Court is in Session

Last week we concluded our persuasive writing campaign with 4 courtroom debates. 
Each class member became part of a team and had to collaboratively write an argument to convince the audience of their point of view.
Afterward each debate we got to score the teams using a specially designed rubric to assess them on persuasiveness, teamwork, organisation, supporting with facts, and addressing the topic. 

The four debates held were: 

Soccer is better than rugby

School uniforms should be banned

Chromebooks are better than iPads

Cats make better pets than dogs

We set up the class like a mini courtroom and the teams proceeded to make their cases. 

Trent explaining why Chromebooks are better than iPads

Salesi describing how dogs are better than cats because they can learn tricks

A tense debate with Alex arguing that Soccer is better than Rugby

Loto also, convincing the audience that Soccer is better than Rugby. 

After each team spoke the scores were tallied and the outcomes were: 

Soccer is better than Rugby - Affirmative team won

School Uniforms should be banned - Negative team won, convincing the audience that we should wear school uniforms. 

Chromebooks are better than iPads - The negative team won, convincing us that iPads are better. 

Cats make better pets than Dogs - The negative team won, convincing us that Dogs make better pets. 

Argument Writing in Action.

Over the past few weeks we have been learning persuasive writing, however this week in Room 7 we aren't doing our usual writing... Instead, we are doing a debating. 

This means that we are conducting 'courtroom' style arguments to make a case for our topic. 

We have been split into teams of three or four to argue our case. 
Some of us are being very challenged, arguing something which we may not necessarily agree with. 

We are all very excited about this collaborative writing and speaking activity and looking forward to presenting our debates later this week.