{"id":278,"date":"2014-03-10T22:20:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T22:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cohort21.com\/ckirsh\/?p=278"},"modified":"2019-08-19T23:40:44","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T23:40:44","slug":"the-great-debates-of-grade-7-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/2014\/03\/10\/the-great-debates-of-grade-7-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Debates of Grade 7 (part two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Debate<\/a>
\nWhat I Saw The Students Actually \u201cDo\u201d:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

I am a (new) big fan of the \u201cknow, do, reflect\u201d model of assessment that came up during the Assessment panel discussion in the Deeper Learning MOOC<\/span><\/a>. Bob Lenz\u2019s model, I think, could be a new way for me to understand how I can structure my assessment tasks in Grade 7 English.<\/span><\/p>\n

When students had chosen their resolution, they were charged with finding a piece of evidence from Canadian History, a piece of evidence from The Book Thief, and a piece of evidence from anything else (for example: their own lives, another book, an online article, or another example from history \/ The Book Thief) to support their position. It was fantastic to see students take the \u201cknowing\u201d that they have developed over the term and actually apply<\/em> it; the resolution acted as the thread which stitched together these seemingly separate experiences (the Native experience of residential schools, the miseducation of Liesel Meminger, and the movie Mean Girls, come to mind). I saw students grappling with understanding whether all education was good education, if oppression happens in their own schoolyard in addition to battlefields, and scouring their knowledge of current events to discover that Malala\u2019s struggle is important and not at all unique). I also saw students think on their feet and demonstrate authentic understanding when they could effectively refute their opponent\u2019s argument with a snappy rebuttal.<\/p>\n

I also saw students creatively work collaboratively with other students. They were assessed individually, yet each group member found creative ways to support their teammates. I saw students practice with each other, others explaining the debating form to each other, I saw some students help clarify each other\u2019s arguments, and show problem solving skills when teammates didn\u2019t show up for their scheduled debate.<\/p>\n

Moreover, I saw students effectively leverage Google tools and ask each other for feedback through the comments feature of their Google Doc, but also monitor and accept valuable feedback from their teachers.<\/p>\n

This is one audio recording of a debate <\/a>that really shows the student\u2019s understanding of her resolution and the evidence selected to prove her point.<\/p>\n

What I Wished I Saw The Students \u201cDo\u201d (also known as the challenges):<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

As with all projects, there are aspects that did not go quite as planned \/ hoped. There is a limited amount of time and resources that often translate into significant challenges and shortcomings. For example, for the two weeks leading up to the debates, my colleague was sick and needed time away from school. Then I had my wisdom teeth out and needed time to recover. Then we went on a class trip to Haliburton forest. All of this translated into significant portions of independent time for students, which some students did not take full advantage of. I\u2019m wondering now if we should have prepped them more for this, given them more \u201cpep-talks\u201d about the benefits of managing your own learning, and taking responsibility for yourself. That said, some students were exceptionally competent with checking their Google Doc for feedback and responding with follow-up questions or taking on the feedback eagerly. Then other students needed their parents to get involved in order to realize that they had work to do.<\/p>\n

Part of me wonders if those students we had to \u201cchase\u201d down more would have really benefitted from a more personalized learning task. Can you have a more \u201cself-directed\u201d assessment with students as young as Grade 7? Or should you develop their learning skills first before you expect such feats from them? Or are these mini-failures necessary in order for students to understand how to manage themselves differently?<\/p>\n

I also wish that students were not daunted by the \u201cform\u201d of debating before this task. If I were to do this project again, I would start the term with a benign debate about something like school uniforms or homework (some topic where the content knowledge is already within the students), so they could get comfortable with the debating structure. Then, when the end of the term showed up, their cognitive energy could just get channelled towards their resolution.<\/p>\n

In The Students\u2019 Words:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

After the last debate, we had the students fill out a debate feedback form through Google. While this could be deemed as a the \u201creflect\u201d component of the triangle, I think a more thoughtful reflection (one that the students just wanting to speed through the experience couldn\u2019t just rush through) would be essential.<\/p>\n

That said, are are some carefully harvested comments (not even sort of \u00a0edited to prove that real students actually wrote them) that show some of the learning the students had during this project:<\/p>\n

In regards to your debate topic: complete the prompt \u201cI used to think, but now I think\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n