My district has still not returned to in person classes, but we have begun our argument unit. Students typically love being able to debate topics, and we take an entire class period to let them do so. Unfortunately, this can be a bit challenging while still virtual. For my students, many of them don't feel comfortable showing their homes, or unmuting in loud environments. Therefore, we had to get creative to have our students debate. Some of my classes LOVE to unmute and share their opinions. However, some of my classes dread being asked to unmute, so we play with awkward silence quite frequently.
My school uses Nearpod to create engaging lessons for students. One of the features is a collaborate board. These are amazing and let students discuss in real time without having to unmute or turn their cameras on. For my classes that love to unmute, we set up a virtual debate. I typically have around 16-20 students attend my live lessons, so I let them write the day before on which side of the argument they felt most strongly about. Our topic was "should people be allowed to own exotic animals as pets?". For the students that wrote about why people should be allowed to own exotic animals, I let them join a breakout group of around 8-10 students where they collected their thoughts to argue for the private ownership of exotic animals. The opposing group was in a separate breakout group preparing their argument for why people should not be allowed to own exotic animals as pets. They were given about 15 minutes to prepare, then I ended the breakout groups and had them rejoin the main call.
I prepared a few discussion questions to get the balls rolling, but my talkative classes did not even ended them! They were ready to roll as soon as they entered the main call. One thing I would do differently next time would be to review discussion expectations and how to be respectful of classmates opinions. Occasionally we got off task, or some students would add to the debate via the chat! Overall, it was very successful and I highly recommend!
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