Versatile resource designed for elementary, middle, and high-school students!
Having your students watch presidential debates is a hugely worthwhile endeavor whether it's election season or not. Obviously when election day is approaching, it's good to let students see what both major candidates have to say about the issues and the country.
Videos of past debates, though, can also be really useful when studying history. Imagine teaching the Cold War era and showing students segments from the iconic Kennedy/Nixon debates, for example.
Engagement is Key
The challenge of using presidential debates to help you teach current events or historical periods, however, is keeping students highly engaged while they watch. Most students, even in the earlier grades, can watch 5 minutes without their eyes glazing over, but much more than that and you might start losing the attention and interest of many of your students. This is particularly true for younger students, but it can also be a challenge even with high school seniors, since some of them are a *lot* more immature than others.
So How Does Presidential Debate Bingo Work?
Once you've printed off from some Presidential Debate Bingo sheets, have students predict what key words or phrases they expect to hear during the debate. Have them fill in one word or phrase per square on their grid.
This usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on the size of the grid in use and the background knowledge level of the students.
When grids are ready, play the debate or the debate segment you want the class to watch. Tell students to listen carefully so that they can mark off their words/phrases as they occur. If you have stickers handy, students --even high school seniors!-- love using them to mark off their squares. Otherwise, you can have students cross through their entries as they watch.
Students love this and it really livens up watching debates!
Having your students watch presidential debates is a hugely worthwhile endeavor whether it's election season or not. Obviously when election day is approaching, it's good to let students see what both major candidates have to say about the issues and the country.
Videos of past debates, though, can also be really useful when studying history. Imagine teaching the Cold War era and showing students segments from the iconic Kennedy/Nixon debates, for example.
Engagement is Key
The challenge of using presidential debates to help you teach current events or historical periods, however, is keeping students highly engaged while they watch. Most students, even in the earlier grades, can watch 5 minutes without their eyes glazing over, but much more than that and you might start losing the attention and interest of many of your students. This is particularly true for younger students, but it can also be a challenge even with high school seniors, since some of them are a *lot* more immature than others.
So How Does Presidential Debate Bingo Work?
Once you've printed off from some Presidential Debate Bingo sheets, have students predict what key words or phrases they expect to hear during the debate. Have them fill in one word or phrase per square on their grid.
This usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on the size of the grid in use and the background knowledge level of the students.
When grids are ready, play the debate or the debate segment you want the class to watch. Tell students to listen carefully so that they can mark off their words/phrases as they occur. If you have stickers handy, students --even high school seniors!-- love using them to mark off their squares. Otherwise, you can have students cross through their entries as they watch.
Students love this and it really livens up watching debates!
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