Summer SAVY Session 6, Day 1, The Next Great Debate
Monday, July 24, 2023
Good afternoon families and great debaters! Today was our introduction to the ancient philosophical tradition that brings us the art of debate! In the morning session, we learned a bit about each other and discussed what we already know and want to learn about how to debate well. We also brainstormed together about what successful and unsuccessful practices and strategies of debate might look like and learned about low-stake and high-stake debate topics. We then dusted off some of our previous skills in a high-energy round of extemporaneous debates, or ‘flash debates’. In this style, students are given only a minute to organize their thoughts before presenting arguing the resolution to the class. We learned that debating well is much harder than it sounds! We also learned vocabulary words such as rhetoric and interlocuter and we reviewed the three appeals of the rhetoric triangle: logos, ethos, and pathos. Finally, we put theory into action in a rousing debate about mythical creatures where teams had to 1) conduct research and find relevant, reliable, and rigorous sources, 2) prepare opening and closing statements, 3) structure the argument and think about persuasive order, and 4) practice creating hooks, using logic, and developing a presentation style in order to score high with the classroom adjudicators.
Treasure hunt hint to share with your debater for a trivia bonus question tomorrow: look through this blog for two new vocabulary words and do some research to find out what they mean in the context of debate. Hint: one of them is not what it seems! Good luck!