Les­son two: a dis­cus­sion turns into a de­ba­te

2.1. Same pro­ce­du­re as last time. A sub­ject is cho­sen, a mo­ti­on is for­mu­la­ted, ar­gu­ments are sug­gested by the class as a whole, sit­ting in a ring, then gathe­red and struc­tu­red on the board. Each de­cla­res a ten­ta­ti­ve opi­ni­on for or against.

2.2. Still sit­ting in a cir­cle, two chairs are pla­ced in the midd­le fa­c­ing each other. One is FOR, the other AGAINST. Two stu­dents sit down and begin spea­king for / against, not in­ter­rup­t­ing each other. An­yo­ne sit­ting around can get up at any time, tap one spea­ker on the shoul­der, sit down, ta­king his/her place, and con­ti­nue the de­ba­te. It's even pos­si­ble (and de­si­ra­ble) for a stu­dent to move from chair to chair, thus ar­guing both sides. Con­ti­nue until vir­tual­ly all the stu­dents have par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the midd­le.

New in­for­ma­ti­on:

A sea­ting plan of the House of Com­mons , with two shar­ply de­line­a­ted sides, go­vern­ment

and op­po­si­ti­on . Since the ad­vent of te­le­vi­sed de­ba­tes, this might be fa­mi­li­ar from TV.

2.3. The class di­vi­des into two groups (or into 4 groups). each pre­pa­ring one side for or against. One per­son wri­tes down the ar­gu­ments they wish to give. Each group choo­ses three spea­kers. The spea­kers make notes (but no full sen­ten­ces) on a palm-card (Kar­tei­kar­te), which they may con­sult; but they will not be al­lo­wed to read their speech. They can look down at the card, but then look up again, es­ta­blish eye-con­tact with the au­di­ence, and speak fre­e­ly. ( No com­pro­mi­se pos­si­ble on this point whatsoever! )

2.4. A de­ba­te. Each side sends their 3 spea­kers to the front of the class to speak for one to three mi­nu­tes each.

A Chair­man sits in the midd­le and an­noun­ces the mo­ti­on and the names of the  spea­kers,

en­cou­ra­ging the floor (the au­di­ence, the rest) to wel­co­me each spea­ker by clap­ping.

He/she also im­me­dia­te­ly ex­clu­des from the de­ba­te an­yo­ne caught spea­king Ger­man!

2.5. Each side speaks in turn, but al­ter­na­te­ly: first go­vern­ment, first op­po­si­ti­on, se­cond go­vern­ment,

se­cond op­po­si­ti­on, third go­vern­ment, third op­po­si­ti­on.

(Ins­tead of go­vern­ment we can say pro­po­si­ti­on )

2.6. Each spea­ker ends his/her speech with the words  "This moton must stand / must fall.".Chair­man and au­di­ence po­li­te­ly clap after each speech.

2.7. The vote (ide­al­ly based on the per­sua­siven­ess of the spea­kers, not on the opi­ni­ons of the mem­bers of the floor!)

It re­minds us that we are not see­king the truth, but are de­ter­mi­ned to win a con­test.

2.8. Each side stands up, cros­ses the floorand shakes hands with the op­po­n­ents. The game is over.