Deforestation Debate

Very fun and engaging deforestation debate (they need some knowledge beforehand, otherwise your help during the debate). All students say it is the best geography lesson they had (including if I do this in other schools as a one off). All students are actively participating in every second of the lesson. I really enjoy this lesson but it is a lot of energy and they need to respond to you. For a class that are noisy/ active I used a bell per round (5), but other classes it is not needed.

Hot air balloon debate.
There is a bit of preparing time for all students at the start so they are ready.

Depending on their ability, during the “note taking” sections (between some rounds), you can give questions to volunteers/ help them out ready for the debate in advance. Otherwise, my students were just practicing their confidence and speech/ public speaking skills. E.g. I had one stand up high and speak loudly, and used the uniform as “one” to vote for him.

For example, they may ask for some advice. The lower abilities would take their books to read or use for ideas during this time. You may want to provide a finished handout for the volunteers as they are note taking (unless they are high enough ability to multitask it). I usually photocopy another students’ finished notes to give them because it is related to the actual debate they did, rather than what you’ll guess they will say.

After the debate, they have a good view on all stakeholders and can create their own speech about who they support. Sentence starters/ examples, prompts provided. Challenge included. Some students to share their speech afterwards.

This builds great confidence in their speaking, reading, and class support.
It is fast pace, so behaviour needs to be quickly acted upon.
Responsibility shared, more freedom and trust in the classroom. It is something different and worth trying if you haven’t. It will indicate whether you can trust/ give freedom in lessons.

This is a shorter version than my original to fit within 50mins-1hr class. It can easily be adjusted.