At ABIS, English is a tool for learning and a tool for talking about learning. Students in the MYP & DP need to become proficient users of English as an Academic Language both verbally & in its written form. Over the last week or so in Grade 7, we have been engaging in language rich preparation for an exploration of Global Sustainable Development goals. They have been doing so by identifying what they think are the fair and unfair things that exist in our world today.
Using Visual Thinking strategies students brainstormed and shared their thoughts about what they believed represented injustice in their world. One of their most interesting thoughts was the idea that students should be paid to go to school! As a class, we took the opportunity to workshop around this idea, developing our understanding of how to build an argument through opinion writing. Students used multiple devices to plan and develop their arguments, learning how to justify their opinions with clearly stated reasons. Through the medium of formal letter writing, we then explored how to use a clearly stated argument to convince others. The majority of the class agreed that students should be paid to go to school,supporting that belief with arguments such as “because we are out of the house all day, working hard, just like our parents.” One dissenting argument, however, was that “school was not designed for this purpose, students go to school to learn so they can get a job when they grow up.” Our week ended with another provocation. Students watched a video about children in different parts of the world who had to walk, sometimes for days, through remote and dangerous terrains, just to get to school. After reflecting on what they saw, the majority of the students in Grade 7 had changed their minds about the original question and now disagree with the idea that students should be paid to go to school. Phew!
