DEBATES
FOR
STUDENTS
Lola Aceituno
IES Llanes, Seville

1. What is debating?
2. Using debates in the English class
3. Debate structure and format
4. How to work debates with students in the class
5. Warming up activities before organising a debate
6. Examples of school debates Primary and Secondary (Great
Britain)
7. Feedback for students
8. Assessment rubrics
9. Webography
I
N
D
E
X

1.- WHAT IS DEBATING?
GOAL:
1. Convincing:
◦ We are right
◦ Our opponents are wrong
WATCH SPEAK UP :
A WONDERFUL FRENCH FILM THAT TEACHES
THE IMPORTANCE OF ORACY SKILLS
2. Presenting ARGUMENTS
Based on:
◦ Evidence
◦ Facts
◦ Examples
◦ Reasoning
◦ Quotations from experts

1.- WHAT IS DEBATING?
 There are Two sides –the Proposition and Opposition– they take it in
turn to give speeches for and against a motion.
 To ensure that each side and each speaker has an equal opportunity to
have their say, all speeches are of an equal set length.
 Speakers prepare in advance, but they can’t just read out a written
speech; all speakers have to respond to the other team through
sections of rebuttal in their speech.
 It’s a team activity; individual speakers must always tie what they say
into their side’s case.
 The final speaker on each side must be particularly responsive, as they
must answer the questions from the audience and summarise the
debate as it actually happened by telling us why their side won the
key ‘points of clash’.
 A good debater will convince the
audience by:
◦ using good Content with a compelling
Structure
◦ defending it against the other side’s
Responses.
◦ engaging the audience with powerful
Language and appropriate Delivery.
 But, in the final event, the key question
which links all these aspects together is:
“Has the speaker been persuasive?”

2.- USING DEBATES IN THE ENGLISH
CLASS
In this video, Dr. Dianne Tyers, an experienced
English language teacher trainer discusses the use of
debates to teach speaking skills to our students,
particularly expressing opinion and agreeing and
disagreeing.
She introduces different variations of debates to use,
depending upon student language proficiency level and
the amount of time we have for the debate.
This is a video for teachers who want to organize
debates in class.

Your turn
“Everyone should be a vegetarian. Discuss”

Str
The debate is chaired by a
'speaker‘, who reads out
the motion.
There is a timekeeper that
checks the timing.
Structure:
1.- Opening
2.- Rebuttal
3.- Questions
4.- Rebuttal and Conclusion
1. OPENING: 2 minutes each
◦ The first proposer presents the arguments for the motion (2 minutes)
◦ The first opposer presents the arguments against the motion (2 minutes)
2. REBUTTAL: 2 minutes each
◦ The second proposer presents further arguments in favour of the
motion (2 minutes)
◦ The second opposer presents further arguments against the motion (2
minutes)
3. QUESTIONS from the audience or from the judges
4. CONCLUSION: 2 minutes each
◦ An opposer answers questions and then sums up the key points of the
argument against the motion.
◦ A proposer answers questions and then sums up the argument for the
motion.
3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT

1ST PROPOSITION (Affirmative)
What do you stand for?
• Excite us about the debate with a strong
opening
• Define the motion
• Develop two or three points
• Round off with a good conclusion
1ST OPPOSITION (Negative)
What’s the other side?
• Introduce opposition case, relating it to
what 1st Proposition has just said
• Engage in specific rebuttal of the 1st
Proposition’s two or three points
• Give two or three of your own points
• Keep momentum with strong finish.
3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
Opening

TIPS for the FIRST SPEAKERS:
◦ Tell a captivating story
◦ Ask a rhetorical question
◦ State a shocking statistic
◦ Use a powerful quote
◦ How to grab the audience’s
attention: Some tips and
examples (examples here)
TIPS on HOW TO BEGIN a Debate:
◦ Establish definitions
◦ Summarize your position
◦ Define a policy
Here we will see some examples
3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
Opening

2ND PROPOSITION
Building and responding
◦ Remind us of your partner’s points:
Rebut the 1st Opposition’s points
• Develop two or three of your own points,
in the debate
• Conclude Proposition’s main case.
2ND OPPOSITION
Building and responding
• Recap on the opposition case so far
• More rebuttal of the proposition
• Develop the remaining opposition
points
• Conclude Opposition’s main case.
3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
Rebuttal

3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
Rebuttal
How to rebut?
STEPS:
1. WHAT THEY
SAID
2. WHY THEY
WERE WRONG
3. WHAT WE SAID
4. WHY WE WERE
RIGHT
“The basis of that argument is factually untrue” Example:
Point: “We need to cut carbon emissions to prevent global warming”
Rebuttal: “Global warming is a natural phenomenon: there is no conclusive evidence to
show that what man does will have any effect on climate change”
“The basis of your argument is not correct” Example:
Point: “If we spend more money on education then people will get better exam results”
Rebuttal: “You haven’t shown us the link between education spending and exam results”
“That argument is insignificant”/“there are more important
arguments” Example:
Point: “Bringing back the death penalty would create jobs for executioners”
Rebuttal: “Very few jobs would be created and this is not a good enough justification for
taking people’s lives”
VIDEO EXAMPLE

3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
Rebuttal

PROP SUMMARY
The last word
• Examine what Proposition considers to be
the main ‘points of clash’ (main point of
disagreement)
• Respond to the floor debate
• Conclude that Proposition must win!
OPP SUMMARY
Bringing your side together
• Present two or three ‘points of clash’ from
the Opposition’s viewpoint
• Take the floor debate into account
• Call on audience to vote Opposition!
3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
Closing
FLOOR DEBATE, The audience contributes with questions to either side or there are questions
from the opposite teams or from the judges.

3.- DEBATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
Closing

YOUR TURN
Let’s discuss and reach an agreement on:
• Structure of the debate (Four students on each team or three?
• Timing. (2 minutes each? Different timing depending on the role?)

4.- HOW TO WORK DEBATES WITH STUDENTS IN CLASS
Explanations for students
Debates
structure
explained for
students

Some tips for
students on how
to prepare a
debate
4.- HOW TO WORK DEBATES WITH STUDENTS IN CLASS
Explanations for students

4.- HOW TO WORK DEBATES WITH STUDENTS IN CLASS
Explanations for students
Some tips for
students on how
to speak in
public

Teachers can provide students with some worksheets to help
them prepare their debate:
◦ how to organise their ideas
◦ How they will state their position and sound convincing
◦ how they are going to support their ideas
◦ how they are going to organise them among the partners.
◦ Useful vocabulary and expressions
◦ Self-check
4. Some materials to work debates with students

Your turn
Look at the following worksheets and choose the ones
you find more useful

Your turn
choose the ones you find more useful

5. - Some
warming up
examples to start
working in class
A Debate warming
up worksheet
YOUR TURN:
“Parents should
control their
children’s
activities on
social media”

On this website “The Noisy Classroom” https://noisyclassroom.com/ we
can find all sorts of warming up activities, worksheets (prompts to start
debating a topic) advice and videos with examples.
Some of the Warming up activities are :
◦Rebuttal tennis
◦Boxing match debate
◦Where do you stand?
◦Make a change
5.- WARMING UP ACTIVITIES BEFORE ORGANISING A DEBATE

The website “The noisy classroom“ suggests using prompts or Topic stimulus sheets to help
students in their debates. We can use them to stimulate debate and discussion in the
classroom, helping them to concentrate on important questions and facts:
Here there are some examples:
◦ We should ban cars from city centres
◦ This House would encourage children to strike for climate change
◦ Children can make a big difference to the environment
Topic stimulus sheets
5.- WARMING UP ACTIVITIES BEFORE ORGANISING A DEBATE

Your turn
Write ideas, questions, facts, research tasks, etc for a topic stimulus sheet
on the Motion:
“The Use of fossil fuels should be banned “

How to prepare a debate with students in class.
On this video we can see how students are preparing a debate in the classroom.
Mel Pope, international debate champion and expert debate coach, talks to Noisy Classroom trainer Harold
Raitt as she leads pupils from Clapton Girls’ Academy through the preparation process for their debate on
“This House would ban cars from city centres”. The teams are preparing to debate in the British
Parliamentary (BP) format. However, the 5 steps are just as useful for any debating format.
1. Brainstorming
1.a. Silent brainstorming
1.b. Team/ group brainstorming
2. Organizing ideas in the team
◦ From the brainstorm
◦ They need to identify between 7 and 9 arguments.
◦ They then need to divide the arguments between the speakers.
3. Structuring the individual speeches
4. Preparing individual speech
5. Debate
5.- WARMING UP ACTIVITIES BEFORE ORGANISING A DEBATE

Primary school students debate “ This house believes kids can make a great difference to the
environment”
There are two examples and two feedbacks Here we can see the two debates and the feedback
6.- EXAMPLES OF SCHOOL DEBATES PRIMARY AND
SECONDARY (GREAT BRITAIN)

Secondary school debates
“This house would abandon Nuclear Power”
Secondary school debates
“This house would lower the voting age to 12”
6.- EXAMPLES OF SCHOOL DEBATES PRIMARY AND
SECONDARY (GREAT BRITAIN)

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
Once the Debate has finished, we should give some feedback to the teams,
focusing on their weaker and stronger points and those aspects in their
performance that need improving. Thus we justify why one team is the winner.
Team’s name:
Strong Points Weak points Needs improving
What they have done quite well. What they have done poorly What they have done reasonably
well, but could have been better.

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
It would also be advisable to give individual feedback to each one of the students,
so that they can improve their performance in future debates.
How could we do it?
1. We could record the debates that take place in the class with a video camera
We would need:
◦ A digital camera or a mobile phone or tablet that allows proper recording
◦ A tripod to hold the camera or tablet. If we use a mobile phone we could use a selfie stick that can
be adapted to the tripod
◦ One lapel microphone for each student
◦ Extension cords for the microphones

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
2. The video can be uploaded on the YOUTUBE school channel (with a hidden link)
3. The video will be linked on Edpuzzle

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
Register on Edpuzzle:
◦ Click Sing Up (top left) and you can see this screen:
◦ Click ’I’m a Teacher’ and you can see the following:

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
◦ So, you have 2 ways to be registered: with a Google account and with an Username and a password.
Choose the one you prefer.
◦ Once you are in you will see this screen:

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
◦ In the top right corner you can create your debate groups or teams and share the videos with them .
◦ On the left you can see your personal information and below the channels from which you can upload or
link your videos.

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
◦ Link the video you have uploaded on YOUTUBE with the recording of the debate clicking on
YOUTUBE

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
1. Insert the url

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
◦ Once you have inserted the link, you will have the video on Edpuzzle. You can find it in
CONTENT:

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
◦ Once you are in, click on Edit.
◦ You can:
◦ Cut the video, in case you would like to use only
part of it: Cut.
◦ Insert audio in different parts of the video:
Voiceover.
◦ Insert different types of questions:
◦ Multiple-choice question.
◦ Open-ended question.
◦ Note: if you want to comment something to
the students.
◦ Etc.
◦ Use NOTE to give the feedback: Your feedback
should include weak and strong points, as well as
those aspects that need improving. Remember
that motivation is a strong pedagogical tool.

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
◦ Finally share your video with your students:
◦ Create your class or group of students:

7.- FEEDBACK FOR STUDENTS
◦ Edpuzzle will provide you with a CODE for each one of the groups you create. Students will be
able to sign in Edpuzzle to see the video with that specific CODE.
◦ This tool also allows you to check how many students have seen the video.

7.- FEEDBACK with edpuzzle:
a very simple example
Simple example of
feedback:
◦ Video taken from Youtube
◦ Has been Cut
◦ Notes have been inserted

8.- ASSESSMENT RUBRICS
◦ Teachers from the different countries should agree on the assessment
criteria to include in the rubrics (we propose one of them), so that we can
all work with the same goals in mind.
◦ The assessment rubric should be known by the students before the debates
◦ Teachers should explain the different assessment criteria to the students

8.- ASSESSMENT RUBRICS
Our suggested version

Your turn
Let’s discuss the rubric. Would you like to change anything?

9.- WEBOGRAPHY
The information, worksheets and videos have been taken from these
websites:
◦ https://noisyclassroom.com/debate-clubs/
◦ https://www.wikihow.com/Debate
◦ https://busyteacher.org/21711-great-debates-9-steps-to-organizing.html
◦ https://worksheetplace.com/
◦ Advance Consulting for Education (video)
o Groobles Media (videos)

ENJOY DEBATING
Thanks for your attention