Speech / Debate Curriculum

This new college preparatory literary series from B&H Publishers provides parent educators and Christian schools with educationally sound, rigorous literature courses. Students will learn: to think critically about their world and their participation in it; to write their thoughts, primarily through essays; to articulate their thoughts through small group discussions with peers, family, broader communities, and through occasional formal speeches; to enhance vocabulary through reading and studying quality literature; to converse about the major worldviews of authors of literature, past and present; and to develop and refine their own worldviews through participating in biblical application and Christian principles in weekly studies.

A Workbook for Arguments builds on Anthony Weston's Rulebook for Arguments to provide a complete textbook for a course in critical thinking or informal logic. Workbook includes:

The entire text of Rulebook, supplemented with extensive further explanations and exercises.

Homework exercises adapted from a wide range of arguments from newspapers, philosophical texts, literature, movies, videos, and other sources.

Practical advice to help students succeed when applying the Rulebook's rules to the examples in the homework exercises.

Suggestions for further practice, outlining activities that students can do by themselves or with classmates to improve their skills.

Detailed instructions for in-class activities and take-home assignments designed to engage students.

An appendix on mapping arguments, giving students a solid introduction to this vital skill in constructing complex and multi-step arguments and evaluating them.

Model answers to odd-numbered problems, including commentaries on the strengths and weaknesses of selected sample answers and further discussion of some of the substantive intellectual, philosophical, or ethical issues they raise.