Debate Guidelines and Rules:

1. Every student must contribute to the debate in order to receive credit.

2. Students must use the excerpts as their evidence for the debate. They may also use facts
from the notes we have taken in class as background knowledge.
3. Students must take notes during the debate.
4. Students may not attack another student either physically or verbally. If a student is
mentioned, they must say As ______ said before, or ______ said that . We must
be respectful to other students.
5. All students must follow the terms that were set forth the previous day regarding a debate
content in class.
a. The things we discuss in the debate are not the ideas or beliefs of that student, it is
merely the thoughts of the time and they are simply thinking as someone in the
time period.
b. No student has been chosen for a particular side for any reason. A random
generator was used to select who was on what side.
6. The material may not be discussed outside of class.
7. Students may earn extra credit by asking questions during the debate and for being the
one who shares last (after everyone else has gone) on behalf of their team.

Questions for the debate posed by me:

Eliza and her children were separated from one another early on in the
narrative, first from her son and then from her daughter. Do you think that
this was fair or should this have not been allowed?
For slaves, there was a lot of violence towards them. Is this violence valid or
should this be considered cruel and unusual punishment, which Americans
are protected from under the 8th Amendment?

Excerpts from 12 Years a Slave are Kindle pages: 80-82, 84-87, 107-112, and 254-257