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Cathleen Beachboard, an English language arts teacher at in Warrenton, Virginia, doesn鈥檛 shy away from debate in her classroom. In fact, she finds it to be an engaging review activity aimed at cultivating deeper understanding with her students.

At the end of a unit of study, she asks each student to reflect with the following prompt: What is the unit鈥檚 most important piece of information? They start with a solo writing exercise, then take their idea and have mini-debates with their classmates, trying to persuade others to change their opinion and adopt their idea. 鈥淵ou get to learn persuasive argumentation,鈥� Beachboard says, 鈥渁nd it values everybody鈥檚 voice in the conversation.鈥� 

Eventually, students team up more and more, coalescing around a central idea and building more arguments along the way. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e responding with鈥� evidentiary support for each one of their claims,鈥� Beachboard says, an important lesson 鈥渢hat you don鈥檛 just state an opinion without a fact.鈥�

Once larger groups form, spokespeople from each group make their case, and students are encouraged to change their minds. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 something that I also want to teach kids,鈥� Beachboard notes. 鈥淎s you grow and you learn new things, you become different. You鈥檙e not the same person you were when you were in kindergarten or first grade. You grow and you evolve. And so it鈥檚 OK to change your opinion.鈥�

Though there is never one right answer, this engaging review activity always leads to energetic discussion and revelations. The winning team is the one that has the most students at the end (or, in the event of a tie, the team that persuades the teacher to join their side). But the best outcome? The process of formulating an argument鈥攁nd then strengthening it through peer collaboration鈥攃ultivates a deeper understanding, develops students鈥� critical thinking skills, and helps them remember key lessons.

To try this activity (and adapt it for any subject), download that Beachboard uses to guide her students through the process.