LD Training Week 16 - Practice Round

Welcome to week 16 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today is your chance to put everything you've learned into practice with a practice debate roundWe won't have a video lesson today, you're the stars of today's show.

For all the preparation of the room, some basic instructions on how to speak, how to flow, and what you are going to do in the round, look back at Week 12's lesson.

As you listen to your opponent's arguments, be sure to flow them so that you can address them using 3-point refutation.  Also, look for weaknesses in their arguments you can exploit during cross-examination.  Finally, think about why your value and value criterion are preferable and why that matters to the resolution.

Now comes the fun part.  As homework, make a list of every argument you heard in your debate round.  Go back through your flow and identify which arguments you had good responses to, which refutation you should have had, and which questions in cross-examination stumped you.  For each of these things, look for supporting evidence for your position.  This week is a vital week in your training to become a great debater.  The more time you spend in the week after one round preparing for your next round, the more likely you are to win your rounds in the future.  Each of the responses you create should be in 3-point refutation format.

Have a great week and we'll see you after Christmas!

If you haven't already, be sure to visit The Great Debate website to request your free packet of outlines. If you are a student, you can request the student packet and coaches can request a coach packet with additional resources including a syllabus and answer keys.

By now you should have read all of Coach Marko Djuranovic's Ultimate LD Handbook. Keep the book handy as a reference if you need it throughout the rest of your debate career.  I'd suggest skimming the discussion of the debate round just to be sure you're ready for your first full debate round! 

If you are interested in learning a form of debate other than Lincoln-Douglas value debate, The Great Debate is a wonderful textbook for policy debate written by the teacher in these videos. The Great Debate provides training in the basics of debate and includes information for debaters who have already learned the fundamentals and are looking for more intermediate level training. The Great Debate has a teacher's guide (coming soon) which includes lesson plans and additional material for coaches. For more information about The Great Debate, visit our website. We also have produced a video training series for Public Forum Debate. The public forum series is another free resource from The Great Debate.

LD Training Week 15 - Practice Round

Welcome to week 15 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today is your chance to put everything you've learned into practice with a practice debate roundWe won't have a video lesson today, you're the stars of today's show.

For all the preparation of the room, some basic instructions on how to speak, how to flow, and what you are going to do in the round, look back at Week 12's lesson.

As you listen to your opponent's arguments, be sure to flow them so that you can address them using 3-point refutation.  Also, look for weaknesses in their arguments you can exploit during cross-examination.  Finally, think about why your value and value criterion are preferable and why that matters to the resolution.

Now comes the fun part.  As homework, make a list of every argument you heard in your debate round.  Go back through your flow and identify which arguments you had good responses to, which refutation you should have had, and which questions in cross-examination stumped you.  For each of these things, look for supporting evidence for your position.  This week is a vital week in your training to become a great debater.  The more time you spend in the week after one round preparing for your next round, the more likely you are to win your rounds in the future.  Each of the responses you create should be in 3-point refutation format.

Have a great week and we'll see you next week for another debate round!

If you haven't already, be sure to visit The Great Debate website to request your free packet of outlines. If you are a student, you can request the student packet and coaches can request a coach packet with additional resources including a syllabus and answer keys.

By now you should have read all of Coach Marko Djuranovic's Ultimate LD Handbook. Keep the book handy as a reference if you need it throughout the rest of your debate career.  I'd suggest skimming the discussion of the debate round just to be sure you're ready for your first full debate round! 

If you are interested in learning a form of debate other than Lincoln-Douglas value debate, The Great Debate is a wonderful textbook for policy debate written by the teacher in these videos. The Great Debate provides training in the basics of debate and includes information for debaters who have already learned the fundamentals and are looking for more intermediate level training. The Great Debate has a teacher's guide (coming soon) which includes lesson plans and additional material for coaches. For more information about The Great Debate, visit our website. We also have produced a video training series for Public Forum Debate. The public forum series is another free resource from The Great Debate.

LD Training Week 14 - Cross Examination

Welcome to week 14 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today's lesson is entitled "Cross-Examination." We've talked about every other piece of the debate round and you've even had your very own debate round experience.  But the last piece of the puzzle is what goes on between the speeches you give in support of your own case and in opposition to your opponent's case.  Cross Examination is your opportunity to ask questions and make your opponent talk about what you want to talk about.  Learning the techniques of cross examination will take you a long way toward becoming a great debater.

This lecture focuses on both how to cross examine your opponent and how to answer questions during cross examination.  Cross-X is a 3-minute period after each constructive speech.  The person who just finished giving a speech is cross-examined by the other team.  For example, after the Affirmative Constructive, the negative debater will cross-examine the affirmative speaker.
Cross-examination is about asking questions.  It's not about giving your own speech, or bringing up new arguments and points of analysis.  Instead, everything that comes out of your mouth if you are the person cross-examining should be focused on asking questions either to clarify your opponent's arguments, poke holes in the arguments your opponent has made, or set yourself up for the next argument you want to make against your opponent.

When someone asks you a question in cross-examination you should remain poised, confident, and answer the question.  Try to anticipate what your opponent wants you to say and see if there's a way to give an answer that helps make your case even stronger.  Be concise when you answer the question, and if your opponent doesn't stop you, continue explaining the beneficial point you were making.  When you are being cross-examined, the most important thing to do is to answer the question you are asked.  Trying to avoid a difficult question is worse than admitting there is a hole in your case.  Remember, if you have a perfect case, you haven't thought about it closely enough.  There's always a hole in your case (but there's also holes in every case your opponents run).  Your job is to explain how the holes in your case are less gaping than the holes in your opponent's case.  

Before we start today's lesson, get a piece of paper and write down the contentions you are using for both your affirmative and negative cases.  Underneath each contention, write down two questions you think expose a weakness in your contention.   Put these pages to the side and watch the lesson.

This week's lesson is available on the Great Debate's youtube page. It is also available on the Great Debate website in embedded format. Finally, you can see the videos right here (in 2 parts):

If you haven't already, be sure to visit The Great Debate website to request your free packet of outlines. If you are a student, you can request the student packet and coaches can request a coach packet with additional resources including a syllabus and answer keys.

Now it's time to practice cross-examination!  For each contention, take the questions you wrote down before the lecture and see if you can come up with some new ones.  Is there an argument you usually use that you can set up with a question?  Is there a piece of evidence you love to use you can prepare a question to direct your opponent to make a contrary point to the conclusion of that quotation?  Write down at least 10 new questions about your cases.

Now let's try these questions.  Have one debater stand up as the cross-examiner and another debater as the cross-examinee.  The questioner should ask questions for 2 minutes, and the other debater should do his best to answer the questions.  Switch to 2 new debaters.  The other debaters on the team should keep watching and try to identify whether the cross examiner is asking questions and letting her opponent answer the questions.  The team should also make sure that the cross examinee is answering the question in a concise manner and trying to expand on the answer if the opponent lets him.  Keep switching debaters and rotate to new sides so every debater gets to cross-examine and be cross-examined at least one time on both the affirmative and negative side.

Finally, make a list of the arguments you set up and ask your teammates whether your questions successfully set up the arguments you wanted to prepare.

By now you should have read all of Coach Marko Djuranovic's Ultimate LD Handbook. Keep the book handy as a reference if you need it throughout the rest of your debate career.  For a brief recitation of some common LD values, I suggest this short post by the Debate Central team at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Finally, as homework, it's time to prepare for a couple debate rounds.  The next 2 weeks you will be debating your teammates.  Take some time this week to identify which questions you want to ask in cross examination and which arguments you want to make against your opponent.  Good luck preparing for our next couple debate rounds!

If you are interested in learning a form of debate other than Lincoln-Douglas value debate, The Great Debate is a wonderful textbook for policy debate written by the teacher in these videos. The Great Debate provides training in the basics of debate and includes information for debaters who have already learned the fundamentals and are looking for more intermediate level training. The Great Debate has a teacher's guide (coming soon) which includes lesson plans and additional material for coaches. For more information about The Great Debate, visit our website. We also have produced a video training series for Public Forum Debate. The public forum series is another free resource from The Great Debate.

LD Training Week 13 - The Clash of Values

Welcome to week 13 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today's lesson is entitled "The Clash of Values." In Week 10 we talked about how values and value criterion should be more than just an introduction to your case.  The value and value criterion are integral parts of your debate round.  Not only should the value be the focus of your debate round, but the best way to win the debate is to show that your value is the superior value in the debate round.

We've already discussed how to debate the value and value criterion, but this lecture is more focused on how to compare and contrast your value and value criterion with your opponent's value and value criterion.  Once you have attempted to explainhow your value is superior, how your opponent's value is not applicable to the resolution, how your criterion is the preferable way to measure whether a value has been reached, or how your opponent's value criterion is simply a restatement of their value and doesn't measure anything, you have gotten yourself started along the path of clashing values.  However, before the debate round is over you need to provide clear impacts to your judge and audience to help them understand why your value and value criterion are not only a good way to evaluate the resolution, but the most preferred way.

Before we start today's lesson, get a piece of paper and write down the value and value criterion you have been using for your affirmative and negative cases.  Flow them as if they were presented in the 1AC and the NC.  Leave lots of space so you can put arguments under each value and value criterion.  On a second page, write down 3 reasons you think your affirmative value is superior to your negative value.  Do the same thing with your negative value superior to your affirmative value.  Put these pages to the side and watch the lesson.

This week's lesson is available on the Great Debate's youtube page. It is also available on the Great Debate website in embedded format. Finally, you can see the videos right here:

If you haven't already, be sure to visit The Great Debate website to request your free packet of outlines. If you are a student, you can request the student packet and coaches can request a coach packet with additional resources including a syllabus and answer keys.

We now know how important it is to actually compare and contrast our values.  Now it's time to try to clash some values.  Divide into groups of 2 students.  One person should be affirmative and the other should be negative.  Read the value and value criterion sections of your respective cases as well as the tags/section headings of your contentions (out loud) and flow the arguments.  Take 5 minutes of "prep time" and think up 2 reasons your value and value criterion are superior to your opponent's.  Come up with 2 ways your contentions would stand up under your opponent's value and value criterion.  Come up with 2 ways your opponent's contentions cannot defeat your contentions under your value and value criterion.  And finally, identify two ways your value and value criterion are best upheld under your value and criterion.  Next, use 3-point refutation and respond to your opponent's value and value criterion, show how your value and value criterion are stronger, concede your opponent's value and criterion and show how your contentions still win, show how your opponent's contentions can only win under their value and crieterion, and remind the judge how great your contentions fit into your wonderful value and criterion.  Be sure to flow all the arguments.  Take 5 more minutes of prep time and think up responses to your opponent's arguments and then use 3-point refutation to reply to those.  Be sure to keep flowing.  If you have time, continue this pattern without any additional prep time for another round for both speakers.

By now you should have read all of Coach Marko Djuranovic's Ultimate LD Handbook. Keep the book handy as a reference if you need it throughout the rest of your debate career.  For a brief recitation of some common LD values, I suggest this short post by the Debate Central team at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Finally, as homework, review your flows from today's exercise.  Research and write a response to each argument you heard in your practice.  Also, write down 2 different value and value criterion impacts for each contention in your pro and con cases.  Last, read a few articles (check out the Great Debate on twitter for links to articles on this year's LD topic!) and see if you find any other values playing a role in the writings of the experts in your field.

Have a great week and we'll see you next week for our fourteenth debate lesson, "Cross Examination" where we'll discuss the hardest part of a debate to prepare - cross examination.

If you are interested in learning a form of debate other than Lincoln-Douglas value debate, The Great Debate is a wonderful textbook for policy debate written by the teacher in these videos. The Great Debate provides training in the basics of debate and includes information for debaters who have already learned the fundamentals and are looking for more intermediate level training. The Great Debate has a teacher's guide (coming soon) which includes lesson plans and additional material for coaches. For more information about The Great Debate, visit our website. We also have produced a video training series for Public Forum Debate. The public forum series is another free resource from The Great Debate.

LD Training Week 6 - Value Structure & Value Criterion

Welcome to week 6 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today's lesson is entitled "Value Structure & Value Criterion" This 2-video lecture gives you an understanding of how "values" are used in "value debate" and discusses how we can determine who won a debate round based on theri values. This lecture is indispensable to any new value debater - it gives you the keys to the world of Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Before you watch the video, participate in the following exercise:

Assume you are the coach of your high school's basketball team. At the beginning of the season you are told that you must select a team of only tall somewhat slow players or a team of only short quick players. Your objective as a team is obviously to win as many games as possible.

Which team would you select?

Why?

Write down 7 reasons having a team of all short (or all tall) players will make your team best able to win games.

As we've said before, value statements rank ideas or beliefs against one another. A debater must be able to articulate a value, provide a mechanism for measuring that value, and demonstrate the superiority of the value in order to win a value debate round. The mechanisms for encouraging a debate on values is the use of a value criterion. The criterion provides concrete measurement of how close we are to reaching a given value. Great debaters don't just understand what value they are using, they understand the strengths and weaknesses of that value in relation to other values which might be employed in the round.

This week's lesson is available on the Great Debate's youtube page. It is also available on the Great Debate website in embedded format. Finally, you can see the videos right here:

If you haven't already, be sure to visit The Great Debate website to request your free packet of outlines. If you are a student, you can request the student packet and coaches can request a coach packet with additional resources including a syllabus and answer keys.

Now let's see if we understand how value statements apply in a debate round. Get your basketball coach exercise back out. Everyone that picked short players is on team "S" and everyone that picked tall players is on team "T." Compare your reasons with the other members of your team and come up with the 15 top reasons your team will present.

Here's where the value and criterion come in. The value you will be debating is "winning basketball games" and the value criterion is "scoring more points than your opponent." See, you can measure how likely you are to win games by how many more points than your opponent you score. Now group your 15 reasons into 4 or 5 "contentions" that all show how a short or tall team will be best able to win the games.

Each debater should take a turn presenting at least 2 arguments in favor of his or her side. The arguments should be in the form: "Tall players will be able to block more shots of their opponent and will thus prevent the other team from scoring. Preventing your opponent from scoring allows fewer points (criterion) which will ultimately lead to more wins for our team (impact the value)." If you wish, feel free to reply to one another's arguments after each debater has had the opportunity to present their reasons and apply them to the value and criterion.

After you watch the video, be sure you download Coach Marko Djuranovic's Ultimate LD Handbook. Read pages 34-54 before next week's lecture. Don't worry if it doesn't all make sense. You are just trying to understand the big picture right now.

Finally, as homework, make a list of the arguments you think support the resolution and are strong against the resolution.  Next look at the list of values from week 3's handout.  Do you see any values that would be furthered by the arguments you already have?  If you can link your arguments to a value, take the next step and try to figure out how you would measure your value - what would you use for your criterion?  Try to have 3 different value and criterion combinations ready for next week and try to have 3 arguments that you would use for each of these sets (9 arguments total).

Have a great week and we'll see you next week for our seventh debate lesson, "Refutation and Rebuttals"

If you are interested in learning a form of debate other than Lincoln-Douglas value debate, The Great Debate is a wonderful textbook for policy debate written by the teacher in these videos. The Great Debate provides training in the basics of debate and includes information for debaters who have already learned the fundamentals and are looking for more intermediate level training. The Great Debate has a teacher's guide (coming soon) which includes lesson plans and additional material for coaches. For more information about The Great Debate, visit our website. We also have produced a video training series for Public Forum Debate. The public forum series is another free resource from The Great Debate.