Mock Trial

Nicole just finished her Challenge B year of Classical Conversations.  This year is full of growth for the students as they begin to study formal logic, write their own short story, begin Chemistry, study astronomy and so on.  The highlight of the year, for most students, is Mock Trial.  

Mock Trial is an opportunity for the students to practice their logic, debate, and persuasive skills they have been learning.

Nicole was incredibly excited.  She is a diligent, hard working student who simply enjoys a new assignment and spends countless hours thinking about and working on her tasks.  Mock Trial was made for a kid like her :)

She was assigned two roles.  When we were defense, she was an attorney and tasks with the closing argument.  When we were prosecution, she was a witness named Lee Porter, the housekeeper.  

This was Nicole and I on a break during a Zoom session.  We had to find all of the hats in our house and put them on our head :)

Due to COVID-19, we had to do our main Mock Trial on Zoom.  There's a first time for everything...and this was one of those first times.  

This was Nicole's set up for Mock Trial.  She had everything at her fingertips, haha. 

So beautiful in her attorney attire.

Two and a half months later, part of the class gathered back together to complete a live Mock Trial against another class.  

Her classmates who did the second Mock Trial.  I'll always have a special place in my heart for these kids.  

Teri snapped this candid photo and I love it!

My favorite thing about Nicole's performance is that she really tried to integrate information from the trial into her closing argument.  This is not easy to do, nor is it easy to practice.  She had a basic outline, but then had to make adjustments in the middle of the trial to what was actually said.  

Each experience was unique, and I'm so glad Nicole had this opportunity.