Intelligence Squared Debates
Reflection
What Did We Do?
During this project, us students we organized into groups in which we were all assigned to work on a popular topic of debate. For my group, we were in charge of gathering information to debate about in the controversial topic of possibly letting in 50,000 Syrian refugees. In the beginning of the project we each had to do conduct our own independent research for the first few weeks in order to gather enough research to make our arguments clear and believable. Once this was done we were able to collaborate with the people on our team from the other classes in order to combine our evidence from the constructive arguments and rebuttals we made to make our arguments stronger. After this process, we were able to have a small in class debate with the two classes combined which was structured like a real Oxford style debate that was filmed and set up like a professional debate. Eventually, we all got to the point of performing our debates at our all school exhibition where the public was able to come and watch as well as vote as people would in a real style debate.
What Did I Take Away?
Overall, I would say my general understanding of the Middle East have changed after doing this project. I was finally able to realized how bias and one sided I was about some of the issues and the standpoint of religion in the Middle East. After doing this project I was able to understand what life is like for a Muslim-American and how life is lived with such a “different” religion. I also think that I got a better understanding of the issues that are currently going on in the Middle East. I was very once sided on many of these issues at first, but once we got into full research I was able to see some of the arguments from other sides that made me reconsider some of my opinions on the issues.
What Skills Did I Acquire?
I would say that my entire structure of argumentative skills as well as public speaking had changed during this project. I feel that I developed a lot more structure and organization to my argumentative skills because of the way we organized our argument writing. This helped me to be more of a persuasive speaker because I was able to well regulate my writing so that everything fit well together and I was able to flow from one point to the other; yet in a very persuasive way to get the audience to choose the side I was going for.
What Did We Do?
During this project, us students we organized into groups in which we were all assigned to work on a popular topic of debate. For my group, we were in charge of gathering information to debate about in the controversial topic of possibly letting in 50,000 Syrian refugees. In the beginning of the project we each had to do conduct our own independent research for the first few weeks in order to gather enough research to make our arguments clear and believable. Once this was done we were able to collaborate with the people on our team from the other classes in order to combine our evidence from the constructive arguments and rebuttals we made to make our arguments stronger. After this process, we were able to have a small in class debate with the two classes combined which was structured like a real Oxford style debate that was filmed and set up like a professional debate. Eventually, we all got to the point of performing our debates at our all school exhibition where the public was able to come and watch as well as vote as people would in a real style debate.
What Did I Take Away?
Overall, I would say my general understanding of the Middle East have changed after doing this project. I was finally able to realized how bias and one sided I was about some of the issues and the standpoint of religion in the Middle East. After doing this project I was able to understand what life is like for a Muslim-American and how life is lived with such a “different” religion. I also think that I got a better understanding of the issues that are currently going on in the Middle East. I was very once sided on many of these issues at first, but once we got into full research I was able to see some of the arguments from other sides that made me reconsider some of my opinions on the issues.
What Skills Did I Acquire?
I would say that my entire structure of argumentative skills as well as public speaking had changed during this project. I feel that I developed a lot more structure and organization to my argumentative skills because of the way we organized our argument writing. This helped me to be more of a persuasive speaker because I was able to well regulate my writing so that everything fit well together and I was able to flow from one point to the other; yet in a very persuasive way to get the audience to choose the side I was going for.