Soon I will give lessons about brainstorming for debate. Whenever we start debate, students have a hard time taking a position or thinking of reasons to support their idea. Later, they will think of a few ideas that support their position, but they get tunnel vision and never consider making or responding to other positions. So, we have to do something that will bring out personal responses, and then we have to get them to find as many reasons as possible to support it.
So we have this exercise where we make students vote on issues. They vote by moving from one side of the class to the other. We ask about 10 questions. I have to think of some questions.
Chocolate is better than vanilla.
Cats are better than dogs.
Summer is better than winter.
Eating fugu is too dangerous.
Elementary school students should NOT carry cell phones.
English should NOT be a required subject.
We should abolish the death penalty.
We should make eating dolphin mean illegal.
We should stop traveling by plane, to help the environment.
Travelling overseas is better than travelling inside Japan.