Summer SAVY 2018: Session 4, Day 3 – The Great Debate, Mr. Lee (Rising 3rd/4th)
Parents,
We are halfway through our week already! Your children are now well-acquainted with their classmates and SAVY’s expectations. Our morning began with a quick review of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence – a model for persuasive speaking that incorporates personal anecdote – and we applied this tool to three different debate topics: year-round schools, cell phone use in schools, and tap water vs. bottled water. Students shared personal stories and experiences regarding each of these topics, and turned those anecdotes into pro or con arguments.
We decided on one of these topics for a practice debate, split the class into an affirmative group and a negative group, and spent some time preparing arguments and rebuttals. At the last minute, we surprised the students by switching the two teams, giving them less than 5 minutes to prepare for this sudden turn of events! This exercise was to teach the students to fully prepare their rebuttals in order to anticipate what the other team might argue. Although students were initially shocked, they recovered well and were able to have a successful and exciting debate this morning!
Throughout the day, we added to our vocabulary list of new words and after ORA gave the students feedback from their morning debate. We are steadily improving our presentation and rebuttal skills, ability to think on the spot, and we will be superstars by Friday! The students are working especially hard to display their best sportsmanship so they we will be respectful and kind opponents on Friday.
After lunch, we spent some time in the computer lab to research additional debate topics. The students were eager to take notes and gather information for their teams. For the rest of the afternoon, we hashed out these three practice debates – one of which included the entire classroom in argument against me, their instructor!
As the week comes to a close, your children are being geared with many new tools. Their prose, confidence, and collaborative skills improve day-by-day. We look forward to seeing the fruits of their labor this Friday!
Thank you,
David Ian Lee (Instructor)
Niah Charles (Teaching Assistant)
Working Against the Clock to Determine Whether SAVY Students Should be Allowed to Bring Cell Phones to Class
