Community Issues in Debate Class

Florida State Standards Connection:

LA.910.6.2.2, LA.1112.6.2.2 – Students will evaluate situational issues in the community.

LA.910.6.2.4, LA.1112.6.2.4 understand the importance of legal and ethical practices.

NETS: 1. Creativity and innovation

NETS: 5. Digital Citizenship

NETS: 2. Communication and collaboration




MA.912.S.1.1
Formulate an appropriate research question to be answered by collecting data or performing an experiment.




MA.912.S.1.1
Formulate an appropriate research question to be answered by collecting data or performing an experiment.


NETS: 6. Technology operations and concepts Lesson Summary:
Students will discover an issue in their community that they feel needs to be resolved. Once discovered, students will report the findings back to the class and discuss with the class. Students will create a first-hand report by use of Flip Video Cameras. Videos and other content will be presented in class on the LCD projector.

Estimated Duration:
2 days of teacher instruction.
1 1/2 weeks for students to research, plan, and record.
4-5 days to present and discuss.


Commentary:

Pre-Assessment:

Studentswill brainstorm some problems in the surrounding communities. Since there is no actual measurable data to be taken from analyzing these situations, all of the classroom activity will be led by the teacher and conclusions will be drawn as a collective group. The warm-up for this lesson will be a teacher example of a problem in their teaching community. The class will then propose a set of possible solutions. Pacing for this will include a day each for the problem/solution discussions.

Scoring Guidelines:

Students will brainstorm with each other to find interesting and useful problems in the community. There will be no formal pre-assessment.
Post-Assessment:
Rubrics based on three areas will be used for the scoring guidelines will be the basis for final grades of this project.
Scoring Guidelines:
Problem: A rubric will be used to evaluate originality, creativity, and urgency in a problem in the community.
Presentation: A rubric will be used to evaluate presentation style of the presenter, and receptiveness of the audience.
Solution: A rubric will be used to evaluate practicality and ability to carry out the solution.

Instructional Procedures:
1. Teacher model of a problem in the community. An example could be lack of sidewalks and bike lanes in and around the major roads. This causes some cyclists to put themselves in danger to get from point A to point B.
2. Students and teacher will discuss and evaluate different solutions to the problem.
3. Students will form small groups and locate their own problems in the community.
4. Students will find the problem and record a ten-minute mock news report on the issue. Each report must include evidence, effected group, problem area, and a proven solution.
5. Different solutions and video will be embedded in a PowerPoint presentation.
6. Students will report their problem and solution to the class by watching each film as a class.
7. The class will evaluate each of the problems and solutions.

Differentiated Instructional Support
To meet the needs of specific learning types, a list of ideas of problems in the community will be given. These will not be used directly, but to spark ideas. Also, students will be given the opportunity to present live instead of by video. ELL and ESE students will be able to participate by deciding a topic that interests them and that they will be capable of defending. This will be done through close student-teacher interaction and guidance.

Extension
Students are to take this project home and find evidence of their problem in their community.

Interdisciplinary Connections
Analysis, research, and synthesis of solutions can be applied to: language arts and social studies.
Technology Link
Technology will be implemented by use of Flip video cameras. Each group will be assigned one camera and required to record 10 minutes of video.

Materials and Resources:
For teachers Rubrics, evidence of problem.
For students Report on problem/solution

General Tips
It is important to give a good model before sending students to work on their own. All of this may spark great discussion, but it needs to be teacher-led.