Teaching with Tournaments
Overview| How can the sports tournament bracket concept be applied to academic questions? How can competition enliven debate over perennial topics in your curriculum? In this lesson, students use the March Madness bracket structure to decide a question in their field of study, holding a research- and debate-based “tournament” to determine the “winners” of each round, until a final “winner” is declared. Along the way, students will write summaries of competitors arguments and essays about the last two topics standing.This activity might also be a fun, tension-lessening way to approach big decisions that require many students to use good listening skills and vote.
Materials| Computer with Internet access and projectors, research materials, word-processing software and printing capability, or board or chart paper and chalk or markers.
Warm-Up| Have a student who is an avid March Madness fan explain the concept of theN.C.A.A. bracketto the class. Invite students to share ideas about how fans make their picks to fill in their brackets and the factors they consider. Ideas might include personal favorites, sentiment, player statistics and intuition. Sketch on the board a blank bracket that starts with eight teams (or people or issues or books, etc.). Or, you can show students anonline bracket, which will be useful to have on hand later in the lesson.
Next, explain that the class will now consider a question to demonstrate and explore the way the bracket works. Pose the question, “If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, what is the best breakfast food?” Ask students to brainstorm 10 to 12 breakfast foods (knowing that only 8 will “make” the bracket), considering nutritional value, convenience, taste, popularity and so on. Invite them to think creatively about breakfast.
Have students first brainstorm the most popular and healthful foods. Then, to help them choose the less obvious, or “bubble,” foods, have them offer brief explanations of why each questionable food should make it, or not make it, onto the bracket. When you have come up with the final list, have students make the match-ups, pitting what they believe will emerge as the most important foods against the least important in the first round. For example, whole-grain oatmeal might meet chocolate doughnuts there, only to face more formidable opponents, like egg-white omelets, in subsequent rounds.
Each team chooses two students, each championing one option, to debate for each set of brackets in the first round. Set a time limit ( one minute) for each. As judge, decide each winner quickly before moving on to the next round. Continue this way until you reach a winner, or allow students to vote in the final round(s). Remind them that as winning foods advance, the students arguing for them will probably repeat some information from earlier rounds, but they should also directly “face” each opponent, addressing relevant issues that arise in each match-up.
Activity| Assign, or have students work together to compose, a question that is relevant to what they are studying in your class, then come up with eight topics (eliminating “bubble” topics if more than eight are initially generated) for your debate tournament.
Place students in eight small groups to research and prepare for the debates, designating two students per small group to argue for each round. Tell students how much time they will have to present their argument. Show the match-ups so that groups can include reactions to their opponents.
For Round 1 Debate 1, you will be the judge. For Round 1 Debate 2, you and the eliminated group from Debate 1 — or a designated student from the eliminated group — will serve as judges. Continue this way adding judges so that at least one member from each eliminated group eventually joins the group of judges. (Depending on the size of the small groups, the entire eliminated group might join the judging team.) All judges should be encouraged to take notes.
Remind students that winning debates will be presented again, but that they will also need to address their next opponent. For this reason, winning groups should listen carefully to other debates, taking notes, as they wait for their next round.
Going Further| After the final round of debates, all students — judges and participants alike — write essays arguing which topic should win and why. Encourage students to go beyond simply transcribing portions of the debates to include their own ideas.
Standards
Thinking and Reasoning
1. Understands and applies the basic principles of presenting an argument
2. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning
3. Effectively uses mental processes that are based on identifying similarities and differences
4. Applies basic trouble-shooting and problem-solving techniques
5. Applies decision-making techniques
Working With Others
1. Contributes to the overall effort of a group
2. Uses conflict-resolution techniques
3. Works well with diverse individuals and in diverse situations
4. Displays effective interpersonal communication skills
5. Demonstrates leadership skills
Language Arts
1. Gathers and uses information for research purposes
2. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
3. Uses reading skills and strategies to interpret a variety of informational texts
4. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes
5. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media