Hmmm… Well… I can say that overall I’m somewhat proud
of all the activities I have implemented even if the students thought they were
cool or not. Sometimes, learning isn’t fun but it is still beneficial. I teach
Intro to Criminal Justice and Criminal Justice Essentials. The standards for
both levels are similar in some ways. The standard we are covering is “Career
Exploration.” The students are exploring careers with in the criminal justice
field and learning the different duties and responsibilities of each. We have
been talking about courtroom roles. Sad to say, the students did not know what
a prosecutor or defense attorney was. On the other hand, they knew what a
defendant and judge was (how ironic). Well, I sat and pondered on how I can
make learning about the courtroom personnel fun. Once again, I began to talk to
myself. I said, “Crystal, what can you do to make this fun, interesting, and
memorable?” Just then a light bulb went off and I came up with the idea of
having the students’ debate about criminal justice and school related topic. One
student had to be the prosecutor and the other, the defense attorney. Needless
to say, all the classes enjoyed it for the most part. My freshman
and sophomores had a blast and wanted to debate for the next few days. So to
grant their wishes we debated for two days!!
I love using debates in the classroom. In law and justice, we have so many controversial topics to choose from: restraint chair usage, death penalty, officer discretion, legalization of marijuana.... I could go on an on. I like to have my students tell me which side they are on as soon as we start discussing a topic. I will then make them debate in favor of the other side. I do this in hopes that they may learn something new and open up their minds to another point of view. I'm sure your students enjoyed the debates Thelma and learned something new as well. Job well done!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Louise's (a.k.a. Laura) comments. I always liked using the debate method and I made the students look things about about the topic so we could have an "informed" debate.
ReplyDeleteDr. J.
One of my biggest frustrations is timing. What seems to work well in one class, will bomb in another.
ReplyDeleteThis week, my students rotated through 4 different stations of complementary/alternative medicine methods with visuals, a video, and questions at each station. This part went reasonably well.
As a wrap, students picked one activity and do a poster. I gave them one day to gather in groups, plan, and do a rough draft. The next day, they were to finish the poster. One class nailed it. The other one, not so much. This weekend, I am left with a decision of scratching the poster activity and move on - or to finish the poster.
Reflecting on it, the questions at each station were likely enough to solidify the concepts. It feels like I've wasted nominally two and a half days on 'busy work'. Frustrated!