60-Second Strategy: Flash Philosophy

“When questions have no answer, [students] struggle,” says Fairview High School teacher Benjamin Barbour, who teaches history and government. One of his go-to bell ringer activities, Flash Philosophy, encourages kids to wrestle with tough questions—particularly moral or ethical ones—and is a good warm-up activity to sharpen critical thinking skills. “I like to push them to make them a little uncomfortable in a safe environment.”

To get the activity started, Barbour puts a question on the board. The question is “a moral or ethical dilemma, often with political implications.” Next, students have 15–20 seconds to write a brief (one to two sentences max) response. Then, Barbour uses note cards to pair students at random for a short discussion. Randomness is key; otherwise, Barbour notes, students will opt to talk with friends, whose opinions may not differ from their own. If time allows, he’ll rotate students randomly again, so that students encounter still more new perspectives. Lastly, he calls on volunteers to share their thoughts in a quick whole-class debrief.

When coming up with questions, says Barbour, “I typically find topics that are applicable to an individual, but also a government or an institution,” like “Should we judge someone by their intentions or their actions?” and “Should we follow laws that we don’t agree with on moral grounds?” Barbour often looks for questions that relate to what they’re studying as a class.

The benefits of this quick warm-up activity go beyond sharpening critical thinking. It encourages classroom community building and fosters students’ communication skills, consideration of diverse perspectives, and concise writing. “I am a big proponent of writing in the classroom, but I don’t think we always have to write big papers. Sometimes our writing can be a sentence, two sentences, maybe a paragraph. To write with clarity, brevity, and conciseness is an important skill,” says Barbour.

Find more resources from Benjamin Barbour’s classroom by checking out all the articles he has written for Edutopia.