SPAR Topics & SPAR Explained

Round 1

School Uniforms Should Be Mandatory

Round 2

The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished In The United States

SPAR – Explained 

Before introducing students to the structure of Public Forum Debate, it is imperative that students familiarize themselves with the intricacies of arguing. A great beginner activity for becoming familiar with turn-based argumentation is the ‘Spar’. A ‘Spar’ is a spontaneous argument-based activity wherein a topic (silly or serious) is given to teams of 2.

Silly topics may include

* Cats are better pets than dogs.

* Breakfast is the best meal of the day.

* Basketball is the best sport in American society, etc.

Serious topics may include

* ISIS is a more pertinent threat than Al-Qaeda.

* Marijuana should be legalized across the U.S.

* The benefits of the Iranian nuclear deal outweigh the harms. Etc.

Once the topic is given, both sides of the chosen resolution have 5 minutes to come up with a 2 minute constructive. After both constructive speeches a 1 ½ minute long crossfire takes place between both first speakers of both sides. During the crossfire questions are to be asked about the opposing sides cases. An important part of any crossfire is to trap opponents into saying something they might not want to say, in order to gain leverage during the rest of the round. If clarification is an issue for a team, this is the opportunity to re-explain your argument to the other team.

The next speech that is given by the teams is the Rebuttal. The rebuttal is given by the second speaker of each team and lasts 2 minutes as well. The job of the rebuttal is to refute the opponent’s arguments that were given in their constructive. Due to this being a spar, evidence will not be readily available and the majority of the speech will come in the form of logical responses; X cannot happen in the real world because of money, x will occur because the US Federal Government has high amounts of political capital in the status quo, etc.

After the rebuttal, a second 1 ½ minute long crossfire takes place between the second speakers of each team. During this crossfire, the questions asked should be ones that solidify how the round has gone, and allow for clash to be established if it hasn’t been already.