9th Grade English

Corbin Williams

Pop Culture Debates

February 16 (3rd Quarter/2020)

Mrs. Mazur

Freshman Year - JAGS English 9 - Recognize Perspectives - Explains various perspectives or interpretations of a situation, event, issue, or phenomenon, and reflects an understanding of different contexts, such as access to knowledge, technology, or resources.

The artifact that I have selected for my freshman year JAGS English 9 class is the pop culture debates that we did in the third quarter of the year. These debates required us to thoroughly understand a certain topic area and develop arguments to support our topic, while debating another group about our topic area’s rival. The umbrella topic that we chose was large department stores, with my partner and I taking Walmart. We debated two of our classmates, whose task it was to prove why Target is the better of the two brands. The ISSN domain that I have found to be an excellent fit for this assignment is “Recognizing Perspectives.” This debate required us to look at multiple perspectives and viewpoints when developing an argument to support a claim. We had to look at Target and Walmart’s perspectives for different parts of our claim, as well as the perspectives of consumers shopping at these stores both in store and online. This demonstrates the ISSN domain as recognizing different perspectives when developing arguments has helped me a lot in learning how to debate.

The objective of this assignment in my JAGS English 9 class was very simple. When Mrs. Mazur handed us the instruction packet for this assignment, we were instructed to form groups of 4-6, split the groups in half, and assign a side of a topic of our choice to both sides of our group. We then had to write opening arguments, closing remarks, and rebuttal points based on prior research of our opponents topic. This is where being able to recognize the perspectives of the other group, the other stores, and the store’s customers came in handy. My groupmate and I did lots of research on the positives aspects of Walmart, comparing it to Target and establishing a strong claim for why Walmart is a better company than Target is. We also established strong rebuttal points and because we were well prepared and we were able to see other sides of the argument and prepare counterarguments, we won the debate.

This debate in my freshman English course demonstrated global competency because I was able to form a successful argument, which is a skill that is necessary to perform well in many different situations and occupations all around the world. Even when talking about different global issues, you need to be able to form a strong argument, often taking other perspectives into account, to get people to support your claim. Learning how to do this through this assignment has helped teach me a great skills set that can help me become a more globally competent citizen. The application of debate skills, creating successful arguments and recognizing perspectives are endless. They have helped me grow as a JAGS student over the past two years and they will continue to be a great skill to have going forward.