1. ARGUMENTATIVE RESEARCH PAPER: ESSAY NOTES Spring 2016 6 th Grade ELA

2. Connecting Sentences: Behind the Mountains, Heritage Leader Text, Heritage Interview Introduce all authors and interviewees by first and last name. Introduce all text titles. Use complete sentences. Examples: Edwidge Danticate wrote the book Behind the Mountains to highlight her Haitian heritage through the fictional characters of Celiane and her family. Nick Berray wrote the article “Artist Brian Jungen” about the ways in which Jungen celebrates his First Nations heritage through his artwork. An interview with Maria Smith revealed that embracing heritage can help families carry on traditions across generations.

3. Counterclaim Only! Use a transition sentence between introducing the authors, interviewee, and texts and stating the thesis. Edwidge Danticate wrote the book Behind the Mountains to highlight her Haitian heritage through the fictional characters of Celiane and her family. Nick Berray wrote the article “Artist Brian Jungen” about the ways in which Jungen celebrates his First Nations heritage through his artwork. An interview with Maria Smith revealed that embracing heritage can help families carry on traditions across generations. These heritage leaders emphasize the importance of embracing heritage, but some people argue that embracing diverse heritages in one country actually causes harm to a nation’s values and culture rather than creating a positive outcome. Although some argue that embracing diverse heritages causes Americans to feel like strangers in their own country, embracing heritage is important for creating a positive influence on one’s life and identity because a strong connection to one’s heritage can help a person form strong family bonds, establish a career that positively impacts others, and achieve her/his goals.

4. Thesis Statement Example Embracing heritage is important for creating a positive influence on one’s life and identity because a strong connection to one’s heritage can help a person form strong family bonds, establish a career that positively impacts others, and achieve her/his goals. Point 1 – Behind the Mountains Point 2 – Heritage leader text Point 3 – Heritage interview

5. Body Paragraph 1 Claim (Argument) Thesis: Embracing heritage is important for creating a positive influence on one’s life and identity because a strong connection to one’s heritage can help a person form strong family bonds, establish a career that positively impacts others, and achieve her/his goals. Body Paragraph 1 Claim/Argument Embracing heritage is necessary in order for a person to create strong family bonds, as demonstrated in Danticat’s book Behind the Mountains.

6. Argumentative Essay: Body Paragraph Claims All claims must be arguments! Sentence starter option: Embracing heritage is important because_________. **Use a thesaurus to look up synonyms for the word “important” so that your essay is not repetitive.

7. How to Cite an Interview Do not use quotation marks. Since you took notes, your interview cannot be considered the interviewee’s exact words. Summarize the main idea of the interviewee’s point(s) in your own words. Cite using her/his last name. Example Citation – Interviewee: Maria Smith According to Smith, her family embraces their heritage by cooking her grandmother’s recipes together each year at Christmas (Smith, 2016).

8. Academic Writing Reminders No first or second person (I, me, we, our, myself, you, your, our, etc.) No contractions (can’t, won’t, etc.) Always refer to the author and interviewee by last name! (Chavez, Jungen, Escalante, etc.) *Exception: Introduce them by first and last name one time in the essay in the connecting sentences.

9. Essay Outline Resources Heritage poems and “What is Heritage?” text Summative essay prompt Behind the Mountains text Behind the Mountains Think Aloud and reading question notes (on Google Classroom) Heritage leader text Say, Mean, Matter graphic organizer for heritage text

10. Essay Outline Review Checklist _____We have not used first or second person (I, we, you, your, our, my, etc.) or contractions. _____In the connecting sentences, we have introduced each author and interviewee by first and last name. We have included the full titles of our heritage leader text and Behind the Mountains. We have used complete sentences. _____The claims in body paragraphs 1, 2, 3 match points 1, 2, 3 in the thesis. _____Each body paragraph claim is a clear argument. _____We have used the strongest piece(s) of evidence we can find to support each claim.