6th grade debate

Every week at school the kids have a list of spelling words along with 8 vocab words. These vocab words are what they call "real world" vocabulary and are based on one specific real world topic. For example, last week our words were based on the atmosphere and included: ozone, stratosphere, exosphere, etc. Well this week our words were based around the subject of "debate". Our words included: Orator, conviction, controversial, argument, philosophy, consideration, rebuttal, and persuasive. I wanted a way to help the kids remember these terms so I decided to apply them to our own classroom and hold a debate. One thing in 6th grade that is a very controversial issue is that 6th graders don't get morning recess. I split my class in half and had one side in favor of having morning recess and the other in favor of not having it. The half that I told was on the side of not having recess wasn't too thrilled about it at first because they all want recess. I gave them some time yesterday to come up with all their philosophy and all their reasons to support their argument, making sure they were applying the vocab terms. This morning I had them gather up the rest of their thoughts and then we held a debate. They had an orator give their first thoughts and then I let anyone else put in their two cents. It was SOOOO funny! Who knew watching 6th graders argue over having morning recess would be so entertaining. I even had my few quiet kids standing up and giving their opinion (I made them stand up when they were speaking). There was even a few "I objects" and pounding of fists on desks. By the end of the debate each half of my class was fully convinced that their way was right. Even that half that were suppose to argue in favor of not having morning recess convinced themselves that that was what they really thought. One girl had so much fun with it all that she told me she wants to be a lawyer now. I think it did help them with the vocabulary words because every time one came up during the debate I would hold up a card with that word on it and tell them why that term matched the situation. We'll see how they do on the test tomorrow. Anyway, I just thought it was too funny and wanted to share that with you all.