The Commonwealth

4. Class debate

Required Resources

• Slide 22

Delivery

• Get each group to nominate one group member to summarise the case study in five points to the rest of the class.
• Take a class vote and ask students whether they are for or against the MOD helping other countries. Write the result on the whiteboard.
• Split the class into two. Try and ensure that there is a mix of students in each group in terms of confidence levels, ability, opinions held (as observed in Episode 3) and gender. Get one group to debate arguments for and the other, arguments against, the MOD playing a part in supporting the Commonwealth and wider world. Slide 22 communicates some debate rules which may help ensure it is constructive.
• Each group should meet for a quick meeting to compile their main arguments for debate. Encourage students to justify their arguments using points from Worksheet 1 and their particular case study e.g. 'Catching the drug smugglers will help the 300,000 plus problematic drug users in England because it will cut their supply'; 'I think it is good that we help train the army in Sierra Leone, we have over 100,000 people working for The British Army alone; there's plenty to support other countries'; 'The MOD spent £1.8 billion on conflict prevention worldwide, what do other countries do to help us?'; 'If climate change is going to increase the number of natural disasters in the UK, we should not be wasting our money helping other countries.'
• Close the debate and take another class vote to see whether there has been a change to the numbers written on the whiteboard.

Differentiation

Lower Ability:

Following on from Episode 3, each group to present their 5 minute mini lesson to the rest of the group. After the presentations, lead a class discussion around the MOD and whether it should help other countries.
A framework which directs the flow of the debate may help students develop their opinions and arguments.

Higher Ability:

After the first class vote, split the group into two according to their stance (if one side is substantially larger than the other you may need to move students around) and allocate the opposite argument to them for the debate.