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Year 4
An informal debate
I can take part in an informal debate.
New
New
Year 4
An informal debate
I can take part in an informal debate.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- A debate often involves speakers disagreeing with each other.
- The motion is the name for the belief or proposal that is being debated.
- The PEPS structure stands for: point, explanation, proof, summary.
- In a debate, a speaker will make a point and then explain it.
- Adding proof gives credibility to an argument.
Keywords
Point - an idea or reason to support your opinion
Explanation - giving reasons to help someone understand an opinion
Proof - refers to the evidence used to support an opinion
Summary - a brief recap of the main parts of a speech
Common misconception
Pupils may feel unprepared for the debate as the tasks leading up to Task C are verbal discussions.
Plan an additional lesson where pupils prepare their speech using the PEPS structure and give them time to rehearse and write down their ideas. Then, conduct the debate in a separate lesson.
As this is an informal debate, you can choose to structure your debate in a way that works best for your class or group. The Year 5 unit 'Introduction to debate', introduces a more formal structure, which includes the official terminology and roles.
Teacher tip
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on
Open Government Licence version 3.0
except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).Lesson video
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Starter quiz
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6 Questions
Q1.
What is a debate?
a performance on a stage
a group of people reading speeches
Q2.
What is an opinion?
explaining why a person thinks something
something that is true
Q3.
What is reasoning?
a structured argument between two teams
a view or belief that a person has
Q4.
An opinion must be justified in a debate with which of these?
another opinion
a counter-argument
Q5.
Which of the following is a suitable counter-argument to this opinion? 'Maths is more fun than writing because it involves numbers.'
I love working with numbers.
I agree that writing is less fun than maths.
Q6.
It is important to speak clearly and loudly in a debate so ...
... the other team feel scared.
... you can gain extra points by being the loudest speaker.
Exit quiz
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6 Questions
Q1.
What is structure?
the process of writing a list
a list of instructions
Q2.
Which of these are reasons why is it important to follow a structure when making a speech in a debate?
Using a structure helps an audience to hear the speaker.
Using a structure helps a speaker to make eye contact with the audience.
Q3.
Starting with the first, order these parts of the PEPS structure.
Q4.
What is the purpose of the explanation part of the PEPS structure?
It tells the audience what the speaker thinks or believes.
It summarises the speaker's argument.
Q5.
Finish this sentence: Proof can be defined as ...
telling people how to think.
something that can be argued with.
Q6.
What is the purpose of the 'summary' part in the PEPS structure?
to make a new point
to repeat the entire argument