Many Sides: Debate Across the Curriculum

282 Pages·2002·0.53 MB·English

by  Alfred Snider

INTERNATIONAL DEBATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
M S ,
ANY IDES
D
EBATE
A
C R O S S T H E
C
U R R I C U L U M
by Alfred Snider & Maxwell Schnurer
MANY SIDES
Debate Across the Curriculum
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
MANY SIDES
Debate Across the Curriculum
By Alfred Snider and Maxwell Schnurer
International Debate Education Association
NEW YORK ❖ AMSTERDAM ❖ BRUSSELS
Published in 2002 by
The International Debate Education Association
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
© Copyright 2002 by International Debate Education Association
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, with-
out permission of the publisher.
ISBN 0-9702130-4-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Snider, Alfred.
Many sides : debate across the curriculum / by Alfred Snider and
Maxwell Schnurer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-9702130-4-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Debates and debating. I. Schnurer, Maxwell. II. Title.
PN4181 .S66 2002
808.53—dc21
2002005939
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Foreword, by Melissa Maxcy Wade, Emory University 6
Preface, by Maxwell Schnurer, Marist College 9
Preface, by Alfred C. Snider, University of Vermont 11
Chapter One:
INTRODUCTION TO DEBATE AS EDUCATIONAL METHOD 13
Chapter Two:
BASIC DEBATE PROCESSES 29
Chapter Three:
GOALS OF CLASSROOM DEBATING 45
Chapter Four:
FORMATS FOR CLASSROOM DEBATING 59
Chapter Five:
TOPICS FOR CLASSROOM DEBATING 77
Chapter Six:
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR CLASSROOM DEBATING 91
Chapter Seven:
STAGING CLASSROOM DEBATES 125
Chapter Eight:
AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT IN DEBATES 139
Chapter Nine:
EVALUATION OF CLASSROOM DEBATES 149
Chapter Ten:
USING DEBATE IN SPECIFIC SUBJECT AREAS 163
Bibliography 247
Appendices 249
TOOLS FOR DEBATES 250
INSPIRATION FOR DEBATERS 255
Index 273
FOREWORD
T
he history of educational reform has been characterized by a variety
of movements that have met resistance from the expectations of the cul-
tural status quo. The current trend towards instructional techniques that
enfranchise a partnership between students and teachers to construct
both learning environments and actual learning are no better embodied
than in the Debate Across the Curriculum (DAC) method. This instruc-
tional tool employs the process of classroom debate to teach in virtually
all of the intellectual disciplines in a school.
Alfred Snider and Maxwell Schnurer have written the first definitive
book on the DAC process and application. Snider has been a powerful
advocate of academic debate for more than 30 years. A nationally promi-
nent intercollegiate debate coach, his experience in pioneering debate
education for inner city students through the Urban Debate League
national curricular reform movement has been applied to the interna-
tional debate community. He has pioneered the use of the Internet to
promote debating everywhere. He has personally helped to promote dis-
cussion and debate in the People’s Republic of China, Chile, South
Korea, Serbia, and many of the former Soviet Union satellite countries.
Many of the concepts in this book were field tested at his international-
ly recognized World Debate Institute at the University of Vermont.
Maxwell Schnurer, a former student of Snider’s, has developed his
own reputation as a nationally ranked intercollegiate debate coach and
pioneer in classroom applications of competitive debate. As an assistant
coach at Wake Forest and the University of Pittsburgh, and now as the
director of debate at Marist College, Schnurer committed to working
with novice and beginning debaters, emphasizing the transformative
nature of the debate activity. Besides his role as a top national judge and
coach of policy debate competition in the USA, he has placed great
emphasis on political activism including animal rights, social justice,
environmentalism, and gender issues. Schnurer has also been an innova-
❖ ❖
6
MANYSIDES
tor in the areas of public debate and debate outreach, staging numerous
public debates and engaging in debate outreach programs in
Pennsylvania, New York, and nationwide. He represented the USA on a
debate tour of Japan, maintains international debate connections, and is
always willing to explore debate in a new venue or space. He has been a
long time faculty member at numerous debate institutes and has partici-
pated in extensive evaluation of the DAC process.
Academic tournament debate has a proven track record of teaching
critical thinking at the middle school, high school, and college levels.
Many have used debate in the non-speech classroom as an instructional
tool that meets multiple educational objectives: interactive instruction,
student-teacher partnership, democratic dialogue, student ownership of
learning, experiential education, communication skills of listening and
speaking, argument construction, cooperative learning, critical thinking,
research (traditional and computer), strategic note-taking, logical orga-
nization, critical reading, evaluation, and, not least, fun. Debate, both in
and out of the classroom, is a profound example of cooperative learning
that promotes critical thinking.
In the world of debate it is a foundational tenet that competition
motivates intellectual achievement. Can cooperation also be possible in
competition? On the competitive debate team, shared research allows
students to participate in each others’ successes, to be motivated to
research harder following each others defeats. On a highly functioning
debate team, competition motivates individuals to cooperate for the good
of the community as well as the individual. Snider and Schnurer demon-
strate the power of that application in the classroom. Exploration of ideas
and research gives rise to both individual and group ownership of learn-
ing. Teachers and students work together in ways that encourage part-
nerships for learning. Paulo Freire calls this collaboration the path to a
liberating education, one that encourages democratic dialogue and criti-
cal thinking.
Democratic dialogue is a powerful antidote to traditional education’s
penchant for the development of authority dependence in students. Such
dialogue has the capacity to open the student up to new ways of thinking
and problem solving while encouraging the creativity of teachers. Snider
❖ ❖
7
MANYSIDES
and Schnurer illustrate this potential with unique format suggestions and
creative methods of evaluation. The book is thorough in its approach to
practical application in most academic disciplines while encouraging the
synergy between student and teacher to invigorate the traditional roles of
educational actors.
This year I had the privilege of using some of the curriculum materi-
als from this work for a Providence Urban Debate League workshop for
teachers at Brown University and a National Urban Debate League
Conference for teachers at Emory University. While the evaluations were
exceptional, perhaps the most impressive result was the ease with which
this material can be shared within a school, department by department.
DAC has the possibility of creating genuine change in urban, suburban,
and rural schools by engaging students and teachers in a rich conversa-
tion of mutual learning.
Melissa Maxcy Wade
Emory University
❖ ❖
8
PREFACE
D
ebate changed my life because it taught me to listen. This may seem
strange because most of us visualize debates as contests between strident
advocates who are intent on pushing their points of view. For me, debate
had the opposite effect. When I arrived at college I was already strident.
A seasoned political activist, I was prone to polemic-laden political out-
bursts. Debate challenged me, and for the first time I was forced to exam-
ine my arguments with a critical lens. Debaters were the first folks that I
couldn’t push around – they wanted to examine the evidence I was using
to support my arguments, and they wanted me to explain myself. More
importantly, my friends who were debaters often had good ideas of their
own. For a self-centered young man, the notion that other people might
have something valuable to say was a life-changing realization.
Curious about how students could develop these kinds of communi-
cation and critical thinking skills, I joined the Lawrence Debate Union
at the University of Vermont. I quickly found myself addicted to debate.
It was a method of learning that encouraged me to explore new ideas. I
could mentally travel as fast as I wanted to – learning about new subjects
and researching new areas of interest as my curiosity drove me. Debate
stimulated and agitated my interested mind, driving me to ask more ques-
tions and to be reflexive about the answers I had already decided. Debate
was wonderful for me and it helped to mold me into the person that I am
today.
The wonder and excitement that debate realized within me can be
experienced by anyone. Debates do not have to be formal events, or even
organized by schools. Debates are natural, exciting interactions between
people who want to critically examine an issue. I believe that debate can
be a format for community groups, activist organizations, social move-
ments, political parties, friends, and businesses.
This perspective is not shared by all. Many believe that debate should
be the special realm of political scientists, experts, “debaters,” or commu-
❖ ❖
9