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» Teaching Debate |
It is easy to incorporate debate across curricula in your school!
While the National Forensic League offers four distinct flavors of debate formats, this section is dedicated to enabling teachers unfamiliar with debate to incorporate it in their classroom, as an instructional tool and/or as an interscholastic, co-curricular activity.
The two debate structures outlined here were selected for their adaptability across disciplines to allow for easy clash of positions on a variety of issues. What makes debate such a compelling curricular tool is that it encourages discussion about issues that have unresolved positions, which is why debate topics -- or propositions for discussion -- are often framed as "resolutions."
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» Public Forum |
Public Forum is audience friendly debate. Two students are partnered and debate another pair of students over controversial issues that are "ripped" from current events in a variety of subject areas (politics, science, etc.). A new topic is announced the first day of each preceding month.
Public Forum teaches students to:
- Display solid logic, lucid reasoning, and depth of analysis
- Utilize evidence without being driven by it
- Present a clash of ideas by countering/refuting arguments of the opposing team (rebuttal)
- Communicate ideas with clarity, organization, eloquence, and professional decorum
This is one of the easiest formats, because it frames topics to explore the factual nature of an issue, or a focused aspect of policy surrounding that issue. It is also easy to run in a classroom.
Visit our  resource directory for teaching tools for Public Forum in any classroom.
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» Congressional Debate |
Congressional Debate, often referred to as "Student Congress" in interscholastic contests, simulates the lawmaking process in the Senate and House, much like Model UN does for the United Nations.
Students write their own legislation (bills and resolutions), research pro and con issues for all legislation slated for the agenda, listen to all their peers in the overall "Senate" or "House" chamber assembly, and respond with their own arguments. Just prior to the session, a student is elected to "preside," or run the assembly by recognizing speakers and motions moved by its members. At the end of debate on each bill or resolution, students vote to pass or fail the legislation.
Congress is a little more complex than Public Forum, because rather than a two-person team versus another two-person team on a single issue, the students investigate all the issues proposed for the docket, and debate them, using parliamentary procedure (Robert's Rules of Order). However, it can also be one of the most rewarding classroom experiences, because of the interpersonal dynamics and culminating vote through simulating the democratic process. The National Forensic League offers a number of resources for learning parliamentary procedure.
Visit  StudentCongressDebate.org for teaching and learning resources; and also visit our resource directory for teaching tools for Congress in any classroom.
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» Resources |
Visit our Resource Directory for curricular plans, activities, handouts, worksheets and links to useful Web sites.
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