Summer Career Connections Session 6, Day 2, The Next Great Debate
Tuesday July 25th, 2023
Good afternoon families and great debaters! Today we learned about all the different ways to attack and defend an argument. In the morning session, we learned about the art of rebuttal and refutation – how to present a good counterargument or refutation, what the different types of argumentative attack and defense are, and how to think ahead to prepare ourselves for every counterargument we might hear. We reviewed the foundational three rebuttal types: principled, effectiveness, and mitigation and then worked in our teams through an activity where we had to plan and prepare ourselves for every possible argument from the other side. As we did this, we got a sense of what kind of claims are untenable and how we can shore up our claims against attacks, like building a castle. Finally, we put theory into action as we began our “Galaxy Adventure: Escape from Earth” imaginative debate game. This is an ongoing adventure game/activity where we will have to think through situations, prepare strategies, and make diplomatic, pragmatic, and/or normative arguments in order to make it to a new planet and help society thrive again. Each of our teams will be practicing the skills we learn each morning as they (hypothetically) navigate space, aliens, supply shortages, and political decisions and then write speeches, create presentations, prepare rebuttals, and debate and debate and debate!
Treasure hunt hint to share with your debater for a trivia bonus question tomorrow: there are three new vocabulary words in this blog that we have yet to discuss in class. Look them up and then try to figure out what kind debate each of these are, a possible example, and what the DIFFERENCES between them might be. Good Luck!