships & Health

Parent Ed – Social Relationships & Health

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Humans are social animals. Does the quantity and quality of our social relationships impact our state of health, future risk of disease, and our life span?  Are the effects of relationships via social media the same or different from those of in-person relationships? Please join our presenter Dr. Pathik Wadhwa in a discussion that will touch on the biological and behavioral science behind social relationships, both in-person and virtual.
Do Lecture, Meredy

Embracing The Agile Mind

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Former Head of School, Meredy Benson Rice, now the Director of Teaching and Learning spoke about her personal journey as an educator and how students experience education at Oak Grove School as part of the 2015 Do Lecture Series.