Speech Information (Replaces a Live Doc)

Cameras On, Please! 

The Sunvite Tournament Director has asked that all Speech judges keep their cameras ON during all competition rounds. Students feed off of an audience so your beautiful faces make all the difference.

It's Sunvite Sunday, which means it's time for elimination rounds! Please check to see which elimination rounds each event will break to:

Elimination Rounds

DI A QUARTERS

DUO A FINALS

EXT A QUARTERS

HI B SEMIS

IMP B QUARTERS

INFO B QUARTERS

OO A OCTOS (During Round 5B)

POI B SEMIS

Elimination Round Schedule

Oratory Octos at 11am

Quarters at 2pm

Semis at 4:15pm

Finals at 6:15pm

Awards at 8pm (Livestreamed)

Extemp Prep Opens at 7:30am at this link

Speech Judge lounge is accessible through the tournament website, and opens at 7:30am. If you are not assigned a ballot, you must be in the speech judge lounge until you're dismissed. A failure to be present may result in a missed ballot fine. 

Tournament Schedule is here. 

Tournament Website: https://tournaments.classrooms.cloud/wing/speech/

Speech Rules

Sunvite will be using NSDA rules for Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Programmed Oral Interpretation, Informative, and Extemp.

No student should be using in part or in whole any material from previous years that they have performed within that category. If a student is doubled entered this year, they may not use the same material in two pieces in the two different categories (i.e. bits of your DI can’t be in your POI). 

Speech contestants should have the full original source and their cutting of all material in

interpretive events available at the tournament. Oratory, Info, and Extemp students should have

the text of any material they cite in their speeches available at the tournament. Students

misrepresenting sources or using unavailable sources may be disqualified at tab’s discretion.

Time Violations in Speech Events 

Each speech event has a 30 second “grace period.” If the judge in the round finds that the student has gone beyond the grace period, the student may not be ranked 1st, but need not be ranked last based on time. The ranking is up to the individual judge’s discretion. No minimum time is mandated. The maximum time in Extemp is 7 min with the 30 second grace. The maximum time in all other events is 10 minutes with the 30 second grace.

Double-Entry:  

If you are double-entered, please sign in both rooms by identifying yourself in the CHAT as     

DE - CODE - Last Name - Piece Title - Author (Double-Entered, I am here and ready to perform) or DE-WR - CODE - Last Name - Piece Title - Author (Double-Entered, I ‘Will Return’ after competing in my other event first).  As a competitor, please be proactive to ensure you can make the necessary rounds.   If a judge does not appear to see the chat, all contestants in the round should feel free to respectfully advocate so the DE students can perform first. 

How a round will function

Ballots for a round will be released THIRTY MINUTES PRIOR to the scheduled start of the round.

Judges should click start by FIFTEEN MINUTES PRIOR to the round. I know that at some tournaments that the tournament has you press start once the round has started but here PRESSING START IS THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT THE BALLOT HAS BEEN RECEIVED. 

If you are a judge that is on STANDBY for that round (which you can see on the judge chart), you should be in the Zoom judge lounge by FIFTEEN MINUTES PRIOR to the round for roll call.

All STUDENTS and JUDGES should be in their Classrooms.Cloud room by TEN MINUTES PRIOR to the start of the round (this would be at the check-in time listed in the schedule). Extempers will not arrive until it is their scheduled slot to speak so DO NOT WAIT TO GET ALL THE EXTEMPERS before starting. Double entered students should endeavor to go to the room where they are going to compete second earlier than this to drop their note into the chat (DE - WR - CODE - LAST NAME - Piece Title - Author). If a double entered student does not drop this in the chat of the second judge, then we will not hold the second judge for you. A judge that hasn’t hit start by ten minutes prior to the round will be replaced and fined.

 In the ten minutes before the scheduled start of the round, each student should have the opportunity to rename themselves as Code _ Last Name. Piece titles do not need to be placed in the chat as they're on the ballot.

 In all events except for extemp, once all competitors and judges have been accounted for (remember, if there is a note in the chat about them, they are accounted for), please begin. If a judge is missing, ONE of the competitors should email tab with that information.

 At the scheduled start of the round, please begin even if you are missing students. Tab will locate students that are missing if you email us the right information, contact us through the Classrooms.Cloud help ticket. Judges, if you need to move a student’s speaker order to accommodate double entry, please do so. If a student speaks and indicates they are double entered, LET THEM GO. Tabroom is inconsistent with labeling these students so just give the kid the benefit of the doubt.

 During the round, the judge should pin the competitor that is speaking to the their screen by clicking on the student to make their window larger. It is also recommended to use the full screen mode which can be found by clicking on the three dots in the lower right hand corner of your screen. To preserve bandwidth, the only two people that should have their mic and camera on at a given point are the judge and the competitor performing. The reason for the judge’s mic to be on is for the competitor to hear laughter or other reactions that might aid the feeling of being in the room together. The judge should not speak except between performances. If the judge has background noise that is distracting, the judge should turn their mic off.

 Prior to each performance, the judge should affirmatively communicate with each performer about how they would like to see the passage of time. Many students in this online format are timing themselves. This is PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE. The judge should coordinate starting time with the student. The performer may ask for time signals. The judge should provide any reasonable set of time signals requested (often five down in extemp and two down in the other events). If a student decides they don’t want time signals, that is fine too, but the judge should still keep time.

 After each performance, the judge should give the student their time, affirmatively state they heard the entire performance (if this is true) and then move to the next speaker.

WHAT IF THERE ARE TECH ISSUES? OR MEMORY ISSUES? OR NOISE IN THE BACKGROUND? OR PUPPIES RUNNING AROUND? 

 As this may be the first LIVE tournament for many of us, especially our students, we want to ensure that students feel supported and respected throughout the tournament.  Please exercise patience and understanding if students get lost, drop out, freeze, lag, have dogs barking in the background, arrive appropriately late, forget their piece, go over the grace period, whatever.  Regardless of reason, we want to ensure our competitors feel valued in their experience at the NYC Invitational.   

If a student’s technology drops out, they will be afforded an opportunity to rejoin the room and continue WHERE THEY DROPPED OUT.  If students cannot rejoin by the end of the round, they should be ranked last. If you are waiting on a student to return, and time has elapsed, please dismiss the other students and keep your window open and contact tab immediately.

Before you penalize any student for what you believe to be an infraction of the rules, please contact TAB .  We will arrange a call or zoom room where we can talk over the concerns with you. 

 If the judge loses connectivity during the student’s performance for any significant amount of time and cannot affirmatively say they saw the whole performance, the judge can ask the student to stay to the end of the round to repeat the performance in whole or in part. This is the judge’s discretion. If it is obvious the judge left the room, the student may be asked to just pick up from the last place the judge heard.

CRITICAL NOTE THAT ALL JUDGES SHOULD REMIND THEMSELVES OF BEFORE RANKING:

 We are all influenced by implicit bias, or the stereotypes that unconsciously affect our decisions.  When judging, our implicit biases negatively impact traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised students.  Before writing comments or making a decision, please take a moment to reflect on any biases that may impact your decision making.

Please remember that the video quality of a student’s performance may be impacted by lighting, internet, access to equipment, or other family members’ presence in the home.  To ensure a more equitable experience for our participants, please be sure your decision-making process and comments are related only to the content and quality of the presentation itself.

Ballot Writing - As this is one of the earliest tournaments of the year, and one of the first national tournaments to run 100% live across all events, we hope our judges will acclimate easily (and quickly) to the various roles they play in round.  Classrooms.Cloud provides space for you to keep time, communicate with students via voice or chat, as well as alert the tabroom of problems.  But, above all, the most important role of the judge is to write thoughtful and thorough ballots.  While you will watch the round, you will complete your ballots in Tabroom.com.  We greatly encourage you to test your system to keep two windows or screens open or even use two different computers. Additionally, it is often best to open a word doc/google doc to write your comments in as the speakers speak and then copy and paste your ballots into the appropriate fields later.  Please do not wait until the speaker has finished to begin typing your ballot.  This can greatly delay the tournament.  In the midst of this new, innovative, yet bewildering virtual environment, we want to ensure our students receive the necessary feedback and encouragement to continue improving their performance with a positive mindset and appreciation of the experience.  

AFTER THE ROUND, ENTER YOUR RANKS and CONFIRM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  You may continue to edit your feedback after you have submitted your ranks; however, you may not change your ranks after you press SUBMIT and CONFIRM.  If you’ve never used tabroom.com before, please keep in mind that the computer will reorder the speakers from SPEAKING ORDER to YOUR RANK ORDER.  This is a second layer of double-checking to assure you are entering the correct rank for each student.