The Odyssey

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.