Summer SAVY 2018: Session 4, Day 2 – The Great Debate, Mr. Lee (Rising 3rd/4th)
Parents,
Our second day of SAVY was delightful! It was a pleasure to welcome back familiar faces after getting to know your children yesterday.
We began our morning by reviewing the most important topics we learned yesterday, including the structure of a debate and the 5 steps to creating an argument. We hit things off with a practice debate to refresh ourselves, and it was wonderful to see the students passionate and engaged as they presented their team’s arguments.
Before lunch and after our daily ORA, we explored the three rhetorical appeals as identified by Aristotle: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. The students were all eager to ask questions and their curiosity to learn and understand these mechanisms of argument was evident and welcomed.
After enjoying lunch in the company of our friends, we watched a video explaining how to take apart an opponent’s argument by detecting its fallacies. We learned many different fallacies today, so parents tonight you might ask your child about a few of the different types (slippery slope, appeals to authority, ad hominem, over-generalization, etc). You might present to them an opinion about any matter (for example: I think that wearing school uniforms is important), and your child can give a response that uses one of the previous fallacies.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we were surprised by a visit from the other section of The Great Debate who came to challenge us to a formal debate this Friday. We accepted and are excited for the challenge! The rest of the afternoon was spent improving our presentation skills, specifically our Ethos, and our rebuttal skills by identifying fallacies.
It was another successful day full of learning and fun! As we work our way towards Friday’s final debate, students will be pushed further from their comfort zones and will learn to become more confident in their public speaking skills. Your children are being brave everyday when they come to this class, and we look forward to having another great day tomorrow!
Thank you,
David Ian Lee (Instructor)
Niah Charles (Teaching Assistant)
Opening Arguments From Our Pro Team and Rebuttals From Our Con Team
Reviewing the Three Major Parts of Logical Debate
