Pine Tree High School

Walk the Plank Full Tournament

Academic: Custom Prompts

Speech & Debate: UIL / NSDA

Saturday, November 4, 2023

PHYSICAL Address: 900 Northwest Dr., Longview, TX 75604

School: 903-295-5031 Email: tdavis@ptisd.org (academic events) or cdickson@ptisd.org (speech/debate)

Dear UIL Coordinators/Coaches:

Please join us for our 2nd annual WALK THE PLANK invitational! We have added ALL academic events (TMSCA for math/science). We have a few fun things planned, and students (and coaches) are invited to wear their Halloween costumes.

Our tournament is open to novice and advanced competitors and judges to gain and hone skills. Our S/D will run novice and experienced rounds and offer a 30-minute training session for judges prior to the contest. Our writing events will provide judges’ verbal feedback to students focused on preparing for UIL circuit competition.

All UIL academic and speech/debate events will be offered as well as additional NSDA speech/debate events.

EVENTS*: The following academic and speech events will be offered:

• Ready Writing

• All Journalism Events

• Spelling

• Literary Criticism

• LD & CX Debate

• Informative Extemp

• Persuasive Extemp

• Prose and Poetry

• Original Oratory, Prepared Informative, Program of Interp, Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Duo Interp

• Current Issues & Events

• Social Studies

• Mathematics

• Number Sense

• Science

• Calculator

• Accounting

• Computer Applications

• Computer Science

*Test vendors include Hexco, ASW, A+ Computer Science, original tests by experienced test writers, and TMSCA Test #3.

REGISTRATION: Please register all speech/debate AND academic contestants through TABROOM at http://uilpinetree.tabroom.com. Any questions about registration may be directed to Terri Davis (academic events) at tdavis@ptisd.org or Chris Dickson (speech events) at cdickson@ptisd.org.

DEADLINES: We will need your full registration by 5pm, Wednesday, November 1st and judges by Friday, October 27th.

JUDGING: We ask that you provide a judge/grader for every event in which your school is entered. If you cannot provide a judge/grader, then please let us know by Friday, October 27th. Replacement judges’ fees are as follows:

• Ready Writing/Journalism ($75)

• Debate/Speech ($150)

• For debate, you must have 1 judge for every 4 LD contestants or 2 CX teams, or part thereof. For Interp, Speech, and Writing Events, you must provide 1 judge for every 6 participants or part thereof. We prefer judges over fees . AT MINIMUM, speech/debate team coaches MUST serve as judges.

ENTRY FEES:

CX Entries:$30 per team

LD Entries:$20

Speech Events: $10

CS Hands-On: $20/team

All Other Events: $10 per event

ENTRIES: Each school can enter unlimited entries in every event except writing events. Because of space, we are capping these entries at 4 per school for ready writing and 6 per school for journalism. We will check numbers and open the waiting list October 24th. If you need to add or delete a contestant’s name from your roster, please do so by editing your entries in TABROOM. Email us if you need help with Tabroom.

PROCEDURES FOR READY WRITING:

Students will begin testing promptly at 8:10 am to keep the schedule moving. Students may leave as soon as they are finished writing, printing, and verifying their essay. Division I and II will be graded separately. All coaches are needed to judge. Ready Writing students will assemble at 2:45 pm for verbal feedback from the lead judge and to receive medals. Any leftover material will be placed in the tab room for the school. Hexco prompts.

PROCEDURES FOR JOURNALISM EVENTS:

Grading will follow each event and will be led by former state judge Susan Duncan. Novice judges are welcomed and will gain valuable experience with seasoned judges. ALL coaches are asked to judge. Copy Editing will test after Headline. Please note this deviation from the typical schedule. This will allow time for verbal critique and debriefing for all contestants with the lead judge immediately following the grading of Editorial/Headline. Hexco prompts.

PROCEDURES FOR SPELLING:

The pronouncer will be Belinda Walinta. The test will be from ASW.

PROCEDURES FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE:

Please bring power cords in addition to your computers. Programming and the written test will take place Saturday.

This has been changed to accommodate the football games.

PROCEDURES FOR MATH/SCIENCE EVENTS:

Grade-level awards will be given for the top six competitors in each grade level in each event for each division. No overall medals will be awarded. Team scores will follow UIL scoring guidelines. This has been changed to align with TMSCA practices.

JUDGING and MEDALS: We plan to have two divisions: 1A - 4A and 5A - 6A. We will award 1st - 6th places for all academic events, CX, and Duo for each division except math and science events (see above) and some speech and debate events. The following speech events will not be broken into divisions: Congress, LD, Pers, Inf, Original Oratory, Prepared Inf, Prose, Poetry, POI, Hi, and DI. Top Speaker awards will be given for Congress, CX, and LD. Top Biology, Chemistry, and Physics will be given for each division.

In addition, “Best Paper of the Day” will be given to a single journalism student, and “Judges’ Choice” will be given to a single Ready Writing student. The writing events will also recognize best novice papers (first competition). Judging for all events will immediately follow the end of each contest. All coaches are expected to grade. Verification will immediately follow judging and ranking, and medals will be awarded immediately following verification. Any questions may be directed to the contest director at the meet. The top three schools from each division will receive a custom Sweepstakes leather plaque. First and second place teams will receive plaques and individual team medals in team events. Top journalism team and speech/debate team plaques will be awarded for each division.

NOTES FOR SPEECH AND DEBATE EVENTS:

CONGRESS: Tournament will be using the UIL Region Congress Legislation from ESC 7 and ESC 8. Legislation Docket for both ESC 7 and ESC 8 are posted to Tabroom.

CX DEBATE: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.

LD DEBATE: Resolved: Wealth inequality in the United States is detrimental to democracy.

OTHER INFORMATION

CONCESSIONS: Concessions will be offered. More information will be offered closer to the tournament date. Coaches’ hospitality will be provided.

PARKING: Map and parking directions will be posted closer to tournament date.

CONFIDENTIALITY:

All materials will be given out on the day of the meet. Please do not share the material outside of your school.

RESULTS:

Results for our tournament will be found on this webpage following every event: https://www.pinetreeresults.org/

Thank you and Good Luck!

Lee Branson, PTISD UIL Academics Director lbranson@ptisd.org

Terri Davis, Academic Events, UIL Coordinator tdavis@ptisd.org

Christopher Dickson, Assistant UIL Coordinator cdickson@ptisd.org

Alyx Dickson, Director of Speech & Debate adickson@ptisd.org

Please mail payment to:

Pine Tree High School UIL

c/o Lee Branson

PO Box 5878

Longview, TX 75604