My Previous Experience on the chosen instructional activity

 

My Previous Experience on the chosen instructional activity

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

At the start of the academic session, before I started teaching my 12th-grade students how to write an argumentative essay, I planned to conduct a debate competition in my class. The sole purpose of directing the debate in the class was to check their prior knowledge about arguments, how they presented their point of view, their refutation skills, their critical thinking skills, and how they presented their evidence while debating.

To guide the debate in my classroom, first, I divided the class into four groups out of which I made two debate teams. Each team was offered the debate topic and was made to opt for their side in the debate competition. They were asked to nominate the group leader who will later nominate four team speakers for the panel discussion. Rubrics for assessment were made together with the pupils along with the marking criteria.

Soon after that, Students were given two times to visit the IT Lab to explore and collect points for the debate. The contest was scheduled for the third day from the date of the instructions.

On the day of the competition, when the first team debated, the thing that went well was the points presented by all the participants. All students had the opportunity to present their points exactly related to the topic (SDSU, 2022). It made me realize that my grade 12 students can do good research when it comes to putting ideas on the table. According to Rosenshine (2012), he said that students' research enables them to learn complex ideas and overcome the limitations of the working mind. As per the Community Training and Assistance Center and Washoe County School District (2015), debate engages participants to perform research, develop their listening and oratory skills, and employ their critical thinking skills through effective communication. 

One thing that didn't go well during the entire debate session was that the participants were simply reading the notes they had prepared. No one has tried to develop things on their own while presenting their arguments and demands. Although refuting, they were found presenting their views instead of providing pertinent evidence or evidence with credible ideas. Only a handful were seen comparing their claims differently, everything was going monotonous. I was under the impression that this critical thinking was lacking, which is an important part of the debate. I realized that I need to focus on this field so that as they write their argumentative essay, they become aware of it.

To make the debate successful, I would have instructed them clearly about the entire process to be followed while debating before commencing the research work on the given topics and would have asked that they should speak using their knowledge while debating based on the research carried out. I would have told them that they should not refer to the notes during the debate.

By switching to the second team, I gave them one more day so that they could properly prepare and participate in the debate without reading their text. We also took a critical look at the outcome of the first debate, what went well and what didn't, and what to do and what not to do during the debate. The reflection and sharing were also conducted right after the debate. Ultimately, the second debate went well and proved to be successful.

Students were then asked to identify some of the characteristics of the discussion and to identify the similarities between the debate and the writing of an argumentative essay. We also discussed the process followed during the debate and the process used during the writing of an argumentative essay. It enabled me to throw a clear concept and the process of writing an argumentative essay and now I believe that they would give their cent present in their board exam.

 

References

Community Training and Assistance Center and Washoe County School District. (2015). Instructional strategies list: evidence-based strategy. https://www.washoeschools.net/cms/lib08/NV01912265/Centricity/Domain/228/Instructional%20Strategies%20List%20July%202015.pdf

SDSU. (2022). Keys to Successful Debate. https://www.sdstate.edu/students-association/keys-successful-debate