Junior debate club is a rewarding experience for both teachers and students. It’s the perfect outlet for discussing hot topics, sharing of ideas, and learning new perspectives. In this article, I explain everything you need to know about starting a junior debate club for beginners, so that you can get starting planning activities and hosting classroom debate rounds in no time. Let’s dive in!
Click here to download my FREE debate topics printable to get started now.
“Healthy disagreement, debate, leading to compromise has always been the American way.”
– Donald L. Carcieri
Before We Begin
Here are a few basic principles to follow when starting a junior debate club:
Find your entry point
If your club has yet to be approved, this is an obvious first step. Find your entry point! Express interest in starting a club to your supervisor and make sure to explain how it could benefit your school. You never know when an opportunity may arise, so put some feelers out and see what happens!
Keep it simple
Avoid getting bogged down with the technical aspects of debate early on. Instead, focus on getting students talking, arguing, and judging as quickly as possible. Junior debate club is best (and most fun) when it engages students by forcing them to participate in meaningful discussions, so make debate the foundation of your class and keep it simple.
Introduce accountable talk
Introducing accountable talk will help you maintain order in your junior debate club. Sentence frames such as “I agree with __________, because __________” and “I respectfully disagree with __________, because __________” will encourage respectful conversations where students feel safe expressing themselves. Routinely teach this foundational principle to keep your club healthy and educational.
Teach technical concepts gradually
Debate-specific ideas, especially those involving jargon, should be introduced slowly. Give students time to master their accountable talk, body language, speech organization, and other foundational skills before bombarding them with technical concepts. Bring advanced ideas in one by one and allow time for them to digest before moving on to another.
Junior Debate Class Structure
Bellringer (5 minutes)
Begin class with an attention-grabbing bellringer. This could be a writing prompt to help students organize their thoughts or a question for leading into your lesson. Example writing prompts/questions include:
- Is a hotdog a sandwich? Write your response in complete sentences and be sure to include claims, evidence, and reasoning.
- In debate, the process of asking questions to your opponent about their arguments is called “cross-examination.” What does the term “cross-examination” imply about the goal of questioning during debates?
Set a timer for 5 minutes and monitor students as they complete the activity. Give individual feedback and ask questions to help them fully develop their opinions and thoughts on the bellringer.
Discussion / Instruction (10-15 minutes)
In our junior debate club, we open the class for discussion after opinion-based bellringers. For example, with prompts such as “Is a hotdog a sandwich,” we have students share their opinions one by one. We also challenge them to defend their positions through cross-examination and teach accountable talk by providing them with sentence frames for reference while sharing.
Alternatively, you can use bellringers to probe students’ prior knowledge and segway into instruction. This is helpful if you feel the need to teach new debate ideas and/or concepts. In one scenario, we introduced types of debate speeches (eg. constructive and rebuttal). In another, we walked our debates through the process of note-taking during debates, aka “flowing.”
Depending on the needs of your class, you may opt to try something different. Either way, this format is easy to follow and especially useful when you’re underprepared. See what works for you–the possibilities are endless!
Whole or Small Group Activity (30 minutes)
Students should have a chance to debate in nearly every class. It is a junior debate club for beginners, after all, and if students don’t get to experience what they signed up for, they may want out. In small classes, we like to facilitate 1v1 mini-debates where everyone gets to participate. In mini-debates, students are always either debating or serving as a judge, and everyone has the opportunity to share their thoughts. Two students go head to head in a debate, and judges tell who they voted for and why at the end. This format works extremely well and allows students to practice any new skills you teach at the beginning of class. If you need help getting started, CLICK HERE to download our FREE printable list of mini-debate topics!
Other activities you could try out include:
- Four Corners
- Line Debate
- Extemporaneous Speaking
- Policy Debate
- Cross-Examination Debate
- Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- Public Forum Debate
Some of these are quite advanced but can be introduced as you build your club. The key is scaffolding students over time and trying new things when you feel they’re ready!
Exit Ticket and Clean-up (10 minutes)
End your junior debate club meetings with an exit ticket and built-in time for classroom cleanup. Asking simple questions about what students learned during class can help you pinpoint areas where students need more instruction. If your class is out of order, this is the perfect time to tidy up and prepare for whatever comes next.
Final Words
Creating a junior debate club for beginners is the perfect way to provide a healthy outlet for students who love expressing their opinions. It’s also a noble undertaking you’ll find highly rewarding, and students will love you for it!
Have you already started your journey as a debate coach? Got questions or comments that will benefit our community of educators? Make sure to leave them below!
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