Debate Structures

Student debate has the capacity to both deeply engage the students in relevant learning, and to encourage students to be deep thinkers.

Edutopia Post by Ben Johnson

Why Teach Debating?

Debating, like voting, is a way for people to disagree without hitting one another or going to war: it’s the key to every institution that makes civic life possible, from courts to legislatures. Without debate, there can be no self-government."

(Jill Lepore, "The State of Debate." The New Yorker, September 19, 2016)

"Debate teaches cutting-edge research skills. Because the quality of an argument often depends on the strength of the supporting evidence, debaters quickly learn to find the best evidence.

This means going beyond run-of-the-mill Internet sources to government hearings, law reviews, professional journal articles, and book-length treatments of subjects. Debaters learn how to evaluate study methodology and source credibility...Debaters also learn how to process massive amounts of data into usable argument briefs. Argument briefs bring together the strongest logical reasons and evidence supporting various positions. The ability to gather and organize evidence into logical units is a skill that is treasured by business makers, government policy-makers, legal practitioners, scientists, and educators."

(Richard E. Edwards, Competitive Debate: The Official Guide. Alpha Books, 2008)

"Debate is a maneuver where learners are divided onto opposing sides, generally as teams, to discuss a contentious issue. Learners are afforded the opportunity to improve their analytic and communication skills by formulating ideas, defending positions, and critiquing counter positions. Historically, a debate is a structured activity; however, online media permit a wider range of designs for online debates, from an inflexibly structured exercise to a process with minimal structure."

(Chih-Hsiung Tu, Online Collaborative Learning Communities. Libraries Unlimited, 2004)

Source: ThoughtCo.

Debate How To's

The Noisy Classroom

This UK based site is dedicated to promoting and supporting the use of speaking and listening in the classroom. There are a range of tools to help teachers implement debate, discussion, dialogue, role play and enquiry with students. Visit the site to explore the following resources:

Five steps for preparing a debate with a class
30 different 'oracy' formats (debate and presentation styles)
Debating resources for secondary schools
Sample lesson plans

Article: How to Debate: 12 Resources for Your Class' First Debate

Short Guide on Debate in the Classroom:

Why Debate? Tips, Common Debate Styles and a Template for Designing Your Own Debate

debate_audette.pdf

Middle School Debate Topics

Debate Topics for the High School Classroom

Debate Formats

4 Fast Debate Formats for the Classroom - Hold Quick Debates in Grades 7-12

Read ThoughtCo. article to learn more about these debate formats that can be adapted to the length of a class period:

An Abbrievated Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Role Play Debate
Tag Team Debate
Inner Circle-Outside Circle Debate

How to hold a classroom debate.

Visit the Teach Hub.com article to learn more about these debate formats:

The Fishbowl Debate
Advocate Decision-Making Debate (groups of 3 - 2 opponents and 1 judge)
The Four Corners Debate
Ball Toss Debate

Ben Johnson outlines 6 Debating Techniques you can implement in your classroom:

Technique #1: Four Corners. An effective debate mixer is the four corners method. The teacher displays a topic on the white board/overhead/interactive whiteboard and assigns a different position relative to that topic to each corner of the room. Students then choose to stand in the corner that best reflects their personal opinion on the matter. Once the corners have been chosen then the teacher gives the students five minutes to create their discussion platform for supporting their position. The debate, or pseudo-debate, begins with each team presenting their opening argument then in turn, each team has time for presenting evidence and rebuttals, and then the closing arguments.

Technique #2: Partner. In training for debates, some students are extremely shy and may work better with just one partner rather than a whole group. The process is the same as the four corner technique, but the debate is between two people, not the whole class.

Technique #3: Devil's Advocate. This is a twist on the debate positions preparation. Instead of supporting their own opinion and platform, the students will also try their best to throw kinks into their supporting argument, so that, in essence, instead of preparing just one argument "pro," they also have to prepare one "contra."

Technique #4: Worst-Case Scenario. This is another take-off of debate platform preparation. Students preparing to support their position look into the future at the worst possible thing that could happen as a result of the opposing argument, and prepare their defense from that point on.

Technique #5: Glass Half Empty or Full. This is a technique to help the students view the different perspectives and prepare for arguments from each. Students look at their platform from a positive point of view and from a pessimistic point of view.

Technique #6: Magic Wand. As discussed earlier, the magic wand can eliminate the constraints of reality. Also, the teacher can bestow wands that have certain limitations. For example, a wand may make people under 25 years of age, 20 percent smarter than they were before. The students would then have to adjust their platform argument to accommodate this peculiar restriction. The restrictive wands can work only for green eyes or other student characteristics, or only for those students from a particular class or teacher.

Source: Edutopia post - Student Debate Deepens Thinking and Engagement

Online Debating Sites

Debate.org

Debate.org is a free online community where intelligent minds from around the world come to debate online and read the opinions of others. Research today’s most controversial debate topics and cast your vote on our opinion polls.

ProCon.org

This site provides professionally-researched pro, con, and related information on more than 50 controversial issues from gun control and death penalty to illegal immigration and alternative energy. Using the fair, FREE, and unbiased resources at ProCon.org, millions of people each year learn new facts, think critically about both sides of important issues, and strengthen their minds and opinions.

Teacher's Corner: Lesson Plan Ideas Using ProCon.org

Discussion Web

Discussion Webs are "a special kind of graphic aid for teaching students to look at both sides of an issue before drawing a conclusion." They are similar to a debate in that they help students to organize their thinking, examine other points of view, and draw richer understanding from the materials they read.

Students do the research, complete the organizer and then participate in group discussions.

Discussion webs can be used across the curriculum. For example,

Social Studies. Students can examine the two sides of gun control, legalizing marijuana or the construction of a contested pipeline.
Science. Students can use the Discussion Web format to support possible explanations for scientific hypotheses. Instead of labeling the columns "Yes" and "No," in this case the columns could be labeled "Hypothesis 1" and Hypothesis 2." (Sample question: Why is acid rain harmful?) Or consider both sides of the argument and come to a conclusion - should we support genetically-modified foods?
Literature. Read Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. One possible follow-up discussion would focus on the narrator: Is the narrator of the story sane or insane? Students write their thoughts in the appropriate columns.
Math. Teachers might provide for students a math word problem. Students label one side of the Discussion Web "relevant" and the other side "irrelevant." Then they sort the facts presented in the problem into two categories -- information needed to solve the problem and information that is unneeded.

Source: Post from Education World