A Classroom Debate
By Jeff Harris

Overview

A central part of any presidential race is the issues on which the candidates focus. Although the candidates rarely hold debates about particular issues, a classroom debate on an issue central to presidential race can help your students formulate their own opinion on the issue without having to dissect the candidate's rhetoric. Debates can be an incredible classroom tool by providing students with a broad-based education of an issue and allowing the audience members to make up their own minds based upon the information they have received. In a legislative style classroom debate, two students who feel strongly about opposite sides of an issue will prepare persuasive speeches to convince the balance of the class to vote in favor or against a resolution. Other members of the class will have the opportunity to express their opinion in short "subsequent" speeches.

Objectives

Skills Attained:

• Research skills
• Public speaking
• Critical analysis
• Develop an understanding of parliamentary procedure
• Formulate clear and persuasive arguments

5. Debate briefs. Each main debater or main debate group should prepare and turn in a debate brief. This debate brief shows that the students have researched their topic and have an understanding of the main arguments supporting their side of the resolution. The brief should be limited to one page and should include a one paragraph background on the issue, three to five main arguments or reasons to support their side of the debate, and a short bibliography. For a sample debate brief, click here.

6. In order to prepare for the debate, students should follow the tips below for organizing their main speech:

1. Begin the speech with an arresting, thought-provoking introduction that will get the audience's attention (such as a striking fact or a gripping story from the news.)
2. Set-up and explain the significance of the topic and your side of the debate
3. Preview the main arguments and issues that lead you to your conclusion in the debate. Some debate coaches call this "road mapping" or "headlining."
4. In addition to headline value, each argument should have internal structure, with contentions being subordinate to issues and having sufficient proof or evidence to support the issue.
5. Statistics, expert opinion, real life examples, and historical precedent or accepted moral principals may support arguments. Remember that the opposing side may challenge your evidence—just as you may challenge their supposed evidence.
6. At the end of your speech, save time for a summation. Review the main points you made in your speech and the purpose for presenting those points in the overall scheme of the debate.
7. A conclusion is the punch line that makes a memorable culmination to your speech. Many times a successful conclusion relates back to the introduction. It should stand on its own and be an indelible ending to the speech.

9. Run the debate according to handout titled "Debate Procedure ."

Assessment

The following criteria can be made into a rubric, which could be used by the teacher or the entire class to assess the students' main speeches:

Content

• Assertions that are supported and documented
• Effective introductions and purposeful conclusions
• Easy to follow organization
• Reasoning, analysis, logic
• Effective, innovative arguments

Jeff Harris is a national JSA advisor. He is based in California.

Debate Procedures

1. Call the Debate to Order
2. The first step in a debate is to call it to order. Simply state that this debate is now in order and demand quiet and attention from that point on. If the audience is at any point too noisy or disruptive, consider appointing a sergeant-at-arms whose sole responsibility is to keep the audience in order.
3. Read the Resolution
4. The moderator should read the full resolution loudly and clearly before the debate begins and write it on the chalkboard if possible. It is important that there is no confusion (even subtle) as to what is being debated.
5. Introduce the Main Speakers
6. The moderator introduces the affirmative speaker, the negative speaker and then him or herself as the moderator.
7. Appoint a Timekeeper
8. The moderator should appoint someone with a watch (digital is preferable) to keep time. This person should use hand signals or pre-made cards to let the speakers know how much time that they have remaining. The standard times for a debate are six minutes for both opening speeches and three minutes for the subsequent and closing speeches, but you may shorten or lengthen these times to fit your class session.
9. Affirmative Opening Speech
10. The moderator announces that the class is now in order for a 6 minute opening speech from the affirmative and reintroduces the affirmative speaker. This person will then give a speech supporting the resolution. If the affirmative speaker finishes his/her speech and time still remains (the timekeeper should be keeping careful track of this) (s)he has two options. (S)he can either yield her time to the chair which means it disappears or she can yield her time to questions. If (s)he chooses the latter, the moderator selects members of the audience to ask questions and the speaker then responds. Note and make sure that your timekeeper notes that during questions, only the response time counts towards the speaker's time.
11. Negative Opening Speech
12. Follow the same procedure for the negative speaker. This person gives the speech in opposition to the resolution. When (s)he is finished, if time remains (s)he has the same two choices. Proceed exactly the same as with the affirmative speaker.
13. Subsequent Speakers

1. Yield their time to the chair (it is dissolved)
2. Yield their time to questions (just as explained before)
3. Yield their time to another speaker

1. If they choose to yield their time to another speaker, they may decide who speaks. That person must be speaking on the same side of the resolution and may only speak for the time that the first speaker has left over. Continue with subsequent speeches until the 'Previous Question' motion is made.
2. The 'Previous Question' motion is needed to end subsequent speeches and move on to the closing ones. About eight to ten minutes before the class ends, you should move on to closing speeches. An audience member should then raise their hand and state, "I move to the Previous Question." Another audience member should second this motion. The moderator should ask for all those in favor of moving to previous question and ending debate and all those opposed. You need two-thirds in favor to pass the motion and end debate. If time is running short and no one is making the motion, you, as chair, might say "The chair entertains a motion for previous question" which basically means you want to move on to the closing speeches. If no one makes the motion and you really need to end, just state that in the interest of time the chair declared debate to be over and that you will now move on to the closing arguments. You should end the subsequent speeches with enough time to have two closing speeches, reread the resolution, vote on it, select best speakers and finish up.
3. Negative Closing Speech
4. The negative speaker makes their final three minute speech against the resolution. Note that the negative goes before the affirmative in the end. If they end with time remaining it is automatically yielded to the chair (they may not yield to another speaker or to questions).
5. Affirmative Closing Speech
6. Follow the exact same procedure for the affirmative.
7. Read the Resolution Again
8. The moderator should read the resolution again before taking a vote on it.
9. Vote on the Resolution
10. Take a simple hands vote on the resolution. Record all those in favor or the resolution, all those opposed to the resolution and all those abstaining (not voting either way). If the resolution gets a majority of all votes cast (including abstentions) it passes. If not it fails.
11. Announce the Results

State clearly the results of the vote including how many votes on each side, abstentions and whether or not the resolution passed.

Sample Debate Brief - Pro

Resolution: Resolved, that handguns should not be protected under the provisions of the Second Amendment.

Background:

The United States has the most liberal gun ownership policy in the world and the highest crime rates in the world also. The National Rifle Association has for years had a vice grip on lawmakers when even the slightest hint of a handgun control bill is introduced into Congress. One of their typical arguments is that unlimited handgun possession is a guaranteed right protected by the Second Amendment. The time has come for the Supreme Court to decide the issue once and for all: is the wording of the amendment made under conditions existing in the late 1770s when militias were part of our national defense applicable to the late 1990s when people are afraid for their lives because every petty thief or robber could easily be carrying a handgun? When South Carolina passed a law that regulated the sale of handguns experimentally for a three year period, there was 28% reduction in the number of homicides committed with handguns. The time has come for the courts to recognize that there have been abuses promulgated by the Second Amendment and that it is time for us to care more about protecting our personal lives than protecting an outmoded wording within the Second Amendment. It's time to keep to the intent of the Founding Fathers and change the wording accordingly.

Arguments:

The Second Amendment should not apply to handguns—especially firearms used for illegal purposes. Because handguns are so easily concealed, they do not have any reasonable relationship to the preservation of the efficiency of a "well-regulated militia." In the Supreme Court case United States V. Cruisckshank, it was determined that the Second Amendment only applied to the "bearing of arms for a lawful purpose."

Interpreting the Second Amendment to apply to personally-owned handguns tends to validate the use of handguns for a variety of inappropriate behaviors. Time (Feb. 3, 1992) reports that 40% of handgun deaths were suicides, 26% were accidental deaths and that 10% were felony related. Over three-quarters of the remaining handgun killings were related to guns that were originally bought to protect a family but became weapons of destruction. Additionally, 65% of all homicides in the U.S. are "crimes of passion" in which the victim knows his or her killer; this is hardly an argument for a "well-regulated militia."

With total protection of gun ownership afforded by the Second Amendment, it is impossible to keep guns out of the hands of the undesirable. Most provisions of the Brady Law dealing with registration have been disallowed by the courts. People with criminal records or a history of mental instability can still purchase lethal weapons. Newsweek (Feb. 17, 1992) describes how handguns make it onto high school, junior high school and even elementary school campuses as the black market for guns caters to youth.

Bibliography:

South Carolina Law Review, 1975, pg. 45

Time Magazine, February 3, 1992, "Deadly at No Cost," pg. 24-25

Congressional Quarterly, January, 1992, pg. 218-232

Newsweek , February 17, 1992, "Ready, Aim, Fire at our Youth," pg. 40 -

Los Angeles Times, September 1, 1995, "One Gun Too Many," pg. 1