Are Class Pets a Good Idea?

• Whole class
• Total time: one to two class periods
  (depending on the number of children in the class)

Skill: Reading

• Have different volunteers read each paragraph.

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 green and yellow (or two other color) index cards.

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. 

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.

• 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 . . .”

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

• Explain to students 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.

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!

This is really fun. It also gives children practice with bite-sized 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?

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 skill builder from our website. Have children go to their tables and fill it in.
• If time permits, have children share what they wrote.