- Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
- Instructional Guide
Using debates in the classroom provide students the opportunity to work in a collaborative and cooperative group setting. By having students discuss and organize their points of view for one side of an argument they are able to discover new information and put knowledge into action. Classroom debates help students learn through friendly competition, examine controversial topics and “strengthen skills in the areas of leadership, interpersonal influence, teambuilding, group problem solving, and oral presentation” (Leuser, n.d., para. 1).
By having students discuss and organize their points of view for one side of an argument they are able to discover new information and put knowledge into action.
Debates can be used in all disciplines on a wide range of topics. Here are some examples of subject matter topics for debate which can easily be adapted for a variety of subject areas.
- Arts - There should no restrictions upon artistic expression
- Business - Corporations should be abolished
- Education - Intelligence testing is without value
- Engineering - Only bridges over waterways need to be routinely inspected
- Sociology - It is morally okay to break laws you don't agree with
- English - Language is not a skill
- Geology - Mountain top mining is good for the economy
- Health - There is nothing morally wrong with doing drugs
- Mathematics - Elementary school mathematics should be confined largely to arithmetic
- Science - The theory of evolution is based on both science and faith
Teams work well for classroom debates but two students can be paired as well. Adapt the following format to fit your specific goals and objectives. Adding a third, shorter round will allow teams to further defend their arguments.
Alternatively, have all students prepare both a pro and con position for a designated class session. During this class period two teams are randomly selected who will then state their arguments. The other students will contribute differing remarks and suggestions for a more active and well-prepared class discussion.
. . . two teams are randomly selected who will then state their arguments.
- Team One - 10 Minutes - Presentation of "Pro/positive" or "Arguments for"
- Team Two - 10 Minutes - Presentation of "Con/negative" or "Arguments against"
Team Discussion Period
5 Minutes This period is used for teams to prepare their responses
- Team One - 5 Minutes - Response or rebuttal of "Pro/positive" or "Arguments for"
- Team Two - 5 Minutes - Response or rebuttal of "Con/negative" or "Arguments against"
Whole Class Discussion
To determine which team provided the most convincing arguments. A vote can be taken or a more detailed evaluation form can be used to assess each team. (10-15 minutes)
Note: Explain to the students that the success behind using debates in the classroom is not in winning and losing but rather how well teams prepared for and delivered their arguments and get potential buy-in from those who help the opposite point-of view.
. . . the success behind using debates in the classroom is not in winning and losing but rather how well team prepared for and delivered their arguments . . .
- Include a time frame in which they have to prepare for the debate and how they are to present their material.
- Allow non-debate students to be adjudicators to help them learn how to be objective in rating their peers’ performance.
- Determine if non-debating students will be allowed to vote.
- Provide resources which will help students learn about debates and their structure.
- Consider holding a practice debate to help students understand the process.
- Select the format you plan to use: teams, individual students, all students (see format above).Consider having students prepare brief “position papers” which also includes their reaction to the debate process and how they were able to reach consensus in their team’s arguments.
- Research controversial, news-breaking and stimulating topics to encourage dynamic and energized classroom discussion. Students are more likely to be authentic when they debate a subject to which they can relate.
- Review the debate process previously established and ask for questions and clarifications on the day of the debate.
Students are more likely to be authentic when they debate a subject to which they can relate.
- Prepare rating rubrics and distribute to adjudicators before the debate begins.
- Begin the debate, giving students as much autonomy as possible.
- Distribute both student and instructor evaluations to the teams.Facilitate classroom discussion and debrief the process at the end of the debate.
- Have a plan in place if the debate gets “hot” and students argue instead of debate. Review guidelines before the debate begins to minimize inappropriate discussion and behavior. Also, getting to know your students through observation and actively listening to their classroom conversations can provide helpful information when selecting topics for debate.
Have a plan in place if the debate gets “hot” and students argue instead of debate.
Using debates in the classroom provides students the opportunity to explore real-world topics and issues. Debates also engage students through self reflection and encourage them to learn from their peers. Finally, debates prepare students to be more comfortable engaging in dialogue related to their beliefs as well as their areas of study.
Leuser, D. (n.d.). Classroom debates. https://oz.plymouth.edu/~davidl/bu342/Debates.DOC
Classroom debates: A one page tutorial. (n.d.). http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/debates/tutorial.pdf
University of California - Berkley. (1983). Using classroom debates. http://teaching.berkeley.edu/compendium/suggestions/file181.html
Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (2012). Classroom debates. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Retrieved from https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide
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How to Hold a Classroom Debate
- March 21, 2016
Subjects to Debate
If you have spent any amount of time in schools (especially secondary), you know how much students can love to argue. As students grow and progress through school, they find their voices and opinions on a variety of topics. As a teacher, you could spend your time correcting students in class for arguing amongst one another or you could harness that energy and teach your students a useful skill: debate.
Learning how to successfully debate a topic is not only useful for debate teams, but it also teaches students how to articulate their thoughts in a meaningful way. Students also learn how to accept other points of view and even anticipate the other side of a topic in order to engage in a more meaningful conversation with another party.
One of the most important things to consider when planning a debate in your classroom is to decide on what students should debate. You must make the subject matter interesting for students or the activity will go nowhere. Think about topics that hit close to home for your students such as: dress code, whether or not homework serves a purpose, school vouchers, metal detectors at school entrances, etc. I worked with a wonderful English teacher several years ago. She brought up school zone regulations. She found a newspaper article that detailed the story of a single mother that got into trouble because she lied about her address in order for her kids to go to a school in a different district because she believed her children would get a better education. Our kids were really engaged in this topic. Do you know why? At my school we had families that falsified their address in order for their children to attend our school. Talk about a relatable topic!
How to Prep for a Debate
Once you have settled on a debate topic for the class, you will need to prepare students for the debate. Many students are self-conscious about speaking in front of a group, so it might be a good idea to place your students in small groups the first couple of times you hold a debate. You could bring up a topic and poll your students to decide on which side of the debate they fall. Next, split the students into small groups for each side of the debate. Allow students to research their positions and make a logical argument with sequential notes (this would need to be simplified for elementary students).
Make sure to suggest that each side research possible counterpoints to their points that may surface during rebuttal. A debate team that can argue both sides of a topic is better off. As student groups prepare their points for the debate, circulate the classroom in order to certify that the students are using reliable sources for their arguments. You may need to conduct a mini lesson on how to substantiate sources.
Finally, give students pointers on debate etiquette. Stress to students that they need to keep their composure during the debate, dress appropriately for public speaking, pay attention as both sides talk, and shake hands or give some sort of congratulatory gesture once the debate is over.
How to Grade a Debate
I would suggest that in order to properly grade a debate, you should create or find a rubric to share with the students that are involved in the debate as well as the students in the audience. The debaters should know what, specifically, you are looking for as they prepare to debate to ensure that they are on the right track as they research and structure their positions. Topics in the rubric could include the following: the points made by team members are well researched, team members make eye contact, team members do not rely too heavily on their notes during the debate, the rebuttal points address the points made by the opposing team, and the presentation is clear and concise. These are just a few points to consider.
Before the debate begins, show the class a video of a debate in order to allow students to ask clarifying questions and calibrate so scoring is consistent. Allowing the student audience to score the debate along with the teacher will give the class a sense of ownership and keep audience members accountable. At the end of the debate, collect the scoring rubrics from the class, add up the points and discuss the scoring with the debate teams.
Debate Formats to Consider
In a policy debate, each side is represented by two students. Each side has a set amount of time to give their speech (one side affirmative, one side negative). After each speech, there is a set amount of time given to the opposing side for cross examination. After the speeches and the cross, each side has a set amount of time to give a rebuttal.
In the Lincoln-Douglas debate model , each side gives a speech followed by a cross examination from the other side. This series is followed by an affirmative rebuttal, a negative rebuttal, and then a second affirmative rebuttal.
There are other forms of debate that might fit your class and purpose more aptly. It is a good idea to show the class some examples of different types of debate and come to a consensus on the format that works best.
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7 Fun Tasks for Classroom Debates
Each student chooses a slip of paper with one topic, such as ‘ students should wear uniforms ‘ or ‘mobile phones should be banned in schools’. Now, everyone stands; they have 2 minutes to give their opinion on that topic to a classmate, using the target language such as ‘ I somewhat agree with you ‘, ‘ I completely disagree’ , ‘ I think very differently ‘, depending on level and lesson objective. When the 2 minutes are up, students move on to a different classmate. Listen for mistakes, correct on the spot and monitor if they have taken your correction on board.
Choose two students, i.e those interested in a particular topic or who have strong views in a certain area and ask them to take a seat at the top of the room. They each give their opinion on the topic but the key here is that the rest of the students in the class ask questions, challenge them on their views and present alternative viewpoints to them. This can create a very healthy discussion. Ensure students are using the lesson’s lexical items, such as ‘ Can you expand on your point of view in relation to… .’ or ‘ Can you help us understand why you would state that…’ depending on level.
Divide your class into three groups: 1) Agree 2) Disagree 3) Devil’s Advocates
Write a debate topic on the board and assign a point of view to groups 1 and 2. (They should put their own views to one side for this task). Group 3 are the Devil’s Advocates and so it’s their job to provoke discussion, encourage various points of views and ensure the debate continues. Give a speaker from each group 2 minutes to speak before rotating so that all students in each group are participating.
Prepare 5 topics before the lesson. Write the first on the board, such as ‘Homework should be banned’. In pairs, students have 10 minutes to prepare their argument in writing. Monitor as they prepare their text, encouraging self- correction. After ten minutes, each pair passes their text to the pair on their right who will also prepare their response in writing. Now, they should be ready to debate. Open the topic up to the class and listen to each of the arguments made.
The Secret Jar
Place an empty jar on your desk. Now, give each of your students one post-it/piece of paper. It’s probably better if they are all the same colour for anonymonity. Write the debate topic on the board, such as ‘Video games have a negative influence on teenagers’ behaviour’. Give students a few minutes to write their opinion on the post-it before folding it and posting it in the jar. Now, give the jar a little shake and ask one student to take a post-it from the jar to read. This student now nominates another student to respond to this point. This usually sparks a strong discussion and students seem to be more courageous responding to an anonymous opinion than that of their classmate’s/friend’s.
The Boxing Ring
Choose two students to stand facing each other in the centre of the room. You assign a debate topic, such as ‘ Social media is destroying real social interactions’ . Students are given one minute each to put forward their point. After they both speak, the rest of the class stand behind the person they agree with. This could be very one-sided depending on the topic, however only one person should speak at a time. Change topic and rotate students as often as you see fit to include all the students in the class.
Pick a Corner
Put a poster in each corner of your room (Strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree). Now, give your students the debate topic, such as ‘Bullying should be a criminal offence’. Now, give students 10 seconds to move to the corner of the room that reflects their opinion. Hopefully you have a good spread of opinions so that you can now group two students who agree and two students who don’t agree together to debate in small groups. Afterwards, you can open this up to the whole class again. Once students have formulated their thoughts in their small groups, they will be more confident in front of the class.
Writer and content creator on ELT-Connect.com, Director of Studies at ATC Language Schools, Ireland.
Its a good opportunity to avail for regular English lessons.
It’s an amazing resource.Thanks
Thanks for Sharing Great Information
Very interesting and helpful,thank you so much
Wonderful techniques! They come in handy for my next communication class. I particularly liked The Boxing Ring and the Devil’s advocate. I have used another version of the latter: the four hats. The black hat (the devil’s advocate), the yellow (or the optimist), the white hat (this role is about information and data. The role-player needs to provide and inform on the topic of discussion), the red hat (the intuitive, shows fears and worries about the scope of the topic).
Hi! Just to let you know that we’ve shortlisted this blog post for this month’s TeachingEnglish blog award and I’ll be putting up a post about it on tomorrow’s TeachingEnglish Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncil , if you’d like to check there for comments.
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Home > News and views > 8 debating games for primary and secondary school students
8 debating games for primary and secondary school students
From our public speaking competitions to our in-school workshops like Discover Your Voice , we know the importance of oracy in the classroom. If you’re teaching students debating, you probably need to find ways to engage them before diving in. Here’s a list of tried-and-tested debating games that our facilitators and mentors use in primary and secondary school classrooms to get students thinking.
All the best debating games for students
1) if i ruled the world .
Stand in a circle with the students. Explain that the game works by each student stating: ‘If I ruled the world…’ and finishing the statement. The student to the left should question the statement with: ‘Why?’ The initial student will then explain why they would do this.
Example: ‘If I ruled the world, I would make the weekend four days long.’
‘Because then everyone could spend more time with their friends and families and relax.’
The game should then proceed around the circle until all the students have had a turn. This is one of the best debating games for beginners.
2) Cross the Circle if…
Get the students to form a seated circle. There should be one fewer seat than the number of participants. Standing in the middle, give a statement, starting ‘Cross the circle if…’ that students can either agree or disagree with. As the rules are being learnt, start with simple verifiable facts such as ‘… if you have brown hair’ or ‘… if your name starts with a letter in the first half of the alphabet’.
When a student agrees with the statement, they should stand up and ‘cross the circle’, finding a new seat from one which has been vacated. The facilitator should also take a seat and the student left standing then begins the next round with a statement of their own.
3) I Couldn’t Disagree More
Give students a statement and ask them to give all the reasons why they disagree with it. Make sure that the statements are absolute but difficult to disagree with.
- I believe that we should never hurt animals
- I believe that lying is always wrong
- I believe that war is never justified
- Fruit is always healthy
- We should always obey the law
4) Make it Sound Good, Make it Sound Bad
Divide the students into small groups, and give each pair of groups a ‘neutral’ statement (e.g. ‘London is a big city’, or ‘Birds can fly’). Ask one team in each pair to present the statement to the group so it sounds good (‘London is a big, multicultural, thriving city’), and the other to present it so it sounds bad (‘London is a big, dangerous, noisy city’).
5) Stranded on a Desert Island
Get students to form pairs. Let them know that they are all going on holiday. Pupils should select one thing that they would pack, and then tell their partner.
Let them know that they are all going to travel by boat. Get them to imagine that they are on a ship in the middle of a big ocean when suddenly there is a huge storm and the boat sinks. It’s a complete disaster! Luckily, there is a desert island nearby. They must swim to safety, but they can only choose one of their two items to take them with them to bring to the island until they are they rescued. Ask a few pairs to feedback to the group on their decisions.
6) Million Pound Top Trumps
Set the scene: The government has announced that there is a million pounds of extra money available to be spent in the local region. Students will represent different advocacy groups with proposals on how to spend this money.
Give each student or group of students a proposal like the ones on the list below.
- More teachers
- Build a new park with a football pitch/athletics track
- Put on local events e.g. music festivals or fairs
- Free entry to local leisure centre/swimming pool
- More nurses
- Increased city centre parking
- Reduce income tax
- Every school age student gets a musical instrument
- More bike lanes
- More money for libraries so they can stay open/have more staff or facilities
- More support for homeless people
Round 1 – In this round, each group will write and deliver a short speech (no longer than one minute) about why their proposed spending is best within a certain category. So, for example, those advocating ‘spending on more nurses’ might want to argue that their proposal would ‘save most lives’; students arguing for ‘providing increased city centre parking’ might claim that their proposal would ‘boost the economy most’.
While they don’t need to compare with every other proposal, they should be comparative with at least some. You may wish to begin by making a mind-map of possible ‘trump’ categories on the board.
Round 2 – Each proposal may be best at something, but this doesn’t yet allow us to choose which is best overall.
In this round, the advocacy groups will need to argue that their policy should be selected by the government. They will have to argue not only that they are better than the others at something, but also explain why that means that overall, they are best choice for spending. For example, someone defending ‘more nurses’ might suggest that ‘saving more lives’ is more important than ‘boosting the economy most’.
Again, give students some time to write these speeches.
You can immediately decide a winner by a vote after Round 2. If you prefer, you can select the top two proposals and have a final round where they must argue directly against each other in a final pair of speeches.
7) Sales Game
Have students form small groups. Give each student an object (e.g. a pen, a pair of sunglasses, a phone charger). Within the small groups, students should convince others that they should ‘buy’ their object.
When each group has a winner, you can have a further round in front of the class to find an overall winning object.
8) Balloon Debate
Have four to six student volunteers come to the front of the class. Each one should choose a person that they will play during this game. You may want to restrict them using a theme, e.g. ‘famous people from history’ or ‘characters from Harry Potter.
Set the scene: all these people are in a balloon, but it is leaking. To save themselves, they will have to throw someone overboard!
Each student will give a 30-second explanation of why their character should be allowed to stay in the balloon, using a point and an explanation. After these arguments, the rest of the students should vote on who should be thrown out of the balloon. This can be repeated until only one person remains in the balloon.
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How you can come up with great motions for debating
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February 28, 2022 CL Lesson Plans , ELA K-5 , ELA 6-8 , ELA Resources - Activities , ELA Focus - Writing , ELA Seasonal - Spring , Core Literacy
March madness classroom debate lesson plan, grades 5+, by: erin lynch.
Debates are a fun activity that demands students use a variety of literacy skills. In this article, you'll find a classroom debate lesson plan that is inspired by my love of March Madness. Plus, I've made the March Madness Debate Lesson Plan into a FREE printable for teachers! Grab it now.
Benefits of Classroom Debate Lessons & Activities
Debates are a great tool for engaging students and adding some excitement to the classroom curriculum. A debate is a discussion in which participants articulate and justify their position on an issue. Teachers should have students participate in a classroom debate multiple times throughout the semester because they encourage students to:
Work cooperatively with a team
Apply questioning skills
Use multiple reading strategies to conduct research, identify main ideas, and gather important information in support of their opinion
Use writing skills to prepare notes for the debate
Become more proficient in speaking, reading, and writing
Express their opinions assertively in a respectful manner
Debate Lesson Plan Inspired by March Madness
With the March Madness classroom debate lesson plan , students will get in on the bracket battle fun! Students will participate in a series of debate activities with their classmates (or other classes in their grade level). The winners of each debate will move down a bracket system until only two teams remain. Once teams are knocked out of the debate tournament, students can act as newspaper columnists reporting on the debates. The winning team of the final debate challenge will be the champions!
How the Classroom Debate Activities Work
Note: These instructions are included in the download.
Tell students that they are going to be participating in a series of debates with their classmates (or other classes in their grade level). Explain to them that a debate is when you look at both sides of an argument.
Let them know they will be given a topic to research. They will record arguments in support of and opposing on a Debate Challenge T-Chart (included in the download). Tell the students that based on their stance on the argument they will be split up into several teams. Give them advanced warning that there needs to be enough people in support of and opposing, so some students may be arguing the opposite of what they believe (let them know the sign of a good debater is someone that can do that successfully).
In keeping with the spirit of the March Madness tournament here are a few possible topics in sports to debate:
Should kids under 14 play contact sports?
Should everyone get a trophy?
Should homeschoolers be allowed on publish school sports teams?
Should college athletes be paid?
Should heading the ball be banned in youth soccer?
After the research is complete and the teams are set, students will prepare their notes for the debate using the Debate Challenge Note Organizer (included in the download). Remind students that they will want all of their notes with them when the debate takes place. Their notes should include:
1. An overview of their topic and opening statement
2. Three facts in support of their opinion
3. Three questions for the opposition
There are several decisions you will need to make based on your class, grade level, and if you will have any colleagues available to help you monitor the debates.
Set time limits and have a timekeeper
Decide what you will do with teams once they are knocked out of the March Madness Debate Challenge . One option is to have students act as newspaper columnists reporting on the debates. After each debate, they can submit a short newspaper column summarizing the opinions and debate winner.
You need to have a judge(s) for the debates. Use the Debate Challenge Rubric (included in the download) to help in analyzing each team's opinions and performance.
Download the free March Madness Debate Lesson Plan for your classroom. Everything you need to implement the various debate activities in your classroom is included in my downloadable bundle!
Fun Classroom Debate Games
Melissa harr, 25 jun 2018.
Debates provide excellent classroom learning opportunities. They help students learn how to think critically, express viewpoints rationally and reflect upon the views they hold. Because some students might first find debates to be dry or difficult, some teachers introduce them to the concept with games. Along with building debating skills, debate games can prepare students for the debate format, break any undesirable debating patterns students have fallen into and help shy pupils open up in front of their peers.
Explore this article
- Rebuttal Tennis
- Four Corners
- Can You Distract Me?
- Fairy Tale Discussions
1 Rebuttal Tennis
A quick game of rebuttal tennis will give students an opportunity to practice making rebuttals and thinking quickly. This game is simple and requires little advance preparation beyond compiling a list of topics. To begin, split the students into pairs and have each pair sit facing each other. One partner makes a statement related to a debate topic, such as “assisted suicide is unacceptable in all cases,” and the other must quickly offer a rebuttal. The original student then rebuts this statement, and the two continue back and forth. Set a time limit for each rebuttal, perhaps 15 seconds to a minute. The student who cannot think of a rebuttal loses the round. Ask the students to play a predetermined odd number of rounds so that each pair has an overall winner.
2 Four Corners
Four corners gets students up and out of their seats, which helps break classroom monotony and forces all students, even the shy ones, to choose a side. Before playing, place one sign in each of the four corners of the classroom: strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. Inform students that they will listen to statements, then move to the corner of the room that matches their viewpoint.
Choose statements that offer room for discussion and have no easy answers, such as “It’s OK to take one life to save five.” Read the first statement and ask students to move. Once they’ve all chosen a side, ask for students from each corner to justify their choices. Give students in other corners the chance to make rebuttals and change corners if they wish. Spend a predetermined amount of time on each statement, perhaps five or 10 minutes, then repeat the exercise with another statement.
3 Can You Distract Me?
Expressing arguments in front of peers can make students nervous and easily flustered, but a few rounds of "Can You Distract Me?" will boost their confidence and help them overcome such anxiety. Divide the class into groups of three. One student from each group reads from a text, while the other two try to break his composure. They can do this by whispering, making funny faces, snapping their fingers or moving around. When the first student finishes reading, the next student in the group reads, and then the third. Once they’ve finished in the group, consider breaking everyone into larger groups or asking for volunteers to read in front of the whole class. Declare a few “composure winners,” either by teacher’s choice or by vote.
4 Fairy Tale Discussions
Borrowing topics from fairy tales allows students to relate to the debate format and substance. To begin, either read or discuss a story to elicit the predetermined debate question; if reading “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” for example, the question might be, “Was it OK for Goldilocks to enter the three bears’ house?” Once students identify the question, ask them to plan their arguments and rebuttals using a graphic debate organizer or a sheet of paper with two columns. Next, lead the class in discussion, allowing students plenty of chances to contribute their ideas. Consider assigning a follow-up writing activity.
- 1 The Internet TESL Journal: Teaching Debate to ESL Students -- A Six-Class Unit
- 2 Facing History and Ourselves: Four Corners
- 3 Education World: Using Fairy Tales to Debate Ethics
About the Author
Melissa Harr is a writer and knitting pattern designer with a range of publication credits. Her latest work includes blogging for Smudge Yarns, judging fiction for Ink & Insights 2015 and creating patterns for I Like Knitting magazine. Harr holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a CELTA.
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13 Amazing Online Debate Games for Students of All Ages (+30 Topics)
Leah Nguyen • 10 Jan 2023 • 10 min read
Debates activities are not students’ best candy flavours. They’re like black licorice, tasteless, boring and hard to chew on (which they want to avoid at all cost), and often in the midst of a debate, you can hear the noise of crickets instead of that enthusiastic back-and-forth you’ve always dreamed about.
It’s not easy to break the patterns when organising debate activities, but with these 13 highly interactive online debate games (that also work perfectly offline ), teachers can help cultivate a fun and engaging learning environment while teaching the students the art of persuasion.
Check them out below!
#1 – Argument Wars
#2 – the republia times, #3 – debatestorming, #4 – five good reasons, #5 – model united nations, #6 – where do you stand, #7 – desert island, #8 – quandary, #9 – real or fake, #10 – goose goose duck, #11 – werewolf, #12 – zombie apocalypse, #13 – devil’s advocate.
- 30 Good Debate Topics
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How to Have an Effective Online Debate
How to hold a student debate that is not dry as dust, engages even the least opinionated person, and easily goes with the flow – is a question many teachers contemplate. So buckle up because we’ve got a few secret tricks for your classroom debates:
– Set a concrete objective . The purpose of a debate in class is to make progress together and explore different ideas. Make sure to write your objective on the whiteboard so everyone can remember.
– Have a small round of icebreaker game . It’s vital that the students feel comfortable with their peers to open the door for discussion.
– Sometimes, anonymity is what you need to facilitate a smooth debate. Let students submit opinions anonymously, so they don’t feel the fear of judgement from their classmates.
– Establish a set of ground rules :
+ Remind your students that everyone is on the same board, and there’s no right or wrong, nor special treatment.
+ No personal attacks or making things personal.
+ Arguments based on non-factual evidence will be dismissed.
+ Prepare to listen and respect every viewpoint, and admit when you realise you’re wrong.
– Have some juicy games up your sleeves. Turning heated debates into light-hearted and fun games is the best way to guarantee the students will have the ride of their lives.
13 Amazing Online Debate Games for Students
Has “become a lawyer” ever been on your bucket list? Because Argument Wars is all about defending and becoming the right hand of justice. This game uses a card game motif to introduce students to the constitutional arguments behind some important historical U.S. Supreme Court cases. The students can choose the side of each case and will have to piece each part of evidence to form a coherent debate and win the judge’s heart.
There are nine cases to explore, so teachers can divide the class into nine different groups or pairs. Each will choose one specific case and go through the activity together.
Why we love it:
– The gameplay mechanism is simple and great for developing a basic understanding of cases and arguments.
– Argument Wars work on multiple platforms: website, iOS, and Android.
The Republia Times is a free-to-play web game that takes place in a fictional dystopia. The students play the role of an editor who has to balance between publishing pro-government stories and giving juicy gossip stories to increase readership.
It doesn’t stress the debating element heavily, but rather shows students the art of persuasion and the political nature of each system. Let your students play at their own pace, or play in class to enliven the discussion.
– It’s completely free and adds extra spice to the class’s 10 minutes break time.
– The students can learn about challenging issues like censorship and use their critical thinking to evaluate their choices to develop the best solution.
A minute has passed and no one has said anything. And of course it’s not rocket science to figure out if you just state the question and expect a blazing chit and chat circulating around the class, it often ends with the eerie silence. During these times you can break the cycle with some competitive elements in Debatestorming ?
In this game, you will divide the class into small groups, and give all a debate question to work on. Each group will have to write down their opinion and justify that opinion within 60 seconds. Which group can convince the audience and gain the most votes will be the winner.
For this activity, you can use AhaSlides’ interactive Brainstorm slide to collect the gang’s opinion in a flash and let students vote for the best team.
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How to respond calmly under pressure? In Five good reasons , you will give out a list of prompts such as “Give me five good reasons why students should wear uniforms” or “Give me five good reasons why people love red pandas”. The students, in turn, will have to brainstorm five reasonable ideas in 2 minutes.
– The idea is not to come up with the most correct answers but to let the students practice flowing in a stressful situation.
– The game is easily adapted in various settings as an ESL debate game, debate game for adults and so much more.
We’ve heard about the United Nations everywhere, but do we really know its functions? Model United Nations (MUN) is an educational simulation in which students role-play as delegates from around the world, gathered together to solve a persistent global problem such as climate change, wildlife conservation, human rights, etc.
They will have to prepare, present their proposed resolutions, and debate with other delegates to gain the majority of votes.
However, don’t let those heavy matters get in your way of breeding a fun, engaging experience. You can let them discuss a sillier topic such as should we have an international secret handshake day?, or should we dedicate our research budget to developing unicorns?
– MUN is a great opportunity to let the students gain a deeper understanding of current world issues.
– Your students get to role-play as important figures discussing important topics.
In this simple online debate game, you will divide the argument sides into two opinions: strongly agree and strongly disagree . You then make a statement, and the students will have to take a stand between two sides. Pair them with another student who has contradicting view and ask them to justify their choice to the other.
– The game pushes students to form their critical opinion and brainstorm the reasoning behind it, rather than being in the “grey” area.
Given the scenario that all the students are stranded on a deserted island, what are the three items they would bring on and why? In this activity, let the students submit their choices and reasoning then vote for the statements which make the most sense. This is a great, remote-friendly game for teams to play together and share their opinions.
– You can get to know your students’ unique characteristics through their choices.
– The game develops students’ ability to come up with creative solutions in specific situations.
As the captain of the colony, Quandary lets students take the role of a leading figure: settling disputes, solving problems for the residents and shaping the future of a new civilisation on a different planet.
You can let your students play alone or in pairs, and facilitate group discussion after they’ve finished the game. Ask them thought-provoking questions such as “why did you choose the solution you did?”, or “what could have been done better for the colony?”.
– Attractive comic art style.
– There’s no right or wrong. The students are in complete control of the decision-making in their colony.
– Supporting materials such as a game guide and help forum are available on the Quandary website.
Helping students develop the ability to identify fake news is a dream every teacher has, and this game will teach them not to believe in everything. You can organise the activity in these simple steps:
– Step 1: Print out a picture of an object, for example, a dog.
– Step 2: Cut it into small pieces. Make sure with each piece, no one can identify what it is.
– Step 3: Split the class into teams of 3. One will be the judge/the guesser, one will be the “truth” debater and one will be the “lie” debater.
– Step 4: Tell the two debaters what the full picture is, then give them a piece of the image you’ve prepared. The “truth” debater will have to make proper claims to the guesser so that he/she can guess the right object, while the “lie” debater will try to claim it is a different thing.
– The students can practice the art of persuasion and how to judge the evidence based on the information they have collected.
Goose Goose Duck is an online social deduction game where you get to play as silly geese. You will have to work with other fellow geese to complete the mission and most importantly, exile the duck who has blended into the pack with malicious intent. Your students will have to outwit each other and prove their innocence to become the last ones standing.
Aside from all the blaze and chase, you and your students can explore various maps and do side missions together. Goose Goose Duck does not have room for boredom so start downloading it either on a computer or phone, create a room and invite everyone to play right away.
– Available on both PC and mobile devices, and is completely free.
– Funny character designs that you instantly love, and can customise too.
– A more PG-friendly version of the infamous online game Among Us.
– Your students get to learn how to reason and counterpoint during a debate.
The night is dark and full of terror. Can you kill the werewolves amongst the villagers, or will you become a werewolf that secretly hunts each night? Werewolf is another social deduction game in which players will have to use their persuasion ability to win the game.
The game has two roles: the villagers and the werewolves. Each night, the villagers will have to identify who is the werewolf disguised as one of them, and the werewolves will need to kill a villager without getting caught. The game ends when the villagers have successfully exiled all the werewolves and vice versa.
– The game requires students to practice diverse skills: social skills, teamwork, critical thinking, strategic thought, etc. in order to win.
– You can add more roles and rules to make the game more exciting.
In this scenario, the students all have positions in a community which is the last stand before the zombie apocalypse. There’s a shortage of food and one person will be exiled to balance out the resources. Each student within the group will have to prove the importance of their position in order to stay.
With this activity, you can divide the class into large or medium groups based on how many roles you fill in. For example, teacher, chef, musician, politician, journalist, etc. Each one will in turn present why they are much needed to secure their place.
– Another great online debate game filled with creativity.
– The game fosters students’ quick thinking and rebuttal skill.
Playing Devil’s advocate is to take the opposite view to a claim just for the sake of argument. Your students don’t have to believe in what they are saying, but rather generate a debate and clarify the issue with an argument. You can let your class practice in pairs or in groups and one student will be assigned as the devil who asks thought-provoking questions.
– Worrying your students might be too similar to raise their opinions? This game will help you spark debates naturally.
– It helps students understand that initiating a debate is useful to dig deeper into a topic.
What Are Some Good Debate Topics?
Good debate topics should be ‘debatable’ – and by that we mean they should ignite a desire to voice out, and bring different ideas to the front (if the whole class all agree on something it’s not much of a debate!).
Here are the 30 debate ideas and topics to start a lively discussion. You can use those topics with the best digital classroom tools , recommended by AhaSlides.
Find out more things to do with our interactive classroom activities guide!
Social and political issues debate topics
– Plastic bags should be banned.
– We should all be vegetarians.
– We shouldn’t have gender-specific bathrooms.
– Countries shouldn’t have borders.
– The world should only have one leader.
– The government should enforce vaccine mandates for all citizens.
– TV should be banned for children under age 6.
– Everyone should ride electric cars.
– Zoos should be banned.
– People who smoke should pay more taxes.
Education debate topics
– Everyone should wear uniforms to school.
– The grading system needs to be omitted.
– Students in juvenile detention don’t deserve a second chance.
– More budget should be allocated to food quality improvement.
– Students can use mobile phones during classes.
– If the students take online classes, the parents shouldn’t pay any fee.
– Students need to go to university if they want to be successful.
– No one needs to learn advanced math since it is impractical.
– Everyone should learn what they’d like in school.
– Every school should have a park and a playground to be qualified as a school.
Fun debate topics
– Tom cat is better than Jerry mouse.
– Hot dogs are sandwiches.
– Having siblings is better than being the only child.
– Every social media platform should add a “dislike” button.
– Kong is better than Godzilla.
– Anime is better than cartoons.
– Students should be rewarded with ice cream for good behaviour.
– Chocolate flavour is better than vanilla flavour.
– Pizza slices should be square.
– Blink is the plural of wink.
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4 Fast Debate Formats for the Secondary Classroom
Quick debates for grades 7 through 12.
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While debate is an adversarial activity, it provides numerous positive benefits for students. Debate increases opportunities for speaking and listening in the classroom. During a debate, students take turns speaking in response to the arguments made by their opponents. At the same time, other students participating in the debate, or in the audience, must listen carefully for arguments made or evidence used in supporting a position.
The cornerstone of classroom debate is the ability of students to present their positions and to convince others of those positions. Particular forms of debate are well-suited to first-time debaters as they focus less on the quality of speaking and more on the evidence presented in arguments.
Debate topics of interest to high school students range from human cloning and animal testing to changing the legal voting age. For middle school students , debate topics may include the abolishment of statewide testing or whether school uniforms should be required. To prep students for their first debate, review debate formats , show students how debaters organize their arguments, watch videos of actual debates, and go over the scoring rubrics for each form of debate.
The debate formats presented can be adapted to the length of a class period.
Abbreviated Lincoln-Douglas Debate
The Lincoln-Douglas debate is dedicated to questions that are of a deep moral or philosophical nature.
The debate format for a Lincoln-Douglas debate is one-on-one. While some students may prefer one-to-one debate, others may not want the pressure or spotlight. This debate format allows a student to win or lose based solely on an individual argument rather than relying on a partner or group.
An abbreviated version of a Lincoln-Douglas debate runs about 15 minutes, including time for transitions and claims to be made during each stage of the process:
- First Affirmative Speaker: Two minutes to introduce the topic
- Example: "It is often said" or "Many people assume that my esteemed opponent believes that"
- Example: "On the contrary" or "On the other hand"
- Example: "For example" or "This is why"
- Break for Rebuttal Speech Preparation: Two minutes to transition
- Example: "Therefore" or "As a result" or "Thus it can be seen"
- Example: "Therefore" or "As a result" or "Thus it can be seen"
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In the role-play format of debate, students examine different points of view or perspectives related to an issue by playing a role. A debate about the question "Should English class be required for four years?" might yield a variety of opinions.
The points of view expressed in a role-play debate might include opinions that would be expressed by a student (or two students) representing one side of an issue. This type of debate could feature other roles such as a parent, a school principal, a college professor, a teacher, a textbook sales representative, or an author.
To role-play, ask students to help identify all stakeholders in the debate. Create three index cards for each role. Write the role of one stakeholder on each index card.
Students choose an index card at random, and those holding matching stakeholder cards gather together. Each group formulates the arguments for its assigned stakeholder role.
During the debate, each stakeholder presents her point of view.
In the end, the students decide which stakeholder presented the strongest argument.
In a tag-team debate, students work in small groups, and there are opportunities for every student to participate. The teacher organizes two teams of no more than five students to represent two sides of a debatable question. Each team has a set amount of time (three to five minutes) to present its point of view.
The teacher reads aloud the issue to be debated and then gives each team the opportunity to discuss its argument as a group. One speaker from each team takes the floor and speaks for no more than one minute. That speaker must "tag" another member of the team to pick up the argument at the end of his time or before his minute is up. A team member who is eager to pick up a point or add to the team's argument can raise his hand to be tagged.
No member of a team can be tagged twice until all members have had an opportunity to speak. After all teams have presented, students vote on which team made the best argument.
Inner Circle-Outer Circle Debate
In the inner circle-outer circle debate, the teacher arranges students into two groups of equal size who take opposing sides in the debate. Each group has an opportunity to listen to the other group discuss an issue and formulate conclusions, as well as discuss and formulate its own conclusions.
The students in Group 1 sit in a circle of chairs facing out, away from the center, while the students in Group 2 sit in a circle of chairs around Group 1, facing the center of the circle as well as the students in Group 1. Once the students are seated, the teacher reads aloud the issue to be discussed.
The students in the inner circle have 10 to 15 minutes to discuss the topic. During that time, all other students focus their attention on the students in the inner circle. No one else is allowed to speak during the inner circle's discussion time.
As the outer circle group observes the inner circle group and listens to the discussion, members of the outer circle group create a list of the arguments made by each member of the inner circle group. The outer circle students also prepare their own notes about these arguments.
After 10 to 15 minutes, the groups switch roles and the process is repeated. After the second round, all students share their outer circle observations. The notes from both rounds may be used in a follow-up classroom discussion and/or as an editorial writing assignment for students to express their positions on the issue at hand.
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Choosing a Debate Topic
Propositions or questions should:.
- Two sides which have reasonable points accumulated to have the teams defend.
- Within the understanding of the students and their course (but not always).
- A simple debate statement which can be understood with much explanation. While also having the ability to be expanded upon in a complex way.
While there are many debate questions you can use, there are essentially three main types which are useful to employ in the classroom.
Debates based on facts
These are questions which are generally true in nature but to what extent is in contention. Here are some examples of factual debates:
- Computers can replicate human intelligence. (fact)
- Modern education lacks the means to inspire students. (fact)
- The War on Terror was poorly thought through. (fact)
- The United States is engaged in cyber warfare. (fact)
- How important is race to the identity of a country’s population? (fact)
- Global warming is a problem. (fact)
- What is the importance of clean water? (fact)
- What is the connection between pollution and consumerism? (fact)
Debates based on values
These are based on moral, religious, and ethical parts. They are dealing with the worth that an idea brings. Examples of value debates:
- Rap, slang, internet memes are damaging to the English language. (value)
- Manners and good behaviour should be taught in schools. (value)
- The nations’ security is more important than that of the individual. (value)
- Developed and rich nations have a duty to help poorer and less developed countries. (value)
- Equality is more important than liberty. (value)
- Democracy is overvalued. (value)
- Immigration is a burden to the education system. (value)
- Medical ethics is more important than that of medical technology. (value)
- Paying students to study is a viable policy. (value)
- Stem cell technology is ethically wrong. (value)
Debates based on policy
These are debates which are focussed on “problems and solutions” or “how to”, it centers on government or larger organisations. Examples of policy debates:
- The government should ban gambling. (policy)
- Reality TV should be regulated. (policy)
- Medals for sports is a good idea. (policy)
- How can children be encouraged to stop playing video games? (policy)
- Human trafficking can be reduced and stopped. (policy)
- How can more women be managers and CEO of companies? (policy)
- How can we get more police officers from minority backgrounds? (policy)
- How can we protect the internet as a place for freedom of speech? (policy)
- Should TEFL be taught in mainstream education? (policy)
- What policies should social media companies have to protect user data? (policy)
Language to teach for ESL/TEFL students
With any ESL/TEFL classroom, there is a need to teach vocab and any language related to the topic. There are a number of efficient ways to do this, but these tend to be rather dull. Gap fill activities, writing, and others are fairly standard but do not really inspire students. The best way to get students motivated is to try the following:
- Use video from YouTube or TED Talks to have students learn more about the subject.
- Tell the story of the topic through images. You can find images on flickr or from newspapers.
- Read authentic articles. These can be found online like this one, but you can find suitable materials from City AM Newspaper and The Evening Standard newspapers, they have an online PDF version which is free to use and download.
Common Debate Styles
Full class debate.
- Divide the class into two debate teams.
- 10 minutes: Preparation
- 4 minutes: Opening Statement (Side A)
- 4 minutes: Opening Statement (Side B)
- 2 minutes: Rebuttal (Side A)
- 2 minutes: Rebuttal (Side B)
- 1 minutes: Closing Statement (Side A)
- 1 minutes: Closing Statement (Side B)
- Teacher/Chairperson conducts a plenary, 2 minutes.
“Sparring” Debates/Chain Debate II
- Ensures full participation; could be used as practice debates.
- Present multiple items to debate from one or more topics.
- Students debate -on-one for each question
- 2 minutes: Prep
- 2 minutes each: Opening Statements
- 1 minute each: Cross Examination
- 1 minute each: Closing Statements
Three Question Debate
- Three questions related to a single topic.
- Alternate which team delivers main points first.
- 5 minutes: Team 1 Main Points (Q1, Q2, Q3)
- 5 minutes: Team 2 Main Points (Q1, Q2, Q3)
- 3 minutes: Team 1 Rebuttal (Q1, Q2, Q3)
- 3 minutes: Team 2 Rebuttal (Q1, Q2, Q3)
Small Group Debate
- Generate two debate teams of 2-5 students.
- Often done multiple times per semester until each student has debated.
- 5 minutes: Prep
- 5 minutes: Opening Statement (Side A)
- 5 minutes: Opening Statement (Side B)
- 5 minutes: Rebuttal (Side A)
- 5 minutes: Rebuttal (Side B)
- 15 minutes: Audience questions both teams
- Present a topic and alternate between teams.
- Present a new supporting or opposing argument
- Attack an argument that has been presented
- Defend an argument that has been attacked
- Extend an argument that has been presented
- Assign students roles to represent.
- Introduce topic
- 2-minute persuasive speeches
- Council/presider deliberates
- “Citizens” vote
If you’re stuck on how to get your debate class organised rest assured that there are many hundreds of ways and styles you can use. Whatever you do try to use do have fun and let us know in the comments section of how it went.
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- For middle school students, acquiring the critical-thinking and communication skills they need to evaluate both sides of a debate and write persuasive essays isn’t always easy.
- With Junior Scholastic ’s free Social Studies Debate Kit, learning how to debate and craft an effective argument essay will be an exciting and inspiring experience for your students.
- Featuring teacher-approved stories, middle school teaching resources, and engaging activities, Junior Scholastic makes teaching your students the essential skills they need for success not only fun, but easy too!
Looking for a fun, yet effective, way to teach your students the art of debating and how to craft the perfect argument essay? With this free Social Studies Debate Kit from Junior Scholastic , you’ll help your students acquire the essential critical-thinking and communication skills they need to ensure their success inside and outside the classroom. Featuring teacher-approved articles, free middle school teaching resources, and engaging activities, Junior Scholastic is the perfect teaching tool for helping middle school students evaluate both sides of a debate and write a powerful and persuasive essay.
Try print and digital resources from Junior Scholastic , the social studies magazine for grades 6–8, for free in your classroom!
A Reheated Argument
The argument surrounding the food dished out to your students has certainly been heated over the years. In our story, “ Food Fight! ,” your teens will learn how the debate has been reheated after the government recently changed school lunch requirements. With engaging infographics, informative photos showing school lunches from around the world, and a “Pick a Side” persuasive writing activity, this lesson is the perfect way to kick off debate season in your classroom.
Tossing a Ball vs. Saving Lives
“Someone who tosses a ball shouldn’t earn 700 times as much as someone who saves lives.”
In this lesson, we present students two compelling arguments related to how much professional athletes earn . Of course, after reading the article your students will have to choose a side and back up their own arguments on why or why not they believe pro athletes are overpaid. Follow our step-by-step lesson plan, including close-reading questions and differentiation tips. Then extend the lesson with our “What’s Your Opinion?” writing activity.
In our story, “ Should We Try to Send Humans to Mars? ,” your students will have to decide whether sending humans to Mars will help us learn more about Earth or if it’s just a waste of time and money. With compelling arguments on both sides, an informative video, an “Analyzing Authors’ Claims” activity, and more, your students will have all the supporting evidence they need to craft a persuasive and informed response that could alter the future of space exploration.
Staying on Track
Privacy is always a hot topic for debate. With this engaging story and lesson , your students will take on tracking apps that allow parents to follow their teens’ movements in real time. Is it a matter of safety? Or are kids unwillingly giving up their right to privacy? Follow our step-by-step lesson plan and accompanying teaching resources to help your students decide where to draw the line when it comes to privacy.
Try Junior Scholastic for Free
Once your students master the art of debating and writing argument essays, you’ll know why so many teachers use Junior Scholastic in their middle school classrooms. With each issue, we help create learning excitement about curricular topics from history to civics, geography, science, social-emotional learning, and more. Plus, every issue comes with flexible, timesaving print and digital teaching tools to help you meet your instructional goals. Try Junior Scholastic in your classroom and make history relevant to today’s teens. Start a FREE 30-Day Trial !
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Using Classroom Debates to Engage Students
February 16, 2017
Any teacher or parent of adolescents will tell you, kids love to argue! With some effort, you can harness this natural inclination in your classroom as a way to improve your students’ content knowledge and literacy abilities.
Two of the targeted initiatives in the Common Core standards are a focus on developing students’ speaking and listening skills and a focus on developing students’ abilities to support claims with evidence . Debating is a way to address both of these concepts in a fun and engaging way.
Debates as Formative Activities
Odds are that when you think about a debate, you picture something akin to the prime-time presidential debates on television; there are podiums, timers, moderators, and structured formats. Debating in your classroom does not necessarily need all of these trappings.
While you could certainly opt for more traditional debate formats like a Lincoln-Douglas debate , there is much more to be gained by choosing formats that get as many students involved as possible. Some of the most effective class-wide debate activities include:
- A Fishbowl-Style Debate
Fishbowls are a great way to get an entire class to debate an issue. The classroom is arranged in inner and outer circles of students. Inner-circle students are the “talkers” and can engage with the other students in the inner circle about the topic at hand. Behind each student in the inner circle is a student who is responsible for listening to the arguments play out. At regular intervals, the inner circles and outer circles switch.
In some variations, the outer circle students are required to take notes for both themselves and their inner circle counterpart . Another variation allows the outer-circle student to pass notes to the inner-circle student to help with their arguments. You can even add a “ hot seat ” for an eager outer-circle student to jump into if they have a thought they want to contribute. Whatever ways you choose to modify the fishbowl framework, student engagement will be up.
- A Four-Corners Debate
In this activity, students express their positions on a multi-faceted issue by moving to the corner of the classroom that displays a statement that they most agree with. One at a time, each student takes a turn defending their chosen position and then calls upon another classmate to respond.
Throughout the activity, students are free to move to different corners to reflect shifts in their positions; this adds a visual and kinesthetic element to the process. What makes a four-corners debate particularly empowering is watching support for a position evolve following a compelling argument made by a student.
- A Role-Playing Debate
One of the hardest argumentative skills to learn is how to defend a position that is not your own. By assigning students particular roles or positions to play out in a debate, you help them consider opposing viewpoints. This can lay the groundwork for writing strong counterarguments in subsequent assignments on the topic.
In my literacy and social studies classrooms, I typically use debate activities like a these to help students prepare for argumentative writing. There is a noticeable bump in quality when students have been given a chance to play with their ideas in a debate activity prior to formally crafting and defending a written thesis.
Debates Help Learners of All Learning Styles
Classroom debate activities give students with verbal, social, and auditory learning styles an opportunity to engage with content in a way that is more comfortable than working solely on paper. Some, like the four-corners debate, even play to your kinesthetic learners’ needs.
By adding a note-taking or written reflection component to your debate activity, you can help not only support your visual learners but build in an extra layer of student accountability. This also gives students something tangible to take with them from the activity as a reference for future classwork; everybody wins.
Ideally, classroom debate activities improve engagement by tapping into a wide range of learning styles and driving up student interest. Give them a try with your own students!
Sheldon Soper is a New Jersey middle school teacher with over a decade of classroom experience teaching students to read, write, and problem-solve across multiple grade levels. He holds teaching certifications in English, Social Studies, and Elementary Education as well as Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the field of education. In addition to his teaching career, Sheldon is also a content writer for a variety of education, technology, and parenting focused websites. You can follow Sheldon on Twitter @SoperWritings .
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- Classroom Debate
In its ideal form, debate is a tried-and-true way to get students engaging more purposefully with their readings. Not only does it allow them to see multiple perspectives on an issue, it allows them to hear those perspectives as inhabited by their peers, and encourages them to listen more intently to each other before responding.
Preparing students to have the most meaningful debate possible, however, can prove difficult. Many students may come to the classroom with preconceived notions about what it means to “debate,” derived either from the high-intensity world of high school parliamentary debate (which can privilege speed and dominance over careful listening, generosity, and reflection) or from political campaigns (in which “debates” have become something closer to performance art than to intellectual discussion). Unless instructors address these preconceptions head-on and structure classroom debates with these possible preconceptions in mind, they risk simply encouraging their most pugilistic students, while discouraging exactly the kind of thoughtful dialogue they were seeking.
At the Bok Center, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with Jill Lepore , the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History, and Erika Bailey , Head of Voice and Speech at the American Repertory Theater, to develop some ways that instructors can help their students become more proficient at classroom debate. In her General Education course The Democracy Project, Prof. Lepore takes care to train her students in a set of common rhetorical “moves” and argumentative patterns that can make extemporaneous debate easier and more fluent. By cultivating habits of speaking and arguing that allow students more consciously to articulate and structure—and not merely report—their thought process, instructors can level the playing field among students with different degrees of expertise in debate and to keep the focus on the quality of their ideas.
Three Activities that Help Students Think to Speak
In order to help students articulate their arguments, we developed three scaffolded activities that can be run as a single hour-long workshop, building from
- a low-stakes “warm-up” round that uses a silly proposition to introduce students to the general idea of using a rhetorical toolkit, to
- a second round that gets students to translate these basic rhetorical gestures into a set of more sophisticated “moves,” and to apply them to a more serious proposition, to
- a final set of rounds that lets students apply the unpacked moves from round two to a debatable topic from their course, with the added goal of sequencing these moves effectively in order to create the narrative arc or syntax of a persuasive argument.
Below you’ll find a brief round-by-round guide for running the activities, together with the “deck” of moves we printed out and cut into individual decks of playing cards for each student.
First Round — with a “silly” proposition
- Download our deck of simple rhetorical gestures and think of a silly (though debatable!) proposition—e.g., “Tacos are delicious” or “Mondays are the worst.”
- Arrange students in a circle, with you in the middle.
- Introduce the silly proposition, and let students know that you’ll randomly present them with a “move” to which they’ll respond.
- E.g. if the first student says “Tacos are delicious,” and the second student is dealt “However…,” she might say, “However, burritos are even more delectable.”
Second Round — with a “serious” proposition
- That single-gender clubs should be abolished at Harvard.
- That it is contrary to the academic spirit to deny controversial speakers a forum on campus.
- That Russian athletes should be banned from participating in the Olympics.
- That all first-year students should be taught meditation to reduce stress on campus.
- This time, you might want to call time-out after a student responds and ask him/her (or a peer) how they might hone that response to make it more memorable, e.g. by rephrasing it with more parallel structure.
Third Round — order the argument
- Download our deck of sophisticated moves and our simplified guide to the parts of an argument .
- Pair students and assign them / have them choose a real debate proposition from your course.
- Have them arrange the cards of debate moves in the order in which they might use them to build an argument for their proposition.
- Have them practice speaking their way through the argument to each other.
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It's Up for Debate
Debates are a staple of middle and high school social studies classes. But have you ever thought about using debates at the lower grades -- or in math class? Education World offers five debate strategies and extra lessons for students of all ages. Included: Debate fairy tale ethics, use four corner and inner/outer circle strategies, more.
- Wearing a helmet when riding a bike should be mandatory.
- The President of the United States is doing a good job.
- The Pledge of Allegiance should be recited in school each day.
- Beauty is only skin deep.
- Kids should be able to have TVs in their bedrooms.
All you need to have a great classroom debate is an interesting topic -- such as the ones above -- to engage students ...
Well, perhaps that point could be debated -- but theres no debating the fact that this weeks Lesson Planning article provides all the resources you need for great classroom debates. Aside from high-interest debate topics, this Education World resource provides sample debate formats, a few rules for kids to remember, a bunch of fun strategies, and a handful of great lesson ideas!
DEBATE STRATEGY LESSON PLANS
This week, Education World provides five lessons that are sure to make the most of your next classroom debate. Click each of the five lesson headlines below for a complete teaching resource. (Appropriate grade levels for each lesson appear in parentheses.)
Stage a Debate: A Primer for Teachers (Lincoln-Douglas Debate Format) Adapt the standard debate format plus ten strategies for engaging students in debate! (Grades 3-12)
Role Play Debate Students assume the roles of various stakeholders in debates on issues of high interest. (Grades 3-12)
Using Fairy Tales to Debate Ethics Three fairy tales challenge students to think about honesty, right and wrong, and other questions of ethics. (Grades K-8)
Four Corners Debate A debate strategy gets kids thinking and moving. Debate topics included for all grades. (Grades K-12)
Inner Circle, Outer Circle Debate Strategy The inner/outer circle debate strategy emphasizes listening to others views and writing an opinion essay. (Grades 3-12)
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Using debates in the classroom provide students the opportunity to work in a collaborative and cooperative group setting. By having students discuss and organize their points of view for one side of an argument they are able to discover new information and put knowledge into action.
In a classroom debate, a proposition is stated and students make arguments for or against it. Students must research and prepare arguments to participate in the debate effectively, they are required to think on their feet to respond to the opposing side's counterarguments, and they
Allowing the student audience to score the debate along with the teacher will give the class a sense of ownership and keep audience members accountable. At the end of the debate, collect the scoring rubrics from the class, add up the points and discuss the scoring with the debate teams. Debate Formats to Consider Policy Debate
DISCOVER OUR RESOURCES. This page is full of free resources to help you get your students speaking in class. Here you'll find more on the key skill sets that oracy helps develop, plus activities, lesson plans and a host of ice-breaking games to help with our three national competitions - the ESU-Churchill Public Speaking Competition, the ...
1) Agree 2) Disagree 3) Devil's Advocates Write a debate topic on the board and assign a point of view to groups 1 and 2. (They should put their own views to one side for this task). Group 3 are the Devil's Advocates and so it's their job to provoke discussion, encourage various points of views and ensure the debate continues.
The Classroom Sparrow. 4.8. (374) $6.00. Zip. This classroom debate outline is designed to help teachers organize effective inquiry-based classroom debates. The documents within this file gives students a step-by-step outline of what they need to include in their debate, what they need to say, and when they need to say it!
All the best debating games for students 1) If I Ruled the World Stand in a circle with the students. Explain that the game works by each student stating: 'If I ruled the world…' and finishing the statement. The student to the left should question the statement with: 'Why?' The initial student will then explain why they would do this.
of this activity. Use one of these topic sets or develop a set related to your curriculum or to your students' interests. PROCEDURE: 1. Ask students if they have ever participated in a debate or if they have seen a debate in person or on television. Ask volunteers to share their opinions about what makes someone a good debater. (Answers may
Some of the classroom debate games are as follows: 1. A Four Corners Game This debate game uses four corners of the classroom to get students moving. Steps to follow • Write the following...
Benefits of Classroom Debate Lessons & Activities. Debates are a great tool for engaging students and adding some excitement to the classroom curriculum. A debate is a discussion in which participants articulate and justify their position on an issue. Teachers should have students participate in a classroom debate multiple times throughout the ...
That's why AhaSlides created this guide to interactive classroom activities to use in 2022! If a lesson doesn't have a student's attention, it isn't going to be a practical lesson. Unfortunately, keeping students' attention in a generation raised on constant social media distractions and easily accessible video games is always a battle.
1 Rebuttal Tennis A quick game of rebuttal tennis will give students an opportunity to practice making rebuttals and thinking quickly. This game is simple and requires little advance preparation beyond compiling a list of topics. To begin, split the students into pairs and have each pair sit facing each other.
#1 - Argument Wars #2 - The Republia Times #3 - Debatestorming #4 - Five good reasons #5 - Model United Nations #6 - Where do you stand? #7 - Desert island #8 - Quandary #9 - Real or Fake #10 - Goose Goose Duck #11 - Werewolf #12 - Zombie Apocalypse #13 - Devil's advocate 30 Good Debate Topics More Tips with AhaSlides How to debate for beginners
The following 50 debate topics can be used in high school or advanced middle school classrooms. They are organized by genre and some can be modified for use in different subjects. Each item is listed in the form of a question to propose to your students that has at least two points of view. Watch Now: Ideas for Great Classroom Debate Topics
While debate is an adversarial activity, it provides numerous positive benefits for students. Debate increases opportunities for speaking and listening in the classroom. During a debate, students take turns speaking in response to the arguments made by their opponents.
Full class style. Town hall style. Chain debate style. Spar style. Presidental style. Team Arrangement. You can either have; set teams before the debating day, randomly selected before the debate, randomly selected on the day of the debate, and even place students on the side where they either agree of disagree with the motion.
With engaging infographics, informative photos showing school lunches from around the world, and a "Pick a Side" persuasive writing activity, this lesson is the perfect way to kick off debate season in your classroom. Tossing a Ball vs. Saving Lives "Someone who tosses a ball shouldn't earn 700 times as much as someone who saves lives."
Classroom debate activities give students with verbal, social, and auditory learning styles an opportunity to engage with content in a way that is more comfortable than working solely on paper. Some, like the four-corners debate, even play to your kinesthetic learners' needs.
First Round — with a "silly" proposition Download our deck of simple rhetorical gestures and think of a silly (though debatable!) proposition—e.g., "Tacos are delicious" or "Mondays are the worst." Arrange students in a circle, with you in the middle.
How to Debate Teaching Resources and Activities. by. Worksheet Place. 4.9. (25) $2.00. PDF. Google App version here.Although debates can be a very formal process, the classroom teacher can exercise some flexibility as to how the classroom debate will function. Rules regarding debates will differ depending upon the country.
It's Up for Debate. Debates are a staple of middle and high school social studies classes. But have you ever thought about using debates at the lower grades -- or in math class? Education World offers five debate strategies and extra lessons for students of all ages. Included: Debate fairy tale ethics, use four corner and inner/outer circle ...