The Great Debate Drama

Purpose: This activity asks students to pay special attention to a piece's rhetorical situation by carefully considering the author of a work. It also asks students to practice synthesis.

Materials: At least two articles on the same general subject by two different authors who have very different positions on the subject. These authors should be people who can be easily researched. It helps if the topics of the article are related but not exactly the same. For instance, an article on the benefits of texting and one on the dangers of Facebook to student success.

Procedure:

1. Divide the class into pairs. 
2. Give each pair a copy of each of the two articles described above. You may also choose two different articles for each group. 
3. Ask each student to choose an article that they will become specialists in. Give students a few moments to look over the articles and choose one. 
4. Instruct students to, in their partners, prepare a drama in which they take the role of the author of the article that they have chosen. The scene is a lunch room at a conference where they are eating lunch with their partners. The topic of the dialog should be the topic of the articles you've distributed. 
5. Ask students to begin by reading the articles, then doing some research to find out more about the author and his/her expertise/position on the topic.
6. Students write (in class or for homework) a 2-3 minute dialog that they will share in class. 
7. Have student pairs perform their dramas in class. 
8. Ask students to reflect via writing or discussion regarding how finding more about the author colored their view of the article and what their ability to combine two views into one drama suggests about synthesis.

Differentiation: Students can write a story or draw a cartoon instead of writing a drama.