Debate Skills Workshop
Fall 2021
Wednesdays 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM PST | September 1 - December 15, 2021
This class prepares students for competition in Middle and High School debate. Students are introduced to debate through a combination of SPontaneous ARgumentation (SPAR), Parliamentary, and Lincoln Douglas debate.
This workshop includes both a Beginner lab AND an Advanced lab.
The class is geared towards focusing on, emphasizing, and developing these key skills:
Beginner Lab
The beginner lab is made for students that have less than a year of debate experience. The lab starts by introducing basic tenets of advocacy, such as Plato’s elements of persuasion and components of a persuasive speech, as well as argument development, refutation, and summary. Students practice SPAR, a format of debate that gives students limited amounts of preparation time to research a topic before debating.
Advanced Lab
The advanced lab is made for students that have at least one year of debate experience. Students are introduced to both Lincoln-Douglas and Parliamentary debate. Students develop their existing skills while preparing to compete at more advanced extramural tournaments against students from other programs.
What's New in Fall of 2021
Tuition is $18/hour, but here’s what you now get for free
Three Free Tournaments
The three tournaments (October 3, November 6, and December 11) are complimentary and included in the tuition for the class in order to increase practice opportunities.
Debate Lecture Encyclopedia
For students that are interested in extra learning opportunities, we're providing free access to additional enrichment videos on debate skills and common topics.
Student Scrimmage Forum
An online forum moderated by Telegraph coaches that allows students to practice their debate skills by debating topics they choose in an online written format.
The classes maintain the student-teacher ratio at no worse than 1 to 8.
Registration ends 1/5. Currently, students pay
$1,200.00
For 40 hours of tuition.
* Spots are currently limited. Some students may be waitlisted.
About the Coach
Lila Lavender | Intercollegiate National Champion
Not many former debaters can claim to have won a national championship at the college level. In 2019, Lila won 1st place at NPDA Nationals, the end-of-the-year championship in NPDA Parliamentary debate.
In her journey to bring these tools to future generations of young scholars, Lila wants debaters to be able to apply the critical thinking skills they learn in Debate to their everyday life. In order to establish that connection, she encourages students to decide for themselves what they want their experience with Debate to be like.
Coaching Experience
Lincoln-Douglas Debate Lab Leader
Impact Debate Club (2019-2020)
Pioneer Debate Institute (2017-2019)
Climb the Mountain (2017)
Parliamentary Debate Lab Leader
Parliamentary Debate Collective Online Institute (2020)
Point of Information Debate Institute (2019)
Competitive Experience
Western Washington University - 2018-2019
1st place at NPDA Nationals
3rd place at the National Round Robin
2nd place at Great Salt Lake
1st place at Sunset Cliffs
1st place at the Viking Invitational
2nd place at the Golden Gate Invitational
1st place at the Mahaffey Memorial
2nd place at the NW Parli Warmup
2nd place at the Steve Hunt Classic
2nd place at William Jewell