Section 1 Debates: What a great way to end the unit!

This is what a great debate looks like.  Not only were both of the students well prepared for their first round, they were effective with their rebuttals which  lead to students changing their minds throughout the debate.

Topic: Homework does more harm than good.

First Round:
Sophia (on the left) started off with a great introduction, the best of all the debates!  She went on to support her position well.  She discussed how homework benefits students.  Taylor, on the other hand, tried to prove that homework is harmful to students.  Her introduction was not as effective, but she was well prepared for her first round.  Notice how the students voted using their responders: Taylor had a slight lead.

Second Round:
This is the rebuttal round.  Sophia (left) refuted six of Taylor's reasons with pretty good reasons.  Taylor, on the other hand, only discussed four of Sophia's reasons, and a few of the refutations were a little weak.   Notice how the students voted: Sophia now had a slight lead.

Third Round:
During the last round, students discuss anything that needs to be addressed.  Neither student had a great third round, so the scoring came down to the final parts of the debate: the conclusion, eye contact, and the use of visuals.  I do not add up my score until they are both done.  That's when I see the total impact of each part's score.  I scored the debate 36 to 32 with Sophia as the winner.

But that is not how the students scored the debate!  They felt that Taylor had won!  However, I am the one that gives the grade.  Mine is the score that counts.

How exciting!  The students got to see a few important features of argumentative writing.

First, they saw that the topics do not have one side that is clearly better than the other.  When they are planning for and writing their argument paper, they must address both their claim and the counterclaim with valid reasons and evidence.

Second, the quality of their reasons and evidence matter.  In this debate, and especially the one that followed, the students lost points during their rebuttal round when what they said was silly.  Any time someone said something silly, the opponent would jump on it.

I am very pleased with the results of the debates.  Together with the lessons I have taught on argument writing and the two practice essays they have written (and I scored), I look forward to some great essays next week!

Here are the results of all the debates.