After the allotted time, of approximately 20 minutes, the students were told to leave their breakout rooms and come back to the main meeting room where the debate was going to take place.
The debate took place with those arguing for hosting the Olympic Games going first, without interruption from the second group, followed by students in the second group arguing against hosting the Olympic Games in Birmingham.
While groups one and groups two were presenting their ideas and thoughts the judges in group 3 were listening attentively and allocating points to each group according to whether they identified and articulated the impacts they had on their mark scheme.
At the end of the debate, the total number of marks were added up for each team and a winner was declared.
Why I feel this was an effective lesson
There is always the possibility that the quieter students will be lost in the remote learning environment, and not be given sufficient attention by their teacher in the whole class teaching situation.
By creating break out rooms and assigning a small number of students to each room allows even the quietest students to participate and contribute to the lesson and to progress with their learning. Everyone is involved.
It also enables the teacher to drop in and listen to all of the students and to give them individual feedback, encouragement and support which would be very difficult to do in a whole class situation.
It’s true that quite a bit of planning and preparation is required to make these types of lessons a success, but I believe that the time invested is well worth it.
