Lesson video

Hello everyone and welcome to your English lesson for today, and we are going to be preparing for a debate today.

We're going to be learning how you prepare for a debate.

So let's get started.

And the outcome for our lesson today is, I can follow a guide to help prepare for a debate.

I can follow a guide to help prepare for a debate.

The key words which will guide us on our own learning journey are generate, order, assign, liaise.

One more time.

My turn, your turn.

Generate, order, assign, liaise.

Great, some words in there that you might not know yet, but you will by the end of this lesson.

Let's have a look at the definitions for these key words.

Generate means to produce or create something.

To order is to arrange things in a particular way.

To assign means to allocate or designate.

And liaise, that means to communicate with someone else.

Generate, order, assign, liaise, very important in today's lesson.

So the lesson outline for our lesson today, which is preparing for a debate, we are going to look at generating points, first of all, and then we're going to be moving on to ordering points.

Generating points.

Being well-prepared for a debate is an important way to give a team more chance of success.

The better prepared you can be, the more chance you have of winning the debate.

Once the motion has been shared with both teams, it's time to decide who will be the proposition and who will be the opposition.

Now this is usually done in a fair way, such as tossing a coin.

Often you wouldn't allow one team to choose what they'd rather be because that wouldn't be fair.

So it's done in a fair way.

Tossing a coin is an example.

When both teams know whether they are for or against the motion, proposition or opposition, it's time to start preparing.

And to do this, the two teams will separate so they cannot overhear each other's preparations.

It wouldn't be very fair if the two teams were preparing side by side and could hear each other generating points and writing their speeches.

That wouldn't be very fair.

So the two teams need to separate either into opposite sides of the room so they can't hear each other, or separate rooms would be even better.

Once they're on their own, each team can start preparing by doing four important things.

Now let me tell you what those four things are.

The four things you need to do when you're preparing to debate are generate order, assign, liaise.

Our keywords are back, generate, order, assign, liaise.

To help us remember this guide, we can use the acronym GOAL.

Generate, order, assign, liaise, G-O-A-L, GOAL.

Let's check our understanding of the learning we've done so far.

What is the acronym that helps the team to remember how to prepare for a debate? Is it PEPS, GOAL, or ASAP? Is it A, PEPS, B, GOAL, or C, ASAP? Pause the video and make your decision now.

Welcome back.

Okay, so A, PEPS.

Now that sounds really familiar.

We know that we will follow the PEPS structure when we are making a speech in a debate.

PEPS stands for point, explanation, proof, summary, but that's not the one we need to help us when we're preparing for a debate.

The other option that was not the correct answer was ASAP, stands for as soon as possible.

We were looking for the correct answer, which of course is GOAL, generate, order, assign, liaise.

Well done if you've got that correct.

Following GOAL will guide a team from the position of having no points at all to being ready to make their speeches.

A team should generate as many points as they can.

So that's the G of GOAL, generate.

Your team need to come up with as many different points as you can, and we're gonna look at that in detail in today's lesson.

Then they should order those points.

They should put them into a particular order.

And again, we'll be looking at that today.

Next, they must assign a point or points to each speaker.

So this is where those points will be given out to particular people so that that person knows they are making a speech using that point.

This is a good way to ensure that not everybody is doing the same point.

Finally, they should liaise with each other whilst writing their speeches to ensure they do not repeat each other's arguments.

Liaising, it means to communicate.

When you are writing your speech in a debate, it's really important you're communicating with your teammates to ensure that you are not overlapping each other.

You're not repeating the same points.

Really important, liaising.

Generate means to produce or create something.

In a debate, a team will be generating points.

Generating as many points as possible will help a team try and ensure they have thought of all likely arguments for or against the motion.

You want to come up with as many points as you possibly can.

Let's check our understanding.

What is a team trying to generate when preparing for a debate? Are they generating proof, points, or explanations? A, proof, B, points, or C, explanations? What is a team trying to generate when they're preparing for a debate? Pause the video and make your decision now.

Welcome back.

Okay.

So we know that generate is the first part of GOAL.

That is when you are trying to generate not proof, that's part of the PEPS structure.

Not explanations.

They are going to come after points.

Points is the thing that we are trying to generate when we're preparing for a debate.

Our proposition team are generating points for this motion.

The motion is this house would make all children attend afterschool clubs.

Our proposition team is generating points for that motion.

The team work together to suggest as many points as possible that could be used in the debate.

These do not have to be fully formed or written down in sentences.

They are just initial ideas.

Do not worry about trying to write down a full sentence to share your points.

It's just a quick couple of words, which may be a way for you to be able to write that point down, write that idea down.

One person should be appointed as scribe to write the points down so that points are not forgotten or lost.

So the motion is this house would make all children attend afterschool clubs.

And here's some examples of some points.

Well, it would help working parents, of course.

Can you see only three words there? It is not a full sentence.

I've not written down, "I agree with the motion because all children attending afterschool clubs would help working parents be able to continue working longer into the evening." I haven't written that.

I don't need to.

At this stage, I'm just writing a few words, which will help me to remember that point.

So helps working parents.

Gives children more time to be active.

Good point.

Opportunities to try different sports, of course.

If you're going to an afterschool club every day, you might be able to try different sports.

Opportunities to try different crafts.

So you might be able to do different crafts as well.

Learn life skills.

Perhaps it'll be a cookery club that you might be attending.

Chance to socialise with children outside of their class.

Really good point.

Often at school, you don't get to spend much time with children in other classes.

So therefore, afterschool clubs are usually a bit more mixed.

That would be a great idea.

Keeps children entertained, of course.

They're really fun afterschool clubs, can help children be entertained, could help with academic performance, could help children's learning.

They might be attending homework clubs or a maths club, for example.

Reduces screen time.

So instead of going home and watching TV or perhaps using a tablet, children will be in an afterschool club, and they might be running around in the playground or doing a craft activity.

Chance to complete homework with adult support.

Of course, we could have a homework club that the children could attend, and there could be adults there that can help children with their homework.

So they're all examples of points that we have generated.

Let's check our understanding.

Points must be fully formed and written in full sentences when generating.

Is that true, or is that false? Points must be fully formed and written in full sentences when generating.

True or false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see if you were right.

Congratulations if you said false, they do not need to be written in full sentences when you are generating, but let's move our learning on to justifying our answer with, A, points are only rough ideas at this stage and maybe written in note form, or B, points should always be written as full sentences to help prepare for the debate.

Pause the video and decide, A or B, for you to justify your answer.

And welcome back.

So we know that points do not have to be written as full sentences.

So it is A, they are only rough ideas at this stage, and they can be written in note form.

That's absolutely fine.

Let's have a go ourselves.

I would like you to generate as many points as you can for the opposition.

The motion is the same motion that we've been looking at.

This house would make all children attend afterschool clubs, but this time, you are for the opposition.

Whereas when I were practising , I generated points for the proposition.

Remember, they do not need to be fully-formed points or full sentences.

Just ideas that could be developed into strong arguments.

A few words is enough to help you remember what your point that you generated was.

So pause the video and generate as many points as you can for the opposition for the motion, this house would make all children attend afterschool clubs.

Over to you.

Okay, welcome back.

I am so interested to see how you got on.

So I'm gonna show you some examples that you may have used.

And if you have used any of these, perhaps you can tick them off on your own list.

So generating as many point as you can for the opposition.

The motion, one more time, this house would make all children attend after afterschool clubs.

Here are some of the points you may have generated.

Less time for children to do their homework.

If they're attending afterschool clubs, it means they're not gonna get home till later, and that is less time to do their homework.

Good point.

Friends may be in different clubs, of course.

This could be splitting up social groups.

So you might have a best friend who you want to attend a club with, but they're in a different club.

And so you have to go to a different one.

Children will be tired after a full day at school.

Really good point.

A long day at school learning.

Perhaps you've got a PE lesson in there.

Maybe you've been on a trip, and now you're going to an afterschool club.

That's a lot for children.

Reduces time with family.

Children spend all day at school.

This is their time to be with their family.

If they're in an afterschool club, that is less time to be with their family.

Schools will need to pay staff to stay later and run the clubs.

Really clever point.

Who is running these clubs? School staff.

So therefore, they need to be paid to stay later.

Where is that money coming from? Is it from the school's budget? Financial cost of clubs.

Really nice.

So now we are honing in on that financial cost.

We are linking it to the impact it's going to have on the school if they are paying for afterschool clubs.

Siblings may not want to be in the same club.

Really nice.

If a brother and a sister, or two brothers, two sisters, their siblings, they are together in the same afterschool club, and they may not want to do that.

Very, very clever point.

Now last one.

Parents may not see their child's teacher at pickup.

Often with afterschool clubs, the teacher is not available when the children are picked up.

So therefore, that communication between a parent and a teacher, it's not going to be there.

And that's something which could impact a child's learning.

Perhaps the teacher isn't able to communicate something that they found difficult at school that day.

Very clever points, all of which that can be developed.

Okay, let's move on to our next part of our learning when we are preparing for a debate, and it is ordering points.

Once the team has generated as many points as they can, they should now begin ordering them.

Points should be ordered with priority given to those that are likely to be the most effective in a debate.

So we want to put our points in order with the most effective at the top, the least effective at the bottom.

The points at the top of the list are then assigned to speakers and become the points used in a debate.

Points at the bottom of the list, well, they will not be used, but that's because they are weaker than the ones at the top, so it makes sense.

A point could be considered most effective for various reasons.

It may provoke an emotional response from the audience.

So it may force the audience to feel a certain way, which might help you to persuade them and convince them to agree with you.

It has elements of health and safety involved.

It is very difficult to argue against health and safety.

If you make a convincing point that has links to health and safety, the opposing team will find it very difficult to make points of information against you for that.

It is particularly relevant to the audience.

If your audience is perhaps made up of children in your school and it is something that's very relevant to them and their lives, then that will be a good point to include.

It will involve some proof that is particularly strong.

So if you have some proof that is going to be very strong for that particular point, then that point is going to be effective and should be near the top of your list.

It is an area of expertise for one of the speakers.

Perhaps one of the speakers in your team is an expert at a particular topic.

Let's say that the motion was all about dogs being better than cats, and one of the speakers in your team had a dog.

Well, that would make them an expert in this field, and therefore, they would be a good person to take that point and run with it.

So that point should be near the top.

It will be particularly difficult to argue against.

And we talked about health and safety being one of these reasons, but there are other reasons that might make a point particularly difficult to argue against.

If it's difficult to argue against, it needs to be near the top of your list.

Let's check our understanding.

Which two of these could be reasons to consider a point to be stronger than another? Which two of these could be reasons to consider one point to be stronger than another? A, it will make the opposing team angry.

B, it will provoke an emotional response from the audience.

C, it has elements of health and safety involved.

Or D, it will be difficult to find proof for.

Pause the video and decide which two of these are reasons to consider one point stronger than another.

Over to you.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's see.

Let's start with A, it will make the opposing team angry.

Well, that's not a reason to consider a point to be near the top.

It might make the opposing team angry, but I wouldn't say that that would be a reason to consider a point to be more effective than another.

B, it will provoke an emotional response from the audience.

Absolutely.

If a point is going to provoke an emotional response from the audience, it is an effective point.

It's having an impact on the audience, and it should be in the top of your list.

C, it has elements of health and safety involved, or D, it would be difficult to find proof for.

One of these is correct, and one is incorrect.

If a point is difficult to find proof for, it's not going to be an effective point.

Finding proof for a point is important.

It's part of the PEPS structure.

So D is incorrect, which means C is correct.

It has elements of health and safety involved.

Very difficult to argue against the points which has links to health and safety.

Okay, so we're now going to have a go together.

I'll have a go first, and then you'll get the chance to order some points.

So I am a proposition speaker.

This house believes children should be taught more PE.

That is the motion.

There are three points that I have generated with my team.

My job now is to order them.

One, two, three, strongest to weakest.

The points are, it would help with children's health and fitness levels.

So children being taught more PE would help with children's fitness and health levels.

Children would get outside more.

And children learn more sports.

They are the three points.

So which one do I think is strongest? Well, I know how difficult it is to argue against health and fitness.

Learning more sports and getting outside are both good valid points, but I think number one has to be, children's health and fitness levels would improve if they were taught more PE, which would lead to children being fitter, healthier, less health issues.

You could then link that into less time off school, which would help with attendance, which would help with learning, and that's how we can close the circle.

We've started thinking about PE, and suddenly, we're talking about children's learning and the improvements it could make.

That's how we do good debating.

Number two, I think it's gonna be learning more sports.

I like the idea that children could learn lots of different sports and have those different sports with them, the knowledge of those sports throughout their whole lives, which means number three would be children getting outside more.

Of course, it's great to have children being outside, but they will do that through their playtime.

So I think that's my number three.

So I've ordered them from one, two, and three.

Number one, strongest, number two, next strongest, number three, weakest.

If I had to choose only one of these points to use in a debate, it would of course be number one.

Let's have a go, and you can choose how you would order these points.

So you are the opposition.

Same motion.

This house believes children should be taught more PE.

First point, it's difficult in the winter.

Getting outside into the playground can be challenging in winter, and it leads to perhaps sessions not being able to happen because the weather isn't good enough.

So that's why children shouldn't be taught more PE.

Children would lose valuable learning time.

Of course, if they are outside doing more PE, that has to come from the timetable somewhere.

So some subjects are going to be cut back.

So that's why that would be a good point for the opposition.

And can lead to injuries.

Sometimes children can get injured in PE.

They might fall over.

They might bump into someone else.

That could be a potential reason why more PE would not be a good thing.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause the video and order these, one, two, and three.

One being the strongest, three being the weakest.

Over to you.

And welcome back.

So let's see how you might have got on.

I think the strongest point here would have to be, children would lose valuable learning time.

Any link to learning could always work well in a debate.

Very hard to argue against.

Children losing valuable learning time is a big problem with this idea of having more PE.

Number two, is it gonna be injuries or difficult in the winter? Well, like I said, very difficult to go against health and safety, so number two is injuries.

That could again be linked to child gets injured in PE, needs to have time off school, which affects their learning.

Number three then, of course, would be difficult in the winter.

And I put this at number three because, yes, PE is difficult in the winter, but you could do PE inside.

Lots of schools now have multi-use surfaces, which are great even in the winter.

So that's why that's my number three.

Let's move on to a practise task.

I would like you to order these points from most to least effective.

We're going to continue with the same motion from earlier in this lesson.

This house would make all children attend afterschool clubs, and we are the opposition.

Here are the points that you will need to order.

Less time for children to do their homework.

Friends may be in different clubs.

Children will be tired after a day at school.

Reduces time with their family.

Schools will need to pay their staff to stay later and run the clubs.

Financial cost of clubs and the impact that will have on schools.

Siblings may not want to be in the same club, and parents may not see their child's teacher at pickup.

I would like you to remember what makes an effective point.

It might cause an emotional response from the audience.

There might be health and safety links.

There could be some very strong proof.

It might be an area of expertise for you or one of your teammates, or it could be very difficult to argue against.

So pause the lesson and have a go at ordering these points from strongest to weakest.

Over to you.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

And I'm gonna show you the order that I have done, and you'll be able to compare yours to mine.

You may have ordered it like this.

Number one, children will be tired after a day at school.

I thought this is really difficult to argue against because it can have so many different impacts on a child's life.

If they're tired after school and they're forced to go to an afterschool club, that is going to mean they're going to be even more tired the next day at school, which will have an impact on their education.

If they're very, very tired, they might actually be more susceptible to illnesses and be unwell, which means they'll be off school entirely, which will have a huge impact on their education.

They won't be able to enjoy the club because they'll be tired.

When they get home at night, they won't be able to enjoy their family time because they'll be really tired.

So this one I think gives you so many opportunities to develop and stretch that point out to be very convincing.

Reduces time with family, I put as number two.

This for me is one that can provoke an emotional response from the audience.

You can really play on the reduced time with family and how difficult that would be for both children and their parents.

Financial cost of clubs, really good one to be able to talk about the impact that this will have on schools and how that, again, will affect children's education.

Schools need to pay their staff to stay later.

Those two are very closely linked, so you might even be able to combine those two into one point.

Less time for children to do their homework.

You could talk about the stress that's going to cause on children getting home late from a club and then being able to do their homework in time.

Friends may be in different clubs.

That could be a nice one to talk about the social dynamics and how children might find it difficult if they didn't have a friend with them in the club.

Parents may not see their child's teacher at pickup.

Again, could be linked to education.

You might have had a difficult day at school, and the teacher isn't able to communicate that to your parents as easily.

And siblings may not want to be in the same club.

So this is the one I've put as my weakest one because I feel that it's still a point that I could use, but it's not one that's gonna be near the top of my list.

Let's summarise our excellent learning today.

An important part of preparing for a debate is generating points.

The points generated should be ordered from most to least effective to ensure the best points are included.

The most effective points are then assigned to different speakers, and the speakers should liaise with each other while writing their speeches to avoid repetition.

I feel that today, we have made so much progress in being ready to prepare for a debate.

Excellent work.

I will see you soon.