Captains Corner

Debating

Over the past few weeks the Year 5 and 6’s have been learning about debates. We did our own mini debate against our classes. There was a chairperson, adjudicators and time keepers. The chairperson would open a debate and introduce the speakers. The adjudicator would decide the winner of the debate and the timekeeper times each person’s speaking time for three minutes. In debates there are normally 3-4 speakers with different roles. The first speaker would introduce the topic as well as defining the topic and explaining their arguments. The second speaker would rebut the other team’s arguments and explain three different arguments. The third speaker would rebut all of the other team’s arguments and summarise their team case. 

When I was doing my debate I was the third speaker for the negative team. I was a bit nervous when I stood up and spoke because I was talking so fast. I stuttered a little bit during my speaking but in the end I got it done. The debate was really close and unfortunately we lost to the other team but we all had fun and had time to improve for another debate.

Keitarou

The last couple of weeks the Year 5 & 6’s have been learning about persuasive texts and doing debates in class. We were put into teams and given topics, then we had to write our debates and present them live. My team was Mishkaat, Josh C and I. Our topic was - All High Schoolers Should Have a Part Time job, and my team was the negative team. I was really excited to get to do it but I was also quite nervous because we had to speak in front of our entire class with live rebuttals! I was most nervous about the rebuttals because we have to come up with them on the spot with no time to prepare, but I think I did a really good job with rebuttals and felt proud of myself afterwards. My team was the very first team that had to go up, so that was a little bit scary. We also had a time limit for three minutes and the amount of times I timed myself is just unbelievable! I was scared I was going to go over the time limit but after I sat down the timekeeper read out the time and it was 2 minutes, 59 seconds and 88 MILLISECONDS!! I was so shocked because I was ONE second away from being over the time limit! At the end we voted for the winning team and my team won!!!! Both teams did a great job at it and I was relieved once it was over but also kind of sad because it was fun to do. The next day we did the rest of the debates and I got to be the chairperson, the chairperson is the person that calls upon each speaker and open and closes the debate. Overall, everyone did a fantastic job and we were all relieved that it was over. The teachers are also going to choose the strongest team from each class to go to finals, where it will take place at the Highvale Secondary College auditorium! Fingers crossed that my team gets chosen!

Maya.E

From when we started writing our debates to when we presented them, I felt nervous about my rebuttals which are when you argue against the opposing team’s argument, my arguments and how much time I took up. I felt terrified even though I do public speaking inside and outside of school. After I had finished, I had the satisfaction that I did pretty good. At first I thought I was so bad but I did really well even though I went over time I was proud of my arguments, rebuttals and how much work I put into my debate. The Highvale Secondary College Debating Captains came over and gave us their tips & tricks on how to improve our debates and what debates are all about, it was very informative, it helped me learn a lot more on how we should do our debates. I felt like a pro after the speech because I knew all of those tips and tricks so that next time, when we do our debates I can do it like a professional.

Aradhya

Over the past few weeks, the Year Five and Sixes have been learning about debating. In this paragraph I will introduce you to how debates went for me. Debating was first introduced to us only a couple of weeks before I wrote this. For the first week we got to learn about how debates worked, when it reached Friday, we were instructed to perform our debates that we had prepared for over the past 2 days. I was the first affirmative speaker in our group, and our 2nd speaker was Violet followed by our 3rd speaker Ashley we had an EAL student with us, so I had to share the role of first speaker with Danny. While I was speaking, I had a sudden feeling of failure before I had even started but I tried my best to support my team. No winners were announced because it was only a practice debate.

 The next week we continued our work on the debates to prepare for our next one. When the second debate came, we performed our second debate, I again had to be the first speaker, and the topic was about the fact that 16 years olds should be allowed to vote. We had lost our debate, but it was ok because that means that we had learnt. A few days later we were visited by the Highvale Secondary College junior & senior debate captains. They gave us a couple of tips to help us with going to the high school auditorium to do our actual debates.

Minul