Teaching BP Lessons, Practices, and Drills

China Debate Education Network

Be a good debate citizen

• Be on time• Listen respectfully to other debaters and to

judges.• Do not argue with judges– Respectfully ask for additional feedback to

improve in the future.

• 10 km rule

Adapting to judges lesson

• The judge is the audience for the debaters– The judges should be addressed, rather than an

opposing team.– Debaters should watch the judges to make sure

their arguments are understood, written down.

• English is a speaker-responsible language, so debaters must be organized and clear.

• Keep track of judge feedback. Use it when debating in front of that judge in the future.

Stock issues lesson• Stock issues– Need/Ill/Harms– Blame/Inherency– Cure/Solvency– Net Benefit

• The PRC should implement education reform– Need:– Blame:– Cure:– Cost-benefit:

Argument construction lesson

• Give them a motion– Name 4 claims you will need to make in arguing for this

motion– Find evidence that supports your claim

• Example– The PRC should ban smoking

Refutation and Rebuilding• 4-step refutation– Pairs of Students– One student is PM the other is LO– The first student gives a PM speech– Second student gives 3-4 points of refutation to the

speech• They say• But I say• Because• Therefore

– The PM rebuilds those refuted arguments.– Switch sides.

Practicing for not knowing the motion

• Make up a situation and write a motion:– The PRC should ratify the Samson-Hawk treaty– China should defend the sovereignty of West

Balmaka.– China should implement the UN Education Rights

Declaration

• Encourage students to think about the generic arguments that still apply, even if they don’t know the specifics.

First Opposition

• Encouraging debaters to think on their feet when presented with unexpected interpretation or model– Give the motion to the 1st gov, but not to the first

opp. • First opp must practice the debate with no prep

time.– Have first gov give an unexpected model.

Member Speeches

• Watch first four speeches on video. Have the debaters develop extensions for the second half of the debate.– Have them watch the video before practice– You can give them the motion and have them

prepare second gov and second opp arguments– See how many are relevant after the first half

video debate.– Have students discuss appropriate extensions or

give member speeches.

Member speeches

• Give the topic to the first gov and first opp teams. Do not give the topic to the second gov and second opp.– Force second half teams to develop extension

arguments during the debate.

• Give prep time to second half teams after first half of the debate– Allow them to develop a better extension. – Discuss how they developed the extension after

the debate.

Whip speeches

• Have students watch a debate on video and judge it.– Have them take extensive notes– Have them give an reason for decision

• Then have them give a whip speech that would convince them that the other side won.

Delivery

• Novice speakers: – Give them easy subjects• Favorite book• Favorite vacation• This helps them practice speaking in front of people in

an organized and confident way

• Speech do overs• Start and stop practices

POI Practice

• Set up a standard practice debate– Have each student required to take 6-8 points of

information during their speech.– Each student on the opposite bench must offer at

least 2 points of information.– Stop them and make them re-do the POI if it is

poor.– Give them 7 seconds time limit on POI (instead of

15 seconds). – Stop the speaker to make the speaker give better

answers to POI during the speech.

Topic-specific practices• Announce topic ahead of time for a practice

debate. – Assign positions and announce motion– Debaters come with arguments prepared and

evidence for claims

• Announce topic area ahead of time– Tell debaters what the subject is. They can

research and have some examples and information

– They don’t know the exact motion or their side.

Topic-specific practices

• Use a motion in a practice debate that debaters have written briefs about– Remind them that they have that brief.– Make sure they are using information from the

brief in their practice

• Allow internet in prep practice.• Do a series of practice debates on the same

topic.

Drills

• One argument drills– Divide the room into Gov and Opp– Announce a motion– After five minutes the first person gives one gov

argument with 2 subpoints. Give a time limit of 1 or 2 minutes.

– Then opp gives one argument– Continue through the rest of the students.

Model writing

• Give a motion– Write the 2 most predictable models

• Give 5 motions– Have them write models for each one

• Come back as a group or as small groups to share and critique the models

Judging

• Have students judge debates. Lots of them.– Learning to think like a judge means that they are

more able to adapt their arguments to the audience who makes decisions about their debating.