Wall Wisher

Having fun lately using Wall Wisher. I used it recently as a vocab review tool in History and Science but the sky seems to be the limit with this web application. Check out Sean Banville's blog for 105 Classroom ideas for Wall Wisher.

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.

Debate Topics

While on the theme of debates I thought I would suggest a few sites to find topics suitable for middle schoolers. Most of these of course have an American focus but if you make alterations here and there you will come across some gems.
Middle School Debate Topics
Collection of debate topics

Debating

Spent the evening searching for information about debating. Never having been a debater myself means I have a limited repertoire of ideas. While I have taught units involving debating before they have been for older students. So, where have I ended up? Well I found some great debating ideas at Education World I especially like the idea of the Four Corners Debate Strategy as an introductory task.

Great lesson ideas can also be found on this Education World page. I am fairly certain I will use the strategy involving each student being given 3 cards labelled comment or question. When a student wishes to make a point as part of the discussion, he or she raises one of the cards; after making a comment or asking a question pertinent to the discussion, the student turns in the card. This strategy encourages participants to think before jumping in; those who are usually frequent participants in classroom discussions must weigh whether the point they wish to make is valuable enough to turn in a card. When a student has used all the cards, he or she cannot participate again in the discussion until all students have used all their cards.

Considering the importance of digital technology in our student's lives I have been trying to find examples of debating podcasts or videos. Therein lies my dilemma. How to a) Find a video on debating that b) makes debating look interesting for the average 12 year old. Here are a few examples of what is out there.







While there are a few videos available on the Internet so far nothing has really grabbed me as a fabulous resource, so the search continues.

I did find a great resource with templates to get students organising their thoughts and ideas into a speech format however. Yet again it can be found at Education World.