Debating historical issues encourage students’ cognitive
skills such as reasoning and analysis. Furthermore students must have a firm
grasp of the material in order to produce a strong and cohesive argument.
Debates also foster confidence and verbal skills.
Description:
The U.S. History debates pitted Northern Vs. Southern ideology
on three major issues: Slavery, the Fiery Fifties, and the Civil War. Students
made up six teams of eight. Two teams at a time engaged in a debate, each
representing the view of either North or South and expressed their political,
social and economic ideas on one of the above issues. As an issue was raise,
for example, the validity of morality as argument either against or in support
of slavery, each student was allowed to express their sectional view. Students
had divided the issues within each team according to who would defend or challenge
which political, social, economic or intellectual aspect of their argument.
Each team presented an overview of their case and then debated its virtues
with the opposition. When the debate ended, each taking a full class period,
students in the “audience” took a class vote to determine the
“winner” of the debate. Each debater then presented a paper two-three
pages long stating their case. Each member of the “audience” handed
in a one-page paper during the following class to critique the debating teams.
Therefore each student debated one time and observed two additional debates.
Result:
Overall, I was pleased with the classroom debates. Students in
the first debate were somewhat hesitant and unsure of how to proceed but the
class as a whole benefited by the critique papers of the “audience.”
The result was that the second two groups were more articulate and decisive
in their arguments. Student papers also showed a marked improvement in each
succeeding paper as they grasped the concept of the process and gained confidence
in their ability to criticize productively. I would implement this strategy
in my freshman class again in the future.
