The document summarizes the James Logan Debate Academy occurring from June 24-July 9, 2013. It outlines the benefits of debate including developing academic skills, study skills, and standardized test performance. It describes the first-rate staff of debate coaches that will be teaching various debate formats like policy, Lincoln-Douglas, public forum, and parliamentary debate. Students will learn debate skills through lectures, research, practice rounds, and culminating in a tournament. Days will involve skills development, argument construction, and practice debates.

1. WELCOME . . .
JAMES LOGAN DEBATE ACADEMY
June 24-July 9, 2013

2. WHY DEBATE?
• DEBATE IS VARSITY THINKING. It’s a synthesis of key
academic skills: reading, research, writing, argument
construction, and performance.
• DEBATE TEACHES STUDY SKILLS. Success in
competition requires high quality preparation – and
adherence to deadlines.
• DEBATERS SUCCEED IN SCHOOL. Research shows
that debate sparks academic achievement and
standardized test performance.
• DEBATE IS GREAT FUN. Students travel to local,
regional and national tournaments – competing with and
learning from other bright students.

3. Why the Debate Academy?
• We’ve assembled a first-rate staff – debate teachers from
all over the country who have taught champions, and were
champion debaters themselves.
• The Academy prepares students for the competitive
debate season; they’ll have a head start in the fall.
• Debate is a new language – and immersion is the best
method of teaching a new language. We’ll work on debate
all day, every day.
• It’s a fraction of the typical debate workshop cost.
Programs hosted by universities charge a minimum of
$1000/week.

4. What will be taught?
Each group will begin with basic debate format instruction and
(except in parliamentary debate) lecture/discussion on the topic.
Students will learn how to research (WiFi will be available to all
throughout the Academy).
We will emphasize speaking. Students will be on their feet doing
speaking exercises on the very first day.
We will have lots of practice rounds – approximately half of our
time the second week will be devoted to this type of instruction.
The Academy will conclude with a tournament.

5. What’s a typical day like?
We’ll begin each day at 8:30 am, and dismiss students at 5:30
pm, six days a week. (Yes, there will be homework.)
Mornings the first week will feature topic and format lectures,
followed by small group work on skills. Afternoons are for
work on arguments, casewriting, and research, again in small
groups. We’ll bring lunch in!
The second week will have a few advanced lectures, but the
emphasis is on argument development and practice rounds.
The staff/student ratio for small group or “lab” work will not be
higher than 1:10.

6. THE DEBATE FORMATS ARE …
POLICY
• One broad policy topic for the entire school
year
• Students compete in teams of two
• Research intensive
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS
• Value and policy topics; a new topic every two
months
• Students debate alone; no partners
• Stresses ethical and philosophical contexts.

7. THE DEBATE FORMATS ARE …
PUBLIC FORUM
• Current affairs topics; a new topic each month
• Students debate in teams of two
• "Audience-friendly" debate
PARLIAMENTARY
• Topics are announced 25 minutes before the
contest begins
• Students debate in teams of two.
• Stresses broad knowledge, ability to construct
arguments quickly

8. Who will be teaching?
• Michael Ewald is the Director of Debate at the University of Chicago
Lab School. His extremely successful policy teams travel nationally.
Michael also coached last year’s Grand National NCFL debate team
(Sioux Falls Washington, South Dakota).
• Cayman Giordano has been teaching, coaching, or competing in all kinds of
debate (including Policy, Public Forum, Parliamentary, and Lincoln-Douglas)
since the late 1990s. He has coached public forum and policy teams to middle
school national championships. He has taught at Stanford, Loyola, and the
Capitol Classic debate institutes the past several summers.

9. Who will be teaching?
• Michael Hassin competed in Lincoln-Douglas for Millburn High School in New
Jersey, where he now coaches. He reached late elimination rounds at
tournaments across the country, including Yale, Columbia, Wake Forest, and
Stanford. His students have earned qualifications to the NFL National
Tournament, the NCFL Grand Nationals, and the Tournament of Champions.
• Ben Mabie competed on the James Logan Forensics Team for four years, and
won a variety of awards in public forum and parliamentary debate. Ben’s
career culminated in a 5th place finish in extemporaneous speaking at the
Grand Catholic Nationals Tournament and a 3rd place finish in International
Extemporaneous Speaking at the National Tournament. Ben now studies at
the University of California, Santa Cruz.

10. Who will be teaching?
• Jeffrey Merrill did Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Mountain View High School
from 2005-09 and won several major championships at national invitationals.
He is currently an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is
pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy, Sociology and Math.
• Les Phillips coaches debate at James Logan High School. For 22 years, he
directed debate at Lexington High School in Massachusetts. During that time,
Lexington students won two national championships in policy debate and a
national championship in Lincoln-Douglas debate Les has taught at the Bates,
Dartmouth, CITI, University of Texas, and Northwestern workshops and is
currently in his fifth year as director of Stanford’s Public Forum Institute.
• Sam Timinsky is the director of parliamentary debate at the University of
Washington, where he is a PhD candidate in Asian history. Sam competed in
policy debate for Marist College in New York, and has coached high school
policy and parliamentary teams in the New York area. Sam is an
extraordinarily charismatic teacher with a strong background in history and
philosophy, and we are very much looking forward to his work at Logan.