Activities for the last day of class
The last day of English we will be working on our debate skills by following these steps. First 3 I found here: 7 tasks for Classroom Debates
Quick Fire
Each student chooses a slip of paper with one topic, such as “schools should not have more than 2 test a week” or “mobile phones should be allowed in class”. Now, everyone stands; they have 2 minutes to give their opinion on that topic to a classmate, using the target language such as ‘I somewhat agree with you‘, ‘I completely disagree’, ‘I think very differently‘, depending on level and lesson objective.
When the 2 minutes are up, students move on to a different classmate. Listen for mistakes, correct on the spot and monitor if they have taken your correction on board.
The Panel
Choose two students, i.e those interested in a particular topic or who have strong views in a certain area and ask them to take a seat at the top of the room. They each give their opinion on the topic but the key here is that the rest of the students in the class ask questions, challenge them on their views and present alternative viewpoints to them.
This can create a very healthy discussion. Ensure students are using the lesson’s lexical items, such as ‘Can you expand on your point of view in relation to….’ or ‘Can you help us understand why you would state that…’ depending on level.
Devil’s Advocates
Divide your class into three groups:
1) Agree 2) Disagree 3) Devil’s Advocates
Write a debate topic on the board and assign a point of view to groups 1 and 2. (They should put their own views to one side for this task). Group 3 are the Devil’s Advocates and so it’s their job to provoke discussion, encourage various points of views and ensure the debate continues. Give a speaker from each group 2 minutes to speak before rotating so that all students in each group are participating.
Before the debate in class, we need to decide on topics and rubrics to score the debate winner of the class. Let’s use the rubric found here.
Debate topics:
Look here for good topics to use in your debate. 100 ESL debate topics. I particularly liked these;
- Should terminally ill patients have a right to end their life? (Euthanasia)
- Should we be allowed to design our unborn babies?
- Should there be an age limit on driving?
- Should it be mandatory to take care of your aging parents?
- Should there be a restriction on how many children a family can have?
- Should social media platforms be responsible for fake news that is posted on their site?
- Should cell phone apps be allowed to track your movements?
- Should internet service providers be forced to enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source?
- Should mobile devices sold globally by a company (e.g. Apple) be priced exactly the same worldwide?
- Should driverless vehicles be allowed on the same road as manual drivers?
- Should parents be allowed to ‘micro-chip’ their children?
- Should governments be allowed to spy on your internet activities in the name of counter-terrorism?
- Should you be forced to return money if an ATM gives you too much?
Sentences to be extremely useful during debates:
- I’d like to argue/raise a question.
- In my opinion…
- I feel very strongly that…
- I’d like to present my views…
- I’m amazed by the views expressed by…
- I’d like to draw attention to…
- I fail to understand…
- I submit that…
- My first/next/final argument against/in favour of…
- My worthy opponent has submitted that…
- Do you realise that…
- Believe it or not…
- You may not believe it but…
- It may sound strange but…
- The surprising thing is…
- Surprisingly…
- Funnily enough.
- Oddly enough.
- Don’t forget that…
- The point is…
- The problem is…
- May I ask…
- I strongly support/oppose the view that…
- On the contrary…
- How can my worthy opponent be so ignorant to say that…
- I totally disagree with the view…
- I condemn…
- I firmly reject…
- I wholeheartedly support/oppose…
- I support the motion that…
How to behave in a debate, don’t look to the UK
