High School Debating Workshop

Workshop Summary:

Our online debating workshop is designed to challenge the critical and logical thinking skills of gifted students as well as enriching their writing and speaking skills. This workshop is suitable for students who have an inquisitive mind, enjoy logical discussions and are eager to become better communicators. It also provides an opportunity for like-minded students to connect with each other on topics of interest.

Some of the sample topics that may be discussed include:

• Tiktok is better than youtube

• The phenomenon of Rickrolling should be studied in music education in high schools.

• The media should be more vigorously regulated by the government

• Individualism creates a better world than collectivism

Schedule: Monday 4th - Friday 8th July, 2pm-4:30pm

Students will attend the online classes between 2pm-4:30pm (AEST) from Monday to Friday for one full week. There are specific learning modules each day, culminating in a debating competition on the final day.

Monday: Logical fallacy

Tuesday: Research skills and defining topics

Wednesday: Debate speech structure and writing

Thursday: Team work, Rebuttal, and Case strategy

Friday: Debating Competition (parents, grandparents and friends are welcome to join as the audience).

The workshop will be led by Ms Wong, a high school English teacher in Sydney and a tutor and mentor for gifted students worldwide from countries including Australia, Hong Kong and the UK. Ms Wong is a member of Mensa and graduated with a Masters Degree in Gifted Education from UNSW with excellence. Debating is one of her personal interests and she has been involved in debating since an early age.

This workshop will be delivered by Zoom and students are expected to set up their own connection to Zoom.