The Art of Teaching Argument artofteachingargument.wikispaces/

1. The Art of Teaching Argumentartofteachingargument.wikispaces.com/ Delia DeCourcy Susan Wilson-Golab Oakland Schools ELA - Social Studies - Science

2. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Arguments Surround Us

8. Arguments Surround Us artofteachingargument.wikispaces.com/

9. Unpack the Argument INFORMAL WRITE • Select one visual argument from the page. • Identify a possible argument that is implied by this image/text. (claim) • Name evidence to support your claim. (details from the image, anecdotal, etc.) • Explain your reasoning.

10. Share & Analyze • Share your flash draft with a partner. • Partner say back. What was the: • claim • evidence • reasoning (connection between claim & evidence)

11. 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?

12. Arguments in the Real World

13. 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

14. 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

15. Toulmin Model

16. Argument as a Habit of Mind • In your teaching • In your students’ • thinking • discussion • writing • Teach across the year • Everything is an argument. • Consistently use rhetorical language to build students’ academic vocabulary. • Name the moves of argument.

17. 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 component tasks building reasoning muscles

18. BREAK Join 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.

19. BUILDING REASONING MUSCLES Are rats useful friends to humans or dangerous foes? ARGUMENT TALK PROTOCOL

20. LUNCH!

22. Coding Activity

23. Shifting Our Language Curriculum and Assessment

24. List of Events Learning Progression

25. 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

26. 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 What it is… What’s a Learning Progression? Transformative Assessment, W. James Popham

27. Building Blocks of Argument Enabling Knowledge • claim • evidence • counterargument • audience Subskill • reasoning • analysis • angling evidence for audience

28. Example What has our learning skill progressionbeen today? TURN & TALK Today’s Task Progression • video analysis • visual argument • argument talk protocol • coding activity

29. Today’s Learning Progression • video analysis:notice pattern of and shifts in argument • visual argument:make an argument, identify argument traits, and give feedback • talk protocol:gather evidence, make a claim, argue with an opponent, angle evidence for a particular audience • coding activity:identify argument traits, norm across content areas

30. GRADES 3-5 LUCY CALKINS: BOXES & BULLETS

31. THESIS PARAGRAPH Thesis Statement (Stance, Position, Claim) May require sentence order or sentence #. BODY PARAGRAPH #1 Topic Sentence (Least important pointor reason) Include evidence, explanation, and concluding sentence BODY PARAGRAPH #2 Topic Sentence (2nd most importantpoint 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. Arguments: encouraging complexity Teacher provided question/problem Student generated response Teacher provided topic Student generated question/problem + response COMPLEXITY consider alternatives, evaluate evidence, and think critically WHO DECIDES? control of question/problem control of data/evidence

37. Developing Task Trajectories Writing to make the world different(fixable problem in community) Nominations Best in Show Elevating the quality of argument: create a trajectory across a year and grade levels that develops cognitive complexity. -Mary Ehrenworth

38. Developing Task Trajectories Research items having a direct impact on writer Social issues with meaning for writer TURN & TALK: How does each task layer more complexity than the previous task?

39. Task Trajectory - Brainstorm! - pairs/trios - Google Community: Task Trajectories • Subject • Grade Level - Question/problem for each task • Best in Show • Nominations • Writing to make the world different (community problem) • Social issues with meaning for writing • Research on topic directly impacting writer

40. Designing Argument Tasks

41. 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

42. Big Picture • Place the task outcomes in the larger frame of the learning progression for the class: • How is this particular task a piece of the “big picture” • for the writing task • for the unit • for the your year-long class?

43. Purpose • What do you want students to show you in this assignment? • What is the purpose of the task/assignment? • to find evidence? • to develop a claim? • to put forth an original ideas? • to create a more nuanced argument? • 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.

44. Audience • Who is the audience the writer is addressing? • classmates? • an imagined audience? (the EPA, Congress, literary experts, the NY Times Editorial Board) • an authentic audience? • Specificity of audience affects • evidence selection • evidence angling • counterargument • writing style

45. 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?

46. Clarity of Process • Include expectations for process steps/activities: • Are there multiple steps? • How will you support the writing process? • At what point will you check in to formatively assess? • What intermediate stepsand procedures would be useful for a longer piece?

47. 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.

48. 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 progression • preceding skill & content development • where will you go after this task to continue to build skills

49. Design a Task • Before March 13: Post to Google Community • Google Drive folder (Argument Writing Tasks) • On March 13: Bring student artifact - exemplar

50. Task Table Sharing • Provide context • Share thinking • Discuss challenges & concerns with implementation Debrief: What concerns are coming up?