The I Can Read® National Debate Challenge Grand Final will be held at the NLB Lecture Theatre at Geylang East at 6.30pm on the 7th of December 2010. The Grand Final is the culmination of a competition for which our students have spent the last eight months preparing.
Here is the story so far;
The I Can Read® Primary English Programme (PEP) is a brand new programme which was introduced as a response to the new Singapore Ministry of Education “STELLAR” syllabus. With more emphasis on skills such as viewing and representing, critical thinking and oral presentation skills in the new syllabus it was decided that debating would be an effective, engaging and enjoyable way of enabling our students to enhance these skills. Thus, the I Can Read® National Debate Challenge was born.
Students in P5 and P6 began to learn about debating techniques in their PEP classes in March 2010. After practicing and enhancing their skills for six months the first round of the Challenge was held at Nanyang Girls’ School on the 2nd of October. The motion was “That the Sale of Unhealthy Food to Children Should Be Banned”. Most of the participating students were debating in public for the first time ever, but all nerves were put aside and the results were extremely close. From this round teams from Kovan/Katong, WhiteSands, Yishun, Sengkang, Jurong East and Bukit Timah progressed to the quarter-finals.
The quarter-finals were held at St Joseph’s Institute on the 30th of October 2010. The motion for this round was “That Zoos do More Harm than Good”. There was an obvious improvement in the standard of debating after the first round and a higher level of technical skill was on show. There was a new challenge for the students, with the judges announcing on the night that debaters would be able to interject with “Points of Information” while opposition team members were speaking. Most of the teams were able to embrace the surprise development and it certainly enabled the more skilful and prepared debaters to shine.
Grand Finals
After the quarter-finals the highest-ranked team, Sengkang, were able to progress directly to the Grand Final. The second and third ranked teams from the evening, Yishun and Bukit Timah, progressed to the Preliminary Final to debate for the right to take on Sengkang for first place. The fourth-ranked team from the evening, Jurong East, progressed directly to the Playoff for Third, which will take place on the night of the Grand Final.
The Preliminary Final was held at the Bukit Timah ICR centre on the 20th of November 2010. Yishun and Bukit Timah debated the motion “That All Schools Should be Single-Sex”. Both teams were prepared well, but Yishun had a stronger argument and were able to progress to meet Sengkang in the Grand Final.
The Grand Final will be a celebration of all the effort our students have put into learning debating skills and researching their points over the course of the year. The Playoff for Third Place will take place first, with Bukit Timah debating Jurong East on the motion “That Technology Makes Our Lives Better”. This will be a prelude to the Grand Final itself, when Sengkang and Yishun will debate the motion “That Fairytales do More Harm than Good”. Come along and watch the finest debaters from our 7943 I Can Read students in Singapore as they put forward their cases and show off their impressive skills. Looking forward to seeing you there!