Switzerland is known for its mountains, chocolate, and neutrality. Recently, at Pointview Elementary, Mrs. Lester’s fourth grade ELA students were reminded of Switzerland’s notoriety in neutrality during an engaging lesson that focused on close reading for pros and cons and practicing civil discourse.
The students began by reading an article assigned to them through Schoology from the Newsela website. The article focused on the pros and cons of self driving cars. (Newsela works well for finding resources like this as the articles can be narrowed by Lexile level and the topics are high interest and timely. You could also assign different articles depending on level to differentiate for all students.) First, the students read for understanding. Some used the “read-to feature from Google Read and Write. Teacher/Coach created annotations were written in the article ahead of time so that all students could read them and respond as they read. The students read a second time searching for pros and cons. They were asked to use the highlighting tools to save the pros and cons which they then transferred to their graphic organizer.
After a quick group discussion in which students compiled and expanded on the pros and cons they realized the importance of gathering solid evidence as it would be used to have a civil debate. The students would have the chance to role play three roles, “pro”, “con”, and “Switzerland”. Mrs. Lester, Mrs. Lacy, and Mrs. Mantinieks would model this type of civil discourse in a “fishbowl” scenario. As the teachers respectfully supported their assigned role, students took notes about what they were watching. They addressed the prompts of “What words did the speakers use to debate in a kind way?” and “What body language did the speakers use to debate in a kind way?” Students noted that “they used words like “please” and “thank you”, “they used calm voices and mentioned that they liked hearing new ideas”, and “they nodded their heads, smiled, and kept their hands to themselves”.
After the “fishbowl” the group debriefed what they saw and prepared to practice civil discourse themselves as they play each role. The students look forward to continuing this next week.
This lesson could be adapted in many ways and with many topics, with many grade levels. It provides opportunities to develop multiple skills such as close reading, writing a balanced opinion, and practicing friendly debate and conversation.
Educator Reflections:
What would you repeat from the lesson?“They were SO engaged while reading-that was beautiful!”
What would you change for next time?
Next time “I would like to find a way to have the kiddos mark their citations so they know where they found the info.”
The group also agreed it would be neat to add more choice for the students next time by having several topics with pros and cons from which they could choose.
How did the collaboration between the classroom teacher, curriculum specialist, and blended learning coach improve this lesson?
”Taking a little time to collaborate was an energizing experience. Together we made sure that the lesson was relevant for the kids and tied in to their prior knowledge. We took a leap together to try a new approach to engage a very social class. Having the technology integration specialist there put us at ease that we could work through any tech issues that might pop up. Having the three perspectives also leads to great post conference debrief conversations”.
Coach Reflections:
“I think it would be great to model a “mistake” in the fishbowl and show the “civil” way to handle when you or someone else makes a mistake”.
What a great lesson Mrs. Lester!
For more information on teaching civil discourse concepts check out the book, Engaging Children, which will be available April 9, 2018. https://www.heinemann.com/products/e09949.aspx#fulldesc
For help implementing any of these ideas in your classroom please contact your Ed Tech Team.
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