On Monday, 6th Class was lucky enough to have Luke from Masters Debating Academy come to talk to us about debating. He told us all about the rules of debating and how it works. We played debating games to help us think on our feet. He also showed us how a debate is structured and prepared. We learnt so much from our fabulous guest.
Firstly, Luke told us how a debate is structured. He showed us this by introducing new techniques. He taught us all about the methods that are used in a debate and how to use them. We were taught strategies used in debating that help us prove our points and state our facts clearly. After this session everyone’s minds were buzzing.
Once we came back from recess, we were ready to put all that we learnt into action. Luke got us to have a mini debate. We had a negative and affirmative side and the topic was, That takeaway food is better than a home-cooked meal. Each team came up with points for their given side using our newly learnt methods.
After this, we used Luke’s sentence starters to start our sentences, they are the perfect way to start your points so they were very helpful to learn. Once we finished speaking, Luke gave us a mark depending on whether we covered all of the necessary areas. Whilst the opposing team was speaking we had to take notes so that we could learn from each other. Then at the end Luke decided that we should practice rebuttals.
Using the information we gathered, we composed our rebuttals. Then ending the mini debate we stated our rebuttals aloud for Luke to mark us on. By doing this, we were able to practice all parts of a debate and then we were all set to start debating. After our session with Luke, we had all learnt so much valuable information about debating. He cleverly planned an action packed day, teaching us everything we needed to know. We learnt so much and are all ready for debating.
Isabelle F
6M
