Korean Job Discussion Forums

[theSeeker]

anyone have any tips on how to effectively teach a debate esl class to advanced high school girls? i'm doing ok, but could use some pointers. do you suggest putting them in teams opposite to their actual feelings on the topic? so they can kind of detach their emotions from the argument. some people suggest this. what else can you suggest?? how do you do it? what have you tried? any online resources you can point me to?

thanks.

[Hollywoodaction]

Lucky you, I teach university freshmen. The only debate going on in those classes between the students is to know who will sit at the back of the class to hide from the teacher.

[Ody]

i would like to learn, huh, teach debate.
how did you get started? did you take it when you were a student?

' looking forward to reading other's feed back on the subject.

[JacktheCat]

[Zenpickle]

One of my most favorite former jobs was producing a syndicated political talk show and debating guests regularly. It was tough sometimes because there were moments we'd have a guest on regarding a topic I didn't feel passionately about or we'd have a policy junkie, and I'd have to become an expert on the subject in a day or two to prep notes for the host.

Like writing classes, I'd concentrate on getting the students to figure out what opinions they have. Introduce them to controversial topics and give them editorials from both sides. They'll hopefully find their voices after that, and teaching this class -- man, I wish I was doing that.

[Hollywoodaction]

[camelina]

Does anyone have a website of topics and background reading for debates?

[sid]

http://www.debatabase.com/alphaindex.asp

[denverdeath]

[jacl]

Debate begins with middle school students.

Teacher: "What do you want to play: Poker or One Card?"

Students: "One card, One card!"

Teacher: "Ok then. Poker it is!"

Debate over.

[Hater Depot]

One topic that worked great for my class of advanced middle schoolers was "Are ghosts real?" One of our girls was quite the young rationalist.