Read like a Writer: Argumentative Writing Edition Part 1

We all have that "friend" on social media who likes to repost a source with bias information or unreliable sources (especially during campaign season). Each time I see this, I cringe and think how important it is for our students to be knowledgeable about credible sources and bias in the media, which is even more difficult with all the media our students have access to daily. Therefore, teaching students the skill of identifying the components of argumentative writing will be an essential skill for high school and college-level writing and thinking, and being a responsible global citizen (who doesn't spread false information from unreliable sources).  

"Students love discussing and debating their point of view, and it has the capacity to pull in reluctant writers because most students don't have trouble writing about their position on controversial issues." Ryan McCarty

From kindergarten to 5th grade, our students practice with opinion writing. They start in kindergarten with statements like "My favorite food is…" and build upon those skills to 5th grade when they need to "Write their opinion on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information." (CCSS 5th grade standards) Throughout these years, students practice writing their opinions on topics, so they wind up writing things like, "I like how the main character solved his problem in the story because I would solve it the same way." This is an adequate answer because it's their opinion; however, in 6th grade, when the standards change it up on them and take away their "I think…" "I feel…" "I like…" it can be somewhat challenging for them. 

With the roll-out of Learning Targets on my site and my focus on Read Like a Writer, I decided to reflect on how I've introduced argumentative writing in the past. I was particularly interested in why it seemed to be so challenging to my former students. As I backward planned and looked at all the skills needed to be successful at argumentative writing, I began to see why students struggled. Take this substandard, for example: "W.6.1.A Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly." First, students need to know what a claim is and how it is different than an opinion. Then they need to understand the purpose of reasons and where they "find" these reasons. Next, they need to know how to use "evidence clearly." Wow, this is a lot to tackle for the 12-year-old brain. I looked at how I would implement this unit in teachable 30 minutes (or so) chunks and wrote out each of my learning targets. This process helped to focus my instruction. 

So we started slowly and purposely.

1. We created common definitions of the vocabulary they'd be hearing me use repeatedly: claim, reasons, clear evidence (here we also defined types of evidence- see #3 below), counterclaim (not a 6th-grade standard), commentary, thesis statement. Learning Target: I can define the vocabulary words needed for argumentative writing. 
2. The next day, we merged reading and writing instruction. I asked my students to identify the author's claim using a mentor text. Then, we built on that using probing questions like how do you know that is the author's claim? That moved us forward to identifying the author's reasons (more on developing reasons in my next blog post). Learning Target: I can identify the author's clear and reasons when reading a mentor text. 
3. The following day we looked at evidence, evidence, and more evidence- Most of my students can identify evidence because they are well versed in pulling evidence from a text when writing a constructive response. To practice with identifying the author's evidence, we used the same mentor text we had been analyzing. I had my students write each piece of evidence on a different post-it. Then with their table groups, they looked for similarities and differences. Next, as a group, they compared the evidence they all found to our notes on evidence and added each post-it to our evidence tree map (chart above). From here, we had a class discussion on how each piece of the author's evidence was relevant and factual. We had a compelling discussion on how we know the evidence is factual (look for reliable sources and experts in that field). Learning Target: I can identify and evaluate an author's use of evidence. 
4. We repeated this process once more with a new mentor text before I assessed their understanding using a completely new text. I was so happy to see that between my two classes, the average was 85% proficient. Learning Target: I can identify and evaluate the author's claim, reasons, and evidence when using a mentor text. 

Next month, I'll explain how we used our work with a mentor text to help my students create their own claims and research evidence on world issues that they are concerned about and want to see changed. Some big things are coming out of these 12-year-old brains, and I'm so proud of them for beginning responsible global citizens.

 Follow along to see how our reading and writing transforms, 

• Jenni Merry