The Art of Teaching Argument
artofteachingargument.wikispaces.com/
Delia DeCourcy Susan Wilson-Golab
Oakland Schools
ELA - Social Studies - Science
Today’s Workshop Goals
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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
Persuasion
Argument is about making a
case in support of a claim in
everyday affairs – in
science, policy making, in
courtrooms, and so forth.
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.
- George Hillocks, Jr., Teaching
Argument Writing
-- Kinneavy and Warriner 1993
logical appeals
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 disciplinespecific 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 WRITE
1. 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)
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Share & Analyze
HAVE A CONVERSATION: FEEDBACK
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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
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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
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In your teaching
In your students’
thinking
o discussion
o writing
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Teach across the year
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Everything is an argument.
Consistently use rhetorical language to build
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 middle
discourse
Socratic seminar
structured small
groups - test ideas
talk protocol
debates
think alouds
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component tasks
building reasoning muscles
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BREAK
Join the Art of Teaching Argument
Community
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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 MUSCLES
Are 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. 37
Formative Assessment in Practice
What’s a Learning Progression?
What it is…
What it isn’t…
Sequence set of subskills and
bodies of enabling knowledge
Flawless
Un-changing
Composed of step-by-step
building blocks needed to
attain target curricular aim
One size fits all
Transformative Assessment, W. James Popham
Building Blocks of Argument
Enabling Knowledge
claim
evidence
counterargument
audience
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Subskill
reasoning
analysis
angling evidence
for audience
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Example
Today’s Task
Progression
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video analysis
visual argument
argument talk
protocol
coding activity
What has our
learning skill
progression
been today?
TURN & TALK
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
GRADES 3-5 LUCY CALKINS:
BOXES & BULLETS
Thesis Statement
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Parallel Topic Sentence #1
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Parallel Topic Sentence #2
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Parallel Topic Sentence #3
Concluding Statement
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 #3
Topic 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 #1
Topic Sentence (Specific Point)
Evidence, explanation, transitional conclusion
Body Paragraph #2
Topic Sentence (Specific Point)
Evidence, explanation, transitional conclusion
Body Paragraph #3
Topic 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 5paragraph 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
COMPLEXITY
consider alternatives, evaluate evidence, and think critically
Teacher provided
question/problem
Teacher provided
topic
WHO DECIDES?
control of
question/problem
control of data/evidence
Student generated
response
Student generated
question/problem +
response
Developing Task Trajectories
Nominations
Writing to make the
world different(fixable
problem in
community)
Best in Show
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
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1. Best in Show
2. Nominations
3. Writing to make the
world different
(community
problem)
4. Social issues with
meaning for writing
5. Research on topic
directly impacting
Designing Argument Tasks
More & Shorter Tasks
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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
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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
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for the unit
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for the your year-long class?
Purpose
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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
Audience
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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 affects
o evidence selection
o evidence angling
o counterargument
o writing style
Learning Outcomes
Specify learning outcomes:
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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
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Include expectations for process steps/activities:
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Are there multiple steps?
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How will you support the writing process?
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At what point will you check in to formatively
assess?
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What intermediate steps and procedures would be
useful for a longer piece?
Let’s Evaluate
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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
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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 progression
preceding skill & content development
o where will you go after this task to continue to build
skills
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Design a Task
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Before March 13: Post to Google
Community
 Google Drive folder (Argument Writing
Tasks)
o On March 13: Bring student artifact exemplar
Task Table Sharing
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Provide context
Share thinking
Discuss challenges & concerns with
implementation
Debrief: What concerns
are coming up?
Reflection on the Day
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How has your thinking about teaching
argument writing shifted today?
Reflect on the question you generated at the
beginning of the day.