Northwest High School - Silvertip Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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E - , Q Notecards hold information a debater may need dur- ing a presentation. Sophomore Nancy Langrehr uses one of many cards to support her arguments. DEBATE: fFront Rowj Dawn Strahan, Connie Biggs, Michelle Hunt, Shannon Casey, Nancy Langrehr, Tonya Wells, Rhonda Evans, Stefany VanScoyk, Kelly Sparck. fStandingQ Devan Padmanabhan, Steve Hardin, Rick Brewer, jeff Engelkcn and Roger Long. Showing her confidence while preparing to give her point of view, Sophomore Stefany VanScoyk shows her assurance by smiling. 126 ' Debate! Forensics

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l E I Carefully explaining reading material was part of the English teachers' job. Kay Gasaway sums up important points in the book and helps students to comprehend difficult parts better. Language Arts provides variety of subject matter Although no new courses were added to the curriculum and no new equip- ment was purchased, the Language Arts Department spent the year developing and revising its variety of curriculum of- ferings. In addition to enrolling in regular or honors English classes, students had the opportunity to enroll in several English- related courses. Some students found their interest in drama, speech, debate and forensics while others showed in- terest in developing writing skills and working on specialized publications such as the literary magazine, school newspaper and yearbook. As part of a city-wide writing assess- ment pfOgI9.l'1'l, all Northwest students were actively involved in the writing pro- ject. The activity evaluated g each student's ability to complete a mail- order form, write a business letter and write a descriptive story from a given pic- ture. After each student's work was evaluated by a Northwest English teacher, the scores were submitted to a central office where they were compared to scores in other city schools. To give students taking English III Honors and Advanced Placement History the opportunity to combine skills needed for each course, the two classes were combined into a two-hour block. The students were able to take field trips and do more lengthy projects. Also, the teachers were able to work together and coordinate the curriculum materials taught to make them more meaningful to the student. A new responsibility for the Language Department was the selling of tickets for the three-night performance of the all- school musical Oklahoma! English teachers sold the tickets to their students as well as manning the ticket booth the night of the performances. Seniors Danielle Cullinane and john Thornton receivedspecial recognition in the Language Arts Department for win- ning the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Award for their superior performance in writing. Northwest was the only high school in Wichita to have two winners, a first for the school. 'mfr Language Arts 0 125

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ABOVE: Receiving a few pointers from Robert Duensing, a former student and more advanced debater, Sophomore Devan Padmanabhan listens intently. BELOW: Searching for more research materials to back both pro an con was necessary for all debaters. Sophomorcs Tonya Wells and Rhonda Evans work intently on finding new evidence on the debate topic arms limitation. fi' i l l S 3 Debate, Forensic teams enter meets 'He Woo Artem Must Prove ', wias the motto for the debate team during the fall competitions. Although everything was not as it could have been, the majority the novice teams in first year debatefwere successful in defeating advanced ebate teams from another high scq ool, however, they failed to place in any specific tournament. Teams competed in tournaments held at local high s ools and traveled to competitions in ell- ington, Derby and Kansas City. 3 Debate Coach jim King cited three reasons for the debate team's failure to win tournaments. They are lack of resource materials, lack of role niodels for novice debaters and lack of support from parents and students. Outsta 5 ding novice debaters included Connie yiggs, Shannon Casey, Nancy Langrehr, evan Padrnanabhan and Rick Brewers 4 King described debate as f rmal argumentation with specific rules and guidelines governing considerations for each party, allowing each person a reasonable opportunity to support and attack logic and reasoning, l The second semester forensics team, which King also coached, had a fairly successful year. One team member, Angela McIntosh, qualified for State competition in interpretative poetry. King defined forensics as that ihich allows the student the opportuni, to orally interpret literature, use creative speaking and perform in the area of dramatic arts. Some of the forms of forensics included reading poetry,l pets forming skits and reading scenes from plays. I Debate and forensics consisted of a one semester class each and were worth one-half a credit each. Students twho desired were able to participate in lboth forms of oral expression. 'A' E E 2 3 Debatellforensics 0 127