Tag: Jana Mohr Lone

Posted on

Book Review – What Would You Do? Friendship – Moral Dilemmas for Kids by Jana Mohr Lone

What if you made plans with friend A, but then friend B came through with tickets to see your favorite band? What if you had a friend that your other friends wanted to exclude from a group trip to the movies? What if you accidentally revealed a friend’s secret and worried they’d hate you if you confessed?

Longtime philosophy professor and Ethics Bowl supporter Dr. Jana Mohr Lone recently released a new illustrated book series, What Would You Do? Moral Dilemmas for Kids, and addresses these questions and more in her beautifully illustrated title on Friendship. I ordered a copy on Amazon and was quickly reminded how relationship lessons first experienced in childhood extend across our lifespans. Just as some friends made more of a point to attend our birthday parties, some friends make more of a point to honor our special projects. Just as some friends took up for us on the playground, some friends are more outspoken allies in the office and on social media. And just as then, some of our present day friends are more deserving of the title, as well as the affection and loyalty that come with it. These are the sorts of realizations good interpersonal Ethics Bowl cases bring to the surface, but with Lone’s guided questions and the playful art, the insights come even more effortlessly, and regardless of the reader’s age.

Each section begins with a scenario, followed by carefully articulated prompts, and then finally some possible paths a thoughtful person could take. If you’re a team captain choosing basketball players, should you try to stack your team with the best athletes? Or should you honor your buddy who couldn’t hit a layup to save his life, but who loves hoops so much that he legally changed his name to Jordan? If you picked him first, he’d be thrilled, but your team would likely lose… and your motives would likely be obvious. So maybe it would be better to simply ensure he’s not picked last? However, as Lone invites the reader to consider, your decision’s impact on non-friends’ feelings is relevant, too. (Perhaps this is a scenario with wisdom older readers might relate back to assigning responsibilities within the family, classroom, or workplace?)

“It’s not easy to balance your feelings for your friend and your role as team captain. You don’t want to make your friend feel bad. But you also wonder if choosing team members based on friendship will affect the other players’ feelings.”

In addition to the pictures here, you can peek inside on the book’s Amazon page and see for yourself how you might work this entry on friendship into a class assignment or as a gift to a parent or child you love. And as Lone says in the closing paragraphs in her notes for parents and teachers, the goal isn’t so much to dictate how kids should feel or even what they should do. But to simply ensure they’re thinking and feeling, and doing so in an earnest, honest way.

“It is useful for children to be able to talk about their responses to the kinds of scenarios described in this book, and to learn strategies for evaluating the right ting to do in various circumstances. The goal is not necessarily to find that one right answer, but to be able to think through the issue and arrive at a reasoned decision… Ultimately, we want children to become reflective and sensitive, ethical adults.”

And it’s this goal of developing “reflective and sensitive, ethical adults” that Lone has been achieving for many years as a leader within the philosophy for children movement, which we in the Ethics Bowl community certainly share. Thank you for the excellent book, Jana!

Other books in Mohr Lone’s What Would You Do? Moral Dilemmas for Kids Series include titles on:

Posted on

Ethics Bowl Innovations – Student Judges and Reporters for In-Class Bowls Grades 4-8

The below is the second of two guest articles by Dr. Jana Mohr Lone, author of The Philosophical Child and Seen and Not Heard, as well as the brand new children’s book series What Would You Do?, and Executive Director of the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO). Click here to read her first article on direct team-to-team dialogue and “cold cases” at the middle and high school levels, and think about how you might use the below innovations to run more engaging and successful Ethics Bowls in your classroom.

Four years ago, I began running in-class ethics bowls with grades 4-8, using a very similar format. This involves several class sessions. In the first, I introduce an ethics case and work with the students to identify the ethical issues involved and discuss as a whole group, often breaking the students up into small groups and asking them to list the ethical questions they identify in the case.

The second session involves a discussion of the case that will be used for the in-class ethics bowl. I also describe the structure of the bowl and the various roles students might play (this lesson plan along with other resources for running in-class ethics bowls are available on the PLATO website).

After the second session, students give their first and second choices for the role they would like to play in the bowl, with the following options:

  1. Team member (there are two teams, each with up to 5 students)
  2. Questioning Judge (3-5 students, who will ask questions of the teams)
  3. Scoring Judge (3 or 5 students, who will score both teams)
  4. Reporter (students who do not want to play any of the other roles; this can involve art and/or writing that can be submitted to Wondering Aloud, the PLATO Blog, or to Questions, PLATO’s online journal)

At the next two sessions, I work with the two teams (seated in separate parts of the room) to help them prepare their presentations for the bowl. They can each bring one 3×5 index card with them to the bowl, but no other outside notes. I also provide an orientation for the questioning and scoring judges, emphasizing the importance of the neutrality and objectivity the role demands of them.

It’s inspiring how seriously even fourth-grade students take this activity. They work hard to think through the ethical problems involved, and they learn how to identify why someone might disagree with their approach to the case. They seem to relish the deep and open conversations that ensue. But what stands out for me most are two related observations.

First, I notice the genuine listening that the students demonstrate. They pay focused attention to other students say and respond in very specific ways to the points made by the other team. Rather than just repeating their own points, they allow other perspectives to influence their developing thinking about the case and don’t stay attached to the points of view with which they began their presentations. They exhibit flexible thinking and a willingness to change their minds, and to think out loud.

Second, and perhaps it is the deep listening on the part of the other students that fosters this, I have watched students grow more and more confident at being able to say what they think. One student said, “I learned so speak when I had something to say and not to wait.”  Another student noted, “When judges ask you a question, you have to give a strong answer, but before you say it, you have to think if it really makes sense.”

At the end of each year, when I ask my philosophy students what they will most remember about philosophy this year, the Ethics Bowl is always high on the list.

Posted on

Ethics Bowl Innovations – Open Dialogue and Cold Cases

The below guest article is by Dr. Jana Mohr Lone, renowned philosophy for children expert and Executive Director for the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO), a longtime Ethics Bowl supporter credited with founding and running the Washington State High School Ethics Bowl and currently involved in developing the Middle School Ethics Bowl. This first of two articles is on improvements being implemented on the middle and high school levels. Her second article, which will release a week from today, is on innovations on in-class Ethics Bowls she’s been running for the past four years with students in grades 4-8.

There has been extraordinary growth in the number of Ethics Bowl events – particularly at the middle and high school levels – over the past ten years. Ever since Bob Ladenson created it over 30 years ago, the spirit of the Ethics Bowl has been one of innovation and openness to change.

The organization I lead, PLATO, has run the Washington State High School Ethics Bowl for the past thirteen years. During that time, we have developed several innovations designed to enhance the dialogical aspect of the event and to “level the playing field” (so to speak) between students and schools entering the event with what are often vast disparities in resources.

In 2015, after running the event for two years, we concluded that some of the event’s features detracted from its dialogical and inclusivity goals: the event was too structured, the structure didn’t account for significant differences in preparation time, especially between private and public schools, and the scoring was overly complex. As a result, we made the following changes to the format used by the National High School Ethics Bowl:

  1. We eliminated the commentary and response; instead, we instituted an “open dialogue” period, in which after the presentations the teams engage in a 10-minute self-moderated dialogue, thinking together in a more conversational way about the issues that have emerged in the presentations.
  2. We established one round that uses a “cold case” with which none of the students are familiar.
  3. We simplified the scoring rubric and scoresheet.

Some of these innovations have been adopted by the Middle School Ethics Bowls as well as a few other State High School Ethics Bowls. Following the Middle School Ethics Bowl model, we now use one case per round; both teams give presentations on that same case. A description of our rules and structure is available on the PLATO website.

Posted on

New In-Class Ethics Bowl Resources from PLATO

Pre-college philosophy O.G. Jana Mohr Lone recently reached out to share a new Ethics Bowl Start-Up Kit created and curated by our friends at PLATO, the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.

Designed to empower teachers to begin hosting Ethics Bowls in their classrooms ASAP, the description concisely explains what Ethics Bowl is, the lesson plan outlines the main steps, the rules confirm expectations, the rubric and scoresheet ensure judges are aligned, and the moderator script helpfully distinguishes what should be said aloud in red from context and instructions in black. For example, “Both teams now have up to 2 minutes to confer before they will engage in an open dialogue. Give the teams two minutes to confer. If they go to two minutes, tell them that time is up.”

PLATO has so many wonderful resources, and is leading the nation in promoting Ethics Bowls on the middle and elementary school levels in the U.S. Jana’s actually PLATO’s Executive Director, teaches philosophy for the University of Washington, and in 2012 published a book on my personal bookshelf, The Philosophical Child. Thank you, Jana and team for all you’ve done and are doing, including creating and sharing the new Ethics Bowl Start-Up Kit! It’s now permanently linked here on EthicsBowl.org’s Resources page.