When I heard that we had to do debates I was pretty excited! I thought that debates would be really fun because you get to argue on a topic on two different sides! I got on the debate where we debate whether sharks should be protected or not. I really liked this debate topic because it was really interesting and I like sharks. I also knew some information about sharks before so I was prepared for what we were going to be learning about. The people in my group were Hayden, Daniel T., and Gabi. We got our folders with articles about sharks. We looked at the names of articles and tried to figure out what information they had. Then, one by one, we would read articles, annotate them, and take notes about the pros and cons. We eventually finished all our articles and we had all our information. A few days later we split up into sides for the debate. One side would say that sharks were dangerous, and the other side would say that sharks should be protected. Before we got our sides, I wanted to be on the side that says sharks should be protected because I think that was the right side and it had more information. When I got on the side that says sharks should be protected, I was happy that I got on the side I wanted. Hayden and I would be on side A, and Gabi and Daniel T. would be on side B. I already had a lot of information from all my articles so now I just needed to gather it all together. Then Hayden and I  had to make 2 reasons for why sharks should be protected. We reviewed our notes and came up with 2 strong reasons to use in the debate. One, sharks are really important to the ocean ecosystem, and two, humans kill way more sharks than sharks kill humans. Ms. Robert then gave us a document to write the intro, our two reasons, and our conclusion, (with no counterarguments) but first we had to figure out who would say what in the debate. We settled on me saying the intro and the second reason and Hayden said the first reason and the conclusion. That night for homework I started writing my introduction and my second reason. When I finished I was very happy with my work. After a week or so, Ms. Robert gave us another document with counterarguments. I started writing on the new document and I think it was more fun with counterarguments because you get to say why the other person is wrong. I wrote longer when I used counterarguments. I finally finished my side and the other side also did. Then we started to practice the debates altogether. I think it started a little hard but we got the hang of it! When it came time for the debate, I was ready! We did the debate in the auditorium and sat on 2 sides. We did a practice run, and then we did the real one on video. It was very fun. I think I did very well and I really liked the debate work!