It was almost sunny all day

When we awoke this morning in Denton, it was sunny (and thus hot), which was a welcome change from the torrential storms hammering Texas. With the sun above us, we began the day with practice rounds: the JB lab debated the AM lab, MTA debated KLO, AH debated BC, and WMM debated RDK. Labs commenced after the practice round where students focused on a variety of skills to improve their rebuttals and cases. The same schedule of practice rounds and lab continued after lunch. Many of the labs worked on writing blocks, while others ran more rounds, while some labs focused solely on rebuttal redos. After dinner, the following electives occurred:

Counterplans and counteradvocacy - Conrad and Timmons

Running and Answering Topicality – Babb and Mullins

Judge adaptation – Love and Beard

Utilitarianism – Robinson and Jonathan Alston

Drill-Round up – Abell and O’Neal

Flowing Drills – Anderson and Fortner

The evening ended with a group lecture on tournament preparation given by Beena Koshy and Aaron Timmons.

Electives Begin and Rounds Continue

The day began at 1pm today in order to give students the chance to attend religious services, visit their relatives, or just sleep in. We are very excited about entering the second half of the Workshop and the students are still pushing strong with plenty of steam left. During the afternoon, the students attended one of six electives. The choices were Conditionality with Aaron Timmons, Narratives with Katherine Thompson and Gary Johnson, Flowing with Perry Beard and Ajay Ketkar, Advanced International Relations with Neil Conrad, Crystallization with Chetan Hertzig and Liz Mullins, and a Drill Round-Up with Laura de la Cruz and Kris Wright. Before dinner, all of the students had a practice round debating someone outside of their lab for the first time. After a dinner of pizza, students attended another elective: either Standards and Framework with Chetan and Ajay, Zizek and Friends with Stephen Babb, Winning with Stock Positions by Jennifer Miller, Introduction to Logic with Jonathan Alston, Rawls and Nozick with Dr. Scott Robinson, Critical Race Theory with Laura, or Cross Examination with Eric Melin and David McGough. The day ended with students meeting in lab to redo rebuttals and discuss the issues raised in each of their practice rounds.

Officially One Week In

Some serious practice round action began today with labs running rounds and doing drills throughout the afternoon and evening. The day began with a lecture in lab on presentation skills and drills where debaters got to showcase their cases. The last Article Group met today, wrapping up a series of reading to get students some background reading on the topic. Many of the students cut at least one of the articles for evidence that they are using in their cases, so the articles seem to continue to be a success. The afternoon was spent (without rain!) working on cases, running rounds, and doing drills in lab with these drills and rounds continuing until the students packed up for the night. Tomorrow the students do not begin activities until 1pm where they have a group of electives to choose from.

Finally It's Friday

On our 6th day of Workshop, the students were all looking forward to the evening off beginning with dinner, but before they had some free time to relax, hang out, or work on their cases, the students had an action-packed day. Lab began at 9am with work rebuttals. The labs did rebuttal drills where students gave a speech in response to an opponent argument without the full context of a round. The afternoon was spent in lab at the library or in the computer lab continuing to work on arguments. Students have free choice activities tonight starting after dinner until tomorrow when practice rounds begin for all of the labs.

Flooding the Library with Students

The morning began with a lecture on rebuttals. Some of the labs covered the necessary components of each rebuttal and how to respond to arguments while other labs conducted drills where students could test their skills. Article Groups met after lab and continued to discuss topics that can be linked to develop affirmative and negative case positions. Most of the labs spent their afternoon in either the computer lab or the library researching and continuing to write cases. All of the labs will be debating rounds on Saturday and Sunday, so the students are progressing on meeting that goal. The day ended with labs meeting once again to work on casing. Tomorrow students meet at 9am, but will have free time beginning at 5pm to relax or continue working.

Continuing to Case

Just a reminder: Check out the picture link and the link to each individual lab blog in the right sidebar to get specifics on what each group of students is doing each day.

The morning began with a lecture in lab on the importance of utilizing the cross examination period. Labs also did cross examination drills while some of the more experienced students actually cross examined each other in the context of a real round. Next, the Article Groups met before lunch to discuss an article that argued, in part, that it was not the government's place to concern itself with citizens of other countries and that governments had no moral commitment to improve people's welfare in other countries.

During the afternoon, the students spent guided time in the UNT library where they researched, cut evidence, and continued to write cases. I learned that photography is prohibited in the library even if I turn off the flash. Anyways, all of the staff was available in the library to answer questions and guide students in the right direction in conducting research. The evening consisted of students meeting with their labs for a casing session where students either continued to debate or constructed case positions. Many of the students already have full cases after three days and all of the students have produced research that they are sharing with their fellow students.

Beating the Rain

Each lab group met on three different occasions today despite some rainy weather in Denton. In fact, it rained most of the day, but hopefully it will bring some cooler weather tomorrow, which is always a welcome change from Texas heat. The first lab meeting was this morning where most labs went over affirmative casing. After, Josh Anderson, an expert on international political economy, lectured on globalization and explained how the opening of markets can be linked to the topic, especially to benefiting the negative. After lunch, article groups met for the second time and discussed an article on flexible labor standards and the political climate surrounding workers' rights. An hour later, labs met to cover more topic analysis and the students discussed the demonstration debate from the night before. The day concluded with a lecture on negative casing in lab. This year most lectures will be given in lab because the lab leaders can target their lectures to the skill level of the lab more effectively and students tend to retain more information when a lecturer speaks to 10 students in a classroom instead of sitting in an auditorium full of 100 people. This coincides with UNT's mission of personalizing the experience for each students so that no one has to sit through a lecture of something they already know or that is over their head. Students also can provide feedback easier and will ask more questions in smaller lectures. We look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Topic Analysis Begins

To begin the day students met with their labs where they worked on skills specific to their group. The days at UNT start at 9am , but students are free to work and socialize from the time breakfast is served at 6:30am until they go to their first activity at 9am. After lab, students went to lunch at Bruce Hall or one of the other places to eat on-campus. Following lunch Dr. Robinson gave a lecture on effective research techniques to the entire student body. Another lab began after the research lecture and then students discussed the article they were assigned to read in Article Group. The Article Group is a meeting where students get to meet with different instructors and engage in a critical discussion about an article related to the topic.

After dinner, students attended a topic analysis lecture given by Stephen Babb, Dr. Scott Robinson, Laura De La Cruz, and Josh Anderson where the four explained the intricacies of the topic and proposed possible case positions to use as springboards for students to develop their own ideas. The night ended with a demonstration debate between Liz Mullins and Shane O'Neal on the workshop topic.

The Students Arrive

Students from across the country began arriving today at noon in Denton, TX. While the line to register was long, everyone eventually had the opportunity to check into their rooms, receive their password to access the internet from their residence halls, and complete all the necessary forms. The students who arrived early had ample time to unpack their belongings for their two or three week stay at UNT before the camp convened for a pizza dinner at 5pm. After dinner (which included a smörgåsbord of pizzas (including a vegan option)), students were introduced to the expectations and regulations for their time at UNT. Later, Aaron Timmons, the LD institute director, introduced the LD staff who will be working with the students in the forthcoming weeks. Finally, the students were split off into their respective labs and met their lab leaders for the first time for a lab session before returning to the residence halls.

We look forward to an action-packed day tomorrow!

Welcome new students!

We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the students for the summer of 2007.

Please take some time to view last year's blog or the pictures of students who attended the workshop during 2006.