Should junk food be banned in schools? Should the US open its borders to all immigrants? Should the US impose term limits for the House of Representatives and for the Senate? Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America as a source, class members select a current social, political, environmental, or economic issue, conduct additional research into this issue, synthesize this information into two contrasting views, and then conduct a congressional debate on the issue.

Concepts

debate, social issues, persuasive arguments, persuasive techniques

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Have members of the debate team or their advisor work with and share their expertise with the teams 

Classroom Considerations

• The activity presumes debaters have access to Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America

Pros

• The five-page packet includes a rationale for and an overview of the activity, a list of suggested debate topics, links to related resources, information about the debate format, and a rubric for the debate

Cons

• The exercise presumes class members have some experience with formal debate

Common Core

RI.9-10.1 RI.9-10.5 RI.9-10.8 W.9-10.1.a W.9-10.1.b W.9-10.1.c W.9-10.1.d W.9-10.1.e W.9-10.4 W.9-10.5 W.9-10.10 SL.9-10.1.c SL.9-10.1.d SL.9-10.4 SL.9-10.6 L.9-10.1.a L.9-10.6