Critical thinking, and being able to persuade others, are such valuable skill sets! In March 2021, my students were presented with this assignment:
It’s been about a year since Covid-19 caused schools to shut down and youth sports to be canceled. How do you feel about that? Today, you will persuade the reader that your opinion is the right one, and one that governmental leaders should act upon. We will learn how to use three Aristotelian appeals to make an argument for opening up schools and sports, keeping them closed, or any hybrid model you can come up with. If you feel strongly things are going just as they should, it will be your job to convince us that it should continue that way. If you feel there should be any change in policy, your job is to convince us that you are right and we should change things!
There is no wrong or right opinion. Your job is to convince us, to sway us, to persuade us, your readers!
Pathos: a quality that invokes strong emotion
Ethos: a quality that appeals to ethics
Logos: a quality that appeals to logic and reason (includes facts or statistics).
Each of these is used in an argument to convince an audience. The argument may be heavier in one over another. However, a strong argument will contain some of all three of these concepts.
My students put a lot of thought and heart into this assignment. I was so impressed, as I watched their critical thinking skills grow. They first outlined an introduction with three points, then wrote body paragraphs for each point (as they attempted to include ethos, pathos, and logos), and then a conclusion.
Enjoy these samples. This is a blog entry for the history books, for sure!
Why We Should Reopen Schools and Sports
by Kevin (6th grade)
Schools have shut down due to Covid-19. We have all been doing distance learning and have discontinued sports for the past year. Covid-19 has been around for a long time now, and I think it’s time to reopen schools and start in-person sports.
We should reopen schools and sports because students want to play sports. Their happiness depends on it! Students will get fatter and fatter as they exercise less and eat more. Also, playing sports is healthy for the body. Immune systems get stronger when people are healthy and they exercise regularly. I, for one, am a student who wants to compete in sports. Also, surveys have shown that 69% of girls and 75% of boys participate in youth sports. You’re basically taking away something from these students if sports are still closed. Obviously, schools and sports should reopen because students want to play sports.
Also, we should reopen schools and sports because distance learning is worse than in person learning. Don’t you feel bad for the students who get A’s in in-person school, but then get B- in distance learning? I know people that aren’t doing as well with their grades as they were before Covid-19 hit. Also, sometimes students can’t ask questions. Since when teachers are sharing their screen on zoom, they cannot see the students’ faces, and therefore cannot see when the students have a question.
Finally, we should reopen schools because students can then see their friends again. They can play with them and have fun with them. Also, parents don’t have to make lunch for their child at home. Students can have hot lunch at school instead of parents spending time they don’t want to spend cooking for their child because they are stuck at home.
In conclusion, schools should reopen because students want to play sports, distance learning is worse than in person learning, and because students can see their friends again.
6th Graders Deserve Better
By Penelope (6th grade)
Do 6th graders get to play ball, make friends, socialize, learn better and just have as many rights as the graders below? That’s just it, they don’t! The three main reasons 6th graders deserve better is because of the anger inside them, the need for socialization and time to play, and the need for more time on campus for better learning - I should know since I’m an 11 year old 6th grade kid myself! 6th graders deserve better, please!
Imagine all of those poor kids, standing in the cold heavy rain, hearing the laughs and screams of kids playing, and watching them play 4 square climbing on the playground, running around the black top with the yard duty chasing after them because it’s raining. Sitting in their chairs at home, staring blankly at their screens, unsure of what to do next. 6th graders now don’t enjoy school the way they used to before the events of covid-19, they barely even do enjoy it. 6th graders now think school is unfair and boring. Their lack of everything makes them angrier day by day. Most of them don’t even think P.E. is fun anymore! In fact, about 48% of 6th graders are depressed because of loneliness and such because of what’s happening to schools caused be covid-19. 6th grade anger is not because of them, it’s because of what teachers are choosing wrongly for them!
The 6th graders sit in their classrooms as their teacher teaches a long boring lesson that takes up most of their time on campus. There are still kids outside running around, messing, playing, climbing… yet the 6th graders don’t even get to play. Even their recess time is only 10 minutes when it’s supposed to be 15. This is what happens every day on campus at this school. The same boring cycle over and over again. 6th graders don’t even get to play a fun game of ball with each other. All they can do now is walk around the general area of the classrooms 6 feet apart and come back when the teacher calls. This makes them very bored and unfit. They barely even get to socialize because of the lack of students in the class. 8 at most! Some kids don’t even have friends in their classes. 6th graders need to socialize, or depression will become more likely. In fact, the average number on a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being “I don’t like people” and 10 “I need people” 8 was the average! 6th graders deserve better with playtime and social time.
The 6th graders try to make the most of their 2 hours and 15 minutes on campus. They return home, barely smarter than they were the day before. They get picked up and driven home where they face a big bright screen of terror. No teachers can help them there. They face the remaining 3 hours and 45 minutes staring at a screen, trying their best to learn as their eyes redden. 6th graders don’t have enough time on campus to learn the way they need to. The teachers think they’re old enough to deal with it on their own, but no, It’s not like that! We may be half way through school… but we’re only half through school! We still need a little help and we also need more time to learn. Unfortunately, all of this is because teachers believe that 6th graders “bodies are different”. But there is not enough proof for this reasoning! Most kids in 6th grade are 11, and even a lot of 5th graders are 11, too! 12 year olds have very strong immune systems, and also are not that contagious to it! Over 1 million kids lack connectivity and brain cells because of this! 6th graders deserve better with learning and time on campus.
As you can see, the graders aren’t being treated fairly when it comes to school, just because of their “age group”. Just imagine what it’s like for us! 6th graders deserve better… and that’s FINAL!
Hybrid is the Way to Go!
by Dylan (5th grade)
Schools and sports should be opened but with restrictions for Covid-19. Covid-19 is bad for kids. Kids are getting bored without interaction with other kids. Kids are getting fat without exercise. And, virtual classes don't give the same one-on-one experience.
First, kids get bored without interaction. imagine being full of energy, and not getting any chance to let it out? Kids are trapped in a room for a whole day! That might not be tough for adults, but on kids, that's torture. Imagine how terrible kids feel! The emotional impact of the Covid-19 quarantine was assessed for children from Italy and Spain. Participants included 1143 parents of children aged 3 to 18 years who completed a survey about the effects of the quarantine on their children, compared to before the home confinement period. The study found 85.7% of parents reported changes in their children’s emotions and behaviors during the quarantine. The most frequently observed changes were difficulty concentrating (76.6%), boredom (52%), irritability (39%), restlessness (38.8%), nervousness (38%), loneliness (31.3%), uneasiness (30.4%), and worries (30.1%). About 75% of parents reported feeling stressed about the quarantine situation. Parental stress was associated with increased reports of emotional and behavioral symptoms in their children. Kids are changing for the worse. During covid, I personally noticed that I feel a lot more depressed and bored than I usually would on a normal day. I feel lonely and out of reach from everyone. The few days I do get to talk with them, I feel SO happy. I am in a better mood, and I leave all bad feelings and stress behind. These changes are not just me. The entire world is changing.
Second, kids are getting fat without exercise. I am a kid, and I know that during the pandemic, I was not the only kid to be much more tempted to eat junk food. I saw the lines at baskin robin’s grow, A LOT during the pandemic. If we eat more bad food, we will make our body weaker and not able to fight the virus. Kids need sports. Not only do they let your energy out, it also gives you exercise! Exercise is vital for everyone, and during covid, nobody can get it. Kids get sad because of no chance to show all of their practice! Try to imagine working SO hard for a competition, and then it gets cancelled at the last moment! How depressed do you think those kids feel? In addition to that, Severe Obesity from ages 2-19 has increased from 5.2% to 19% in the last 20-30 years. Imagine how much it has increased NOW because of Covid-19 and no physical sports? It has increased A LOT.
Finally, Virtual classes are not the same. We come to the classroom to learn and have fun. During the pandemic, we can't do either. Kids are separated from their friends, and they can't learn because the teachers can't give feedback! The kids must feel so sad because of interaction limits, and parents would also be sad because their kid is not learning anything.
A team of researchers at Stanford University crunched NWEA test scores for students in 17 states and the District of Columbia and reached a terrible conclusion this fall. The average student had lost a third of a year to a full year's worth of learning in reading, and about three-quarters of a year to more than a year in math since schools closed in March, the report estimated. Through 5th grade, I have noticed a bad change in school. During the pandemic, kids don't get enough 1-1 time. This is bad because teachers don’t get to look at the students' work, and students don't get feedback to improve. This defeats the whole purpose of learning, because you don't get any better.
In conclusion, hybrid is the way to go because in virtual, kids get bored without interaction, kids get fat without exercise, and virtual just isn’t the same. If we keep this up, hopefully covid will end and we won't become emotionless zombies. So vote hybrid.
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