The UH Honors Debate Workshop will prepare students for the University Interscholastic League in congressional
debate. Victoria Beard has served on the UIL regional committee, the UIL state advisory
committee for congressional debate and has qualified numerous top 6 finalists in congressional
debaters for UIL State since its conception. Last summer both junior instructors placed
3rd & 4th in Congressional Debate at 6A UIL State. This summer, both junior instructors qualified
for 6A UIL State in Congressional Debate and one of these won 6A UIL in Congressional
Debate as well. This camp will provide debaters with all the necessary tools for whatever
debate circuit in which they compete, whether it’s the UIL, TOC, TFA, or NSDA.
University Interscholastic League
University Interscholastic League Focus
In keeping with our goal of bringing debaters and speech contestants together from a variety of backgrounds to learn, we are adding UIL focused labs to the the
Congress, LD, Policy (CX) Debate and Speech programs this summer to better serve students
in Texas. UIL students will be in classes and labs with other students and will have the option
of selecting elective courses that focus on unique UIL rules and procedures. The curriculum coordinators and many of our instructors are experienced at coaching students in UIL competitions.
Congress
Lincoln Douglas
Texas is home to some of the most diverse styles of debate. The UH Honors debate program
is focused on helping debaters achieve success on the national level as well as the state and local levels. Many of our instructors have either competed at the UIL LD state tournament or coached students
who have debated in late elimination rounds. The UH Honors LD curriculum believes
that debate is debate. The preparations between the different circuits may be different,
but the skills are universal. Through our many years of competing, coaching and judging
UIL rounds every year, those seeking for more guidance in UIL LD debate will find
valuable resources from instructors who share your goals! Harry Yu, the curriculum coordinator for LD, has extensive UIL coaching and judging
experience.
Policy
We value all forms of debate in Texas and circuits around the country. In UIL CX debate there are a diversity of styles and approaches, and we will offer
several electives focused on some of the arguments, norms, and variations of CX debate
as they occur in the UIL debate ecosystem. We hope to provide unique and helpful instruction
that any CX debater will benefit from, especially UIL CX debaters. Some of the electives
will focus on equipping debaters of different styles with the strategies and techniques
necessary so the debaters can still clash over the arguments in the round. We will
have an elective for debaters who choose a more conversational approach to debate.
We will provide tools and approaches so that you can debate teams, on the arguments
in the round, that prefer a faster style when they debate. We will offer another elective
for debaters that want to learn how to split the negative block effectively and also,
ensure that you can theoretically (you will understand this stuff because we do instruction
not just hand out pre-written blocks) justify why the negative block is a better model
for debate than the first negative rebuttal repeating and going over the same stuff
as the 2NC. This is just a short list of examples of the electives we will offer,
so that we can enable each of you to become even better debaters. Co-Curriculum Coordinator Cody Morrow has decades of experience coaching in and judging
on the UIL Circuit.
Speech
This year we will be adding a University Interscholastic League component to the speech
program. Here we will analyze and understand the UIL rules and categories. Learn where
to find pieces that fit the categories and our goals. We will learn to cut, weave,
and perform our selections targeting the UIL audiences and judges. We will also focus
on effective binder work that helps and enhances our performances while not becoming
a distraction. Curriculum Coordinator Brian Darby is well versed with coaching and judging UIL competitors
and competitions.