Today we visited the 2nd Judicial District Court to put on a mock trial. This was followed by learning more about the work of a court, information about jails and prisons, and a chance to “meet an inmate.”
The day included a lot of learning and a lot of fun. This was best exemplified by the cased we tried and adjudicated. Ultimately, the students found Curly Pig liable for damages in the case brought by B.B. Wolf.
Today the students used the strategy “Keep It or Junk It” to help us get ready for Kids Court and our Mock Trial. The Keep It or Junk It strategy has students working in small groups to identify key vocabulary from a text. This is followed by students working as a class to negotiate what the key vocabulary is and why. Words that are important are kept while words that are not, are junked.
The list of words will be used for writing an argumentative essay.
Students got to engage in Philosophical Chairs today. They had to position themselves on a “Philosophical Spectrum” to express if they agreed, disagreed or were neutral on the topic of whether having classroom pets was more positive than negative. Students then took the hot seat to share their claims and the evidence, from middle school texts, they had collected to support their claims. Throughout the experience, students were encouraged to move as their opinion changed based on what their peers were sharing.
The students proved quite adept at the technique and we will be doing this again while we are studying American history.
Room 360 