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Teacher
Activity 4
Responding
and Developing
Activity
4a
Video record
a television interview/debate. This can either be formal/informal
such as The Priory, TFI Friday, Parkinson, etc., or more formal
such as Question Time, Newsnight, Frost on Sunday. Try and pick
a subject or situation that is going to be of interest for the students.
The aim of the exercise is to get the students to identify how important
it is in discussions for participants to respond appropriately
and develop the discussion, and more importantly for them
to identify points during the discussion where these take place.
If possible, a good and bad example would be useful for students
to identify the differences.
Run the video
and get the students to fill in the sheet ‘Responding’
Activity 4b
Debates are
an excellent tool for students to develop their discussion skills
in developing and responding. A well-structured, formal debate can
be used to highlight the importance of appropriate responses and
developing their idea/point to move the debate forward.
You can get
the students involved in the topic for the debate – useful
topics are current news items such as ‘Should fox hunting be
banned’ or subjects such as ‘no form of discrimination
should ever be tolerated in our society’.
The debate should
follow the set ground rules for any debate and the technical terms
should be used at all times. The usual number of people involved
in a formal debate is five – A chairperson, a proposer and
seconder ‘for’, an opposer and a seconder ‘against’.
The remainder of the students in the class should have questions
to ask each side.
Students attentions
should be drawn to the following when taking part in the debate:-
- Research
– being able to respond appropriately and accurately will
depend upon the research that you have carried out
- Develop
– your points and ideas by using examples to highlight
main points
- Respond
appropriately – use language that everyone can understand,
acknowledge cultural/gender aspects
- Questions
– should move debate forward and should consider the various
opinions of the group.
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