Direct Instruction
As students came into the room I began spinning an online “fruit machine” set up with their names, and asked two students to write the names that popped up onto the board into one of four teams. Then I introduced the debate topic. “Is this social studies?!” said one of the boys. They had previously debated in social studies, so had some idea of what a debate would involve. I introduced the topic and the sheet they could record ideas on. This also could have taken the form of an online Google Doc they could all contribute to. Students were making progress with their research but were not ready to debate after the given 20 minutes, and requested that they continue researching and hold the debate during the following lesson, which we did and filmed the outcome. I have featured the arguments of our two 'Class OnAir' stars during the episode, as well as a particularly strong opening from Chyrus.
