Debating important topics
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Why this why now
This unit builds on the Year 5 unit, 'Successful Speeches', by further developing pupils' ability to connect with an audience and provoke an emotional response. In this unit, pupils hone their ability to express ideas clearly, justify opinions and reflect on their own performance. They also put into practice the formal debating skills acquired in the Year 5 unit 'Introduction to Debate'. This unit prepares pupils for the next unit, where they will engage in respectful discussions about transitions to secondary school, refining their ability to listen, agree and disagree thoughtfully.
Prior knowledge requirements
- A debate is a structured argument between two teams.
- The motion is the name for the belief or proposal that is being debated.
- The team that agrees with the motion is called the proposition and the team that disagrees with the motion is called the opposition.
- The PEPS structure stands for: point, explanation, proof, summary.
- In a debate, an argument should be clearly structured to make it more convincing.
- In a debate, an opinion must be justified with reasoning.
- A rebuttal point is a counter-argument made against something specific that the opposing team has said.
- A point of information is a brief attempted interruption of someone's speech.
- The winning team in a debate can be decided by an audience vote, or a judge, or a panel of judges.
Threads
Why this why now
This unit builds on the Year 5 unit, 'Successful Speeches', by further developing pupils' ability to connect with an audience and provoke an emotional response. In this unit, pupils hone their ability to express ideas clearly, justify opinions and reflect on their own performance. They also put into practice the formal debating skills acquired in the Year 5 unit 'Introduction to Debate'. This unit prepares pupils for the next unit, where they will engage in respectful discussions about transitions to secondary school, refining their ability to listen, agree and disagree thoughtfully.
Prior knowledge requirements
- A debate is a structured argument between two teams.
- The motion is the name for the belief or proposal that is being debated.
- The team that agrees with the motion is called the proposition and the team that disagrees with the motion is called the opposition.
- The PEPS structure stands for: point, explanation, proof, summary.
- In a debate, an argument should be clearly structured to make it more convincing.
- In a debate, an opinion must be justified with reasoning.
- A rebuttal point is a counter-argument made against something specific that the opposing team has said.
- A point of information is a brief attempted interruption of someone's speech.
- The winning team in a debate can be decided by an audience vote, or a judge, or a panel of judges.
Reading, writing & oracy
Debating important topics
In this unit, pupils recap on the features of a debate and use the PEPs structure to deliver a speech. They learn what makes an effective debate motion and design their own. Pupils then prepare for and participate in a full debate, scoring their performances and reflecting on their speech delivery.
5 lessons in unit
slide decks, worksheet PDFs, quizzes and lesson overviews. You can select individual lessons from the Debating important topics unit and download the resources you need, or download the entire unit now. See every unit listed in our primary english curriculum and discover more of our teaching resources for primary english programmes.