9 Sites to Aid Students with Pros and Cons

Our eighth graders are currently involved in "The Great Debate", an exercise in public speaking. Students are assigned either the pro or con side to a particular topic, such as school uniforms, the selling of junk food in the cafeteria or the death penalty. At the completion of their research papers, they present their side in a debate, which is held in their classroom. The following list was created to aid them in their research.


Debatabase- you can browser topics alphabetically

Debate Central- "Debate Central is an online resource created and maintained by the National Center for Policy Analysis for high school students researching the nationwide high school debate topic."

Fact Check-project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania; " a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases."

Google Scholar- searches only scholarly or academic articles

Middle School Topic Research Guide- nice listing of debate topics and sites related to that topic

New York Times Opinion Pages- varied topics

Points of View- database included in an EBSCO subscription 

Pro-Con.org- covers 49 controversial issues

Times Topics- topic page collect news, reference and archival information, photos, audio and video files; goes back to 1981