Middle School G/T Debate Builds Skills and Community

May 3rd, 2023

More than 350 students, representing all 20 HCPSS middle schools, gathered earlier this year at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to debate whether Washington, D.C., should be granted statehood or not. The event was the culmination of students’ participation in HCPSS’ Gifted and Talented (G/T) Instructional Seminar, a year-long, non-graded elective in which students had the opportunity to research a topic (the district statehood), develop arguments both for and against it, and showcase their knowledge through a real-time, in-person debate against students from across the county.

At the event, students from each school were assigned a position—either supporting or opposing D.C. statehood—to represent. They were paired with students from another school, who were assigned the opposing position. Each school-based team was given time to present an opening statement, challenge the opposing school’s arguments, respond to challenges to their position, and provide a closing statement summarizing why their position should be the winning one. Following a lunch break, where students from all schools were able to chat and connect with each other, schools had the opportunity to debate the opposite side of the case from the one they represented in the morning and engage with a different group of students.

Each pair of teams was evaluated by a panel of judges composed of HCPSS staff, who were tasked with determining which team did the best job of presenting their side of the argument and supporting it with credible evidence. The judges also provided feedback at the end of the debate, helping students to reflect on their performance and identify both what worked well and where they could improve.

“The countywide debate gave students a unique opportunity to pull together the research and communications skills they have gathered throughout the year and put them into action,” says HCPSS G/T Resource Teacher Karen Saunderson, who organizes the event.

At the same time, Saunderson says, the debate was a great community-building experience.

“[It] let students see that other students across the county share their interest [in debate] and helped them build a connection based on that shared interest.

Students agree that the countywide event was a success.

As Cecile Senesi from Murray Hill Middle School (MHMS) notes, “I enjoyed interacting with debate students from other schools and talking with them about the debate. I learned about my strengths and weaknesses in public speaking. The feedback that we were given was also very helpful.”

Wilde Lake Middle School’s (WLMS) Melanie Mpuga says the event “taught [her] responsibility and showed [her] how to carry [her] weight in a group, and it showed [her] how to be competitive against other people while remaining respectful.”

Beyond the experience they had at the countywide debate, students sing the praises of the G/T Debate seminar itself.

“The seminar taught me how to analyze different sources when looking for information. This is something that I will have to use for the rest of my life, whether it is just for researching and analyzing documents in other classes or if it is to research a future event,” says Ashwika Mente, a student at MHMS.

Clarksville Middle School student Lily Farnham adds, “By taking the G/T Debate seminar, I have learned teamwork skills, how to argue respectfully, and the organization of a proper debate.”

“I have learned from Debate that there can be pros and cons to lots of things. Also what I learned is that you can look at something from two different perspectives, and they can both still be right,” notes Cassie Williams from WLMS.

For Elkridge Landing Middle School’s Vincent You, takeaways from the seminar include how to speak confidently in front of a public audience, deconstruct information into contentions, and the ability to write in a persuasive manner.

“There is so much that students gain from participating in the G/T debate instructional seminar,” says Saunderson. “How to conduct research. How to evaluate evidence. How to organize and present a compelling argument. How to work as a team. It’s all part of the experience.”

Additional information about the middle school G/T debate seminar is available online.