Some High Leverage Instructional Decisions for

Raising the Level of Argument Across the School

  • Establishing a culture of argument
  • Advocating for ourselves
  • Standing up for others
  • Representing beliefs and values
  • Making argumentation more visible
  • Engaging kids in our arguments
  • Developing trajectories: “Growing up With Argument”
  • Considering a writing articulation team
  • Developingand making argument units visible across grades
  • Filling in gaps – go back to go forward
  • Moving from social to academic arguments
  • Implementing on demand writing and checklists
  • Looking across them for patterns – to plan curriculum and conferences
  • Compare evidence-based and text-based argument writing
  • Norming expectations
  • Tracking evidence of “stickiness” of instruction
  • Calibrating teacher demonstration texts to on-demands
  • Teaching kids to self-assess and set goals
  • Teaching logical structure essentials
  • Doing logical structure boot camp with social topics
  • Sorting reasons and evidence
  • Teaching micro-stories, lists, and survey data as evidence
  • Tucking in counterclaim within ‘boxes and bullets’ structure

Developing Close Reading Through Literature-Based Arguments

  • Practicing an Argument Protocol for Reading to Defend Positions
  • Suspending judgment, illuminating complexity
  • Collecting, sorting, ranking text evidence to support a claim
  • Analyzing and angling evidence
  • Recognizing counterclaims and alternate positions
  • Defending positions by revisiting the text and angling evidence
  • Developing more nuanced readings
  • Honing skills at speaking and writing with logic, passion, and attentiveness to audience
  • Repeated practice with argument read alouds/anchor text work
  • Sharpening close reading by reading with lenses
  • Learning to defend positions and angle text evidence
  • Pondering moments of complexity in texts
  • Analyzing the relationship between craft and theme
  • Raising the level of partner interaction and engagement
  • Moving argument into book clubs
  • Developing juicy, debatable ideas
  • Recognizing complexity in stories
  • Rereading with critical lenses
  • Moving beyond “I disagree” or “I want to add on” to more sophisticated and authentic literary conversation skills
  • It feels like there is more to say about that…
  • There may be another way to look at it…
  • In the beginning I thought that, but now…
  • If you look at this other part of the text though…
  • In this instance that feels true, but here…
  • I’m wondering how that fits with…
  • I don’t know if I think the same thing/feel the same way…
  • I think we should go back to…
  • This reminds me of something that happens in my/our lives too
  • When you think about why this part is here…
  • Discerning argument in other texts such as songs, speeches, ads, etc.
  • Analyzing rhetorical moves/craft moves
  • Studying texts as examples of multiple genres
  • Mentoring not just for craft but for social action stance
  • Actively seeking texts of social and cultural relevance

Critical Reading of Nonfiction Texts for Text-Based Argument

  • Analyzing Nonfiction Texts – Instructional Methods
  • Assemble a text set
  • Controlled
  • Strategic
  • Accessible
  • Strategic release of text
  • Shared reading
  • Inquiry
  • Investigate a text with some probing questions, possibly followed by or alternating with prompts
  • Share responses and demand evidence
  • Add in technical/literary language
  • Compare and contrast across texts and within texts
  • Repeated practice on a related fresh text
  • Investigating Logical Fallacies / Persuasive Devices
  • Scare tactics
  • Either-or choices
  • Slippery slope
  • Overly sentimental appeals
  • Bandwagon appeals
  • Appeals to false authority
  • Ad hominem
  • Hasty generalization
  • Faulty causality
  • Non sequitur
  • Red herring

Mary Ehrenworth

Argumentation Institute

Teachers College, Columbia University 2013