An Exercise with Technology Take-1

Speech students will divide into 3 groups, represent one of the three major 2008 presidential (Obama/Clinton, McCain, and Nader) candidates and set a stage to emulate a presidential policy debate with the teacher as moderator.  Each group will be responsible for researching via candidate and support websites their candidates' stances on selected topics including national healthcare, educational reform, the war on terrorism, the national budget, and global warming in order to defend their candidate's position and challenge the opposition.  Each group will also select a member to represent their candidate in the formal debate which will occur in a set room separate from the rest of the class.  Each representative will dress appropriately for a formal event and the debate will be streamed live by video-conference into the student-filled classroom.  The formal debate portion will consist of each representative providing a 3 minute introduction to their candidate's policies followed by 7 minutes of defense as the other representatives challenge.  At the end of the formal portion of the debate, classroom students will ask one question each, addressing either a specific candidate or the entire panel at large.  At the end of the activity, each student will anonymously submit a vote for their favorite real candidate given what they have learned through the activity and a class nominee will be discovered.

Standards to be posted soon.