CMSDL Monday Memo — vol. I, no. 10 — September 10, 2012

1. Implications of the Teachers Strike for the CMSDL

During the Chicago Teachers Union strike, the Chicago Middle School Debate League will not conduct teacher/student trainings and meetings, or (if the work stoppage lasts that long) debate tournaments. The CDC will continue to do program building (largely through site visits) at charter and guest schools, and we will further prepare and develop our program offerings for implementation when district schools re-open. The CDC is working its regular hours, so contact us if you wish.

The CDL programming site, and the CMSDL coaches listserv, will contain information, as it becomes clear, on how and when postponed CMSDL events will be re-scheduled.

This week, the Introduction to Debate Coaching training seminar (originally scheduled for 9/11) and the CMSDL Coaches Council meeting (9/12) have been postponed.

2. New Materials Posted to the CMSDL Coaching Resources Page of the CDL Site

Several new documents have been posted to the CMSDL Coaching Resources page of the CDL website.

The Dallas Urban Debate Alliance is developing a novice (first-year) debate instructional curriculum, for HS debaters but because the HS and MS format is almost identical, and their topics are the same, it is a curriculum that can be relatively easily adapted for MS use. The CDL site includes its first two weeks, in addition to a Powerpoint presentation on the Toulmin model of argumentation (the “claim-data-warrant” triadic model) and a grading form (the curriculum includes short assessments). The CDC hasn’t yet done a close review of the curriculum, but it does look to have a variety of potentially very useful elements, so it’s worth your looking through and culling, if you’re in search of additional resources, and perhaps some additional structure, in teaching and preparing your new debaters. (Thanks to Dallas Urban Debate Alliance Director Nicole Serrano for providing these resources for our use.)

3. New NAUDL Judging Orientation Video

The Judging in the CDL page of the CDL site now includes a video recently produced by the NAUDL that provides a good 15-minute orientation on judging at an Urban Debate League tournament — of interest to anyone in the CMSDL in need of initial (or refresher) orientation in advance of judging (note that speech times are of course different for CMSDL rounds than are the speech times in the video).