Summer SAVY 2018: Session 4, Day 3 – The Great Debate, Mrs. Kraft (Rising 3rd/4th)
Wow this week is flying by! We had a great Wednesday learning more about debate techniques, ethics and morality, and fallacies. We also picked possible topics for our big debate against Section 2 on Friday – the students are all super pumped to show off what they have learned about debate to the parents.
This morning we started off with our focus “games”. We use these games to talk about essential ideas that will be helpful to us as a debate team. For example, we play a game where we stand in a circle and pass the pulse by squeezing each other’s hands. This game teaches us intentional communication with our peers and focusing on the present. We need these skills when we debate! We will have to communicate as a team and really focus on what is being said during arguments.
Later this morning, after having fun running around in ORA, we had an amazing discussion about ethics in debate. We watched a video (parents, you can go to the Crash Course YouTube channel to watch all kinds of philosophy videos with your child) and talked about intentions and moral/cultural relativism. The students had a healthy discussion about what we consider right and wrong and how this has changed through out history (they really showed off their history knowledge too!) We connected ethics back to debate by discussing how we can tear down arguments by using ethics in our culture.
After a great lunch and quality time with friends, we learned a new fallacy. We now have four in our arsenal: straw man, goal post, “no true Scotsman” and ad hominem fallacies. Ask your children to explain these and give examples, they generated plenty in class today! Maybe they’ll even catch you in a fallacy during an argument.
To choose our debate topic we brainstormed ideas as a class and every person was able to contribute at least one idea. From there, we narrowed our ideas down to 3 and proudly presented them to Section 1. An ambassador from Section 1 came and presented their idea to us!
Overall we had a very productive day and we are excited to start researching about our debate topic in the computer lab. The competition is stiff but our students are getting more and more prepare!
See you tomorrow!
Mrs. Kraft and Miss Ashanti
Voting For Our Final Debate Subject
