Form 1 (seventh grade) students in Lauren Cannon's English classes are reading The Season of Styx Malone, a novel that features an escalator trade where the main characters continually barter in order to "trade up" and score a coveted item. Students engaged in their very own escalator trade called the "Paperclip Challenge." Equipped with only a paper clip and an understanding of various persuasive argument techniques, students set out to convince adults in the building to make progressively more advantageous trades with them. It was wonderful to see their persuasive appeals in action as they had to think on the spot about the best way to barter certain items, and they were quite successful!

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