Group 1 The lesson was great!!! I have never read the “real story of the three little pigs,” and from what was read in class it seems like a great story. I think that the debating was a good tool for all teachers. It can be used at any grade level when used with an age appropriate topic. I have seen grade 4 students conduct debates and personally debated in an education course just a few weeks ago. This was a great way to provide students with the support and ideas to do persuasive writing.
Great book choice – when you were reading it, I didn’t want you to stop! It was not only entertaining, but was a good book for understanding the concept of ‘point of view’. The ice cream hook was fantastic too and the way we did a silent vote was brilliant. I had not seen this strategy done before, so it was useful to learn for making sure all students are involved and aren’t swayed by their friends. The act of getting up and physically moving to the sides of the room and discussing (via placemat) the reasons for our opinion was a good way to have students think about why they voted the way they did. The lesson’s plan to go back and let students change their side when the points were stated was also great. I liked the message it would relay to students, being that it is okay to change your mind about something once you’ve heard all the facts or differing points of view. It also shows that it is important to have opinions, but also that we need to back up opinions with an argument. Reasoning, judgment, and critical thinking skills are essential. It was nice to have a lesson like this to participate in.
I really like the way the lesson was set up so that we have a chance to live in the shoes of grade students. I found the physical movement and the explicit statement that it is okay to change sides clear and allow students to freely change their opinion after the discussion. If it wasn't for the time limit, I would love to argue with the other group why the wolf is a good character!
Its me again. I appreciated the book talk in the beginning. One thing I may suggest for this book talk is that because we are adults, you can pick up the speed of reading the book and quickly show us the pictures. Our professor in language arts did exactly that when she shows us many books she used in her class. She did the book talk going through the whole book in one minute! I hope this helps!
This presentation was great. I really liked how presntation started off with an example of how one can get the attention of the students prior to doing the lesson. It was a great way to get the students to start thinking about how to convince someone to change thier opinion. The other thing that I really liked about the presentation was using the placemat strategy. This is a great way for students to think critically about their decision, rather than dismissing thier decision. Then it was followed by the debate. Anytime that I have done debates, it really allows children to express who they are and their opinions, as we all know each student has an opinion about something. Thanks for a new strategy, I hope that I could use this strategy.
I really like the idea of using the “True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” as a start to teach students about persuasive writing and debating. It is never to early for students to learn how to back up their points and opinions to give them more validity. You did an excellent job of hooking in the class with your question on ice cream preferences and then accessing prior knowledge about the well known fairy tale. I am positive kids would really enjoy doing this whole activity. My only question for you to think about is when you have the class in 2 rows to go down the lines and try to convince others to switch to your side, what will you do if everyone on the side of “I think the wolf was bad” has the same point? Perhaps the groups could hand in the points beforehand (for you to assess) and then the next day add/fine tune their position before starting the class debate. Well done
•I found your persuasion tactic, (the ice cream debate), an interesting strategy to engage the students! I can really see how the intermediate students would get right into fighting for their favourite flavour! What an excellent way to have the students use their argument skills to back up their opinion!
•I appreciated all of the ideas you gave us to put in our resource file! The place-mat, post-it thought, and the thumbs up opinion poll with eyes closed were all great activities!
Great Job! - I really liked how you used the Power Point and the shape of the day to help organize your ideas and highlight key points. - I thought your idea of a journal entry after the debate was good. I like that this gave students another avenue to share if their opinion had changed besides physically moving in front of their peers. - The introduction to debating with the ice cream hook was good. I think it would definitely get the class’ attention. Also, I liked the placement activity. It’s a good way for students’ to showcase their knowledge but also work on their collaborating skills.
I really enjoyed your lesson. I thought it was a good way to introduce the concept of debate to students. I like that you started with a simple debate about ice cream, which most of the children should be able to relate to. I also liked how you put the votes for this debate on the whiteboard using post-it notes. It makes a nice visual for the kids to be able to see how many people liked each type of ice cream. The story you chose was age-appropriate and a lot of fun for kids to read. I think it’s good that you thought-ahead to the fact that the teacher should have some pre-prepared arguments for each side, in case the students have trouble thinking up more than one reason to support their opinion.
I know that in your lesson the teacher would be reading the story to the students. Would the students also each have their own copy? I think some students may need to have the story to look back on as they’re filling out their place mats because they may not remember all the details from just hearing it read once.
Overall, I think your lesson was really well done. The only thing I would suggest for the future would be making the instructions a bit more clear. I had trouble seeing how the students would line up and debate, until after it was explained a second time. As well, when you use the thumb taps to put students in groups you may want to make it clear that the groups will be made up of students who sided with the wolf and students who sided with the pigs. At first our group was confused because we hadn’t all voted the same way and we thought some of us might be in the wrong place. I think children would become even more agitated than we adults were with the possibility that they had accidentally moved to the wrong side of the room.
This is such a great book! I have not had a lot of experience with introducing "Debate" in the classroom and would have never thought to use this story! I thought the idea of using chocolate vs vanilla was a relatable way of introducing the subject before moving into the story. I personally enjoyed moving around in the presentation, as I am sure the students would in the classroom. It was useful to actually participate and generate a placemat to learn the strategy. The sign idea was VERY creative. It was a great visual prompt to let us know when “class was in session” and when we were in 473 presentation mode! I was glad that you used a power point presentation as I am a visual learner and I was really able to take in the information this way. I thought the example of mandatory uniforms for students was a good one that all students would have ideas about and be able to form an opinion about. Thank you group 1, I learned a lot during your lesson.
I really enjoyed how you set up your lesson with a good explanation which would activate prior knowledge in the students This lesson would really appeal to kinesthetic learners with all the getting up and moving around. The placemat activity was very engaging and I liked that it included all students, as we all got a chance to write at the same time so no one was waiting around getting bored and losing interest. I liked that you let us practice the placemat activity so that we could see how effective it is and how it is done. I think it is great that you brought up the topic of debating in classrooms as it is such a valuable, real life skill for all students to have. Assertiveness is not often taught so I think that establishing ground rules on expectable behavior when listening to others opinions is necessary. I think that once rules are established, this is a very safe way for students to take risks and share their thoughts. I also liked that you mentioned that while it is important for students to have opinions they need to learn to back them up. Great story choice! I liked that someone mentioned staying away from sensitive subjects when debating, at least until students are comfortable and have learned to be respectful of diverse opinions.
Group 1: Great topic! I have used this book as well to talk about POV. I really enjoyed the aspect where you activatd prior knowledge by having al ittle debate. I wish I really was in your class so I could have gone through the debate. It was great to see teachers ciculating the room to check for understanding. The thumbs up check was super! Great job, love the book, love the presentation.
What a great presentation! I loved the pacing and the variety of activities, all of which were very focused and clear, but allowed for lots of physical movement around the room, involvement by all students, and a variety of small group work. ADD, kinesthetic, and easily bored or restless students would love it. Your activities allowed for the development of thought from the simple idea of picking and then defending a choice; a nice bridge from the ice cream debate to the previously read story; a "secret" vote that discourages group mentality; and the "placemat" activity that encourages cooperative brainstorming and development of quality ideas. All of these are important steps in the journey towards picking, justifying, and defending a position. I also loved how students were allowed to change sides if they needed to. One thing I hated about debates when I was in school was the random assigning of students to a side that we had to justify whether we believed it or not. Allowing students to choose, think about, and debate their points, as well as change sides, allows for the development of honest thought, a skill that is much needed in this world. I think perhaps only politicians stubbornly cling to an inflexible position for fear of being proven wrong! The sign was also very cute, and the Power Point, quotes, and back-up points for us as teachers were invaluable. The only thing I would suggest is to let us actually line up and begin the debate, which I was looking forward to, and which would have made this portion of the lesson more clear, as it was the main point of the lesson. Great job! I'm sure I'll use many parts of it.
This lesson was really good and very amusing. I really liked how you set up persuasive writing by talking about how to use debates in class based on reading. I liked the part of the lesson where so many aspects of reading were being used. you were using strategies such as reading aloud to your students, focusing on key ideas and trying to come up with great strategies to invoke comprehension in your students.
One thing i would suggest and this is based on another class i am taking sometimes when setting up debates that is more important to practice debates with really controversial issues. One thing i was thinking about when you were doing your presentatin was in the debate between vanilla or chocolate ice cream was that the reasons for why students would like ice cream is probably going to invoke answers because it tasts better, I would think that this would be difficult to invoke the real important parts of a debate like finding evidence and arguing your points etc.... that would be the only suggestion I would think of for a great lesson
I loved the hook you used with the flavor of ice cream. Then how you wanted us to persuade you to move to the vanilla side helped to set the stage for a debate. The story is fabulous and what a great approach to debate the issue. Having us do the placemat before the debate helped to collaborate with others of similar ideas and build a stronger case. Allowing students to change their minds and move to the other side is a nice approach.
Group 1: Your lesson was very well structured with a lot of modeling and a great introduction. All of your ideas were well organized through your power point presentation. I appreciated that you showed us so many activities in such short time (ice cream introduction was the best part – I’m sure that can capture every kid’s attention). Your rationale was clear and I could exactly see the reasons behind each activity. It was great that you mentioned that as teachers, we should come prepared to argue both sides as kids tend to stick to one side not only because of their opinion but sometimes they find it intimidating to stand on one side of the classroom by themselves when doing debates. Instead they choose to join majority of the class. Great lesson – I will for sure use it in my classroom!
Group 1: This was a really fun lesson! I thought the sign idea (For students/ For adults) was brilliant. The ice-cream debate was a really good way to pique not only interest but thinking somewhat critically. The book choice was fantastic as well. This lesson was well put together.
Great presentation group one! I always wanted to use this book for a POV lesson, but I wasn't quite sure how to do it. Thanks for the great ideas. This lesson was alot of fun, and really got us thinking. I loved the chocoalte vs. vanilla icecream hook.
3 Little pigs It was an excellent presentation. The group was well organized, and it seemed like that they practiced a lot before the presenting it to the class. It was great scaffolding to the lesson by bringing in the sticky notes, and asked the class to write the name of their favourite ice-creams on the notes. I loved the idea of putting the sticky notes on the board with lines in between them. It was a great visual for mind mapping of the students. The other great idea I liked was place-mats. I enjoyed the place-mat activity, and the idea of writing the more appealing point in the centre. Yes, this was a great lesson to introduce the persuasive writing. Well done Girls!!!
Your presentation was so good! I loved the way that you used incorporated debate; it is something that I will definitely use in my class. Diana, you did an excellent job modeling this for us. I really liked how you said that it was important to have students talk about their ideas and write them down before the debate started, this way everyone will have something to say.
I thought this presentation was extremely well organized and well orchestrated! The instructions were clear and it was easy to see the connection between what we were doing as a class full of teachers and what we could do with a class full of students. I was able to take away many wonderful strategies for introducing students to the concepts of debate and rebuttal. The post-it idea proved to tie very nicely into an effective graphic organizer for depicting the many different perspectives present within the classroom. What I liked most about this presentation is that it makes a great accompaniment to the earlier lesson we saw on the original version of the “Three Little Pigs”. Thank you for sharing your ideas with us, and I look forward to using some of your educational and engaging strategies with a future class of my own!
I think this group did a great job with their lesson! In particular, I really enjoyed “the hook” activity on ice cream preferences. I think it’s a great way for kids to access prior knowledge and understand the different steps in developing a well supported opinion. The only suggestion I have is perhaps, you may need to clarify and/or simplify the instructions a bit more when teaching this to younger children. Even as adults many of us were not clear on how and where to line up during the debate portion of the lesson! All in all, very well done!
I really enjoyed listening to the presentation and a good way to introduce debating using a simple and well-known story for children. The hook was pretty good because it allowed even the shyest kids to form an opinion about something that was almost quite universal. It would have been nice to actually "do" the debate or to hear one point on each side if we had more time. But it was good because you stated the rationale behind why you did this activity and why you did other things for your purpose. You mentioned the idea about scaffolding their thinking. I think this is soo important because what if each child had no more good ideas and there was dead space? A possible activity you could do is to do a homework assignment for pro/con opinions. I did this in my Gr. 12 English class on uniforms and smoking, and then we had lots of information regarding it.
Group 1
ReplyDeleteThe lesson was great!!! I have never read the “real story of the three little pigs,” and from what was read in class it seems like a great story. I think that the debating was a good tool for all teachers. It can be used at any grade level when used with an age appropriate topic. I have seen grade 4 students conduct debates and personally debated in an education course just a few weeks ago. This was a great way to provide students with the support and ideas to do persuasive writing.
Great book choice – when you were reading it, I didn’t want you to stop! It was not only entertaining, but was a good book for understanding the concept of ‘point of view’. The ice cream hook was fantastic too and the way we did a silent vote was brilliant. I had not seen this strategy done before, so it was useful to learn for making sure all students are involved and aren’t swayed by their friends. The act of getting up and physically moving to the sides of the room and discussing (via placemat) the reasons for our opinion was a good way to have students think about why they voted the way they did. The lesson’s plan to go back and let students change their side when the points were stated was also great. I liked the message it would relay to students, being that it is okay to change your mind about something once you’ve heard all the facts or differing points of view. It also shows that it is important to have opinions, but also that we need to back up opinions with an argument. Reasoning, judgment, and critical thinking skills are essential. It was nice to have a lesson like this to participate in.
ReplyDeleteI really like the way the lesson was set up so that we have a chance to live in the shoes of grade students. I found the physical movement and the explicit statement that it is okay to change sides clear and allow students to freely change their opinion after the discussion. If it wasn't for the time limit, I would love to argue with the other group why the wolf is a good character!
ReplyDeleteIts me again. I appreciated the book talk in the beginning. One thing I may suggest for this book talk is that because we are adults, you can pick up the speed of reading the book and quickly show us the pictures. Our professor in language arts did exactly that when she shows us many books she used in her class. She did the book talk going through the whole book in one minute! I hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteThis presentation was great. I really liked how presntation started off with an example of how one can get the attention of the students prior to doing the lesson. It was a great way to get the students to start thinking about how to convince someone to change thier opinion. The other thing that I really liked about the presentation was using the placemat strategy. This is a great way for students to think critically about their decision, rather than dismissing thier decision. Then it was followed by the debate. Anytime that I have done debates, it really allows children to express who they are and their opinions, as we all know each student has an opinion about something. Thanks for a new strategy, I hope that I could use this strategy.
ReplyDeleteHelen
I really like the idea of using the “True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” as a start to teach students about persuasive writing and debating. It is never to early for students to learn how to back up their points and opinions to give them more validity. You did an excellent job of hooking in the class with your question on ice cream preferences and then accessing prior knowledge about the well known fairy tale. I am positive kids would really enjoy doing this whole activity. My only question for you to think about is when you have the class in 2 rows to go down the lines and try to convince others to switch to your side, what will you do if everyone on the side of “I think the wolf was bad” has the same point? Perhaps the groups could hand in the points beforehand (for you to assess) and then the next day add/fine tune their position before starting the class debate. Well done
ReplyDeleteHere is some feedback on your presentation!
ReplyDelete•I found your persuasion tactic, (the ice cream debate), an interesting strategy to engage the students! I can really see how the intermediate students would get right into fighting for their favourite flavour! What an excellent way to have the students use their argument skills to back up their opinion!
•I appreciated all of the ideas you gave us to put in our resource file! The place-mat, post-it thought, and the thumbs up opinion poll with eyes closed were all great activities!
Great Job!
ReplyDelete- I really liked how you used the Power Point and the shape of the day to help organize your ideas and highlight key points.
- I thought your idea of a journal entry after the debate was good. I like that this gave students another avenue to share if their opinion had changed besides physically moving in front of their peers.
- The introduction to debating with the ice cream hook was good. I think it would definitely get the class’ attention. Also, I liked the placement activity. It’s a good way for students’ to showcase their knowledge but also work on their collaborating skills.
I really enjoyed your lesson. I thought it was a good way to introduce the concept of debate to students. I like that you started with a simple debate about ice cream, which most of the children should be able to relate to. I also liked how you put the votes for this debate on the whiteboard using post-it notes. It makes a nice visual for the kids to be able to see how many people liked each type of ice cream. The story you chose was age-appropriate and a lot of fun for kids to read. I think it’s good that you thought-ahead to the fact that the teacher should have some pre-prepared arguments for each side, in case the students have trouble thinking up more than one reason to support their opinion.
ReplyDeleteI know that in your lesson the teacher would be reading the story to the students. Would the students also each have their own copy? I think some students may need to have the story to look back on as they’re filling out their place mats because they may not remember all the details from just hearing it read once.
Overall, I think your lesson was really well done. The only thing I would suggest for the future would be making the instructions a bit more clear. I had trouble seeing how the students would line up and debate, until after it was explained a second time. As well, when you use the thumb taps to put students in groups you may want to make it clear that the groups will be made up of students who sided with the wolf and students who sided with the pigs. At first our group was confused because we hadn’t all voted the same way and we thought some of us might be in the wrong place. I think children would become even more agitated than we adults were with the possibility that they had accidentally moved to the wrong side of the room.
This is such a great book! I have not had a lot of experience with introducing "Debate" in the classroom and would have never thought to use this story! I thought the idea of using chocolate vs vanilla was a relatable way of introducing the subject before moving into the story. I personally enjoyed moving around in the presentation, as I am sure the students would in the classroom. It was useful to actually participate and generate a placemat to learn the strategy. The sign idea was VERY creative. It was a great visual prompt to let us know when “class was in session” and when we were in 473 presentation mode! I was glad that you used a power point presentation as I am a visual learner and I was really able to take in the information this way. I thought the example of mandatory uniforms for students was a good one that all students would have ideas about and be able to form an opinion about. Thank you group 1, I learned a lot during your lesson.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you set up your lesson with a good explanation which would activate prior knowledge in the students
ReplyDeleteThis lesson would really appeal to kinesthetic learners with all the getting up and moving around.
The placemat activity was very engaging and I liked that it included all students, as we all got a chance to write at the same time so no one was waiting around getting bored and losing interest.
I liked that you let us practice the placemat activity so that we could see how effective it is and how it is done.
I think it is great that you brought up the topic of debating in classrooms as it is such a valuable, real life skill for all students to have. Assertiveness is not often taught so I think that establishing ground rules on expectable behavior when listening to others opinions is necessary. I think that once rules are established, this is a very safe way for students to take risks and share their thoughts.
I also liked that you mentioned that while it is important for students to have opinions they need to learn to back them up.
Great story choice! I liked that someone mentioned staying away from sensitive subjects when debating, at least until students are comfortable and have learned to be respectful of diverse opinions.
Group 1:
ReplyDeleteGreat topic! I have used this book as well to talk about POV. I really enjoyed the aspect where you activatd prior knowledge by having al ittle debate. I wish I really was in your class so I could have gone through the debate. It was great to see teachers ciculating the room to check for understanding. The thumbs up check was super! Great job, love the book, love the presentation.
What a great presentation! I loved the pacing and the variety of activities, all of which were very focused and clear, but allowed for lots of physical movement around the room, involvement by all students, and a variety of small group work. ADD, kinesthetic, and easily bored or restless students would love it. Your activities allowed for the development of thought from the simple idea of picking and then defending a choice; a nice bridge from the ice cream debate to the previously read story; a "secret" vote that discourages group mentality; and the "placemat" activity that encourages cooperative brainstorming and development of quality ideas. All of these are important steps in the journey towards picking, justifying, and defending a position.
ReplyDeleteI also loved how students were allowed to change sides if they needed to. One thing I hated about debates when I was in school was the random assigning of students to a side that we had to justify whether we believed it or not. Allowing students to choose, think about, and debate their points, as well as change sides, allows for the development of honest thought, a skill that is much needed in this world. I think perhaps only politicians stubbornly cling to an inflexible position for fear of being proven wrong!
The sign was also very cute, and the Power Point, quotes, and back-up points for us as teachers were invaluable. The only thing I would suggest is to let us actually line up and begin the debate, which I was looking forward to, and which would have made this portion of the lesson more clear, as it was the main point of the lesson.
Great job! I'm sure I'll use many parts of it.
This lesson was really good and very amusing. I really liked how you set up persuasive writing by talking about how to use debates in class based on reading. I liked the part of the lesson where so many aspects of reading were being used. you were using strategies such as reading aloud to your students, focusing on key ideas and trying to come up with great strategies to invoke comprehension in your students.
ReplyDeleteOne thing i would suggest and this is based on another class i am taking sometimes when setting up debates that is more important to practice debates with really controversial issues. One thing i was thinking about when you were doing your presentatin was in the debate between vanilla or chocolate ice cream was that the reasons for why students would like ice cream is probably going to invoke answers because it tasts better, I would think that this would be difficult to invoke the real important parts of a debate like finding evidence and arguing your points etc.... that would be the only suggestion I would think of for a great lesson
I loved the hook you used with the flavor of ice cream. Then how you wanted us to persuade you to move to the vanilla side helped to set the stage for a debate. The story is fabulous and what a great approach to debate the issue. Having us do the placemat before the debate helped to collaborate with others of similar ideas and build a stronger case. Allowing students to change their minds and move to the other side is a nice approach.
ReplyDeleteGroup 1: Your lesson was very well structured with a lot of modeling and a great introduction. All of your ideas were well organized through your power point presentation. I appreciated that you showed us so many activities in such short time (ice cream introduction was the best part – I’m sure that can capture every kid’s attention). Your rationale was clear and I could exactly see the reasons behind each activity. It was great that you mentioned that as teachers, we should come prepared to argue both sides as kids tend to stick to one side not only because of their opinion but sometimes they find it intimidating to stand on one side of the classroom by themselves when doing debates. Instead they choose to join majority of the class. Great lesson – I will for sure use it in my classroom!
ReplyDeleteGroup 1: This was a really fun lesson! I thought the sign idea (For students/ For adults) was brilliant. The ice-cream debate was a really good way to pique not only interest but thinking somewhat critically. The book choice was fantastic as well. This lesson was well put together.
ReplyDeleteEsanju
Great presentation group one! I always wanted to use this book for a POV lesson, but I wasn't quite sure how to do it. Thanks for the great ideas.
ReplyDeleteThis lesson was alot of fun, and really got us thinking. I loved the chocoalte vs. vanilla icecream hook.
3 Little pigs
ReplyDeleteIt was an excellent presentation. The group was well organized, and it seemed like that they practiced a lot before the presenting it to the class. It was great scaffolding to the lesson by bringing in the sticky notes, and asked the class to write the name of their favourite ice-creams on the notes. I loved the idea of putting the sticky notes on the board with lines in between them. It was a great visual for mind mapping of the students. The other great idea I liked was place-mats. I enjoyed the place-mat activity, and the idea of writing the more appealing point in the centre. Yes, this was a great lesson to introduce the persuasive writing. Well done Girls!!!
Hi Group 1,
ReplyDeleteYour presentation was so good! I loved the way that you used incorporated debate; it is something that I will definitely use in my class. Diana, you did an excellent job modeling this for us. I really liked how you said that it was important to have students talk about their ideas and write them down before the debate started, this way everyone will have something to say.
I thought this presentation was extremely well organized and well orchestrated! The instructions were clear and it was easy to see the connection between what we were doing as a class full of teachers and what we could do with a class full of students. I was able to take away many wonderful strategies for introducing students to the concepts of debate and rebuttal. The post-it idea proved to tie very nicely into an effective graphic organizer for depicting the many different perspectives present within the classroom. What I liked most about this presentation is that it makes a great accompaniment to the earlier lesson we saw on the original version of the “Three Little Pigs”. Thank you for sharing your ideas with us, and I look forward to using some of your educational and engaging strategies with a future class of my own!
ReplyDeleteI think this group did a great job with their lesson! In particular, I really enjoyed “the hook” activity on ice cream preferences. I think it’s a great way for kids to access prior knowledge and understand the different steps in developing a well supported opinion. The only suggestion I have is perhaps, you may need to clarify and/or simplify the instructions a bit more when teaching this to younger children. Even as adults many of us were not clear on how and where to line up during the debate portion of the lesson! All in all, very well done!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed listening to the presentation and a good way to introduce debating using a simple and well-known story for children. The hook was pretty good because it allowed even the shyest kids to form an opinion about something that was almost quite universal. It would have been nice to actually "do" the debate or to hear one point on each side if we had more time. But it was good because you stated the rationale behind why you did this activity and why you did other things for your purpose. You mentioned the idea about scaffolding their thinking. I think this is soo important because what if each child had no more good ideas and there was dead space? A possible activity you could do is to do a homework assignment for pro/con opinions. I did this in my Gr. 12 English class on uniforms and smoking, and then we had lots of information regarding it.
ReplyDelete