Argumentative Essay Immersion

Day 1: What Are Argumentative Essays? Argumentative essays in the content areas focus on presenting an argument with clear reasons and relevant evidence on content-specific topics or issues that are meaningful to writers. Students will examine and explore all mentor texts and essay exemplars and begin to brainstorm possible content area-specific topics they feel strongly about and may want to pursue for their argumentative essays.

Content Area & Discipline-Specific Topics Examples include: history, current events, and science and technology.

Argument 1. An oral disagreement; verbal opposition; altercation 2. A discussion involving differing points of view; debate 3. A process of reasoning; series of reasons 4. A statement, reason, or fact for or against a point

Argumentative Content Area Essays Present the writer’s viewpoint on a specific topic or subject of personal interest. The writer presents and supports claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence and considers and refutes multiple points of view.

Writer’s Notebook (Mentor Texts & Exemplars) Write the name of the Mentor Text Example: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains By looking at the cover and briefly reading the back and skimming a few pages, answer the following questions with your group for each mentor text & exemplar. What do you think the topic of the book is about? Explain. Example: Racism, Technology, Environment, etc. Have you ever watched a movie, tv show, or read a book/magazine on a similar topic? If yes, explain and support your answer with examples. If no, would you like to? Explain and support your answer.

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Have you ever thought you could be too addicted to your computers, phones, and tablets? Have you considered that you may be changing the way your brain works by being hooked up to different devices? Nicholas Carr has a strong argument about the internet. Listen to his passion about technology and how he addresses living in a technological and internet-driven world.

Immersion: Day 2- Author’s Purpose The primary purpose of an argumentative essay is to persuade or convince readers to adopt new beliefs or behaviors by presenting a strong argument with supporting ideas, evidence, and opposing views. Students will listen to excerpts from Kakapo Rescue and Faithful Elephants to determine the authors’ purposes and passions for their subjects.

Content Area Essays Content area argumentative essayists try to convince their readers to agree with their claims or beliefs. They want their readers to take the same position that they have on a particular issue. Work to get their readers to think like them by sharing their passion or point of view about a topic. Provide evidence to support their opinion, and connecting with their readers on a personal and emotional level.

Day 3: Develop the Argument Writers of argumentative content area essay’s support their claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Students will listen to two mentor texts and write notes about the facts and evidence provided by the authors.

When writing a content area argumentative essay, backing up your claim by presenting an argument with factual information is key. The more facts you can collect to bolster your argument, the more convincing your position becomes. Argumentative essay writers become researchers by looking for logical reasoning, relevant evidence, and well-chosen facts.

The Yellow Star Write down facts and evidence that supports the author’s writing and point of view on the topic.

Remember: The Journey to School Integration What are Toni’s beliefs about racism and/or school integration? How do you know this? How does she support her point of view with facts, clear reasons, and relevant evidence?

After the Read: Writers use both factual information and personal experience when presenting an argument to convince their readers to agree with their position. Including both types of evidence in your argumentative essay allows the reader to see your knowledge about the subject as well as your passion for and personal understanding of the topic.

Day 4: Author’s craft in Content Area Argumentative Essays Writers of argumentative essays establish a formal style of writing and use narrative techniques such as dialogue, pacing, description and reflection to engage and inform their readers and convince them to support their opinions. Students will learn how writers determine the style and technique that will best engage their readers, convey their opinions and support their claims.

During the read: Smoky Night As I read, I want you to write down any dialogue, sensory language, or descriptive details you hear that you think is used to educate and engage the reader. Example: “Smoke drifts, light as fog.”

Examples: “After a while it’s just a game.” “Are they stealing it?” Angry, smashed, windows, cars, streetlights Smoke drifts, light as fog. Flicker of flames (sensory details)

Day 5: Close Look at Structure Writers of argumentative content area essays have a specific structure-introduce their thesis or claim, introduce body paragraphs that support the claim using relevant evidence, acknowledge and distinguish alternative or opposing claims and finally, conclude with support of the argument presented. Students will use mentor essays to examine the structure and various components that make up a content area-driven argumentative essay.

Generating Ideas I Argumentative essayists write about current and newsworthy topics they are passionate about, state their opinion or claim, and develop an argument that will persuade their readers to take action for their cause. Students will brainstorm environmental issues they feel strongly about and on which they would want their readers to take action.