TODAY IN CLASS
Congratulations to all of you who have been using your calendars provided in class. Both the original debate calendar and the revision passed out on Friday showed that Vocab Unit 14 was due today. So we stamped it on schedule, and the quiz will be on Wednesday. The same calendar shows that we do NOT have vocab next week (Monday is the Memorial Day holiday). Unit 15 will be due on Monday, June 4, with the unit quiz on June 6. There will be no "review quiz" for Units 13-15, though you will obviously need to study them yourself. There will be a test--counted as part of your final exam--on units 8-15 scheduled for after all the debates have concluded.

The ongoing struggle for debate is "What do I write?" The only format provided is for the first Affirmative and Negative Plans--see your debate packet. But even that "format" is somewhat vague, because the actual cases depend on YOUR subject and YOUR research and YOUR framing of the argument. That is what debate is all about. And although many groups have assigned one person to Affirmative and one person to Negative, let me remind you that you DON"T KNOW which side you will actually be on the day of the debate. However, as partners, you'll both be the same thing, so you had both better know your case inside out. SO here is what I suggest: if you write the main affirmative and negative plans separately, then either SWITCH for the rebuttals, or both of your work jointly on the rebuttals. The 2nd Affirmative and 2nd Negatives continue to present documented support, but they are aimed at what you imagine the counter-arguments to be. The final rebuttals are much shorter, usually have less documentation, and do in fact represent only "your best guess"--the other side (the opposing team, the ones who are writing their own Affirmative and Negative cases) might surprise you completely.

Remember, your homework is to do lots of this outside class. Tuesday is really the last day to work on your writing. I'm not expecting typing to get done in class; that's on-going homework. The library is open (finally!) now that AP testing is over, and if you need to come into the classroom after school to work this week, that's OK too.

Everyone's written work is due on Thursday (see revised schedule!!) regardless of when you actually debate. However, you can certainly hang on to your box of notecards until you actually debate. You will want to review them carefully the couple of days before your debate. Remember that the copies you hand in to me will not be returned until after the debates are over--you and your partner need to have copies of your own to review and have available during the actual debate. i will NOT be returning my copy to you for you to use during the debate.