First lesson on debating went really well today. After going through the basics on what a debate is and the role of each speaker I used a few of the interactive ideas mentioned in yesterday's post. The 4 squares activity was very successful. The 4 squares of the classroom are designated as: strongly agree, strongly disagree, mildly agree, mildly disagree. After announcing the topics students have to move to the corner that best reflects their opinion.

I used the following topics:
That junk food should be banned in schools
That TV is a bad influence
That peer pressure is more beneficial than harmful
and the standby favourite
That uniforms are unnecessary in schools

You can imagine there were a couple of topics where opinion was clearly divided and a couple where everyone was in the same corner :-)

Each time students separated into their 4 corners they had to come up with 4 reasons why they held that opinion.

I also used the 2 card concept. After completing our 4 squares activity I brought students back into one group and handed each two comment/question cards. We then discussed the four debate topics. If students wished to share their reason/make a comment/ask a question they had to return a card to me. Once they had given me both their cards they could no longer contribute to the discussion. Now this is a spirited class but the idea was well received. More students than usual actually managed to share their ideas. Of course there were still students who had their 2 cards left at the end of the lesson but in general more students participated than is usually the case.