How to Teach Debating

1. Introduce the topic

 All debates start with a topic. Often, this resolution is a proposed course of action that one team
will argue for and another will argue against.
 Choose a topic to which your students can relate and perhaps one with practical application.
You can make the topic less serious (the cafeteria should include more international dishes on
the daily menu) or more serious (the U.S. government should reform its visa application
process).
 Be sure that your students understand the issue and any specialized vocabulary that goes with
it. Therefore, take 15 minutes or more before class ends, to properly explain what they need to
prepare for, using the related vocabulary.
2. Assign the For and Against
 Ideally, break your class into four groups (you will want at least two to three students in each
group) and assign two groups to each of two resolutions(for and against).Then assign one of
each pair of student groups to the affirmative. This group will argue for the issues being
presented. The other two groups will be the negative and will argue against the resolutions.
During the debate, the other groups will serve as the judges and decide which side presented a
stronger case voting for the winners of the debate at its conclusion.
 Another way to hold a debate is for each student to prepare their own part. The teacher should
be in charge of leading the class and providing questions surrounding debatable questions
regarding the topic. Then each student should speak when they believe they are for or against a
specific factor or element.
 Finally, debates can therefore be done in groups or alone depending on what your goal is to
achieve from them. The point is for everybody to speak their feelings freely and express their
emotions on specific topics. It is a good idea though, to pick topics that they feel connected to.
3. Give Time for Research
 Your students will need time to research the issue. Not only that, they will also need additional
instruction on the specific vocabulary that may be involved. It is nice to add specific vocabulary
words for the more difficult groups that each student must use when speaking about the topic.
 Make sure all of your students understand any specialized vocabulary so the efficacy of their
arguments does not depend on simple comprehension.
 Sometimes you can give time to the students to speak together in small groups how to refuse or
go against a specific topic. This is especially entertaining when you have pointed out one group
that is for and one group that is against the topic. Like this they fight and debate as groups
against eachother, which at first may increase their confidence levels.
4. Keep Track of Time

 If you are unfamiliar with formal debate, the speakers follow a set order. The following is
the most basic of debate structure. First, the affirmative group receives two minutes to present
their case to the audience. The negative group then receives two minutes to present their case.
After both sides have a chance to speak, both teams receive two minutes to prepare
a rebuttal and summary. The order of speech is reversed now and the negative side presents
How to Debate, comment on articles, listen and engage Report
09/25/2018

their rebuttal and summary for the first two minutes.

The last to speak is the affirmative team who then presents their rebuttal and summary for two
minutes. The debate is now concluded.
 There are other structures that you can follow for debate, and they may be useful once your
class is familiar with the process and strategy of debate, but if this is the first time your students
are formally debating, keeping things simple is best.
 This structure will make them understand easier.
5. Make a Judgment
 Usually in debate, the winner is the one who has presented the strongest case. For beginners,
the overall purpose of speaking is more important than the specific outcome of the debate. Still,
your students will probably want to know who won. To determine the winner, have
the audience vote on which team they thought made the most convincing argument. With this,
weigh your own opinion as to who communicated clearly and refuted the opponent’s arguments
best. This combination will identify your winners.
 By letting them know that a certain team can win, you establish a form of competition and
excitement for them to speak. Therefore, at the end of the class everybody can vote and the
teacher can mention which team build the strongest case and therefore, won.

How to Comment on Articles

Why are comments so important?
 When reading an article, comments turn the article from a static place to something interactive.
 They allow for back and forth conversation which can lead to a huge amount of learning.
 The fact that comments aren’t instantaneous (like online chat) can fuel deeper reflections,
responses, and research.
 Comments allow for feedback, constructive criticism, and the adding of ideas and opinions to
the original post. The content can grow and evolve.
 It can be encouraging for students to know they have an authentic audience who can connect
with them.
How to comment?
 Simple, just express your ideas in a structured manner. The most important thing is to know why
comments are important, to simply understand why one should comment. In class students can
comment on articles received from the teacher such as: current events or other news articles.
Read and pick out what touches your feelings or what one thinks is important or interesting to
talk about.
 The main point is to give your point of view: how, what, when, where, why? What do you dislike
or like about the topic? What grabs your attention? What interests you? What questions you?

Listening and Engaging

 Lastly, most importantly, is to listen to eachothers opinions and let eachother speak. After
listening and hearing everybodys opinions, give positive and critical feedback by engaging. By
engaging, we create an interactive way of conversating.