I “Debated” Whether to Write This…
If you are like me, you have been struggling to figure out just exactly how we, as educators, are to broach the subject of the upcoming debates and the 2024 U.S. Election in our classrooms. It is hard enough for adults to talk about, much less for teachers to know how to approach it in a way that helps students understand the world around them, rather than to be confused by it; how to build them up as contributing members of society, while not worrying if what we say might be misunderstood or misrepresented by their families; and to know how to find the right balance of introducing our students to the world, without exposing them to too much of it. Or wait, maybe it is just me. You will have to tell me if you are feeling a similar way.
I decided to look at it through my teacher lens, my teacher eyes; and to not just try to broach the situation, but rather, to actually approach the situation. I intentionally did not focus on the idea of people’s vastly different and polarizing opinions, but rather, I focused on how everyone has been thinking. And by that I mean, I started focusing on how people have been consumed by what they are thinking, rather than how they are thinking. To unpack further, the metacognition piece of thinking about our thinking. So I began tackling the process of thinking, and the conceptual ideas that we can all agree on; things like how to communicate, about the importance of perspective, and being open-minded, of being kind and respectful; all things that will improve relationships and communities both in our classrooms and in our cities, states and country.
What has resulted has been, what I hope you will find, to be a beautiful and age appropriate look at concepts such as debates, communication, leadership, and in general, elections.
Each slide has a vocabulary nugget that kids can tap on to see it magically appear. On this slide, they also can click the numbers to reveal steps for a healthy debate.
3 different products; delicately and purposefully woven together, so that not only can they be used this Election Season, but they can be used in subsequent years. 2 of the 3 products can actually be used throughout the entire year, as they also serve to help build your own classroom community, relationships and language skills.
I encourage you to click on the photos below (and above) to go to my TpT store, where you can click on the Preview Videos, to see all that is included in the individual products
