Remembrance Day debate
This debating resource is designed to be used with your tutor group in the week leading up to Remembrance Day, but it could also be used to practise oracy skills or to support the teaching of citizenship.
As a starter activity, the PowerPoint opens with a Remembrance Day image showing the ceremony at the Cenotaph in London. Students are invited to explore the questions 'Who?', 'What?', 'Where?', 'When?' and 'Why?' and read a short text that provides background information. (Comprehension/recall questions are included at the end of the PowerPoint.)
Students then prepare to debate the question 'Should we still commemorate Remembrance Day?', beginning by sorting statements or quotations into 'for' or 'against'.
The Word document / PDF contains debating expressions for discussing controversial topics tactfully and diplomatically. Students can sort these into categories, try to use them during the Remembrance Day debate and/or tick them off as they hear other students using them.
You might also like: Remembrance Day quiz.
An extract from the text about Remembrance Day:
It commemorates soldiers who have lost their lives in military conflicts and was first observed in 1919, a year after the end of the First World War. 11 November is the date of the armistice – the peace treaty that ended WWI. The poppy is the symbol of Remembrance Day because many poppies grew on WWI battlefields after the end of the war.
