A Magical Tool 🦄

Is there a tool that helps students grow in confidence, content mastery, life skills, and joy — all at the same time, in any content area?

While that laugh-worthy question sounds like something straight out of a snake oil sales pitch, believe it or not, I believe the answers is YES.

That tool is pop-up debate. It is remarkably easy to understand how this tool works.

1. Students are given a prompt and asked to brainstorm their answers to the prompt on paper.
2. The floor is opened for student speeches.
   • To speak, a student simply stands up at their desk and speaks.
   • Only one student may speak at a time.
   • Everyone must speak at least once.
   • No one may speak more than two times unless I indicate otherwise.
3. When there is a lull in the debate, I will call on folks who haven't spoken yet. I tell my students, “It's okay if I have to call on you. If you're not sure what to say when I call on you, use your brainstormed notes to find something to say.”
4. Once everyone has spoken, ask the students how they think it went. What did we do well as a class? What could we improve?

That's…it. The more you do this with students and the more you teach them about how to do it better, the better and more confident they will become.

So, does this really help with confidence?

Absolutely. Few things are as omnipresent in classrooms as diverse as ours as uncertainty and fear around public speaking. In my average but capable hands, I consistently hear from past students who say that pop-up debates were a turning point in their lives in terms of confidence and comfort in any setting.

Does it really help with content mastery?

If you ask the right types of questions, it absolutely does. A classic pop-up debate prompt in my class is, towards the end of the unit, asking something like this:

Which concept in this unit is [the most important, the most interesting, the most relevant to daily life]?

Questions like this get students reviewing learned material and, more importantly, thinking about what that material means. In my Principles of Learning Course, I'd argue that one of the most important principles is this one: Students remember what they think about. When I ask my students to think about learned material and to use that thinking in a pop-up debate, their minds are ALIGHT with thinking about the meaning of course material as it relates to their opinions about the material and the arguments that their peers are sharing.

Does it really help with life skills?

No matter which paths my students take after high school, I am confident of one thing those paths will all require: they'll need to speak. Speaking is required in the workplace. It's required in college. It's required for advancement in one's career. It's required for relationships. It's required for personal growth (e.g., speaking to one's counselor or pastor or support group).

And pop-up debates don't just help with speaking skills. They help with facing one's fears. With getting better over time at something that's hard. With clarifying one's thinking.

All things, it turns out, that you'll be happy to be able to do in your “real life” outside of school.

(Please note, though: school is real life, too!)

Does it really help with joy?

If you decide to do more than just one pop-up debate — that is, to make it a series of events versus a single event — you unlock the potential for one of the most joyous experiences a human can have, which is the experience of growing as an individual and as a group, simultaneously. Few things are more transcendent than this sense of “I'm getting good at something hard…and my peers are doing it, too…and as we get better and better, the joy keeps growing.”

How does one get started with pop-up debate?

If you'd like to learn more about pop-up debate, a good place to start is the freely available playlist I've been building this school year on YouTube.

I don't like to toot my own horn too much, but I gotta tell ya: I'm proud of this playlist. In it, I've made (and am making) a video about each of the pop-up debates I've held in one of my courses this school year (last week we completed Pop-Up Debate #12).

So if you WANT, you've got as much guidance from me as I've ever offered on getting started with pop-up debate.

But then again: it really is a simple tool.

And a magical one, too. 😉

Best,

DSJR

P.S. When I visit schools for PD, I almost always find a way to incorporate pop-up debates into my remarks. Why? Because it's cool! If you want to explore having me to your school someday, start here and be in touch here.