@The Arts Unit Creative Classes
Ready, prep, debate!
Learn how to prepare before a debate
Student debating resource developed by The Arts Unit
Years 5 to 8 debating
What will I learn?
Learn how to make the most of your 60 minutes of preparation time before a debate.
You will:
brainstorm ideas about a topic
define the topic and determine the stakeholders
develop the case
summarise the preparation process.
Before you begin
For the lesson, you will need:
a device to watch the videos
your debating journal (or paper) and a pen.
Did you know that in the Premier’s Debating Challenge, teams have 1 hour to prepare before a debate? Because of this, every minute is precious and your team should know exactly how they want to spend their preparation time.
Preparing for a debate is also something you should practise as part of your training.
In this lesson, Tony Davey will show you how he would spend 1 hour preparing with his team. Keep in mind that there is no perfect way to spend your preparation time. Consider this a guide and modify it as you need to.
Watch the videos, answer the questions and complete the tasks in the order that they are listed.
- Brainstorm
Watch the video on preparing for a debate, then answer the following questions.
Preparing for a debate
Duration: 02:17Task
Describe how you think you should spend your time preparing.
Explain how you would break up the 60 minutes of preparation time.
Question
What is the role of the fourth speaker (team advisor) during the preparation time?
Watch the video about brainstorming for a topic, then complete the following tasks.
Brainstorm, download and write notes
Duration: 03:06Topic
That we should ban homework in primary schools (affirmative team).
Task – Brainstorm
Set a timer for 5 minutes. During the 5 minutes, write down any ideas (for example, arguments, definitions, other thoughts) that come to mind for the topic.
Note: If you are completing this task with your team, make sure everyone is quiet during the brainstorm time. You should all be doing your own individual brainstorms.
Task – Download
If you are with your team, set a timer for 5 minutes. Spend these 5 minutes ‘downloading’ or sharing your brainstorms with your team. Take turns and ensure that each team member gets to speak for about 1 minute each.
Write down notes (on paper or a whiteboard) as people share so that you have one big combined brainstorm by the end of the download.
2. Define and determine
Watch the video to see how Tony would define the topic and determine the stakeholders.
Set-up definition and stakeholders
Duration: 03:21
Topic
That we should ban homework in primary schools (affirmative team).
Task – Define the topic
Decide where this will happen (NSW, Australia, the world?).
Determine what the details are (what are teachers and students allowed/not allowed to do?).
Decide when this will happen (next week, next term, next year?).
Hint: If you need more support writing a definition, check out the Creative Class ‘Discovering definitions’.
Task – Determine the stakeholders
Who are the people that would be affected by this change? List them down.
Next, order them from most relevant to least relevant (for this topic).
3. Develop
Develop your case by working through these tasks.
Task – Grouping ideas into arguments
Have a go at grouping the ideas that Tony came up with for the topic ‘That we should ban homework in primary school’ (affirmative team).
Decide which ideas are similar or linked and put them together in one group (to make an argument).
Homework frustrates kids
It’s all just revision anyway
Hard to do extra-curricular stuff
Stops you exercising and training
Can’t just relax in the afternoon
What if your parents can’t help?
Paper hurts the environment
No family time
Annoying for parents – causes fights
Unfair to kids with bad internet
6 hours is enough!
You can’t practise dance or music
If you don’t get it there’s no help
No time for your own reading
No friend time = loner!
Task – Rank the arguments
Once you have grouped these into arguments, rank them in order from the most important to the least important.
After you have completed the tasks, watch the video to see how Tony would group and rank the same arguments. Compare your answers.
Grouping and ranking arguments
Duration: 05:14Watch the video to learn about the questions your team should ask to develop the case. After you have watched the video, complete the following questions and task.
Questions to develop your case
Duration: 12:27Questions
What should you do if people on your team disagree about which arguments to cut?
What are the 7 questions you need to ask yourself to develop your case?
How would you write a heading for the argument ‘homework frustrates kids’?
How do you decide your allocation of arguments (that is, deciding which speaker says each argument)?
Task– Describing the task ‘right now’
Describe homework ‘right now’ as if you are the affirmative team in this debate. Next, describe homework ‘right now’ from the perspective of the negative team. Explain – why do these differ?
Hint: If you need a reminder on arguments (for example, how to write a heading or how to discuss ‘right now’), you can check out the Creative Class ‘Crafting persuasive arguments’.
4. Summarise
Learn about the final steps of preparation by watching the video below.
Writing and re-grouping with your team
Duration: 05:17Questions
Should you write in full sentences? Why or why not?
What should the third and fourth speakers do during speech writing time?
What should you do in the 5 minutes of re-grouping time?
Task
Summarise how to prepare in the 60 minutes prior to a debate. Make sure you include how much time you should allow for each step.
Example of an allocation palm card
Example of an argument palm card
Ongoing task
As a team, take the time to practise preparing for a debate.
If you don’t have the time to do all the steps, you can practise a bit each week. Think of a topic, decide if you are affirmative or negative, then prepare as if you are about to enter a real debate!
If you are interested in watching a debate, you might like to view the following 2 videos from The NSW Premier's Debating Challenge.
2018 Years 5 & 6 Debating Final – The NSW Premier’s Debating Challenge
Duration: 40:342018 Years 7 & 8 Debating Final – The NSW Premier’s Debating Challenge
Duration: 52:41Brainstorm – answers
Q: What is the role of the fourth speaker (team advisor) during the preparation time?
A: The fourth speaker is ‘in charge’ during prep time. They monitor time, move the team onto the next task when time is up and act as the decision-maker if there is a tie-break or disagreement. They also help with planning your team’s case.
Develop – answers
Q 1: What should you do if people on your team disagree about which arguments to cut?
A: Quickly discuss your reasons and take a vote if you need to. If your vote is even, the fourth speaker should make the decision.
Q 2: What are the 7 questions you need to ask yourself to develop your case?
A:
Do we have too many or too few arguments?
Did we miss any stakeholders?
Do any of the arguments clash?
Have they got perfect headings?
Can we split the stakeholders?
What is the best possible version of ‘right now’ for us?
What’s our allocation?
Q 3: How would you write a heading for the argument, ‘homework frustrates kids’?
A: “Homework frustrates kids because it’s always too hard or too easy” (or something similar).
Q 4: How do you decide your allocation of arguments?
A: As your arguments have already been ranked from most to least important, all you need to do is draw the line to evenly distribute arguments. The first speaker gets the most important arguments. If you have an uneven number, think about how big the arguments are.
Summarise – answers
Q 1: Should you write in full sentences? Why or why not?
A: No, you need to write in shorthand and dot points. You don’t have time to write a full speech or full sentences. Use PEEL to prompt you – see Creative Class – Crafting persuasive arguments.
Q 2: What should the third and fourth speaker do during speech writing time?
A: Third speaker can assist the first speaker and the fourth speaker can assist the second speaker. They can help with writing arguments and listening to the speech if there is time. Third and fourth can also discuss potential arguments that the other team might make and strategise some ideas for rebuttal.
Q 3: What should you do in the 5 minutes re-grouping time?
A: Ask each other any questions, share ideas for rebuttals, take a moment to breathe and mentally prepare, organise your palm cards and so on.
You're now ready to plan your next debate!
Congratulations!
You have completed this @The Arts Unit Creative Class.
To continue learning about debating and develop your skills, you might like to complete these other debating @The Arts Unit Creative Classes:
Third-party content attributions
2017 Debating Day images 1 and 2
2016 NSW Premier's Debating Challenge image 3