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Session: 16 Taking Opportunities to Stand and Be Counted

Teaching Point: Becoming "social activists" requires writers to get involved in things they care about, do their research then write in ways that affect the way the audience see that same topic.

Materials:
-story of a time something bothered you (teacher) so you researched and made an argument, fighting until you caused a circumstance to change
-student's notebooks and pencils
-anchor chart "How to Write an Argument"

Key Quotes: “So my question to you today is this: What is it that you want someone in your world-someone in your life-to think differently about or do something about? What would you like to change? What little or big thing at home?”

Other Important Information: If you have writers who struggle to come up with a topic, have overlapping reasons, or need to think about their audience ---see pg. 160-161

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Session 12: Evaluating Evidence

Teaching Point:
"Some reasons and evidence are stronger and lead to valid arguments, and some are weaker and can create invalid arguments."

Materials:
-Deck of cards
-Youtube video on house of cards collapsing
-index cards
-demonstration set of the arguments
-"Common Flaws in Reasoning" chart
-"How to Write an Argument" chart
-Student samples

Key Quotes: "Keep asking the question, "How do I know?" and be sure that you can give precise, exact answers."

Other Important Information:
Students will evaluate examples A-F

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Balancing Evidence with Analysis
Teaching Points:A good argument is like a layer cake- a balance of researched evidence layered with rich thinking.
Materials:
*Images of Layer Cake
Chart on page 57
*Excerpt of student essay
*Questions to Help Writers
Analyze Evidence Chart
*Ways to Push Our
Thinking
*How to Write an
Argument Chart
*Example of block quote to
whittle down
* Misc. writing supplies

Key Quotes:
"I see evidence and the quotes you're picking from the texts and the world around you." " But readers also need to know what you make of those quotes."
Other Important
Information:
Offers two methods for developing thinking about evidence.

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Session: 10 Rehearsing the Whole, Refining a Part

Teaching Point: Sometimes writers imagine themselves writing and realize their is trouble ahead. It can help tackle that bit of trouble before picking up the pen and writing.

Materials:
-Two Thesis statements
-"Body Paragraphs often go like this" chart
-Example of a student who revises as he writes
-A sample conclusion from a student essay
-"Techniques for Powerful Final Statements" chart
-"How to Write an Argument" chart
-"Powerful Introductions Often Include" individual copies for students

Key Quotes: "Will you hold one blank sheet of paper, and in your mind, talking just to yourself, will you touch or stare at the top of the page and imagine the work you will be doing there?"

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Teaching Point:  Writers think carefully about their audience and then tailor their arguments to particularly appeal to that audience, conducting an inquiry into how this might be done.

Materials:
-Buzzer or bell
-"Ways to Sway an Audience to Take Your Stance" Chart
-"How to Write an Argument" Chart
-Sample student writing (must use vocab that's correct for the audience)

Key Quotes: "Always be aware that mini lessons should be completed within ten minutes. Your goal is to give students time to do the work they need to do and give yourself time for assessment-based, responsive teaching."

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Taking Arguments Up a Notch

Teaching Point:
"Today, I want to teach you that writers think about how to best capture the information they need, and then they dive into research, taking notes in the way that best suits them and best sets them up to think a lot and to write a lot."

Materials:
* Letter from principal inviting students to lead panels about choc milk
*"Systems Argument Writers Might Use to Collect Research and Develop Thinking" chart
*:How to Write an Argument: Chart
*Post-its, index cards, and booklets for note-taking
*Examples of students' note-taking systems from the CD-ROM (see Conferring)
*Sample set of notes enlarged on chart paper as well as Post-its (see Share)

Key Quotes:
"Today is a chance for your studens to develop agency over how they will use their accumulated learning to accomplish their tasks"

Other Important Information:

Writers will share other writers' note-taking systems and choose one that works best for them.

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Session 2:  Flash-Drafting Arguments

Teaching Point:  "Today, I want to teach you that when a writer writes essays - personal, literary, argument, or otherwise- the writer often organizes her opinion and reasons into a boxes-and-bullets structure.  And writers of any genre, once they have a rough idea of structure, often try to get the whole piece of writing down on the page quickly, roughly, and then go back to revise.

Materials:
- "How to Write an Argument " chart
- Copies of the texts student read during session 1
- T-chart display both sides
- Note Cards from Session 1
- "A Position Statement Often Goes Like This" chart

Key Quotes:
"a short burst of time to draft, quickly, one beginning-to-end version of what they are going to write"

Other Important Information:
There is a lot of use of structure so be prepared with all of the anchor charts you need.
Have students come to the meeting area and sit near students that have the same position on chocolate milk.

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Session: Bringing a Critical Perspective to Writing

Teaching Point: Students will learn that writers bring all that they know about reading critically into writing critically. Teacher will tell about a time when they had read a book and found out that they saw much more after re-reading.  Teach that in order for students to write well, they have to know it well.

Materials:
-Chocolate Milk: More Harmful that Healthful" on chart paper (teaching and active engagement)
-Construction paper or Post-it notes (teaching)
-Example of one point, stated two different ways.  Online resources. (Mid-workshop)
-Copies of students letters to the principal and notes from bend 1.

Key Quotes:
"It's not that I didn't read carefully the first time. I did----though it's true I was doing so much work just making sense of what was going on that I missed some details. But what's really different is that I have no read a lot more, and that means that when I go back to the first thing I read, I see much more in it. I can make connections that were invisible to me earlier. "

"A big part of writing about information is seeing connections and contradictions between sources of information."

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Session: 1: Investigating to Understand an Argument

Teaching Point: When you compose an argument, you will need to collect evidence not to support what you first think about the issue, but instead, evidence that allows you to think through the various sides of the argument

Materials:
-Letter from the principal asking teachers to weigh in
-Tchart for notes that has the heading "Chocolate Milk in School" with "for" and "against" columns
-Read Aloud texts articles
-Large post-its and note cards
-notebooks and pens
-student example
-"How to Write an Argument" chart

Key Quotes:
-Our responsibility in the world is to try to understand more than ourselves. When we offer an opinion we cant be self-centered or shallow about our answers. We can't only say what we think. Our position needs to be considered from different angles.

Other Important Information:
-Students are working to read, investigate, and record information about for and against
-Students will decide at the end whether they are for or against
-First you consider the evidence, weighing all the data and sources, then you build a theory and test it out

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Session 3: Using Evidence to Build Arguments

Teaching Point:  Argument writers don't just say what they think personally.  They research, analyze evidence which supports their claim, and puts the evidence in their own words.

Materials for Mini-Lesson: Student essay (Figure 3-1, p. 30) copies for each student; "How to Write an Argument" anchor chart (p. 33)

Materials for Conferring/Small Group Work:  "Questions Writers Ask Themselves When Connecting Reasons and Evidence" chart

Materials for Share:
Sample student essay (Fig. 3-5); Opinion Writing Checklist; Goal Setting Anchor Chart (Fig. 3-4, p. 37)

Key Quotes:  "To teach students to ground their own opinions in research, you need to teach them the importance of developing systems of recording, collecting, and analyzing."

Other Important Info:  During conferring/small group work, use Fig.3-2 and Fig. 3-3 (p. 35) to provide additional support for students who have trouble paraphrasing research information.

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Session:

Teaching Point:

Materials:

Key Quotes:

Other Important Information:

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Session: 11 Rebuttals, Responses, and Counterclaims

Teaching Point: When persuasive writers anticipate the counterclaim of the argument. We needed to be ready and use phrases like "Skeptics may think...Some will argue"...and as persuasive writers need to be able to rebut the main counterargument.

Materials: (Mid-Workshop teaching) have a anchor chart ready to use with the class and list Counterclaims as you see them in the student's writings.

Key Quotes:"Whenever you write arguments, you'll need to remember that strong arguments usually mention counterclaims and then rebut them"

Other Important Information: Have examples on hand to help students create their own.