Hi MIMU,
I teach Social Studies and I always question whether it's useful to teach my students how to properly debate. Any thoughts?
Signed,
Debating Debates
Debating is a tough skill to teach, D-squared. Maybe this post that Myriam wrote will help clarify.
DEBATING:
It did not take long for me to realize that my grade nines stuggled with debating. They were interested in sharing their opinions and expressing themselves, but I learned quickly that debating is a real skill that is not taught at all or enough in schools.
It did not take long for me to realize that my grade nines stuggled with debating. They were interested in sharing their opinions and expressing themselves, but I learned quickly that debating is a real skill that is not taught at all or enough in schools.
In my first year, I tried to hold a
debate with my students, and it ended up a little like this...
Clearly they needed practice. Rather
than giving up, I decided to incorporate debating into my classroom
as part of our Social Studies class. Some of the topics we debated
are:
- Is Canada really a multicultural society
- Is it important to support local markets?
- Does Canada have a culture?
It takes some time to teach students
how to debate. I spent some time in my French course teaching them
the basics of debating, in terms of the structure and process, and
then used the debates as formative assessment of the topics discussed
in Social Studies.
I came across a debating rubric and
worksheet in the grade 10 Social Studies resources, but I think this
is something that could be adapted to any grade. Debating would
certainly help with students' writing when they are working on
persuasive essays and learning how to argue points.
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