Rules and Regulations for Class Debates

Each group must have four members participate in each debate. The first three speakers and
the final speaker will receive individual grades and the group will receive a group grade. The
floor speakers will not receive an individual grade but their performance will be an important
part of the group grade. Any member of the group may be a floor speaker.

1st speaker
2nd speaker
3rd speaker
two floor speakers to ask questions of the opposing team
final speaker for the conclusion

All speakers in the debate will have 2 minutes to deliver their speech, except the concluding
speaker who has 3 minutes. A signal will be given 30 seconds before time is up, twice when
time is up, and repeatedly after a 15 second buffer. If the speaker goes over this buffer mark
the team will be deducted points for every 5 seconds overtime.

The first two speakers from each team will speak alternately, beginning with the first speaker
of the team A, followed by the first speaker of the team B, followed by the second speaker of
team A, and finally the second speaker of team B.

At this point the debate will be open to questions from the floor speakers. The floor speaker
from team A will ask team B a question first, then the floor speaker from team B will ask
team A a question. This process will be repeated with a second floor speaker from team A
asking team B a question and then a second speaker from team B asking team A a question.

The floor speaker has 1 minute to ask the question. A signal will be given 15 seconds before
the time is up and twice when the time is up. The team to which the question is directed has
one minute to prepare their answer and one minute to deliver the answer.

The final speakers of both teams will be given 1 minute to prepare their speech. Here the
order of presentations will switch. The final speaker of team B will deliver his/her speech
first followed by the final speaker of team A.

The debate will then be closed.

Evaluation Form for Class Debates

Team A: __________________________________

Speakers Delivery Evidence Organization Reasoning

Name (25 points) (25 points) (20 points) (30 points)
1st Speaker
2nd Speaker
3rd Speaker
Concluding Speaker
Questions (30 points)
Answers (70 points)
Team Total