Speak Up! Your First Look at Debate and Persuasion

Have you ever tried to convince a friend to play YOUR favorite game? Or argued with your brother or sister about which show to watch? Guess what — you were already debating! A debate is when two or more people take turns sharing their ideas and reasons to try to change someone's mind. Rhetoric is the art of using words in a powerful way. Great speakers use rhetoric to make people listen, agree, and even act. Learning to debate and use rhetoric makes you a much better thinker — and a much harder person to fool.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: 1. Say what a debate is in your own words. 2. Name two things that make a good argument. 3. Tell the difference between a fact and an opinion. 4. Practice saying your idea and one reason why out loud.

In a debate, two sides talk about a topic they disagree on. Each side shares their ideas and reasons. At the end, the listeners decide whose reasons made more sense to them. For example: Should our class get a pet hamster? One side says YES and gives reasons. The other side says NO and gives reasons too. The listeners decide! The most important rule of debate: you have to LISTEN to the other person's ideas, not just wait for your turn to talk. Good debaters really hear what the other side says — so they can answer it.

A FACT is something you can check or prove. 'Hamsters sleep during the day' is a fact — you can look it up in a book or watch a hamster. An OPINION is what someone thinks or feels. 'Hamsters are the best pets' is an opinion — not everyone agrees, and you cannot prove it with numbers. In a debate, the BEST arguments use facts to support opinions. Instead of just saying 'Hamsters are great,' a strong debater says: 'Hamsters are great class pets because they are quiet, easy to care for, and studies show that kids who help care for animals learn more responsibility.' See the difference?