The greatest lesson I learned from the argumentative writing text is the importance of providing justification and evidence for the claims we make. For quite a while, there was this idea that everyone was entitled to their opinion. The problem with this is that everyone does indeed feel they are entitled, and that's not the best trait of character for someone to have. Being able to use reason and wisdom to explain what it is that you feel is more important than simply blurting out your thoughts because you feel you can. I liked that the book focused on this and gave anecdotal references as ways to teach the concept rather than simply being a "do this" type of text. I especially liked the activities that promoted making a claim and gathering appropriate evidence that supported that claim, like the one that involved the students trying to figure out what really happened in the picture of a police case. I'm going to try activities like this to help my students become more comfortable with making claims and adequately justifying them.
Marcus- I think that is absolutely correct! Students need to develop their arguments skills rather than their skills of persuasion. It truly helps them think critically. Glad that you found the practical approach valuable.
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Brittany
12/5/2014 03:29:43 pm
Marcus, I thought this was a great post. I also found that a lot of my students had trouble finding evidence from the text to support their claim and/ or connecting the evidence back to their claim. However, that activity does sound like a great way of introducing the topic.
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Marcus Porche
An English/Language Arts Education Major seeking to further his knowledge of the Education field and someday become a high school English teacher.