The Arts Unit Unit Creative Teachers
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Considerations when selecting a team
Considerations when selecting a team
Consider the scope of your debating program
Consider the scope of your debating program
Keep in mind that each school will have different needs, interests and resourcing. Make sure you develop your debating program in response to the needs of your students.
Before you select your debating team, it is important to ask yourself a few questions.
Think about:
How many teachers will be able to support the team/s as coaches?
Will I have a squad or a single team?
Which grades am I able to offer this opportunity to?
Do I want to have a competitive team and/or a training team?
Will I be entering a competition? If so, which one will suit the needs and ability of my students?
Do I want to have a reserve on my team (i.e. a team of 5)? Or will I 'borrow' from a training team if a student is absent? Make sure you check the rules for the competition you are entering.
Do I want to have an experienced team and a novice team, or do I want a mixed abilities team?
What is the current level of interest in my school and community?
What to look for
What to look for
What makes a strong debater?
What makes a strong debater?
A common misconception is that you need to be a fantastic public speaker to be a debater. However, debates are primarily won on content ('matter'). What you say is much more important than how you say it. Public speaking is a skill that can be learnt and improved with practice.
Strong debaters appear in many forms. They may be wonderful writers, creative students or critical thinkers. Perhaps they are interested in current affairs or enjoy contributing to class discussions. What is most important is that students demonstrate enthusiasm, teamwork and a willingness to persevere and improve.
Debate trials
Debate trials
Start by asking students to register their interest. If you have a large amount of interest, you may need to run debate team trials.
One way to approach trials is to give students a debating topic. In a separate (but monitored) area, students can be given a short amount of time to prepare an impromptu debating speech, agreeing with the topic. They should prepare and present one at a time.
Make sure:
you explain to the students what you will be looking for (i.e. your assessment criteria)
you provide students with the topic (written on paper to avoid miscommunication), paper/palm cards, a timer and a pen
students do not share the topic with others and that all students receive equal preparation time
there is consistency and equity; the topic should be the same for all students (if possible)
there are at least two teachers on the panel (if possible).
Do as many rounds of trials as you have time for or feel that you need to decide on your team.
Debating trial activities
Debating trial activities
Get debaters to take a quiz that includes questions about their interests and their understanding of current affairs. Sample questions should include:
Background/experience in debating/public speaking
Hobbies/interests
Questions that ascertain general knowledge, such as who is the current federal minister for education, what is the function of the senate, who is the captain of the Australian cricket team and so on
What is a world issue that you’re particularly interested in and why? Leave a few lines to see how the student constructs their writing as well as seeing what they might be passionate about.
Note that their selection in the team won't be dependent on their answers but you'll get a better understanding of gaps in their knowledge to fill in when coaching starts.
Get the kids talking. Start with an introduction session My name is ... And I want to be in the debating team because ...
Move on to some icebreaker games that also let you see how kids think, speak and interact with each other.
Values and attitudes line: ask students to position themselves in a line so that the far-left side being strongly agree, far right strongly disagree and middle being neutral. Read out a debate topic and ask them to position themselves on the line depending on how they feel about the topic. Ask students to justify their position. Repeat with a different topic but this time, ask students to justify the opposite position. This activity demonstrates how well students are able to argue from a position they don’t necessarily agree with.
Consider the following topics:
That we should ban single-sex schools
That we should lower the voting age
That we should all be vegetarian
That journalists should never have to reveal their sources.
Circle of rebuttal. Invite all your speakers to form a circle. Start them off with a simple topic such as, 'That cats make better pets than dogs.’ Invite someone to volunteer to give ONE explained argument as to why this statement is true. When they are finished, ask someone to refute the argument and to add one argument explaining why this statement is not true. Continue until the topic is exhausted. Repeat the process with a more complex topic such as, ‘That businesses should allow employees to work from home whenever possible'. This activity demonstrates the student's ability to construct both rebuttal and new arguments.
Show students a first speaker speech from one of The Arts Unit’s state final videos. Organised into groups of four, ask students to write only a rebuttal to this speech. This activity extends the rebuttal exercise above while also showing students how to work together as a team.
After some initial activities, move to some mini debates. Observe both preparation and debating skills to help select a cohesive team.
Topics
Topics
It is important to consider the age and experience of your students when selecting a topic for trials.
Example topics – Years 7 and 8
'That students should be picked for selective high schools based on their primary school record rather than a test'
'That we should ban all advertising aimed at kids'
'That competitive video gaming should be an option for school sport'.
Example topics – Years 9 and 10
'That we should bring back a leaving certificate at the end of Year 10'
'That we should ban all sports involving animals'
'That we should have a compulsory politics class for high school students'.
Example topics – Years 11 and 12
'That mindfulness meditation should be compulsory for all secondary students'
'That we should ban employers from ever firing their employees for expressing their beliefs and opinions on social media'
'That we should remove statues of people involved in the colonisation of Australia'.
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