"Take a parachute and......"

Debate Games and Exercises

1. "The Parachute Game"

Introduction

This game is inspired by the Father Ted episode "Flight into Terror" where the priests are trapped on a plane and they have only two parachutes to get people off the plane. In order to decide who will get them, Ted asks all the others to write a speech about why they should the parachute. Essentially, you are getting the students to recreate this situation.

This debate is primarily about develop the skill of making arguments in favour of a motion or an idea. It is particularly useful as grounds them in the real world (by getting them to advocate for a real person or thing) before they end up debating more abstract ideas.

Objectives

1.       Students will be able to argue for a particular position

2.       Students will develop their research skills and learn to use evidence to promote an argument

3.       Students will be able to convince their audience of the correctness of their position

Method

·         This is best used as a prepared exercise. Tell students a few days in advance that they will be speaking, so they can research their speech properly. This game works best with four or five students.

·         Explain to the students that they are to imagine they are on a plane full of famous figures from history. The plane will soon crash and there is only one parachute available.

·         Students are to imagine that they are any person from history and they have to write a speech (2 to 3 minutes) explaining why they should get the parachute.

·         Students then deliver their speeches to the whole group and the group votes for who they think should the parachute after they have all spoken.

Expansions

After you've done the above exercise with students, there are a number of ways that you expand it to use it in the future as students become more confident and skilled.

·         "I deserve it more than them" - after they've all spoken, get each of the speakers to explain why they should get the parachute over the other people. They must make reference to what other speakers have said and explain why their historic figure is more important than the others. This helps students work on their rebuttal.

·         Narrow the focus. Tell the students they have to pick someone from a particular category like sports stars or American presidents or Irish independence leaders etc. This allows for greater comparative arguments between the speakers.

·         Make it a life raft. Change the imaginary scenario to one where students have to advocate for the inclusion of something on to the last life raft which is leaving for humanity's new home. They have to argue for the importance of things like subjects in school, scientific inventions, films, sport teams and so on.

·         Use it in the classroom. This game can be used across the school to get students to engage in various aspects of subjects they are being taught: students arguing which character is most important is whatever play they are studying in English, which scientist has had the biggest impact on life through their work in science, what city students would want to live in geography and so on.  

Written by Mr. Gregg O'Neill

"I couldn't disagree more"

2. "I couldn't disagree more"

Introduction

This is great little activity to get students into the debating mood at the start of a training session or a fun way to wrap up a session at the end. It is intended to get them to work on their rebuttal skills and also gets them up and thinking on their feet, which is important for them which they are offered points of information during debates.

Objectives

1.       Students will be able to respond to or rebut arguments given by other speakers

2.       Students will be able to engage with the debate going on around them

3.       Students will work on their listening skills

4.       Students will learn to develop new and different arguments during a debate

Method

·         This is a game for everyone in the group.

·         The students all stand in a circle.

·         The first speaker speaks for one minute in favour of a particular idea or motion.

·         The next speaker has to immediately respond by saying "I couldn't disagree more....." and explaining why they disagree with what the speaker before them has just said and, if necessary, giving a new argument for their side.

·         Each speakers goes in turn around the circle. They all must speak for a minute and they cannot repeat an argument that has been made before them. If they break either of these rules, they have to sit down.

·         The game continues until there is only one student left standing.

Expansions

After you've done the above exercise with students, there are a number of ways that you expand it to use it in the future as students become more confident and skilled.

·         Rather than going around the circle to each student in turn, get the students to pass a ball around the circle, which means that they won't be able to predict when their turn will come so they have remain engaged throughout the whole exercise. 

Written by Gregg O'Neill 

"If I ruled the world!"

A Student's thoughts on DLR Lexicon Library

Different Learning Spaces!
On Thursday April 30th my class headed to the DLR LexiCon Library for a tour. When we got there we were greeted by Marian Keyes, a librarian, she showed us all around the library, she showed all the different levels in the library and different areas, such as the study areas and meeting rooms. There was also a stage area with seating for 101 people, a cafe and an outdoor area. Marian told us that they are going to be getting a 3D printer in the library along with a number of Apple Mac computers for use in the library. She also showed us how to take books out using a machine that scans a sticker on the inside of the book. You can also drop books back by scanning them and placing them on a converter belt that sorts them into boxes. All in all it was a very interesting and informative tour and I hope we can go back there soon.

Written by Harry Loakman 2nd Yr.

Role Reversal!

"Last Friday roles were switched when some of our first year French students got to see what a lesson is like for a teacher and vice versa. The first year class were asked to look over phrases that they had learned over the year with a view to teaching Mr Fitzmaurice the basics he would need for a trip to France. Prior to the lesson students had a brainstorming session to decide what expressions would be the most useful.

On the day, the boys were keen to present different phrases, and helped each other out when there was confusion. The new teachers got to show off what they had learned in the course of the year but also had to react  to the needs of their student, focusing on pronunciation and dealing with questions on unprepared sentences. Mr Fitzmaurice was an enthusiastic learner and was eager to use and practise the vocabulary covered by engaging in model conversations with his teachers. Every student got the chance to contribute and were made aware of how much they had learned over the year. 

This was a focused, positive class experience and gave the students the chance to try out a different role in the classroom while revising key material. Thanks very much to Mr Fitzmaurice for coming in!"

-Written by Ms Kate Lorigan (French and English teacher)

First Years Busy teaching French!

An attentive student "teacher."

Learning can be fun!

Peer learning in action!

April 2015

Today Dara Keenan took time out of his busy Leaving cert schedule to come into our class in 5th year English and provide us with his knowledge of the language of persuasion. Dara is a very successful debater and has lots of experience with using the language of persuasion when debating on behalf of the school at a very high level.

Dara was able to give us some useful tips for our leaving cert on how to write a speech. Some of these tips included the structure of the speech, using anecdotes and how to make certain things sound better than they are which my whole class found very helpful! Dara was able to go through every aspect of the speech making sure we could pick up the most points possible which I was very thankful for. I learned a lot from what Dara said, the speech and persuasive language questions seem that much easier to approach now.

Dara grabbed the classes’ attention right from the start, everyone felt he was a great speaker and would love to hear more from him. I think the whole class came out of it having gained new knowledge on the language of persuasion.

I felt it was a very good experience learning from other students and learning about their view and opinions on certain subjects.

-Conor montayne 5^th year student

MR. DARA KEENAN TEACHING  THE LANGUAGE OF PERSUASION!

5TH YEARS BUSY TAKING DOWN KEY POINTS!

Design Thinking Workshop!

"It had been a while since we had fully used our brains, such is fourth year.   On Friday, half of TY were lucky enough to have a Design Thinking workshop. For 3 hours we were challenged to think outside the box and use depths of our imaginations we didn't think we had. Our challenge was, in groups of 7, to simply design "the perfect water bottle". 

However not before a few warm up exercises to get our minds in gear. Challenged to make rain in the classroom, the best we thought of was setting off the sprinklers...but who ever mentioned water? We learned that 50 people clicking their fingers made it seem like monsoon season right there in the room. 

Also among the brainteasing questions posed to us, after attempting to make a duck out of 6 Lego pieces, was "why not have the bricks upside down?". It works fine, but wasn't thought of by anyone just because its not the accpepted method. Lesson learned! For the next three hours we wouldn't be allowed to think normally. When we got around to designing the bottles, we all dived into creating 25th century bottles, but were reminded soon after that it had to be practical and solve real consumer problems. 

After presenting our prototypes, we then set about picking a winner. Armed with three poker chips, each group invested in another eventually leading to the best water bottle, coincidentally named "The Greatest Water Bottle on Earth", stealing the show! In just 3 hours we had made rain and produced a water bottle prototype, all by thinking outside the box and looking for different approaches to the problem!
Written by Shane O'Hanrahan 4POT2 year student

Mr. Fergal Brophy and his team with fourth years!

Its all in a days work for these 4th year design thinkers!

Prototype presentations!

Fourth year designers busy at work!

Niall, Mitchell and Conan making their presentation!

This is how you do it! Confident designers!