Is Recess an Unalienable Right? |
Use this Activity: |
| Discuss - Discuss the concept of unalienable rights and their importance to the new nation. Read the instructions for the writing prompt to students and tell them that they will be constructing an informal persuasive essay. Further explain that the key to persuasive essays is not what side they take, but rather the evidence they present in support of that side. This assignment allows students to make up evidence, statistics, or expert quotes. Review with students examples of "evidence" that might support each side. For example, you might make up a statistic such as, "a study by Harvard University concluded that elementary schools in which teachers were disallowed from taking recess time from students scored 20 percent higher on standardized tests than schools that allowed recess to be taken away." Students will love this prompt! Encourage them to take the unpopular side. |
| Debate - This is a great topic to stage an informal debate (if you can get students to argue against recess as an unalienable right). |
| Morning Work - The writing prompt will likely take students an hour or more to complete. They may need several mornings to finish this assignment. |
| Homework - This activity is a great way to assign homework in social studies or language arts. |
| Interactive Notebooks - This activity is a great entry for interactive social studies notebooks. |
| Part of a Lesson - Teaching about Thomas Jefferson or the Declaration of Independence? Distribute this activity to students and read aloud or have students read to themselves. |
| Share - This prompt serves as a great opportunity for students to share their writing. |