Games for Skill Development

Debate Warm-ups are a weekly debate topic with simple parameters that require no research.

Secret Word

In Secret Word, one person thinks of a secret word, whispers it to the speaker.

The speaker has 30 seconds to prepare a two minute speech that uses that word. After the speech, audience gets 10 guesses at what the word was.

It's a little bit of impromptu, a lot of listening, and even some poker face required to not give it away. It also can vary in difficulty a lot based on the word you're given.

Dodge the Question

Dodge the Question is a combination of creativity growth and practice for cross.

A question is posed to the speaker, and they have to do their best to give a satisfactory response without actually giving a concrete answer. The goal here would be to respond in the manner of a politician.

Have in Common

The group takes turns offering some words - the goal is to throw out words that are not similar.

Then, the group works on how those words might connect. The goal is to see if you can come up with different ways in which they are similar.

This words on connection skills, and helps students grouping arguments for response arguments.