After school on 10/27 (Tue), we held the third PDA Practice Lesson.  This time 12 members came.  This time, the practice focused on making Points of Interest (POIs).  In a debate, this is when you interrupt the other team in order to ask a question or make a comment.  These can be made to clarify things, e.g. “I can hear you.  Please speak in a louder voice,” get more information, e.g. “We don’t understand your second point.  Please explain why it is important,” or to attack the other team’s ideas, e.g. “You said that saving money is important, but we disagree because high school students don’t need a lot of money because their parents pay for them.”

 The students did three practice activities.  First, they gave short self-introductions in groups.  While they were speaking, other members used POIs to get more information.  Then, they gave summaries of news articles they had read.  Again, other students interrupted to get more information.  Finally, they gave their opinions on previous debate topics.  Other students interrupted to attack the speaker’s ideas.  For each activity, they counted how many times they used a POI.  At the end, we found the POI champion.  Congratulations to O, who used 15 POIs in across the four rounds.

 POIs are a very important part of Parliamentary debate and require quick thinking and confidence.  The students did a great job practicing them today and we hope to see them using them a lot in the next debate matches on 11/7.  Also, the next 練習会 will be on 11/10.  See you then!