Mindmade Debatable - A hilarious party game for people who love to argue

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Each student chooses a character from the past or present that signifies their position in the debate. (To speed up the process teachers may also suggest a list of characters.) On the board, put up a debate topic or a resolution. Students must raise their hand and cash in the appropriate card to make a comment or question. Invite students to share their answers with the class. This debate game can be repeated with any other topic as well. It’s easy to dismiss this debate game as child’s play. But it’s a great way to try out and practice some of the basics, especially if we’re struggling to speak in front of crowds. If that’s the case, we can even provide topics or complete statements for If I ruled the world…, so participants can truly focus on their delivery. If we’re no longer struggling with finding words and getting them out of our mouths, here are a few progressions we may want to try out. Inflections The ‘Two hands / One hand” voting system works well here: in this format, students raise two hands (=two votes against) their least favourite character, and one hand against the second least-favoured. This makes for a slightly more sophisticated voting outcome.

Give everyone a topic and set a timer for 4 minutes for them to silently outline 2-3 arguments on both sides. Repeat with a new topic, but this time set a timer for 3 minutes to outline both sides. Keep repeating with new topics, but reduce the outline preparation time each time. If participants are already well-spoken, there’s the possibility that we use it as a brainstorming exercise, too. Maybe our goal is to generate as many ideas or opposing views on a topic as possible within a short period of time. In-between rounds, debaters could scribble down the most memorable points made on the other side. It’ll certainly be more entertaining and effective than asking participants point-blank to come up with ideas and stare into blank faces for a felt eternity. Closing Thoughts The audience then has to vote who should be thrown out. It is important that they don’t vote for who should stay in – because there is too much of a tendency for students to vote in favour of the finalist whose team they belong to. Whatever the issue is for debate in your classroom, decide in advance or ask students to help you identify the stakeholders in the debate. If we were to completely nerd out, we could even record the game, get a transcript and analyse which rabbit holes debaters chose and where they could’ve taken a different route. We could then repeat the game to see how we improved. Since every issue can be broken down into subtopics and corresponding arguments, it can be a great brainstorming exercise to map out this territory. It’s a cruder, more applied method than systematic research; a method that makes us reconsider what we know about an issue and how much we’ve actually thought it through.This is a great resource to use when beginning to introduce debating with students and working towards building their confidence and debating skills. Set the scene: The government has announced that there is a million pounds of extra money available to be spent in the local region. Students will represent different advocacy groups with proposals on how to spend this money. Get the students to form a seated circle. There should be one fewer seat than the number of participants. Standing in the middle, give a statement, starting ‘Cross the circle if…’ that students can either agree or disagree with. As the rules are being learnt, start with simple verifiable facts such as ‘… if you have brown hair’ or ‘… if your name starts with a letter in the first half of the alphabet’. Various topics for students should be posed in the classroom. Decide on a topic based on the students’ age group and level of interest. For instance, in the elementary school, invite students to debate on statements such as, “It is important to eat from all the four food groups daily.” High school students might prefer a debate on “Should schools adopt a dress code?”

Their task is to gather evidence AGAINST the other finalists, for example suggesting that they were insignificant, unheroic, and so on.For younger grades, children can debate on whether there should be homework each night or whether the school day should be longer or shorter. Each student should then be given a copy of the PowerPoint Template which they can use to frame their research: In sum, a big part of arguing is not being able to come up with something meaningful to say under pressure. That makes the Why Game an effective stress drill that can increase our confidence and ultimately our control over a debate. Of course, in an actual exchange of arguments, we’re confronted with counterarguments and rebuttals. Nevertheless, we’ll be more cognoscente of our ability to steer the conversation in directions we consider more productive. 3. Speed Debating Each and every student possesses his or her own opinion. Classroom debates enable students to voice their opinions. A debate provides you with an opportunity to conduct yourself in a professional manner. According to the International Debate Education Association, “Debate is, above all, a way for those who hold opposing views to discuss controversial issues without descending to insult, emotional appeals or personal bias. A key trademark of debate is that it rarely ends in agreement, but rather allows for a robust analysis of the question at hand.” This is a hard activity by yourself, but you can put statements on index cards and draw them out of a hat.

There are a range of different games that can be used for different situations to build confidence and fluency, as well as develop students knowledge of debating language. Each of the activities in this resource can be adjusted to suit the needs of your students. First of all, Speed Debating is one of the less structured debate games, which in my experience makes it more engaging depending on the group. It’s great as a warm-up, for breaking the ice or to wrap things up in the end. There’s a bigger risk for participants to strawman an argument, but this will be offset once the tables have turned. The game should then proceed around the circle until all the students have had a turn. This is one of the best debating games for beginners. 2) Cross the Circle if… Speed Debating capitalises on people’s preference to just have a go at each other verbally. In my experience, the rules of engagement in a formalised debate are what puts many people off. In this debate game, pretty much the only rule is to engage. (Which of course we can do most effectively if we’ve mastered If I ruled the world… and the Why Game). But let’s be honest, there’s a reason why Hitchens is famous for the Hitchslap, not the Hitch-Rules-of-Engagement. Note down the roles of the stakeholders on the index cards, one stakeholder per card. Be sure you have at least three index cards for each stakeholder role.By yourself, you can practice by listing as many impacts as you can following a statement, before getting ridiculous (or “popping the balloon”). Round 1 – In this round, each group will write and deliver a short speech (no longer than one minute) about why their proposed spending is best within a certain category. So, for example, those advocating ‘spending on more nurses’ might want to argue that their proposal would ‘save most lives’; students arguing for ‘providing increased city centre parking’ might claim that their proposal would ‘boost the economy most’. The first student’s Powerpoint is put onto the screen. The student is not allowed to read the slide – it’s there for the benefit of the audience – and they can only speak for 60 seconds, explaining what they did and why they deserve to stay in the balloon (note: they should speak in the first person, i.e. as if they ARE the character). In a circle, have one person state an argumentative claim in a complete sentence with reasoning. For instance, “Schools should increase funding for mental health services because dealing with stress helps students do better academically.” The next person in the circle then restates the claim, but with fewer words. The next person builds on the new version but with more powerful words (i.e. “Schools are responsible for students’ mental health to prevent academic failure.”) Repeat until the claim is concise with powerful words and then have someone start a new claim.