I had the opportunity to work with the Boston Debate League (BDL) through their Evidence Based Argumentation (EBA) program for two years with the help of EBA instructional coach, Sarah Mayper. Sarah supported my efforts in transforming lessons from static to dynamic through EBA activities that promoted student-to-student discourse grounded in evidence and reasoning.
Once I got the hang of transforming traditional, static lessons that I had relied on for years, I began to experiment with ways to leverage EBA strategies “off the page” to engage students in debate. Although intimidated at first to release the entire lesson to students in a whole-class debate, I realized that the structure of the debate protocol provided the necessary supports for students to feel in control of their own work. I saw students who had presented reluctant or resistant behaviors turn into passionate and empowered debaters, who hungrily searched the text for the right piece of evidence at the right moment to defend an argument.
A debate team representing Rose from Fences revises its opening statement in debate prep.
I saw my class transformed by debate, and I quickly understood the power of debate to draw in and engage students with the text. I used debate as a summative assessment, complete with a class period of debate prep, where teams of students worked together to build evidence-based arguments. My classroom buzzed with student voice and collaborative thinking on debate prep days. I rotated between groups, asking probing questions to facilitate thinking, or pausing to clarify points in the debate process. On debate days, I invited the entire school and arranged the tables into three “camps” for the three-sided debate. For Fences, students entered a three-sided debate to argue that Rose, Cory, or Troy was the most affected by being marginalized in society. I filmed each debate, leading students through a debrief of “what worked well,” and “what I’ll try next time.” Students began to ask for debates, and even presented an argument to me to advocate for “doing more debate.” My second year of facilitating EBA in my classroom and school, I started to think more about how I could leverage debate and elements of performance.
My students showed so much passion in the debate, and I wanted to tap into that emotion and energy to provide more room for creativity within the debate process, while still maintaining academic integrity of evidence-based reasoning. I had always used elements of performance in my classroom; as a theatre major in college, I valued performance as a way to understand humanity on a deeper level. I had success using Shakespeare Set Free curriculum when teaching Shakespeare as it allowed for students to “own” the language through performance. So, I thought, why not do try something similar by joining performance with debate? I developed an Odysseus Trial curriculum (see a part of that curriculum here: Odysseus Trial), and students worked through two different trials during their reading of The Odyssey.
A student delivers closing statement for The Defense in the murder trial of Odysseus — a summative assessment of The Odyssey.
The trial engaged students authentically with the text in a way I had never experienced in the classroom. The trial process contained opening and closing statements, judges, witnesses for prosecution and defense, physical evidence (yes, students used props for physical evidence and loved it!), a bailiff who kept order in the court (classroom), a discovery phase, and even surprise witnesses. Students owned the role playing part of the process, eagerly looking within the text to find evidence of character traits to use as they impersonated Penelope, Telemachus, the Suitors, and Odysseus.
Students engage in “trial prep,” researching the text to find evidence for their client, Telemachus, who is seeking a restraining order from the Suitors in The Odyssey. This activity served as a launch into the text as students synthesized Books 1-4 of The Odyssey.
The trial is also an opportunity for interdisciplinary learning with Psychology, Sociology, History, and Legal Studies/Criminal Justice classes. It proves that discourse — and creative play through performance — allows students to discover the text in a way that is meaningful to them beyond the classroom. When students are continuing the argument of Odysseus’ fate (is he guilty of murder? Should he receive life in prison or be punished for the death of the maids and suitors?) beyond the classroom and in the cafeteria or on the bus, then it becomes real as it is owned fully by students as enactors of the text, not just passive spectators.
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