The ancient Greeks used performance enhancing drugs, such as opium juice, when they participated in the original Olympic Games. Pupils research a website with debate topics to decide if athletes' use of such drugs in modern sports is acceptable. They read about the history of drug use in sports, analyze charts about current drug testing practices, and browse readers' comments to formulate a knowledgeable opinion on the issue. 

Concepts

drug abuse, drugs, sports, debate, preparing for discussions, steroids

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Support English learners by displaying a poster of sentence stems with common debate language, such as "I agree because ..." or "I disagree because ..."
• Invite small groups to research the original Olympic Games 

Classroom Considerations

• Potentially sensitive and mature subject matter (drug use)
• Time required for independent research depends on student needs 

Pros

• Color codes and separates pros and cons by category for easy navigation 
• Includes a helpful site map, source biographies, and footnotes for further research 

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.9-10.1 RI.11-12.1 SL.9-10.1.a SL.11-12.1.a