Starting Your Team

 First Practices

Introduction

The first practices each year are an opportunity for students to get to know each other. They’re also an opportunity for you to set the tone for the full year, so you’ll want to make sure that every student feels heard. Debate can be intimidating, both for instructors and for students, so it’s important to create a welcoming atmosphere to begin the year.

Icebreakers are a great way for students to get to know one another. We’ve included a handful of debate-themes activities to help start the year, and we’ve also attached a lesson plan to help you define the teams’ rules with your students.

Learning Objectives

In this section, students should:

  • Learn each other’s names

  • Familiarize themselves with each other

  • Get to know their coach

  • Understand the rules necessary to maintain a healthy environment and the consequences for breaking them.

Points of Improvement

As a teacher, you know that some students won’t want to talk at the start of the year, while others will want to talk too much! Here are some things to look out for as you kick off your practices:

  • Watch out for quiet students. Lots of people are shy in new environments, and plenty of great debaters are still shy after years of debate. You don’t have to love public speaking to be good at it! Encourage quiet students to participate in icebreaker activities, although there’s no need to force them to open up.

  • Watch out for loud students. Boisterousness and confidence are important for debaters, but it’s important to not let a few students dominate your practices. You can encourage them to work with quieter students in a group to increase healthier levels of participation.

Signs of Mastery

Here are some positive signs that your first practices are going well:

  • Students are respecting the rules set at the beginning of the year.

  • Each student knows each other’s name on the team, even if they’re not friends with each other.

  • Once quiet students are more willing to participate in classroom activities. Once quiet students are more willing to participate in classroom activities.

  • Loud students know that debate is a team activity and learn to work with others and to be aware of their teammates.

Lesson Plans