Speed Debating in Action

What a terrific way of introducing students to argumentative writing! Julia Carnevale's 6th grade class had an opportunity to state a 

claim for issues relevant to them, through Speed Debating 

(Click on the link for more info). 

Here were a few of the topics/issues the students responded to:

Students met with a partner for 30 seconds to state their claim
and provide reasons to support it.

Students then had to switch partners with a classmates they had
not met with and state a claim for a different topic.

After each debate, students had time to share their partner's claim to the entire class. This allowed students to hear opposing points of view to further strengthen their own argument or
maybe even change their original claim.

 These are exit slip with students opinions about the activity!