D&D (Debate and Discussion)
Debate & Discussion
These classes are focused almost entirely on the debate topic from the weekly topic. We have a special set of slides with recorded example discussions from the teachers. You then organise the students into debate teams of 1 or more. As always, please consider balanced student talking time.
The purpose of these classes is to teach debate, arguments and critical thinking. It's a place for students to learn how to agree and disagree effectively. A good opportunity for the teacher to share phrases like. "I see where you're coming from" or "You've hit the nail on the head" and so on.
As the teacher, you are the moderator of the discussion. You are encouraged to embellish, explain or be creative with the subject matter -- but make the students and their ability to express their opinions the core of these classes.
As with other classes, the timings are just a guideline. Be creative with the format.
0-10 mins - Topic Lead-In & Demo Videos
- Introduce the topic, light on discussion with the students.
- Show one of our debate videos, click on one of the teacher's videos to play the demo. There is always a teacher for "agree" and a teacher for "disagree"
- After listening to the debate, you can take the students through the quiz if you wish.
10-30 mins Debate
- Assign roles - some teachers prefer to allow the students to pick sides themselves, while others like to assign them.
- You may organise the debate in any way you wish, using the materials as creatively as you can. You can use the slides provided by clicking the "slide button" on the home page.
- It's often good to encourage students to provide examples, evidence or reasons for their arguments. Ask follow up questions, challenge their points.
- Ask the students to challenge each other, perhaps have a rebuttal.
- The rules of the debate are up to the teacher, but as always, try to focus on student outcomes. Make sure everyone gets a fair chance to argue their point.
30-45 More Debate Or Discussion
- Here you can either continue with the debate or move onto discussions.
- If you continue the debate, try to make it more challenging, perhaps suggest a follow-up statement or set them a challenging question.
- If you do a discussion, you can use the questions provided, or you may come up with your own questions to challenge the students. Click the "Next Button" on the slides to access the discussion questions:
- This is also a great place to discuss debate strategy or suggest handy argreement/disagreement phrases.
D&D materials
D&D slides are interactive, so we encourage you to play around with them. They can be found in the teaching materials page of the website, under "business" or "daily".