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Middle School Novice Curriculum Guide
What is a Debate Round?
A debate round takes place in a classroom. You’ll be assigned to defend either the affirmative or negative position. You’ll get to debate each side twice at a debate tournament. You and your partner will sit on one side of the room, and your opponents will sit on the other. There is a judge, who is usually a teacher, parent, or more experienced debate, in the back of the room. It’s your job to get that judge to vote for you.
To do so, you’ll have to be familiar with and read your evidence packet, which is what the debate is about. Have you ever tried giving a presentation in class without doing any work on it? I hope not. It won’t go well, just like your debate round won’t go well if you haven’t prepared!
You’ll also have to give your two speeches. You’ll give both a constructive speech and a rebuttal speech. A constructive speech constructs your arguments – that’s when you’ll set up the key points you’ll use in the rest of the round. They last four minutes, and you’ll have to read the pieces of evidence from the packet to establish your arguments. There are places where you should fill in the blanks using DR. MO, however, but those speeches are mostly pre-made – but you’ll still have to finish your speech in time!
A rebuttal speech lasts two minutes, and that’s when you’ll rebuts your opponents’ arguments using what you have already read. You’ll want to prove to the judge why your side matters more than their side through impact comparison, and you should pick and choose only your best arguments to do so. Unlike constructive speeches, you shouldn’t pre-write all of these before your debate round. Instead, you should have an idea of what arguments you’d like to use, and you should write your speech down during the round. Each team gets five minutes of prep time to work on these speeches during the round.
Also, you must take notes on what your opponents say. In debate, that’s called flowing. You’ll have some flow sheet in your tournament workbook to keep track of what’s said in each speech. It’s important to take notes because you’ll need them to prepare your rebuttals and to ask cross-examination questions.