Internet Relay Chat

SWBAT:^*  Express themselves appropriately (grammatical structures, register, cultural knowledge) in the TL in order to get their point across, read and correctly interpret arguments offered in rebuttal, and compose responses to defend their position on the question being debated.

Standards targeted: 1.2, 1.3; 2.1, 2.2; 3.1, 3.2; 4.2

Description of activity: Students will spend time preparing for a debate on the topic:  Should English be the official language in the United States?  A number of steps must be taken to ensure the success of this activity.

1.  You, the teacher (or your computer personnel), will need to see that IRC software is installed in the computer lab you are going to use.  You will also need to learn how to set up private channels so that your students can debate "in peace" and not be interrupted by outside interlopers.  Private channels are easy to create, and the IRC software you obtain will have instructions for doing this.  You should also print out a list of basic commands for your students so that they can easily function within the IRC environment.  If none of this is ringing any  then please go back to the  IRC lesson in  Learning the basics and review.  Then come on back here and carry on!
 

2.  Each student should be assigned a position on this topic (or they may choose the position they wish to defend, provided there is an even distribution among the students).  The students then need to research the topic thoroughly, both from their perspective and from their opponents', in order to gather sufficient information to (1) shore up their own position and (2) undermine possible "attacks."
 

3. This topic is closely related to many issues that are probably discussed in government or sociology classes in your school.  Check with your Social Studies colleagues and see if they are dealing with this subject at any time.  Then coordinate your lessons with theirs to reinforce what the students are learning in both subject areas and also to enable students to draw on their knowledge across the curriculum to have success in all of these classes.  Showing students relationships between and among subject areas helps them see their education as part of a bigger learning picture, as opposed to just compartmentalized courses that merely begin and end in a 42 minute class period in a specific room.
 

4.  Once the students have done sufficient research and have prepared their arguments, have them debate in the IRC session.  You can keep a log (see IRC instructions) of the debate in order to keep track of points made, rebuttals offered, and counter-justifications made during the forensic activity.  One way to evaluate this activity is to score points for these moves in the discussion, much as you would in a regular debate. You can also monitor your students' TL participation and award credit accordingly.  You will be pleasantly surprised at the amount of TL produced by your students!  A final benefit of having the log is the record of TL being used; you can monitor the exchanges for grammatical or idiomatic errors and address these later with the class as a whole.