ABSTRACT
Once students understand how authors, companies, politicians—the world—targets them, the debate unit brings it all together by asking students to develop complete, well-supported arguments. Viewing sample debates and reading complete arguments (both past and present), students then prepare for a grade-wide debate. In continuing with constructing and analyzing effective arguments, this chapter will scaffold Inherit the Wind, The Great Debaters, Antigone, and 12 Angry Men as each connects to the overall guiding questions. Excerpts from “Civil Disobedience” and Walden, the closing argument from the Leopold and Loeb trial, and Atticus Finch's closing from To Kill a Mockingbird are among the samples used to guide student writing.
