Middle School Has Fun With Forensics

Despite the occasional murmuring of "I'm glad that's over" or "That wasn't so bad," there was a definite sense of excitement at on Thursday night as students competed in the annual Forensics Night competition.

"This was a fun event at school, something different," said eighth grader Alyssa Vranes, who competed in the serious category and delivered a medal-winning performance of a piece from a musical dealing with anorexia.

"It's a form of theatre that I wasn't that interested in before, but now I am."

Continuing a 40-year tradition at GMS, the forensics program offered students a chance to hone their public speaking skills by delivering their selected pieces in front of an unfamiliar audience.

Students in grades 6-8 were randomly split up into small groups throughout the school based on the one of four categories they were competing in, and judges scored their performance in a fashion similar to band competitions, where a 1 is awarded for the best performances, a 2 for good performances and a 3 for performances that still need some work.

The students, parents and judges gathered after the competition as the highest-scoring performers were announced and given medals, and cheers and applause for the accomplishments, from classmates and parents alike, rivaled that of a sporting event.

"A lot of students treat this as a fun event," said Colleen Perry, who organized the event with fellow teacher Paul Warloski. "The kids have performed their pieces in the classroom before, but the competition brings in all sorts of people from outside of the classroom and from different professions as judges, so the students get to see how their remarks compare to those from their teachers."

Students began working on their performance in January, and for the first time in the competition's long-standing tradition, students were not separated by grade, which organizers said added to the challenge.

"This competition is incredibly hard for a lot of the kids, especially for the sixth graders as it's their first time around," said Warloski. "It's an impressive task to stand up and perform a piece in front of other people and to be judged on it."

Commenting on the competition as a whole, Warloski said most of the students who participated received a score of 1 or 2, reflecting a good amount of practice on the students' pieces at home or outside of the classroom.

Students who medaled in the event were invited to deliver their performances again during the school day Friday in front of their classmates and teachers.