Report on a workshop on Debating Skills

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. -Josheph Joubert. Two teachers, Ms. Upasannaa Malik and Ms. Radhika Prabhaker from The Indian School, attended a workshop on 11 January titled Sparkle with Debating Skills at INTACH, Lodhi Estate. The workshop was organised by Rising Sun Publications. The resource person was Ms Kiran Misra, who is a senior English broadcaster at All India Radio, Delhi. She has been with AIR for the last 29 years and is currently in charge of the Yuvvani section which takes care of the young broadcasters. She is also a counselor for students pursuing a diploma course in creative writing. She delivers lectures on communication skills and creative writing for the media in several educational institutes. The workshop was divided into two segments. The first half focused on construction of arguments for a debate. Ms Misra showed a PPT to illustrate how to choose and record materials, ideas, clippings and anecdotes to build a strong argument. She further pointed out that repetition of words and content without strong facts makes up for a weak debate. The session continued as she with presented 20 types of debates that could be used in a classroom situation. Lincoln and Douglas debate, role play debate, tag team debate, four corners debate, Can you distract me? , fairy tale discussion, just a minute, soap box debate were some the interesting debates that can be used in a classroom to encourage the young learners to begin debating. [gallery link="file" order="DESC"] She also talked about the different kinds of speakers and their needs. To explain the house her point in more detail, she divided the speakers into three categories- speakers who speak from the mouth (the unprepared and raw speakers), speakers from the head ( strong and factual content) and speakers from the heart (emotional speakers). She believed that the best speaker was the one who possessed all the aforementioned qualities. She further highlighted the importance of body language, content and the time are the most important aspects of debate. Post lunch, the teachers attending the workshop demonstrated the varied styles of debate, choosing a topic of their choice. The session was indeed interesting and informative as during the demonstration there was a lot of brainstorming and exchange of ideas that took place. It was an enjoyable yet a great learning experience. It helped the teachers to learn new ways of teaching the art of debating in a classroom. Ms Upasanna Malik