Speaking Activities › Devil's Advocate
Arguing the opposite view — a speaking activity for KS2
You are handed a position, and you probably disagree with it. Mondays are the best day of the week. Broccoli should be served at every meal. You have thirty seconds to argue it as convincingly as you can, and you are not allowed to let on what you actually think. It is the single best way to teach a class that an argument is a thing you build, not a thing you feel.
What does “playing devil’s advocate” mean?
Playing devil’s advocate means arguing for a position you do not personally hold, in order to test it. In a classroom it does something specific and valuable: it separates the quality of an argument from whether you agree with it, which is a distinction most children have never had to make and which sits underneath every piece of persuasive writing they will be asked to do.
How do you run it, step by step?
Show the position and give the speaker a few seconds to think. Start the timer — thirty seconds is the default. They argue it, and the rule is that they may not say whether they agree. The class’s job is to catch the strongest reason they gave, and you ask for it at the end. Three or four speakers is a starter.
Why is it harder than a normal debate?
Because you cannot fall back on what you think. In an ordinary debate a child who believes their side can simply say it louder; here they have to go and find reasons that are not their own, which means genuinely imagining somebody else’s head. That is why the planning sheet asks for three reasons someone might genuinely believe this rather than three reasons it is true.
What makes a good position to argue?
Something clearly unpopular but completely harmless. Odd socks should be compulsory is perfect: nobody believes it, everybody can build a case, and nothing is at stake. Positions with a real moral weight to them are not suitable and are deliberately kept out — asking a child to argue convincingly for something genuinely unkind is not a debating exercise, and the generator is instructed to refuse it.
From the classroom
The moment it works is the moment a child forgets they are pretending. You can see it happen — they start with a shrug and by twenty seconds in they are genuinely defending broccoli, and the class is laughing but also listening. What breaks it is letting them signal. A child who opens with “obviously I don’t really think this, but…” has told everyone not to take it seriously and has protected themselves from the whole exercise, so make that the one rule you enforce. The other thing worth doing is asking the class afterwards whether they were convinced, which is a different question from whether they agreed, and then asking a child who was convinced to say what did it. That distinction is the entire point of the activity, and it will not arrive on its own. With Year 3 keep the positions daft; with Year 6 you can move towards school rules, where they have real opinions and arguing the other side genuinely costs them something.
Which year groups is it for?
It works from Year 3 to Year 9 (US grades 3–8). Younger children need silly positions and a short turn — twenty seconds is plenty. Older children can take positions they have a genuine view on, and can be pushed to concede a point before answering it, which is the most sophisticated move available in the whole set.
Can I choose the positions?
Three ways. Pick a ready-made set — school, food, everyday life, screens and games, or gloriously silly. Generate your own on a theme you type, so it can sit alongside a persuasive writing unit. Or write your own straight in. You see and can edit the whole list before the class does, which matters more here than anywhere else in the set.
Can I print it?
Yes — two sheets. The argument planner comes first for this one, because the work happens before anyone speaks: the position, three reasons someone might genuinely believe it, and the strongest one to open with. The position cards are numbered cut-outs so a pupil can take one without choosing it — which is the fairest way to do it.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| An oracy starter | Four speakers, 30 seconds, class catches the best reason | 10 minutes |
| Persuasive writing | Print the planner, argue it, then write the case | 40 minutes |
| Before a real debate | Argue the side you disagree with first | 20 minutes |
| A spare ten minutes | Silly positions, straight in, no planner | 10 minutes |
Do I need an account?
No. The setup screen and the worked example are both open, so you can see what you would be running before anyone asks you for anything. Starting the activity uses a free trial token, and a Sage Pro subscription lifts the limit.
Free to try, and no sign-up to look around.
More speaking activities
For a debate with two sides at once, try Rebuttal Pong. For arguing in character, Speak Like…. For a whole-class version, Silent Debate. All seventeen are in Speaking Activities.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, who built Sage Teachers to use in their own classroom. Every activity here is free to try with no sign-up.