Katarina Baziw

EDU-487

Dr. Belcher

December 13, 2016

Commitment to Student Learning: Grade Five Debate

Throughout my placement I had the opportunity to create a debate scenario for a grade

five class I was working with. In accordance with strand B of the grade five curriculum, this

assignment was the culminating assignment of the unit meaning that assessment would be of

learning as well as for learning. My main focus in this reflection is to discuss the commitment to

student learning played a factor in how I implemented the debate, and changed my overall vision

for how it would run, and the key learning. I wished to convey to the students. Throughout the

process, I focused greatly on meeting the students where they were at and sparking student

interest at the beginning. The knowledge they had learned in their unit was directly linked, and

they became the active agents of their learning. This debate began with the decision of the topic;

is climate change important and should the government be acting more to stop it? From there

their roles were given to them with their expectations for the debate. Throughout the debate

students were expected to meet with their groups to research their topic, create points of

discussion, open and close the debate, and finally prepare for a rebuttal round. As a teacher, I

gave them three class days with at least two hours each day to work on this assignment, as well

as a weekend to help memorize their part.

Throughout the entire process I made time to meet with each individual student role,

every day, so that I could see where the students were in the process, how they were feeling, and

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if there was anything I could do for them. These meetings seemed extremely beneficial for the

students because it also gave them an opportunity to voice their concerns and to address if they

were feeling anxiety or stress over their role, and how others or myself could help them so that

they could meet the requirements and in some cases, exceed them. This assignment also gave me

as opportunity as a teacher to give students responsibility of their learning. I assigned the roles

based on mixed learning abilities, giving extra responsibility individually to the middle learning

abilities, and group scenarios high and low. This was to challenge students on their own drive

and motivation, as well as challenge students to think as a cohesive collaborative group. For the

lower level learners, I made sure that they had access to a computer to type out their answers,

and have an opportunity to have their work said aloud by another student to give a peer editing

tool, and then gave them time to self edit prior to the debate day.

Overall, this opportunity showed the students how a debate in parliament functions, and

how a bill is passed. The most fruitful part of this assignment, was the concluding discussion on

what happened. The students voted against the idea that the government should spend time

acting against climate change. This was because the oppositions argument was extremely

convincing, and they prepared correctly for the rebuttal. This gave them the opportunity to see

what Justin Trudeaus government actually decided when it came to the Kinder Morgan pipeline,

see how some arguments are similar and how it could have won the argument. This shows how

each individual students can work towards a common goal, and create an impact on Canadian

society and their peers.