Illustration of two kids by a pool, one with a gold medal and the other on a flamingo float
Illustration by Tom Garrett (Art); Addictive Creative/Offset (Hand); Shutterstock.com (All Other Images)
Debate,

Would YOU Want to Be in the Olympics?

Amelia and Jack talk about whether they would want to compete in the Summer Games.

From the May/June 2024 Issue
Lexile® measure: 460L
Featured Skill: Write Opinion Pieces, Participate in Conversations,
Topic: Social Studies, English Language Arts,
Common Core Standards
  • W.2 Write opinion pieces RI.2.8 Describe how reasons support the points the author makes in a text RI.2.10 Read grade-2-appropriate texts SL.2 Participate in conversations about grade-2 texts
TEKS Standards
  • English Language Arts
    (9) Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts—genres. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts. The student is expected to: (E) recognize characteristics of persuasive text, including: (i) stating what the author is trying to persuade the reader to think or do; and (ii) distinguishing facts from opinion

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Yes!

Amelia

Yes, I would love to be in the Olympics! My favorite sport is swimming. I’m on the swim team. 

Olympic athletes practice all the time. I love to practice swimming. I’m always trying to beat my last time. 

Also, Olympic athletes compete in front of people. That would be amazing! The crowd would chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

Finally, I could win a medal. A gold medal means you’re the best in the world. I want one!  

Yes!

Jack

No, I would not like to be in the Olympics. I like to swim too but just for fun. 

Top athletes wake up before the sun rises. They practice all day. Most of their life is practicing and competing. I don’t want to do that!

I’m also not a fan of doing sports in front of crowds. What if I mess up? I don’t need millions of people watching. 

Finally, medals are cool. But it’s just as fun to watch athletes win them on TV!  

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About the Story

Social and Life Skills

Respectful discussion

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Whole class
  • Total time: 1-2 class periods (depending on the number of
    children in the class)

1. Read the Debate

Skill: Reading
 
  • Have different volunteers read each paragraph.

2. Write Reasons

Skill: Writing/Key details

  • Have children go back to their tables. Hand out our opinion writing page* to the class. You will have marked half of the pages with green and the other half with yellow. 
  • Tell children that if they got a page with a green mark, they are on the “yes” side. If they got a page with a yellow mark, they are on the “no” side. 
  • Have children write three reasons for their side on their sheets.

 

Note: You can also pass out two different colors of index cards.

 

3. Present Their Ideas

Skills: Public speaking, listening, being patient
 
Note: Having children line up allows you to incorporate movement into this activity.
 
  • Line up the “yes” kids on one side of the room and the “no” kids on the other.
  • Children will come up one by one, alternating yes and no,  and read their reasons.
  • When they are done reading, they will go to the end of their line.

4. Make Counterarguments

 

Skills: Public speaking, logical thinking

  • Ask if anyone has any counterarguments to what they just heard. A counterargument tries to show why an argument someone made is not right or does not make sense. Explain that they should not repeat arguments that were already made. 
  • Have any children who have counterarguments come up and present their ideas.

 

5. Choose the Winner!

  • This can be the most fun part of the debate for kids: The teacher gets to choose the winning team!
  • You can say, “There is no right or wrong here. Our class is a space where we can respectfully disagree. But I was most convinced by the argument that . . .”

Other Teaching Ideas

1. Learn the Value of Debating
 
This is a great activity for the beginning of the school year. You could do it after reading the first debate so children are familiar with what a debate is. You can refer to the web below all year.

Skill: Respectful discussion

  • Share with children that debating teaches us so many important skills that we will use for the rest of our lives! Create a web on chart paper that shows reasons why we have debates.
  • As you create the web, ask kids to share what they think each sentence on the web means.
  • When you are doing a Storyworks 2 debate, have this web up so students can refer to it. You can point out when students need to be good listeners, for example.
  • Remind students that, just like in any class discussion, it’s important to listen to each other respectfully, even if (especially if!) we disagree.

2. Take a Poll

This builds engagement. It also offers an opportunity to practice tally marks!

Skills: Polling, tally marks

  • Take a poll of students’ opinions before and after reading.
  • Make a chart on the whiteboard or chart paper and tally the students who say yes and who say no.
  • Did anyone’s opinion change after reading? Ask them to share why!

3. Sticky Note T-Chart

This is really fun. It also gives children practice with bite-size bits of opinion writing.

Skills: Charting, writing

  • Make a big T-chart representing both sides of the debate.
  • Have children write ideas supporting either or both sides on sticky notes. They can make as many sticky notes as they want in 10 minutes. They should write their name on each note.
  • They can come up and place their stickies on the correct side of the T-chart.
  • Call students up to read and share their stickies.
  • Which side won?

4. Classic Method!

This is a classic, simple way to teach our debate.

Skills: Reading, respectful discussion, writing

  • Read the debate together.
  • Discuss it.
  • Pass out the opinion writing skills sheet from our website. Have children go to their tables and fill it in.
  • If time permits, have children share what they wrote.

Text-to-Speech