This game involves students generating questions collaboratively. The exercise runs easily for about ten minutes and can go for a half hour or more with discussion. It is often a good exercise to use early in the year, as it helps students listen to each other and gets them thinking about what makes a question … Activity: Keep the Question Going
Talking About Moral Philosophy and Genocide with Middle School Students Middle school students often face difficult moral choices. We can help students approach these choices thoughtfully by introducing them to philosophical inquiry, and inviting them to consider such moral issues as the consequences of inaction and silence, the difference between inaction and indifference, and whether … Moral Philosophy and Genocide
Materials: A blackboard or whiteboard to draw on, blank pieces of paper for students to draw on, crayons or colored pencils if possible. Description: Frame this exercise by making the point that there are two key skills we want to develop when we do philosophy. These are, first, the ability to communicate clearly and second, … The Painter and Their Eyes Activity
This exercise attempts to give students the opportunity to formulate rules that they themselves would choose to be governed by. It explores the rules that they, as a community, would agree upon. And it tries to implement these rules in the classroom setting so as to test their viability in the crucible of real-world experience. … One Rule Game
Materials Needed: Notecards Pens/Pencils The Game: This is a very simple game that is meant to encourage students to feel empathy—or at least, think about feeling empathy—for their fellow students. And if empathy has any role in moral development (as we think it does), then this exercise, although very simple, is a useful one. Step … How Did You Feel? Exercise
The Moral Spectrum Exercise In this exercise, students are introduced to “the moral spectrum”—seven different perspectives on the right thing to do, seven different questions to ask themselves to determine whether a particular course of action is right or wrong. These questions are drawn from the dominant moral theories in Western philosophy over the past … Moral Spectrum Exploration Exercise
A philosophy lesson plan that teaches middle school or primary school students the basics of giving reasons to support a claim.
One of the important things that the study of philosophy teaches us is how to examine the world from a variety of different perspectives. When we read and study the writings of classic and contemporary philosophers, we are given new ways of looking at the world that broaden our own perspectives on reality. Consequently, it’s … Different Perspectives Game
Have each student draw two pictures. One drawing must be a drawing they would call art, and the other one they would not call art. Ask the students who want to do so to share their drawings. Some questions you can consider include: What makes one art and the other not? Does the intention of … What is Art?
What is Difference? Difference is an easy-to-learn, fast-to-play, negotiation game that is designed to promote philosophical discussion about inequity both inside and outside of the game. Set-up Divide the class into groups of exactly 3 students each. Each group consists of a green, purple, and yellow player. Each group is given player cards at random … Difference: A Philosophy Game
PLATO is part of a global UNESCO network that encourages children to participate in philosophical inquiry. As a partner in the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, PLATO is connected to other educational leaders around the world.
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