Day 38- "This debate is stirring up a lot of excitement." The Great Debaters

Today I was fairly happy with what my English 12 classes did and how engaged they were. In keeping with our theme of evaluation essays, I put the class in 6 groups. I gave everyone an article from procon.org that compared and contrasted the use of tablets vs. textbooks in schools. Everyone was assigned to read the article, but 3 of the groups were assigned to highlight or mark in some fashion the pros of the article while the other 3 were tasked with finding the cons. They read the article individually and made a list of their top 3 pros or cons depending on their group's task. Then, I had them discuss their top 3 in their group and as a group come up with a consensus as to the groups top 3 pros or cons. After the group consensus, I then paired each pro group with a con group and they had to tell the opposite group their pros or cons. Afterwards, I gave them a chance to debate with each other and see if as a whole group or pro and con they could come to a consensus. Only 1 group in all 3 classes came to a consensus. I then listed on the board the top pros and cons of each of the groups, and as a class we discussed other pros or cons that the article didn't mention. I wanted them to see that personal preference may play a role in a person's decision on a debatable topic, but both sides of the topic have relevant information and argue fine points.