Class Curriculum
Intro to Parliamentary/Topic Research:
An overview of the format, rules, and objectives of Parliamentary debate will be taught, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking, research skills, and the preparation involved during the process of creating a speech. Research skills will be taught and if necessary, a video of a full Parliamentary debate from past years will be shown as an example. A topic will also be chosen from past official topics used during State tournaments. This topic will be analyzed, understood, and used for the following weeks.
Intro to Writing First Speech:
After understanding what Parliamentary debate is, we will focus on a review of argumentative writing and how it is utilized during a debate. Speeches will be written with evidence and research learned that follow the topic chosen.
Intro to Public Speaking:
Speeches will be presented while also learning how to sound confident and persuasive towards what is being delivered. Because Parli is about improvisation and exempting arguments on-the-spot, pre-written arguments and reading off of a paper will be minimalized.
Intro to Presenting Arguments:
Students will learn how to give timed rebuttals or counter-arguments against the opposing side with little prewritten. Efficient and effective note-taking, while the opponent is speaking, will be taught. This stimulates on-the-spot thinking skills which are used in real-world scenarios.
Drills
Drills will be held as frequently as possible so that learning can be as engaging as possible. Drills will range from answering one argument, to mini debates. Shorter speeches and rebuttals (counter-arguments) will be given by each student as practice before they will give speeches that are exactly what is given in State tournaments. Drills also include flowing (taking notes of the main points in the opponent's speech), watching videos of past State finalists as if they were debating them, improving responses without anything pre-written, and tournament scrimmages where students will form teams of three and debate each other (while other students watch, take notes, give feedback, and learn from each other).
Tournament Practice:
After learning the basics of Parliamentary, we will occasionally hold an experience of how a real parliamentary tournament would be run. Both speech and rebuttals will be given by three-person teams with limited time and preparation. The rules of the practice tournament will be the same as the Connecticut Middle School Debate League tournament handbook. For future interest in entering tournaments during the school year, visit the CTMSDL website which hosts the official State tournaments and championships for middle schoolers, or the CDA website for high schoolers.
Tournaments to Enter
The Connecticut Middle School Debate League (CTMSDL) hosts competitive interscholastic Parliamentary Debate tournaments for grades 5-8. Similarly, the Connecticut Debate Association (CDA) hosts the Parliamentary Debate tournaments for high schoolers.
National tournaments have the same rules and time format as CDA, except your team will now compete against schools from across the country. Anyone can compete in National or State tournaments as long as you have a team of two! Many of the National tournaments are close by such as the Yale Invitational and the Ivy League Championship hosted at the Columbia campus.