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 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 7 - Refutation

Welcome to week 7 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today's lesson is entitled "Refutation" This 2-video lecture gives you an understanding of how debate can be more than just repeating yourself, but can instead be an organized and interesting discussion.  This lecture is indispensable to any new value debater - it gives you the formula for responding to any argument whether in debate rounds or in your classroom.

Before you watch the video, consider any debate you have seen.  Don't limit yourself to a formal debate round.  What is the most frustrating thing that happens?  It's when a debate is disorganized and you don't know which arguments are supposed to be responding to the arguments of the other side.  Today, we'll learn the first step in making sure this kind of disorganization doesn't occur.  Later, we'll learn "Flowing" which is debate note taking.  That's the second piece of the organization puzzle.

As we've said before, an argument contains 3 vital pieces: A claim, a warrant, and an impact.  Each complete argument should be able to stand on its own and make a coherent point.  Refutation is the method of responding to an argument.  There are a few pieces of every refutation.  First, you must tell the audience which argument you're about to respond to.  This matters because formal debates give each team a few minutes of uninterrupted time to talk before any response - that means there will always be more than one argument on the table at any given time.  Second, you need to respond to the argument with an alternative argument.  What reasons do you have to reject the reasons presented by your opponent.  Finally, you must tell the audience why your argument is stronger or more useful to their analysis of the debate round.  All three steps put together are called "3-point refutation" and this method of replying to an argument will go a long way toward making your arguments winning arguments.

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 that you understand the techniques of refutation, let's put them into practice.  Divide into groups of 2 or 3 students.  Get out the arguments you have for the resolution.  The first students presents 2 arguments in favor of the resolution. The next student uses 3-point refutation (Do NOT forget the impact) to reply to the arguments.  Switch.  Continue until you have exhausted all the arguments you have on the affirmative side and then switch to the negative.  If you would like a bit more of a challenge, try to refute your classmate's refutation (Argument - Refutation of the argument - Refutation of the refutation of the argument).  When the whole class comes back together, everyone should try to present and refute one argument for the whole group.

After you watch the video, be sure you download Coach Marko Djuranovic's Ultimate LD Handbook. Read pages 28-34 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, take your list of the arguments from last week (the ones you think support the resolution and are strong against the resolution).  Write down 3-point refutation for each of these arguments.  Next, try to refute 1 refutation on each side.  Your homework should be a document with an argument (claim, warrant, impact) at the top of the page, your refutation below (identify the argument, respond with your argument, and impact the differences to your judge's vote), and finally your refutation to the refutation (3-point refutation of the 3-point refutation).

Have a great week and we'll see you next week for our eighth debate lesson, "Case Structure" where we'll get ready to write our debate case!

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.