Seventh & Eighth Grade Debates Showcase Student Voices

We talk a lot about developing students’ confident voices. After all, it’s part of our mission, a core value, something that makes Marin Horizon. Perhaps no other activity than the seventh and eighth grade debates unit illustrates this focus (aside from eighth graders’ graduation speeches) or gives our students the opportunity and platform to practice using their voices.  

During this learning unit, which takes place over a six week period, our students will research a topic, identify reliable sources, organize their thoughts, craft arguments, consider the finer points of persuasion, and articulate their ideas clearly. 

For the culmination of their efforts in April, our students presented a live debate to an audience of students, parents, faculty, and others. The topic? “Marin Horizon should actively and immediately embrace artificial intelligence as a teaching and learning tool.” 

Their arguments and rebuttals were  thoughtful, impressive, and engaging. Have a listen…

What are students learning through the debate unit?

There are several learning objectives in the debate unit. 

1. First and foremost, students learn research skills. They will research both sides of the issue. Teachers Jesse Pearson and Allison Zimmerman will provide sources, but students can identify additional sources. They summarize and extract relevant evidence from those sources. And baked into that is an emphasis on determining what is and isn’t a reliable source of information, which is hugely important for students in this day and age because they’re doing so much of their research online. They learn how to identify author bias.

2. They learn persuasive strategies. We introduce the concepts of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos and how to use those effectively to bring people around to your way of thinking. 

3. They learn how to cite evidence in support of a position, or in support of a claim. They learn how to blend that evidence into an argument, using academic tone. 

4. They learn public speaking skills, which for some kids come quite easily, but for many this is one of the first times they have had to stand up in front of a group and present ideas that may not be their own. 

In addition, students will not know until the day before the debate what side of the argument they will be making. 

Says Humanities Teacher Jesse Pearson, “In that sense, while it isn’t quite like a high school team or a college debate team, it approximates what that experience will be and it's interesting for students to have to argue a position that they don’t personally agree with. I think it also promotes the idea of respectful and reasoned discourse. That you can be separated from your ideas and that disagreeing with a person’s ideas doesn't necessarily mean disagreeing with them as a person.”

As students begin to practice their arguments, they hear arguments from other teams, other debate teams, and that allows them to start to think about how they will rebut the arguments that they're likely to hear in the official debate. 

Says Jesse, ”That, I think, is both the most challenging and sometimes the most rewarding part of the project. Because we build in enough time for it, students are able to think in advance of how would I respond if I hear this particular argument or if this particular piece of evidence comes up. But they still have to react in real time on the day of the debate. And that’s really a level of critical thinking and sort of intellectual nimbleness that is pretty extraordinary to see in action.”

Debate Topic Tackles Issue That Matters to Students

The debate unit has been around at Marin Horizon School for a long time but it’s evolved over the last 6-8 years. One of the choices that our Humanities faculty made was to select a topic, the resolution, that is more topical. They found that kids had a greater investment in topics and issues that they felt were relevant to their lived experience, or to their future or education. 

So this year, the debate resolution was, “Marin Horizon should actively and immediately embrace artificial intelligence as a teaching and learning tool.” 

This is an issue that matters to our students and to our community, and we invited the students to research both sides so that they could understand that they may come in with biases. 

Says Jesse, “They may come in with preconceived notions about this topic, but if they make themselves more informed, while they may not ultimately change their mind (although they often do), their understanding of the issue will be more nuanced and they’ll be more receptive to other points of view, which is really what we’re hoping to send them out into the world with the skills to do.”

Public Speaking Skills and Confidence Can Vary Widely

This project plays a significant part in helping build a student’s confidence to speak in front of an audience. It has both an academic development and an emotional development component. In addition, another key element of the Marin Horizon educational philosophy is meeting a child where they are.

Says Jesse, “I’m incredibly proud to say that even our most nervous public speakers are prepared enough and supported enough by both their teachers and their peers, their debate teammates that they summon the courage…” 

Students are Guided in Developing Their Voice Throughout Their Academic Journey

Students are asked to and offered opportunities to present or speak in front of an audience throughout their time in the Middle School, and even in the Lower School. Many curriculum events give students an opportunity to present their work to a small group, to their class, to parents visiting the classroom, and to the entire Middle School (fifth through eighth grades). Students will build on those opportunities throughout their time in Middle School. By design, the stakes get a little bit higher and the audience gets a little bit bigger. 

The debate unit is a moment when it’s not just their peers or their teachers who are actively rooting for them. It’s parents, it’s strangers, it’s people they don’t necessarily know, which raises the stakes even higher..  

Says Jesse, “And when they’re finished, they are able to reflect on the fact that they stood in front of an audience and they presented, and they got through it and it will get easier. And the reason we know it gets easier is that because by the time they graduate from here, they will stand in front of an audience that might be quite literally ten times the size of the audience that’s in the classroom on the debate, and they will deliver a graduation speech on their final day at Marin Horizon School with confidence and poise.