中文
HOME
HOME / LATEST NEWS / Content

Pudong Campus Grade 3: Frindle Debate

December 8, 2020

Third graders put their arguing skills to the test in a debate! On December 4th, after completing a novel study on the book, Frindle by Andrew Clements, students were split into four different teams. Each team spent time researching their side and creating arguments, rebuttals, and counter rebuttals.

Frindle tells the story of a fifth-grade boy named Nick, a curious student who causes a bit of trouble for his teachers. In his Language Arts class, Nick creates his greatest prank ever. He decides to call a pen a “frindle.” Soon the word becomes very popular and his teacher, Mrs. Granger, is not very happy with Nick at all. Should Nick be able to use the word “frindle” or is Mrs. Granger correct? Is Nick a trouble maker, or is he just a curious student?

Students debated these two questions in class. All of the students were quite poised, responsible, and creative with their arguments. Debates give students a chance to voice their opinions, show their creative thinking, analyze and evaluate other arguments quickly, and practice public speaking. Many students enjoyed the debate so much that they’d like to debate even more topics in class!

(Written by Haoruo Li Pictures by Grace Franolich, Andrew Mahoney)