Critical Thinking & Communication

CRITICAL THINKING & COMMUNICATION

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20 January 2012, Friday: Today I talked about how the debate on Friday went. We talked about the challenges of getting up at the podium, such as dealing with nervousness, filling the silence, reading your audience, and remembering the debate topic so your comments are focused! With regard to the last point, I emphasized the importance of modeling your comments at the podium on the TEA paragraph -- Say specifically what you are going to prove, prove it with examples, and then emphasize how well these examples prove your point. On Monday we will have a guest speaker talk to us about the different debate formats.

23 January 2012, Monday: Thank you to Ms. Levitt for coming into our class and offering her expertise on debating. We had a very productive class and even managed to get in a small debate on the topic Elephants should be allowed to be students at KSA. It was a very fun and productive class!

27 January 2012, Friday: We spent this class period viewing your debate and commenting on strengths and areas for improvement. It is not always to watch yourself on the big screen, but it is very useful in improving your debating skills. Nice job, everyone!

30 January 2012, Monday: We had concluding arguments today in response to the assertion Beauty Pageants for Kids do More Harm than Good. With each debate each of you is getting more comfortable at the podium and your thoughts are more clear and focused. Very nice job, everyone! The debate was filmed and you may view it in the 6th Grade shared folder.

3 February 2012, Friday: We had a very productive discussion today as we processed the previous pageant debates. Questions we responded to included What did you learn about yourself?, What did you learn about communicating your ideas and influencing people, and Did you change sides at all during the debates? I was very impressed with the honesty and thoughtfulness of your answers!

10 February 2012, Friday: We had two debates today -- cross-examination style. The first topic was Homework should be banned and the second topic was All U.S. citizens should serve in the army for two years when they reach 18. Monday we will have two more debates and then Friday will be our last class!

13 February 2012, Monday: We had two debates today -- cross-examination style. The first topic was Art and music classes should be eliminated from schools and the second topic was Animals should not be removed from their natural habitat. Zoos should be outlawed. Friday will be our last class!

17 February 2012, Friday: Today was our last Critical Thinking and Communication class. Students filled out a course survey. Students then filled out their own report cards and justified their grades for each category with their comments. What better way to end the course than to have students reflect on, communicate and justify their grades for the course! I will see you after the break where we will begin our travels in Multi-Genre Portfolio.

Related Files

Course Overview (DOC 87 KB)

Debate Rubric (DOC 37 KB)

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Richard Brancato
Kehillah Schechter Academy
1 Commerce Way
Norwood MA 02062
781-769-5555