The end result of ten weeks of GC is a final "mock conference", where students must represent different member states of the UN and present and defend their country's position on a specific topic relevant to the international community. Having students understand what this will look like early on in the GC curriculum is crucial for setting expectations and successfully simulating a UN conference.
Since much of GC revolves around "the topic", or the global issue to be debated on such as violence against women or sustainable development, there is not much tangible work to be done in regards to researching and synthesizing positions until it has been determined by the GC organizers what that topic will be and what countries your students will represent. Therefore, to productively fill the time between when you start GC with your students and when the topic has been decided, Week 2 of GC can be spent going over the conference structure and getting students prepared to have formal debates.
Class #1
It is important to remember what level of English your students have. Formal debate is hard enough in your first language, so below I provide some resources and activities to get students comfortable with debating in a fun and highly structured way.
Spending a class teaching formal debate language and how to use it will be critical in fostering an environment where students feel comfortable expressing and defending their opinions.
Class #2
Once you've reviewed some of these phrases and explained their meaning, put them into practice by having students debate and defend hypothetical positions like the ones below. Feel free to simplify the topics -- the goal here is to get students to start thinking critically about the world as well as put into practice their new debating vocabulary.
