DEBATE CAMPS: THEY AREN'T JUST FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ANYMORE

by Scott Walker and Dr. Robert S. Littlefield

Participation in debate ac- as possible in a short amount of tion and selection, flow sheet- tivities is always a challenge for time. However, it was not the ing, organization, and cross ex- students. In order to get a head amount done that mattered. amination. Full rounds of com- start, many find themselves us- Quality of instruction was petition were not held because ing some of their summer vaca- stressed more than gathering the students needed to know tion to gather evidence, discuss great quantities of evidence or what debate was before they issues, and develop case ideas. writing complete cases. Because could be competitive. There Designed to meet a wide variety over half of the students who were opportunities for speaking of needs, these institutes offer participated had no previous that tied the various skills and carefully developed content for exposure to debate, the rational activities together. high school students at begin- for proceeding slowly and ex- With this philosophy in ning and advanced levels. One plaining clearly was appropri- mind, the teachers developed group with less opportunity for ate and justified. The teachers strategies to help the younger exposure to these institutes is emphasized the importance of students understand the basics the junior high/middle school viewing debate as a legitimate of debate. The camp schedule debater. Levels of maturity, and worthwhile activity that provided both morning and af- cognitive abilities and self con- would be benefit to them in ternoon sessions with lessons fidence may be some reasons other school-related context. offered in one to two hour why junior high students have blocks of time. This enabled the shied away from these insti- Summer insti- concepts to be introduced and tutes. But, summer debate insti- tutes are one way activities to follow that gave the tutes are one way to include the to include the students an opportunity to prac- many junior high/middle school tice what they had learned. Re- students in the debate pre- many junior high lating debate terminology to the season. /middle school students' world, giving much in- In August, St. Anthony students in the dividual attention in helping Middle School in Fargo, North debate preseason with evidence, and involving Dakota, offered a debate camp students in the cross-examina- to introduce potential team tion process proved to be the members in the seventh and Thus, the students learned why most productive and popular eighth grades to the principles debate should deserve their con- aspects of the institute for the and practices of academic de- tinual time and effort as their students. The process of relat- bate. The camp was a positive schedules become busier. This ing debate to the students' world experience for the students. In variable of justifying debate's was critical. The students were order to understand why this legitimacy as an activity may comfortable talking about is- debate camp for younger stu- have been what separated this sues they understood. The staff dents proved to be a success, the institutional philosophy from told several hypothetical stories underlying philosophy of the many others. Most institutes requiring problems to be solved, institute, selective activities, have predisposed audiences of terms to be defined, causes to be and the student and teacher re- students who are committed to determined, and advantages or actions will be presented. debate. This camp did not have disadvantages to be drawn. Af- The underlying philosophy that luxury. There was no as- ter going through the process for this debate camp was prob- sumption that all participant several times, the students were ably similar to those of other would actually be on the debate able to extrapolate their previ- institutes designed for high team. As such, the teachers ous knowledge to more abstract school students. An emphasis were also recruiters. Similarly, debate terms. Discussing inher- on individual attention and a the idea of instructing true ency, solvency, topicality, and strong focus on basic skills per- "novices" kept the camp's phi- harms correctly was exciting vaded all aspects of the camp. losophy firmly on the basics, and refreshing for the staff, This is certainly not all that un- which included traditional given the middle school status usual. Nor was it unusual that speaker roles, argument con- of the participants. The stu- the teachers tried to do as much struction, evidence identifica- dents enjoyed the success of then being able to explain any from the staff and participants, issue in debate terminology. The the camp was a positive experi- camp staff worked to build on ence. Students found the con- what was known to teach the cepts challenging, the strategies unfamiliar aspects of academic and practices manageable, and debate. Once the students knew the potential competition with the terms of the resolution, they other teams as stimulating and were able to find evidence and exciting. In the span of only definitions to fit with those three days, the students pro- terms. Individual attention in gressed about as far as they this area was critical. The stu- might have in a month of once- dents needed guidance and reas- a-week after school coaching surance about the quality of evi- sessions. This was possible be- dence they were finding. Once cause the students worked for their self-confidence grew, they extended periods of time on were anxious to build their own skills they needed. Their success arguments and present them. was also due to the support of The process of finding evi- the staff with an instructor to dence was a long but important student ratio of one to three or one to learn. The students were four. Peer support also helped. given time to read articles on the Because most of the students topic and help determining were roughly at the same expe- what kinds of things would be rience level, they learned to- considered as good evidence by gether and support one another judges or audiences. Articles as they absorbed the parts of the dealing with general issues were debate process. The students read, provided, and discussed as wanted to be individually suc- a group. Individual attention cessful, but they also wanted to was given to each student for be a part of the group or team. extended periods of time as they The idea of self and group suc- marked, cut/copied the evi- cess also gave legitimacy to de- dence and began simple organi- bate in the eyes of the students. zational files. They worked in- A supportive climate, based dividually but had the opportu- primarily upon the basics of de- nity to ask to help. Constant re- bate and individual attention, inforcement helped the stu- prepared a group of students to dents to pick up on the evidence begin participation in the de- identification process quickly. bate activity. The students Once evidence was found learned best by drawing upon the students began constructing their own experiences and en- arguments in the form of joyed putting the various ele- sample blocks. They orally pre- ments of debate together, pre- sented these to their peers and senting arguments, and ques- were asked questions about tioning one another. The insti- their evidence and line of analy- tute was short but beneficial sis. The introduction of cross ex- and achieved its goal. The stu- amination skills worked very dents learned that debate is an well to solidify the argumenta- activity worth their time, and tion process. Not only were the they learned a lot about debate students able to construct their itself in the process. own arguments, they also found flaws and strong points in the (Scott Walker debated for arguments of the other students. Watertown (SD) HS and is Synthesizing the components of student teaching at Sioux the debate process gave the stu- Falls-Washington (SD) HS. Dr. dents the opportunity to be suc- Robert Littlefield hosted the cessful and the needed experi- Fargo Nationals while acting ence and self-confidence to con- dean at NDSU. He voluntarily tinue working independently. coaches at St. Anthony Middle According to comments School in Fargo, ND.)