11.26.07

Core 1:

Write-on: If I told you that there were three elements of any good argument, what would they be called? Create a workable acronym for them as well.
Use the resources at MiddleSchoolDebate.com to practice making Arguments.

Are the opinions you have been voicing in your 30-minute-expert sessions arguments?
Would the facts in your 30-minute-expert sessions fit into this type of structure?

Extensions:

Read the discussion (from Wallingford, Conn.) going on at Discourse about Discourse: Should Students Come To Class? From your own 30-minute-expert session, write up your own opinion.

Core 2:

Write-on: If you were trying to change the world, how would you know if you were successful or not?
Introduce the Social Action Plan.
Discuss-On: Who should decide what gets taught in schools?
Read and Discuss Chapter 8:
- What is the worst type of coercion displayed so far?
- Why does T.J. “turn” on the Logans?
Extension:

Finish chapter 8 for Wednesday.

Core 3:

Write-on: Is “happily ever after” a fictional creation or a representation of reality? Why?
Who gets a “happily ever after” in Act V of The Merchant of Venice?

Construct a “Shrek-like” organizer.

Extensions:

“Study” for MOV quiz on Friday.

Core 4:

Reflect-on: How was the “debate” you held while I was gone different from the debate that you designed (with diagram)?
Share out your diagrams on the document camera.
Test the most popular form out with “Solved: They mayor should have paid the Piper.”
What can we do differently/better next time?
Extensions:
- Write out what kind of debate you believe are worth having.

1 comment from the original blog. Comments are closed now; the conversation moved to Bluesky.

dangerousangelsNovember 26, 2007
During class today (core 3) there’s been a lot of discussion about what is “happily ever after.” I was dissapointed in our discussion today though. There wasn’t nearly enough time to say what is to be said and to debate what there is to debate. And what other people said just didn’t cover it. Sorry.

Here’s my opinion. Happily ever after is first and foremost, a saying at the end of fairy tales that people commonly say. To make the ending pleasant, to have a dream like quality. No one wants to hear about how later Cinderella and her Prince had marriage issues. That is why it’s called a “fairytale.” But if you were to interpret it into real life, I do think that happily ever after is possible. Happily ever as I’ve said, first and foremost an ideal. Ideals aren’t necessarily impossible. Happiness is often under-estimated. People just seem to be in general angsty about how happily ever after isn’t true because there’s deaths an how people effect each other. But I think the truly happy person is someone who doesn’t look at the bad things. People who say happily ever after can’t be done automatically cancel themselves out of ever experiencing it.

Happily ever after doesn’t mean perfect, everything is the best it can be. It means how content the individual is. And there are people out there who have been through all kinds of hurt, pain, suffering. But at the end of their lives I’ve known many of them who say they lived happily ever after. It’s how they make of it. It frustrates me when these kids say that there is no happily ever after. While they haven’t felt as much hurt, they have an inability to see the best in things. But those who have gone through a lot, are able to love at the end of the day.