argumentation

Over the past term, I have been participating in a Wolf Fisher initiative called developing in digital worlds. The initiative is based around the concept of argumentation and having students evaluate a question and consider evidence. I was interested in this because of the data that showed that less than one percent of the teaching at Papakura High involves critical thinking.

What I have found most interesting is the how students present an argument, the consideration of the evidence and the classroom discussion that can come from argumentation lessons.

Here is the Year 10 Health unit I have made as a result of participating in this initiative

The cannabis debate

This unit I made based upon other PLD I have been involved in over the past 3 years. Multi-model information is evident through a range of text and video.

Discussion using open-ended questioning has been a key feature of both small and large group discussion.

In terms of argumentation, I have tried to have the students consder the sourse of information and think if that information is fact or opinion.

One of the excellent discussions we had was about the reliability of Wikipedia. Students had opinions on both sides and the debate got heated. The point was to consider different viewpoints. 

Although teaching this class is difficult I am enjoying the challenge of engaging these students and have them think, as opposed to producing work. 

Critical literacy through arguementation

This is a presentation I made to the Papakura High School staff. I did this in conjunction with Mark Lendrum the Head of English. In this presentation, we detail our learnings from the developing in digital worlds PLD. We came to the conclusion that argumentation involves sharing and in the high school environment this is best done through blogging and blog commenting.

Argumentation and blog commenting is something I am going to focus on with my Year 10 Health class. The topic I plan to discuss is should cannabis be decriminalised in New Zealand. This is based on our drugs topic and a relevant issue with the political situation currently