Think of debate as a discussion with two sides. Here are some ideas for class.
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I’ve used debate a lot in my lessons, it seems an energized way to do discussion - think of it as discussion with bias. Students voice their own opinions and critically think about the topic under debate.
If you don’t make debate into a winner/loser thing - I think teachers will get a lot of language production and learning from their students through debating.
We have many debate helpers and materials in our lesson library and here are a few mentions of them and some ideas for successfully holding debate or debate like activities in class.
Use an organizer. Divide students into two camps for the debate and each uses the organizer to prepare their pros and cons on the issue. Here is a free members, This Or That organizer that does the trick. Use with any of our This Or That video topics on our YoutTube channel too! This is another nice organizer for a debate.
First Word War. Part of being in a debate is to react to what the other person is saying, being kind of automatic with language. This simple activity will help. Students have a list of words and say them to a partner or group. The goal is to respond as quick as possible with another word. See this example.
What Would You Do? Sometimes, a good debate can be had based on a situation or scenario. Show in a video or read a scenario and then debate what the best action would be given the situation. It will prompt lots of debate. See our resources and this video episode.
For or Against? Topics can be generated by students and then choose the topics or vote on which one to debate. See this activity Angel vs Devil. Or see our Pro or Con cards.
Full class debate. With higher levels, this is possible and see our members instructions for holding a full debate in class. Just note, it will take a good allotment of time!
So there you have it - some resources and ideas for debating in class. Make sure to go over the language, the phrases we use for debating + sequential conjunctions for ordering arguments. Lastly, see all our video lessons related to debate.
Enjoy your class debating!