Making Middle School Debatable!

cluzniak

I’ve had the privilege this past school year to visit and work with teachers and classrooms all around the U.S., and I have loved the times I’ve been able to model #DebateMath in the classroom. I wanted to share an amazing experience I had last semester. Some quick background: Using the Learning Lab model, I work with a group a teachers to plan a lesson that I teach the very next period. In several of these Learning Labs, a focus has been on using DebateMath to increase student discourse. Teachers have seen me present about DebateMath, but many are skeptical that it will work in their classroom with their students (which is why the Learning Labs can be so powerful!).

One teacher invited me to modify her lesson plan on GCF and LCM problems with her 6th graders. So we planned a lesson that involved DebateMath, and below are some highlights of the lesson.

1) First, I had to explain to students how to debate in math class. I introduced the Claim and Warrant sentence stem, and we started with something fun.

2) Then, students solved some problems involving GCF and LCM. However, instead of asking students to just solve the problem, we asked them whether it would be a GCF or LCM problem and to defend their answer!

3) Students were given time to practice a few problems, and we concluded with a debate on who was correct, using LCM or GCF:

Takeaways:

  • Students were highly engaged the entire time in solving the problems because they had to justify in the debate format.
  • After the lesson, the teacher shared that the FIRST student to start speaking had NEVER spoken up in class so far this school year!
  • Students did well on the exit ticket, showing solid knowledge of the difference in an LCM vs GCF problem.
  • Teachers who were in the room observing wanted to you the lesson as is for their own classes!

It only took us part of an period to plan and modify the lesson to include DebateMath. Teachers were excited by easily and smoothly it can be added to enhance a lesson and by how much it increased student discourse!

Thoughts?