Ok, let's debate!!
The first debate is going to be on something that we can learn about quickly, without much additional knowledge (although there will be a little knowledge building/background reading), that will provide us with a topic to learn some ground rules about debating, and practice some skills for how to debate effectively/persuasively.
THE CHALLENGE:
You have been split up into 4 groups of 5. You have been assigned a topic to try to convince the rest of the class to choose as our first debate topic.
You have 10 minutes to come up with a FROZEN TABLEAU(S).
A Frozen tableau create a scene and freezes the action while a narrator explains what's happening. The people in the scene must be very intentional about their physical poses, gestures, and facial expressions...you will convey the characters, action, and significance of a particular moment. The narrator is tasked with providing the background/context of the scene being shown:
In this frozen tableau you must:
- highlight why this topic is controversial (clearly has at least 2 opposing viewpoints)
- highlight why it would be fun/interesting/worthwhile to debate this topic
- highlight what you imagine might be the big issues/questions/positions if we were to debate this topic.
- make sure everyone plays some sort of part.
If you need/want more than 1 tableau (scene), you can split it up into multiple scenes. One pro -- One con!
Group #1: Davis, Julia, Elliot, Dillon, John S
Group #2: Jack B, Kaleigh, Javier, Abel, Mark
Group #3: Mitchell, John K, Emma, Annie
Group #4: Chris, Alec, Tara, Jameson, Sofia
