One of the defining elements of argument is that there are multiple sides, and no definitive right answer, which is the reason that students need to argue in the first place. Debate teaches students to address not only counterargument, but the fact that they could write an entire argument for the opposing side. An important way to teach students this concept is to not have them choose a side initially, because they will then search for evidence to only back up their claim. They should do research first and consider all sides, and only then can they decide which side they think is stronger or which side they think they can realistically argue.
Activity #1: Murder Case Source: George Hillocks, Teaching Argument Writing Students can be given a court scenario of a murder case and have them be the jury and decide what the sentence will be. The students will discuss their personal views and do some research, then decide in small groups what they want to use as the definition for murder. Then, the students will analyze the evidence and determine whether or not what they think happened matches the definition they established and whether or not they would convict the person. Each group should have their own discussion, and ideally not all the groups are going to come to the same conclusion. If that happens, the teacher should introduce bits of evidence that the students may have overlooked, or ask a few groups with students who have the best understanding to take on the opposite side.
Once each group has their conclusion, the class will have a discussion and/or debate. Either the teacher can choose to divide the class into two groups based on sides, or let each group be independent and the discussion be more general. While the teacher is there to keep order in the classroom, a little bit of heated discussion and voice-raising is okay because it means that students are passionate about the argument they are making. After a conclusion is reached, have students look over what the real jury decided and compare that to what the class decided. Was it the same? Different? Do the students understand why the jury sided the way they did? If not, was there some kind of bias in the jury that could have made them side a way that the students did not agree with?