The teacher has set the ground rules for the debate including that claims should be supported by evidence and that arguments can be challenged. Students have generated their claims with reasons and evidence from the text. They’ve also generated their own questions to challenge each other and have requested additional evidence to support their challenges. The debate is highly structured, and a timer is utilized which limits the opportunity for students to provide rebuttals or spend more time delving into their arguments before moving on to the next argument.

As the second side opens with their claims, they continue to base them on the text with evidence and reasons to support their claims. A notable moment occurs in this segment when students hold each other accountable to the pre-established discussion agreements they have for discussion and making sure their peers have the opportunity to respond. 

In this last section, we see the debate is opened up to the whole class, and the teacher makes some moves to bring students back to the text. 

While highly structured debates can be helpful, there are also limitations. In this example, the requirement to stick to one position of which character has more power limited the complexity and nuance of the character analysis. To advance student proficiency in APT, we can imagine that in the next debate students would have more control over turn-taking and more time to elaborate on their arguments.