Today was a great first day for session two at Lexington Debate Institute. We hope everyone had fun and we are looking forward to the next two weeks!
We began the day after drop off with an introduction to the instructors and lab assistants. After covering some camp rules, we then broke into our two labs. In the labs, we did icebreakers and some name games to get the students more familiar with each other.
The students then learned about flowing. Flowing is a term for the shorthand and note taking skills used in debate. Flowing allows debaters to organize and keep track of arguments as the debate progresses. To learn this skill students listened to songs and tried to write the lyrics. They also tried to flow and then repeat back lists and sequences that the instructors read. Afterwards, we played Balderdash, a game that involves making up fake definitions for words and lots of teamwork, then ate lunch outside.
After lunch, we introduced the students to the three rhetorical appeals of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Logos is logical appeals, Pathos is emotional appeals, and Ethos is appeal from credibility or legitimacy. We had students practice identifying when arguments or speeches used certain appeals. Then they tried making speeches that used these rhetorical appeals based on the potential audience they could be addressing. We also covered how to change styles and how to adapt to different judges in debate.
Finally, we covered Cross-Examination. Cross-Examination, or Cross-Ex, is a questioning period in debate rounds where one or both sides ask questions of the other. We discussed the importance of asking focused questions and providing strong defensive answers. Then students practiced defending their arguments against questions. We're thrilled with day one and can't wait for these next two weeks!
