For the last 2 weeks, my students and I have been researching different social issues out in the world, figuring out what they think about them, figuring out what has been said about them and what facts and statisitics and data are available about them, in order to speak out on the issues they're passionate about. And they're speaking out on the issues in a number of ways--by writing article sets with their writing clubs that we're going to publish and put out in thr world for people to read, by creating literacy projects to get people thinking and help them to become more informed about their issue--and by participating in a debate regarding two of the issues, to help them begin to think critically about the issues.
Our history teacher and I teamed up and took two of our classes to the library for the much anticipated debate yesterday--and they did SO well! It was fun to see them really get into it and get nervous about speaking and work together as a team to prove their side of the argument. I can't wait to do it again!
I'm freaking out a little about TAKS, since we took time to do this debate so close to the test and there is a RIDICULOUS amount of pressure for them to "perform well", but oh well. What they're learning is way more important than the TAKS test. They're learning to research and synthesize information and think critically about pertinent issues in our world and work together and things that matter in high school...and in real life. And, we had fun. And learning should be fun, right?
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