Author Archives: noahgrissett

Posted on by

Using Debate to Teach Critical Thinking

Blog Post Author: Noah Grissett, ELA high school teacher

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on critical thinking skills through debate in the classroom. Debate is one of the best ways to get students to think critically and develop their rhetorical abilities because students are required to think and research an issue that they may have never thought thoroughly about before. On top of that, students are required to think through their arguments from the opposing viewpoint because they know that the opposing team will find holes in their argument if they do not. Debate and public speaking is something that comes very natural to many of our students as it is a very essential part of Arabic culture; however, it can be difficult to channel those skills into the more formal arena that debate requires.

I found that the most difficult part of teaching debate was requiring students to argue a side of an issue with which they did not agree. Most of our students have never had to do that, so it really stretches them to think about the consequences of decision-making. It is likely that many of our students will take on leadership roles either in companies or even in the local government or diplomatic positions. In order to be successful in these positions, they will need to be able to think critically about their own assumptions and how those might impact the lives of the those under their authority. This debate offered a lot of opportunities for our students to stretch that empathetic side of their personalities.

  

I was very proud of our high school students and seeing their hard work and research pay off so effectively. If you see Rashid Al Khater, Marcus Rydlo, or Jassim Al Thani (all 9th-grade students) in the hallways please congratulate them on for their diligent efforts!

Posted on by

Utopia Project in High School ELA

Blog Post Author: Noah Grissett, English Language Arts teacher

For the past 2 months, students in the VIS high school ELA class have been working on creating their own utopia worlds. This project is a great blend of both creative writing and informational research. The utopia consisted of long-term essential questions that the students had to answer in 10 over-arching areas (Politics, Money, Housing, Art, etc.). For most of the sections of the utopia, students were required to do research about various techniques used currently or in the future and use that research in their project. Students had to back up their decisions with data and evidence, while still being allowed to create a society without limits. I believe that this project appealed to the students’ creative side while still forcing them to think about challenging, critical questions.

The unit itself was divided up into two individual projects: the writing component and the presentation component. After spending a long time on the writing project itself, the students then took their essays and transformed them into persuasive presentations to encourage both their peers and their teachers to join their utopian worlds. Here are a few of the projects themselves if you would like to take a look:

 

Overall, I believe this project was really helpful in developing critical thinking skills for our 21st-century students. They were required to use technology to research, develop, and present their ideas in a meaningful way. It also helped them think about real-world problems that they see in their own society and to come up with inventive yet realistic fixes to those problems. This project is also modifiable to a variety of age groups from high school down to upper elementary. Thank you to Dr. Bobbi for the idea, and thank you to all of the teachers and administrators who took time out of their busy days to come and listen to the presentations–it really made the students more focused and intentional in their presentations!