1. COMMON CORE Argument Paragraph Writing Unit Grade 7

2. FRAMING ACTIVITY

3. SLIP OR TRIP?

4. OBSERVATIONS?

5. SLIP OR TRIP: EVIDENCE, RULE, CONCLUSION  Your group is an investigative team that must determine what may have happened. You can either agree or disagree with Queenie’s version. Do you think Queenie is telling the truth?

6. EVIDENCE  To develop a claim, find all the evidence you can that indicates whether or not Queenie is telling the truth.

7. RULE CONCLUSION  Next, explain how each piece of evidence supports your claim that Queenie is or is not telling the truth.  Each explanation will be a generally accepted rule – “As a rule…”  Draw conclusions in the last column

8. DEBRIEF FRAMING ACTIVITY  What was challenging about determining evidence, rules, and conclusions for the scenario?  What challenges might your students have with this activity?  How does this exercise get at the idea that writers must examine evidence to develop a claim and not vice versa?

9. CONCEPT FRAMING

10. KEY ARGUMENT CONCEPTS/TERMS  Claim – an opinion that is a matter of personal experience and values that must be backed up with evidence. Others can disagree with this claim. Also know as an opinion.  Evidence- details, facts, and reasons that directly relate to and support a debatable claim.  Argument  In life- conflicts engaged in using language.  In writing - opinions that can be backed up with evidence.

11. KEY ARGUMENT CONCEPTS/TERMS ClaimEvidenceCommentaryArgument

12. MIDDLE SCHOOL ARGUMENT WRITING UNIT LEARNING PROGRESSION

13. MS ARGUMENT LEARNING PROGRESSION  What do you notice are key differences across grade levels?  How must student writers develop in their conceptual understanding and skills across the units?  Where do you think your students are currently on this chart?  Which of these concepts/skills will your students need the most support to practice and master?

14. TODAY….  Focusing on the foundational argument units today (white columns in the Learning Progression chart).  Choices as you go back to your schools.

15. CONCEPT #1 Creating & Planning an Argument

16. UNDERSTANDING THE PROMPT  Teaching Point #4a: Writers closely examine a prompt to ensure they understand what they are being asked to write.  ARGUMENT PROMPT: After studying the dishwasher advertisement and performing limited research, craft an argument about the ad’s effectiveness. Will it sell dishwashers? Why or why not? To whom? Make a clear debatable claim and support it with evidence both from the elements of the advertisement as well as your research. Be sure to craft commentary that explains how your evidence supports your claim.

17. DISSECTING THE WRITING PROMPT

18. DEBRIEF UNDERSTANDING PROMPT  What did dissecting the prompt reveal about the writing prompts and how they help (or confuse) the writer?  What challenges do your students have with prompts?  How can you support them using this or other tools?

19. 2 TYPES OF EVIDENCE Teaching Point #3: Writers use two types of evidence in argument pieces: factual and anecdotal. Factual evidence is statistics, confirmed facts and expert research. Anecdotal evidence is the writer’s personal experience, the experience of family and friends, and the experience of reliable acquaintances and interviewees.

20. DEBRIEF GATHERING EVIDENCE  What will be difficult for your students about gathering evidence and balancing the two types in their arguments?

21. PRE-WRITING TO DISCOVER A CLAIM Teaching Point #4b. To develop a debatable claim, a writer must first study the evidence on the topic and ask “what is this evidence telling me?” They free-write to answer this question, research to further examine evidence, and then begin to generate ideas that may become the claim.

23. LIMITED RESEARCH  What kind of research would help to explore your initial claim?  What do you need to know?  What kind of evidence will you study?  Facts?  Statistics?  Expert research?  What will it concern?

24. DEBRIEF LIMITED RESEARCH  How did this research confirm or alter your initial claim?  What challenges will your students face when it comes to research skills?  How will you help your students delay firming up their claim until they have explored outside sources?

25. CONCEPT #2 Drafting the Argument

26. DRAFTING CLAIM & EVIDENCE Teaching Point #5/6: Writers use only the best evidence that will most effectively support their claim and persuade the reader to agree with their point of view. For evidence to be effective, it must come from a variety of credible sources and be correctly cited.

27. FINALIZE DEBATABLE CLAIM(S)  Select and label your best and most credible evidence  Rewrite your claim: Argument + Summary of Evidence = Claim

28. DEBRIEF DRAFTING CLAIM & EVIDENCE  How did you select the evidence you chose to include?  What do we mean by “best” evidence?  How can we help students understand this concept?

29. CITING SOURCES What are your outside sources?

30. CITING SOURCES  Avoiding plagiarism:  Why cite?  What to cite?  In-text citation format  Works cited format

31. DEBRIEF CITING SOURCES  How will/do you introduce and reinforce avoiding plagiarism in your classroom throughout the year?

32. DRAFTING COMMENTARY Teaching Point #7: Writers provide commentary to explain the evidence and make clear to the reader how it proves and supports the claim.  Analysis of evidence  Difficult conceptual leap for students, especially at 6 th and 7 th grades  Modeling, small group generation, practice

33. DRAFTING COMMENTARY Commentary Connects evidence to claim Explains evidence Provides significance of evidence The importance of BECAUSE Strong Commentary Verbs Questions for Writing Commentary

34. DRAFTING COMMENTARY  What were the challenges of writing commentary to you?  What will be the challenges of analysis and commentary writing for your students?

35. WAYS OF ORGANIZING AN ARGUMENT PARAGRAPH Teaching Point (optional in 7 th, session 8 in 8 th ) There are many ways to structure an argument paragraph. Writers must decide how to arrange the commentary and evidence to best reflect the logic of their argument and most effectively persuade the reader to agree with the debatable claim.

36. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES - BLOCK

37. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES - ALTERNATING

38. DEBRIEF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES  How would you make decisions about which structure to choose and why?  What is the biggest challenge in helping students recognize and make deliberate decisions about an organizational structure?

39. ASSESSMENT

40. ASSESSMENT - FORMATIVE  How do we use the unit’s formative rubrics to guide instruction (plan future mini- lessons, glean conferring teaching points, etc.)?  How to grade the reader/writer’s notebook?  What other tools do we find helpful as formative assessments?

41. ASSESSMENT - SUMMATIVE  Review Summative Assessment Rubric  How do we judge growth?  How do we assign grades based on process and product?

42. GROUP/GRADE-LEVEL PLANNING How does the module address key concepts? What clarification do you need/want on concepts and activities? Are there other artifacts that you will bring to this module?