15 minutes before Class:

--Assist in greeting parents and students and bring them into the building

--Go to your room

--Greet Kids and do at the beginning of your lab

USE Climb Entries Seattle U Tournament - Google Sheets TO DO ATTENDANCE

Then Prepare the students for the Tournament:

1. Go over Logistics with the students.

Make each kid show you their Tournament Dashboard and that it is favorited/bookmarked.

DASHBOARD SU SPEECH DEBATE EVENTS

Go through each relevant part of the Dashboard—clicking it and showing what is there noting that students can go on fri, sat, or sun and each day has its own dashboard.

Answer student questions.

2. Get the kids into their teams.

Identify—means you have the kids raise their hands and write it down!

Identify who is 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd speaker.

Identify who gives 2 speeches if you have 2 speakers.

3. Make the kids show their Prop and Opp Contentions on each topic.

Make sure:

The Prop Cases have fully developed contentions especially impacts.

The Opp Cases are a winning strategy against the Prop cases.

4. Practice having the kids respond to contentions.

Ask the kids—how many minutes does the First Opp need to spend responding to the Prop Case? (answer is two minutes)

State a contention (on the prepared topic), have one kid respond.

Comment on the kids’ responses. LOOK FOR THESE 2 KEY THINGS:

1. They need AT LEAST 3 AND PREFERABLY 4 or 5 RESPONSES

2. Their responses must as a whole, show their opponent’s argument is wrong, not very strong/important, that their case idea better solves the issue raised in the contention, and/or their arguments are more important than the opposition’s contention.

Then go to the next kid and state a different contention (on one of the topics).

Go through each and every kid doing this.

YOU PROBABLY CAN’T GET THROUGH ALL OF THE PREPARATION AND YOU MAY HAVE YOUR OWN BUT HERE THE ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED PRACTICE DRILLS

Jim’s advice: Young debaters biggest problems are 1) they don’t do POIs/they aren’t very good at them; 2) they don’t defend and weigh their arguments very well. Usually, that would be my highest priority.

5. Practice defending contentions.

Ask the kids—how many minutes does the Second Prop and Second Opp need to spend responding and defending? (answer is three minutes). Maximum two minutes presenting new contentions.

Instructor: Ask a student what their contention is, you as the instructor, make 2 responses against it. Go through each and every kid doing this.

Then, each kid presents their defense.

Comment on the kids’ responses. LOOK FOR THESE 2 KEY THINGS:

1. They need to restate their contention—making it persuasive again.

2. They need to respond convincingly to each of the opponent’s responses

3. They point out Dropped arguments and they show why their argument is still true AND why it is so important.

6. Practice weighing.

Instructor: Tell the kids that they’ve heard the contentions people are presenting. They need to show why their/their team’s contentions are stronger and more important than their opponents.

Then, each kid presents their weighing.

Comment on the kids’ weighing. LOOK FOR THESE 2 KEY THINGS:

1. They need to briefly state their strong argument is stronger than ___ they should VERY briefly restate the title of their opponent’s best argument(s).

2. They should give reasons their ARGUMENT is stronger.

NOT GOOD REASONS
“We worked harder.”
“We had better sources.” (unless the opponent sources are REALLY bad, no one cares)

“We had more arguments.” (so what? 18 weak arguments does NOT outweigh 1 very strong argument)

YES GOOD REASON

“Saving lives is more important than cost because 1) human lives are valuable and people can handle the cost; 2) we showed the cost is a good investment that will benefit people and the economy; and 3) we ultimately save money because less health issues, better productivity.”

7. Practice Points of Information.

Instructor: Remind the kids that each of them should try to make one POI against each opposing speaker. Have one kid present their case. Have the other kids do POIs.

Then, break into 2 people. One person presents their case. The other person does POIs. Then, switch.

8. Practice Flowing.

Instructor: Present a 1 minute case and have the other students flow it AND write responses.

9. What each speaker does during prep

Instructor: Talk about what the speakers should do during prep time. Simulate a prep time—Give a topic, they have 5 minutes to prepare.

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