The Art of Teaching Argument artofteachingargument.wikispaces.com/

Delia DeCourcy Susan Wilson-GolabOakland Schools

ELA - Social Studies - Science

Today’s Workshop Goals

• To review the foundational moves of argument.

• To experience how to build a culture of argument in your classroom.

• To explore a possible argument task progression for your students.

• To experiment with effective argument task design.

Argument vs. Persuasion

Argument

Argument is about making a case in support of a claim in everyday affairs – in science, policy making, in courtrooms, and so forth.

- George Hillocks, Jr., Teaching Argument Writing

logical appeals

Persuasion

In a persuasive essay, you can select the most favorable evidence, appeal to emotions, and use style to persuade your readers. Your single purpose is to be convincing.

-- Kinneavy and Warriner 1993

advertising, propaganda

Argument in the CCSS

Reading Anchor Standards:CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

Writing Anchor Standards:CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.1 Write arguments to support claims in an

analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

History, Science & Technical Subjects:CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.

Your Goals for Your Teaching Practice?

Identify an open-ended question or two about teaching argument writing that you would like to

explore during this 2-day workshop.

pair & share

post to the wall

Arguments Surround Us

Arguments Surround Us

artofteachingargument.wikispaces.com/

Unpack the Argument

INFORMAL WRITE1. Select one visual argument from the page.2. Identify a possible argument that is implied

by this image/text. (claim)3. Name evidence to support your claim.

(details from the image, anecdotal, etc.)4. Explain your reasoning.

Share & Analyze

1. Share your flash draft with a partner.2. Partner say back. What was the:

• claim• evidence• reasoning (connection between claim &

evidence)

Share & Analyze

HAVE A CONVERSATION: FEEDBACK

• What was the strongest part of the argument and why?

• What could the writer add or subtract to improve the argument?

Arguments in the Real World

Students’ Concept of Argument/Writing

What high schoolers sometimes come to us with (and what can get in the way of their college writing/thinking):

* a tendency to see writing and research as report rather than discovery; not seeing or believing that you can write to find and hone your ideas, and that some of this comes from the richly complex relationships that evolve between ideas that may take sentences and paragraphs (i.e., not just a "However") to explain and unpack; in conjunction with this, not always knowing or believing how thoughtful responses from readers (including themselves) can really help along a writer's process of discovery.

- MSU Writing Instructors

Foundational Concepts of Argument

• Claim• Evidence (standards and nature of evidence

differs by subject area)• Reasoning/Analysis/Warrant - an

explanation of how the evidence supports the claim

• Counterargument/Rebuttals - refute competing claims

• Consideration of audience

Toulmin Model

Argument as a Habit of Mind

• In your teaching• In your students’

o thinkingo discussiono writing

• Teach across the yearo Everything is an argument.

• Consistently use rhetorical language to build students’ academic vocabulary. o Name the moves of argument.

Instructional Strategies to Build Argument Culture & Habits of Mind

informal writing• first thoughts• respond to a

prompt• visual thinking

routines• flash drafts

annotation• talk to the text• text in the middlediscourse• Socratic seminar• structured small

groups - test ideas• talk protocol• debates• think alouds

component tasks

building reasoning muscles

BREAKJoin the Art of Teaching Argument Community

• Log in to your Google account

• Visit: plus.google.com/communities

• search for The Art of Teaching Argument

• Click Join Community

• We will accept your invitation

• Once you’re a member, click on the cog (settings) to turn your notifications on.

• Share your current interests, curiosities, and challenges with teaching argument writing.

BUILDING REASONING MUSCLESAre rats useful friends to humans or

dangerous foes?

ARGUMENT TALK PROTOCOL

LUNCH!

Coding Activity

Shifting Our Language

Curriculum and Assessment

List of Events Learning Progression

Working at the “Edge” of Learning

Progressions invite a developmental view of learning because they lay out how expertise develops over a more or less extended period of time, beginning with rudimentary forms of learning and moving through progressively more sophisticated states.

-Margaret Heritage, p. 37Formative Assessment in Practice

What’s a Learning Progression?

Sequence set of subskills and bodies of enabling knowledge

Composed of step-by-step building blocks needed to attain target curricular aim

What it isn’t…

Flawless

Un-changing

One size fits all

Transformative Assessment, W. James Popham

What it is…

Building Blocks of Argument

Enabling Knowledge• claim • evidence• counterargument• audience

Subskill• reasoning• analysis• angling evidence

for audience

Example

What has our learning skill progression been today?

TURN & TALK

Today’s Task Progression

• video analysis• visual argument• argument talk

protocol• coding activity

Today’s Learning Progression

1. video analysis: notice pattern of and shifts in argument

2. visual argument: make an argument, identify argument traits, and give feedback

3. talk protocol: gather evidence, make a claim, argue with an opponent, angle evidence for a particular audience

4. coding activity: identify argument traits, norm across content areas

 

Thesis Statement   

  

∙ Parallel Topic Sentence #1   

∙ Parallel Topic Sentence #2   

∙ Parallel Topic Sentence #3  

 

Concluding Statement  

GRADES 3-5 LUCY CALKINS: BOXES & BULLETS

THESIS PARAGRAPH

Thesis Statement (Stance, Position, Claim) May require sentence order or sentence #.

BODY PARAGRAPH #1

Topic Sentence (Least important point or reason)Include evidence, explanation, and concluding sentence

BODY PARAGRAPH #2

Topic Sentence (2nd most important point or reason) Include evidence, explanation, and concluding sentence

BODY PARAGRAPH #3Topic Sentence (Most Important Point or Reason)

Include evidence, explanation, and concluding sentence

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

Restate Thesis Include summary and/or comment

KEYHOLE ESSAY

Thesis Paragraph General: Grabber

Specific: Thesis (Claim)

Body Paragraph #1Topic Sentence (Specific Point)

Evidence, explanation, transitional conclusion

Body Paragraph #2Topic Sentence (Specific Point)

Evidence, explanation, transitional conclusion

Body Paragraph #3Topic Sentence (Specific Point)

Evidence, explanation, transitional conclusion

Concluding Paragraph Rephrase Thesis (Claim)

Summarize Points

Students & Structures/Reasoning What high schoolers sometimes come to us with (and what can get in

the way of their college writing/thinking):

* a relentless search for / use of formulas (3- to 5-paragraph essays) and "rules" (i.e., Never use "I" in an essay; Never begin a sentence with "But," etc.) rather than focusing on audiences, purposes, contexts, etc. In other words, not recognizing, as a friend of mine says, that there are "different spokes for different folks," and that different contexts invite different kinds of writing.

- MSU Writing Instructors

Arguments: encouraging complexity

Teacher provided question/problem

Student generated response

Teacher provided topic

Student generated question/problem + response

COMPLEXITYconsider alternatives, evaluate evidence, and think critically

WHO DECIDES?control of

question/problemcontrol of data/evidence

Developing Task Trajectories

Best in Show

Nominations

Writing to make the world different(fixable problem in community)

Elevating the quality of argument: create a trajectory across a year and grade levels that develops cognitive complexity.

-Mary Ehrenworth

Developing Task Trajectories

Social issues with meaning for writer

Research items having a direct impact on writer

TURN & TALK: How does each task layer more complexity than the previous task?

Task Trajectory - Brainstorm!

- pairs/trios - Google Community: Task Trajectories• Subject• Grade Level

- Question/problem for each task

1. Best in Show2. Nominations3. Writing to make the

world different (community problem)

4. Social issues with meaning for writing

5. Research on topic directly impacting writer

Designing Argument Tasks

More & Shorter Tasks

• Assign more writing tasks of shorter length or smaller scope rather than fewer tasks of great length or large scope.

• Students get more opportunity to practice basic skills and can refine their approach from assignment to assignment based on feedback they receive.

• BENEFIT: frees you to think beyond the large paper and be more creative in the type of writing you assign

Big Picture

• Place the task outcomes in the larger frame of the learning progression for the class:

o How is this particular task a piece of the “big picture”

for the writing task

for the unit

for the your year-long class?

Purpose

• What do you want students to show you in this assignment?

• What is the purpose of the task/assignment? o to find evidence?o to develop a claim?o to put forth an original ideas?o to create a more nuanced argument?o to synthesize research to examine a new

hypothesis?

• Making the purpose(s) of the assignment explicit helps students complete the task and/or write the kind of paper you want.

Audience

• Who is the audience the writer is addressing?o classmates?o an imagined audience? (the EPA, Congress, literary

experts, the NY Times Editorial Board)o an authentic audience?

• Specificity of audience affectso evidence selectiono evidence anglingo counterargumento writing style

Learning Outcomes

Specify learning outcomes:

• What should students learn from doing the assignment?

• What should the experience of it DO for them?

• Consider your task and skills progression here. Does the assignment build on what they learned previously and demand more of them?

Clarity of Process

• Include expectations for process steps/activities:

o Are there multiple steps?

o How will you support the writing process?

o At what point will you check in to formatively assess?

o What intermediate steps and procedures would be useful for a longer piece?

Let’s Evaluate

• Read and evaluate the tasks provided based on the criteria.

• Discuss as a table - find consensus?• Share scores with the larger group.

Design a Task

• Works with your curriculum before March 13 based on where your students are on task trajectory

• Can collect and share exemplar• Consider where your students are in the

argument learning progressiono preceding skill & content developmento where will you go after this task to continue to build

skills

Design a Tasko Before March 13: Post to Google

Community Google Drive folder (Argument Writing

Tasks)

o On March 13: Bring student artifact - exemplar

Task Table Sharing

• Provide context• Share thinking• Discuss challenges & concerns with

implementation

Debrief: What concerns are coming up?

Reflection on the Day

• How has your thinking about teaching argument writing shifted today?

• Reflect on the question you generated at the beginning of the day.