Got my eighth graders to argue about the Boston Massacre for a full class period

Handed them two conflicting primary sources and told them to figure out who started it. Twenty minutes later they were yelling at each other about propaganda and 'whose word you trust anyway'. Best part: the quiet kid who never talks got up and said the whole thing was just rich people squabbling over taxes. I didn't have to say anything for the last ten minutes. That rarely happens on a Friday.