Goals:1. Students will gain an understanding of the history of whaling.

2. Students will be able to hold a debate in which they will be able to use solid evidence to back up their claims for or against commercial whaling.

3. Students will write a letter to legislature or any conservational group sharing their individual view of commercial whaling.

Resources:

1. Pro-whaling articles:

Japanese World-View on Whales and Whaling

Indians hope to harpoon new whale-hunting rights in Christian Science Monitor, Volume 87 Issue 167, pg. 3.

2. Anti-whaling articles:

Norway's Rampant Whale Slaughter found at

http://www.earthisland.org/immp/immp3.html.

Whaling found in Environment, Volume 36, Issue 7, pgs. 12-22.

3. List of addresses for letter writing:

http://www.earthisland.org/immp/warwhales.html

http://www.earthisland.org/immp/immp7.html

Teacher Background:

All aspects of teacher background dealing with the issues of whaling can be found at the above web sites, magazines, or journals.

Time:

This lesson should take three hours to complete. The students should take about an hour to read the articles that are assigned to them and to discuss them in their groups. Then students will need an hour to discuss in their groupís ideas and set up and form their groups for the debate. Then students should be given about a half an hour to an hour for the debate. Then students should be given an hour to go through the writers workshop with the letter. This lesson should be broken up into more than one day.

Procedure:

Step 1- Teacher should ask students if any of them know what whaling is? Then ask the students to vote for or against whaling based on what they know about whaling. Record the results.

Step 2- Have the students that are pro-whaling in one group and anti-whaling in another group. If this is uneven then assign students from one group to the other to make the groups equal.

Step 3- Give the groups copies of the articles that are relevant to the side that they are going to be debating about.

Step 4- This step is a crucial step in this process. The teacher needs to lead a class discussion about how a debate works and what are the guidelines. The class needs to discuss that a debate is not an argument but a chance to offer your views on a particular topic. Set up the following rules for the debate:

1) Each side will have a chance to give a two to three minute introduction for the debate.

2) After the introduction the debate will begin. Two people from one side each will have one minute maximum to give their view on the issue. Students from the other side will not be able to give a response until after the two people have finished talking. After one side has had two people talk then the other group can give their view.

3) Teacher should keep a chart of the class and mark down who has spoken so the debate does not get dominated by a couple of students.

4) Teacher must also keep track of the amount of time each student speaks.

5) After all of the ideas have been discussed give class three minutes to change any of their closing arguments. Each side is allowed two to three minutes maximum for their closing argument.

Step 5- Have the students read the articles and then discuss the articles in groups of four within each side of the debate. Then the groups will meet and plan their arguments for the debate paying attention to facts and details from the articles. Encourage drawing charts and making sides so everyone gets involved. Discuss with the class to think about counterpoints to the other sides views. This is important part of a debate and then you will be able to back up your view more clearly. Have students write their ideas, opening statements, counterviews, and closing arguments on index cards to use in the debate.

Step 6- Divide the class in two lines facing each other for the debate. Have each group give an opening statement and then the teacher can watch over the debate and make sure that everyone has a chance to participate. Teacher should videotape the debate in order to watch again for a more accurate way of assessing the debate.

Step 7- After the debate, discuss important points with the group about the debate making sure discuss both sides of the issue.

Step 8- Have students choose to whom or to what organization they are going to write to use the address lists from previous page. Encourage the students to present both sides of the argument in their letter to present a persuasive argument.

Step 9- Form groups of three's and have each student proofread the other student's papers and make corrections or add comments to improve the letter.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed based on the following rubrics for the group work, debate, and letter.

4 points= Worked well with the group all of the time.

3 points= Worked well with the group most of the time.

2 points= Worked well with the group some of the time.

1 point= Had many problems working cooperatively with the group.

Each student will be given the point total from the following two rubrics:

4 points= Discussed and evaluated all important points from the articles.

3 points= Discussed and evaluated most of the important points from the articles.

2 points= Discussed and evaluated some of the important points from the articles.

1 point= Discussed and evaluated a few of the important points from the articles.

4 points= Able to back up all of the factual statements from the articles.

3 points= Able to back up most of the factual statements from the articles.

2 points= Able to back up some of the factual statements from the articles.

1 point= Couldn't back up any statements made in the debate.

4 points= Letter contains no spelling errors. All ideas are expressed clearly.

3 points= Letter contains no spelling errors. Most of the ideas are expressed clearly.

2 points= Letter contains some spelling errors. Some of the ideas are expressed clearly.

1 point= Letter contains many spelling errors. Some of the ideas are expressed clearly.

Curricular Strands and Major Concepts:

1. Social Studies- Students will be learning about the history of whaling and also will have a chance to see how different cultures view whaling. Students will feel that they have a say and are part of society through letter writing.

2. Communication Arts- Students will learn how to do an effective debate. Students also will be writing letters and proofreading other students letters. Students will read informational magazines and journals.

3. Math- Students will be constructing graphs and analyzing statistical data about whaling.

Possible Extensions:

1. Students could write to the local newspaper or construct their own class newspaper about their views on the whaling debate.

2. Students could create stories based on the effects or the benefits of whaling to a particular culture.

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