Teacher: Irina Read
Discipline: English second language
Age of students: 16-18
N. of students: 20

Debate, Context & Content

“Are video games actually good for you?“

• Develop students ‘critical, rational, logical, and independent thinking and common sense by analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing how they think.
• Observe the discussion process and evaluate the speaking skills.
• Students will learn to structure a logical discourse, aimed at persuasion, researching and selecting sources.

Debate/work is organized in groups or pairs. Students learn the importance of being able to take a stance on an issue and defending that stance with logic, reasoning, knowledge, and common sense. It will encourage students to take a stand and defend their viewpoint. The debates can be done in pairs, but are much more compelling in larger class debates where views are divided. The Debate scenarios can also be used as individual worksheets—students can circle an answer and then explain their choice in writing.

Mob.phone,laptop,a list of words, scenarios/questions/tasks to present for students to work on.

1. Preparatory group work on the selected topic(questions/tasks can be given in advance); Watch the TED video “Are video games actually good for you?” Write 10 questions for a debate about video games. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ijCbTwRPY
2. Two teams facing each other; Debate on the topic How Are Video Games PERMANENTLY Changing Your Brain With the invention of smartphones and tablets, video games have become more accessible to us than ever. We can download and play games anywhere – at work, on the bus – you name it. But with our eyes constantly stuck to the screen, we have to wonder what all this exposure is doing to our BRAINS, and exactly how it's changing our behaviour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMksaiTYeiQ
3. Timekeeping;
4. Control of sources during the Debate; 5. The jury that decrees the winner.

Criteria of assessment:
Content (4 points) – all points in the task covered, sufficient amount of details
Organization (3 points) – appropriate beginning and ending of a speech, intoductory phrases, formal linking words like However, In addition, etc.
Accuracy (3 points) – 1-2 minor mistakes