On Tuesday, Nov. 12, Kingswood Oxford students watched the Speakers’ Forum finals take place in Roberts Theater. Every year, sophomores in their English classes go through an interpretive reading unit, which culminates in a final round with the entire school as the audience.
This year’s finalists included sophomore Genesis Frimpong who took home first place, followed in second by sophomore Alex Ndiaye. Sophomore Lei Gonzalez got third place, with sophomore Carlotta Patroni in fourth place and sophomore Marin Backer in fifth place.
To kick off the assembly, English teacher Catherine Schieffelin introduced the history behind Speakers’ Forum. It was started by former English teacher Robert Googins. Mr. Googins also coached Forensic Union, and adapted a similar interpretive speaking competition to fit KO’s Upper School English curriculum.
Ms. Schieffelin quoted a KO Magazine article from 2008 on Mr. Googins’s retirement that encapsulates the impact he had during his 42-year tenure at KO. “Whether the topic he set was a serious current policy issue or a creation of his fancy, [Mr. Googins] stressed that 50% of debating was listening,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “While wit and humor were always welcome seasonings in his speech, there was never any room for flippancy or cruelty, and that no judge or audience would believe you unless you believed yourself.”
Ms. Schieffelin then introduced juniors Samit Virmani and Teague Shamleffer, who served as the emcees for the assembly.
Samit and Teague shared with the audience the selection process and timeline leading up to the finals. The unit, which all sophomores go through in their English classes, began with the students selecting an excerpt from literature such as a short story, novel, or poem. Then, they diligently practiced and rehearsed the delivery of their reading, while also adding their own interpretation to it.
The top scoring readings from each English class were chosen to move on to the semifinals. The semifinals, held the day before the final reading, featured 14 sophomores judged by history teacher Ted Levine, Director of Academic Planning Carolyn McKee, Director of College Counseling Jami Silver, and juniors Lia Prahl and Sam Almeida.
The top five highest-scoring pieces were then chosen to move on to the finals. This year’s finals contained a wide variety of pieces. Marin read from “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott; Genesis’s passage was from “Punching the Air” by Ibi Zoboi; Carlotta read “Don’t Ask Jack” by Neil Gaiman; Alex read from “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds, and Lei chose an excerpt from “When We Make It” by Elisabet Velasquez.
At the finals, a panel of community members were chosen to be judges. This year’s finals judges included history teacher Steph Sperber, math teacher Denise Garcia, Associate Director of College Counseling Matt Waldman, senior Nidhi Bhat, junior Shreya Adlakha, and junior Leo Kollen.
In between readings while the judges scored the finalists, Samit and Teague provided the audience with some humor and trivia about KO teachers. At the end of the five readings, all the scores were tallied up to decide the winners. The finalists were judged based on the following criteria: quality and helpfulness of introduction, polish and familiarity with their work, understanding of selection, voice quality, diction, literary merit, overall quality of selection, and appeal of selection.
The winners were then announced in reverse order and the top three students got their picture taken with their newly presented plaques, while the audience applauded their classmates’ hard work and fantastic readings. By the end of the assembly, the finalists had left the audience impressed with the preparation and delivery from all of their readings. This year’s Speakers’ Forum was once again a great success, and showcased the students’ dedication to their readings.
