EDI 2011 EXERCISES

Alfred Snider, World Debate Institute Here are some exercises for use during our long sessions we have with students following lectures. Feel free to use these exercises or exercises of your own. But, these have worked in the past. Guidelines:

Short speeches. This allows time for feedback and repeats. Feedback. Give it during and after any action by them. You might also

appoint other students to give feedback as well. Mix positive and negative feedback.

Have students do something over again after they receive feedback. Use the motions supplied. This will help them prep for practice debates

and the tournament. Or, use motions you think of. Watch for differently abled students. Give them easier motions, encourage

them more, etc. Try and make it fun. Watch time carefully to make sure all students get the same chances.

Motions for Exercises: or use your own – MORE AT http://globaldebate.posterous.com/

1. Voting should be obligatory. 2. We should lower the voting age to 16. 3. Representative democracy has failed us. 4. E-elections would increase the participation of youth. 5. The democratic potential of the Internet is overvalued. 6. There would be no Arabic spring without the Internet. 7. A conscious consumer does for democracy more than a voter. 8. Invalidate any election result with a turnout below 70% 9. Children should be excluded from any religion until adulthood

10. Offer immediate EU candidate status to North African states on the precondition of democratic transition

11. We support parents who secretly install spyware on their children’s electronic devices.

12. Install condom vending machines in all high schools. 13. The exploration and development of outer space should be done by an

international organization. 14. Resources used for exploration and development of outer space would be

better used for meeting current unmet human needs. 15. We should not force children to sing the national anthem in schools 16. Require large online social networks to be controlled democratically by

their users. 17. Allow minors who pass a test on civics to vote 18. Parents should have access to their children's social networking sites. 19. This house would bring back death penalty. 20. This house would prohibit the media from using software to cosmetically

improve an individual’s appearance. 21. This house believes that Barack Obama should have vetoed any debt deal

that did not increase taxation. 22. This house would allow the creation of donor siblings. 23. This house believes that hacking is an acceptable form of protest against

large corporations. 24. This house believes that America and the EU should cease all financial,

political and military support to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority until they reach a peace agreement.

25. This house would legally require priests to report all serious crimes that they hear of in confessions.

26. This house would ban all EU arms companies from selling arms outside the EU

27. This house would require persons who work in the media to wait four years before running for public office or working for the government

28. This house believes that the West should promise preferential economic and political cooperation to Arab democracies that adopt secular constitutions.

29. This house believes that zoos should be eliminated 30. This house believes that elective cosmetic surgery should be banned 31. This house believes that the advent of the Internet has done more harm

than good 32. This house believes that doctors should never lie to their patients,

including one for their own good 33. This house believes that all countries have the right to possess nuclear

weapons 34. This house would authorize nudism on beaches and in public pools 35. Romantic relationships between university instructors and their students

should be illegal. 36. The state should prohibit all items of clothing that cover the face.

37. This house believes in the universal right to bear arms 38. Ban all religious involvement in schools 39. Allow companies to refuse hiring smokers 40. This house believes that people sentenced to life imprisonment should be

allowed to choose the death penalty instead 41. Criminalize the payment of ransom 42. European governments should pay parents to have children. 43. Supports indigenous persons convicted of a crime being sentenced by

their community and not the courts 44. Ban boxing 45. Women should get an equal position in war with men 46. Parents should not be allowed to hit children 47. All citizens ought to perform a period of national service 48. High school students' right to confidentiality is of greater value than their

parents' right to know. 49. THW broadcast executions. 50. Have harsher sentences for celebrity criminals 51. Marriage is an outdated concept 52. Prostitution should be legalized 53. Students in public school should wear school uniforms 54. Non-violent protest is the solution for dictatorship 55. Public money should not be used to finance art 56. Racist parties should be allowed to run for office 57. Strong dictatorship is better than weak democracy 58. Distance learning in higher education should be rejected 59. Negative political advertising should not be allowed 60. Physically challenged students should not be separated in schools 61. Euthanasia is every citizen’s right 62. Liberal western democracies with budget deficits should increase taxes on

the rich 63. We should be willing to negotiate with terrorists 64. All politicians should be limited to two terms in office 65. Nationalism is a virtue 66. Convicted rapists should be chemically castrated. 67. We should treat royalty as irrelevant 68. Testing products for humans on animals is immoral 69. After cohabitating for six months, couples should be considered as

married 70. Middle school students should not be permitted to wear cosmetics to

school 71. Parents should lose custody of morbidly obese children. 72. Child abusers should not be allowed to have more children 73. Every citizen should be provided with internet access

TITLE: WARM UP SPEECHES AND MORE (INEXPERIENCED) GOALS: Get over the nervousness of initial speaking. Discover students that have serious speech anxiety problems. Discover students with serious difficulties with English. Identify significant problems and work on them. PROCEDURES: Explain how important public speaking skills are. Explain how we all need to improve them. Explain that this will be a safe environment for learning. ROUND ONE: Students give one-minute speeches Give all students a topic, something safe:

Favorite pet animal Favorite vacation spot Best friend Least favorite media figure Worst movie ever seen “I wish my parents would….” “I wish my school would…” Favorite subject in school Favorite sport Gadget they most want

After each speech tell them two things they did well and one thing they need to improve on in their next speech. ROUND TWO: Students speak on a motion for two minutes Put students in pairs. Then give each pair a motion, making one student prop and one opp. Give them 5 minutes to prepare one major argument for their side. Tell them to remember what they need to work on from their previous speech. Have them give their two minute speeches, have the other side take notes. Give them feedback, be positive, but notice whether they improved on their previous challenge. Have their partner also make comments. Each pair gives their speeches. ROUND THREE: If you have time, give them 3 minutes to prep a one-minute answer to what the other side said. Each pair speaks. After each pair, give feedback to them. CAUTIONS: Be alert for those experiencing a lot of speech anxiety, shyness, etc. BUT, make people speak, then show support for them, “I knew you could do it…” Talk about improvement, it is all that is important, just get better.

TITLE: PUBLIC SPEAKING EXERCISES (EXPERIENCED)/ADVERSE CONDITIONING GOALS: To identify specific weaknesses in the way students deliver a speech. To train students to critique others, and thus themselves. To repeat until these errors are reduced. Create climate of constructive mutual criticism. PROCEDURES: PHASE ONE: Inventory Appoint five students to begin – one to speak and the other four as “Critics.” They will pay attention to and comment on: language use, including “crutch” words; hand gestures; face and body; and, overall style evaluation. These four roles will shift as the exercise proceeds. Have a student stand up and give them a motion to start speaking about immediately without prep (speaking problems will come out more readily if they are unprepared). Have them speak for two minutes. Then invite the four critics to make their comments. Make sure they are brief. Add other things you think are important. Make the speaker write down the comments. Then take the first critic the next speaker, and give the previous speaker that role. As you move through the group, always keep the critic roles moving. PHASE TWO: Working on Two Items Still with critics, and given a new motion, have a speaker tell us what his or her areas are that need to be improved, and then they speak for two minutes trying to improve. Have student critics evaluate them. Congratulate them if they improve. PHASE THREE: Extreme speakers (if you have time) Pick a speaker who is very boring in their style, and have them speak for one minute on one of their previous motions in an overly dramatic way, speak more dramatically then they ever would in a debate. This exercise in overcompensation can be very effective. ADVERSE CONDITIONING: Have each speaker indicate a major problem they have. Have them speak, and every time they commit this mistake have the audience boo, make fun of them, or throw little bits of paper. Keep it mellow and friendly. OR If they make this mistake have them start over again on a 2 minute speech. CAUTIONS: Watch your time. Do not allow “critics” to go on too long, get to the point. Do not think you always have to comment if the critics have done well. Keep it lighthearted.

Give positive feedback when they improve.

TITLE: MOTION ANALYSIS/FUN WITH MOTIONS GOALS: To teach students how to brainstorm by themselves on complex motions. To teach them how to select the best arguments and arrange them. To allow students to learn from the motions other students are working on. To help them find forms of support for their arguments. Students will have accomplished a basic briefing of every motion you deal with. Help students discover good arguments to use on a variety of motions. PROCEDURES: PHASE ONE: Build Cases Put students into groups of two, one prop and the other opp. Give each pair a motion. Allow them to have ten minutes to think of their best three arguments. Have them present their ideas (not as a speech, but in a discussion) for five minutes, including: definitions (if needed), model (if needed) two arguments for first speech, third argument for second speech. Then have opp do the same. Make sure everyone is taking notes about all motions. You make comments, allow a very few from the other students. Make concrete suggestions for how to improve. PHASE TWO: Better Cases Give students five minutes to make adjustments, and then present their basic ideas again, BUT also including examples and other forms of support they would use. After each presentation, have students suggest other examples or forms of support they might have used. PHASE THREE: Beauty contest, if you have time… Nominate cases from two pairs of students, and have people argue in one-minute speeches why one is better than the other. FUN WITH MOTIONS: Pick strange or one-sided motions and have them come up with six good arguments (the number a second team should brainstorm). CAUTIONS: Watch for two arguments that are the same, most obvious argument first, most subtle argument third. Watch your time allocation to make sure you at least get through phase one.

TITLE: FIND THE PRINCIPLE GOALS: To discover what a principle is. To learn how to express principles properly To learn how to use principle to build arguments and tram lines. PROCEDURES: Divide group up into pairs, one prop one opp. Give them a motion, and then give them 20 seconds to think of the principle for their side. Have them also integrate this principle into a one-sentence team line. Work on how to word the principle, suggest alternatives. Have all students take notes on these motions and principles. Keep going until time runs out, but make sure to move along.

TITLE: POINTS OF INFORMATION GOALS: Develop strong PoI offering skills. Develop strong PoI replying skills. Make students search for arguments, and thus points to pose, on a variety of motions. PROCEDURES: PHASE ONE: ORIENTATION Explain to them that a good PoI to ask is short and difficult to answer. Explain that a good PoI response is short and scores points for your side. Then describe the exercise below. PHASE TWO: POI BARRAGE Give each student a motion. Have them outline a very brief first prop or opp speech in about 7-8 minutes of prep. Then, have a student stand up and speak on this motion, but after one to one and a half minutes you pound the table and all in the room start offering points of information. The speaker MUST take all points from a variety of students. It is the responsibility of all students to pose points to the speaker. Your role is to be the audience, and make sure to be active. Point out things like: question too long, question too easy, answer too long, weak answer, answer not scoring points for their aide, etc. Feel free to interject these comments during the speech, but do not let others do so. Make speeches long enough so that you use all the time and everyone gets to speak. If they behave to speak for nine minutes taking points for eight of them, fine. It will make them stronger. You can also feel free to offer points, but try and model good practice and behavior. CAUTIONS: Always make sure to maintain decorum, no flagging of points or inappropriate behavior. Watch the time; calculate how log speeches can be before the first one is given based on the time left and how many students are in your group.

TITLE: SECOND TEAMS GOALS: To help them understand how to brainstorm for second teams. To help them learn how to react to choices made by first teams. To help them in coming up with forms of support for motions. PROCEDURE: Give each team a different motion and then give them 10 minutes to prep a second team strategy. Then indicate to them choices you would have made as a first team on that motion. Then give them 3 minutes to decide what their extension will be. Have each team explain why they did what they did. Explain other options they could have had and make suggestions. Include students in discussion. If you have time, tell each team that the first team ALSO took their extension. Now what would they pick?

TITLE: FIND FORMS OF SUPPORT GOALS: Help them learn how to locate items in reality that can support their position. PROCEDURE: Give each person a motion and a side. Give them 5 minutes to come up with examples or anything else that would support their side. Give easier motions to less experienced people. Then have them tell the group what they would use, and you and the group come up with additional elements they could use. REMEMBER, FORMS OF SUPPORT CAN BE: Current examples Historical examples Visualizations or thought experiments Statistics or data they are familiar with (trend is OK, not need specific numbers) Commonly held concepts. Thoughts by great thinkers. Quotations. Analogies.

TITLE: REFUTATION GOALS: Teach them how to refute the important stuff only. Teach them to use the right structure: 4 step: they say, we disagree, because, therefore. Teach them to do it quickly and efficiently. PROCEDURE:

1. Instant refutation: give them an argument from the attached list, and have them instantly refute it, with no prep time. Give them one minute. Then have them refute the same argument in 30 seconds.

2. Refute a case: pick a motion they analyzed previously, and then give them 5 minutes to prepare to refute a first speech. Have them refute it in 3 minutes. Then, after discussion, have them do it in 2 minutes.

3. Video refutation: show them a video of a first gov speech (a good one). Then, give them 2 minutes to prep. Then, have them give a 3-minute refutation speech. Talk about their choices, have them explain their strategy, talk about things they left out or should have left out. After everyone has spoken, have him or her do it again in 2 minutes.

TITLE: IMPOSSIBLE ARGUMENTS GOALS: Have fun with motions. Have them learn to handle bizarre or one-sided motions. PROCEDURE: Give them each a strange motion (list attached). Give them 5 minutes to think of a major argument for that motion. Then have them present that major argument in 3 minutes. Critique. Repeat. MOTIONS: THW allow inter-species marriage. THW grant birds the same rights as mammals. THBT the Tea Party is right. THBT Naxalism is a legitimate political ideology. THW test and approve parents before being allowed to give birth. THW allow legislators to bring guns into the chamber. THBT senior citizens need to get out of the way. THBT the West has the right to dictate terms to the rest of the world. THW support developing countries as disposal areas for hazardous waste. THW assassinate (insert name of leader here). TH will regret our history once ET arrives. THBT Nixon was right. THW support Michelle Bachman for president. THBT prostitution is better than no work at all. THBT marriage is an outdated institution. THW euthanize all aggressive wildlife. THBT endangered species need to get out of the way and allow live to evolve. THBT humans are a dangerous virus that needs to be extinguished from Planet Earth. THW make Tony Blair a national hero. THBT phone hacking is a legitimate tactic of investigative journalism. THW create a separate and isolated island for serious criminals to live together however they like. THW have all meat eaters earn their rights as a carnivore by slaughtering a major meat animal. THBT politicians should show naked pictures of themselves before an election.