WHAT IS AN ARGUMENT? LESSON PLAN

Objective: SWBAT create a persuasive argument providing one piece of support.

Materials: Printout of notes for students to copy, video clip of persuasive commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ptlhoV1aLw

Adaptations/Modifications: Check for understanding frequently with all students due to ELL status. Kari (IEP) to pre-teach material, reinforce vocabulary, and extend time for homework up to two days. Erika (IEP) extended time, regular breaks, quiet setting for testing, and shortened assignments. Brianna has the option to test in an alternative environment.

Literacy: By critically thinking about how persuasion is found in his/her everyday life and creating lists, the student is actively engaged in literacy. The student will first analyze his/her own ideas in relation to specific vocabulary, share those ideas with a partner, and then share them as a class. Students will also be writing about what they have learned and apply it to their own life.

Set: Students will collect their book bin from the back table and pull out class notebooks. I will pose the following question to the class? “What is an argument?” Students will Think-Pair-Share

“We have all heard the term argument before. Please take the next few minutes to write down what you think an argument is.” “Please turn to the person next to you and discuss what you wrote.” “Would anyone like to share with the class what you believe an argument is?” (10 min)

Input: Student will copy the following definitions in their notes. “Please pull out your classroom notebooks and copy the following definitions.”

Argument:a discussion involving differing points of view; debate; a process of reasoning

Persuasion: a deep conviction or belief; to influence to believe by appealing to reason or understanding

“How does what we believed arguments are compare to this definition?” As a class we will discuss what students wrote and believe compared to the definition. (5 min)

“Who uses argumentation?” As a group we will think up all the jobs we can that use persuasion. I will write student suggestions on the white board.  (5 min).

Application:

“I really appreciate how well we are interacting as a group today. Next I want to watch a video about persuasion. Please turn to a new page in your notebook and be ready to take notes as we watch. I want you to think about what makes an argument effective, or what kinds of persuasion we see every day. Can anyone tell me what the word effective means?” Wait for students to try to come up with definition on their own. “Right! If I actually convince my little brother to wash the dishes for me, my argument was probably pretty convincing right? So as we watch this video I would like you to think about what makes the arguments presented good or bad.”

Watch video of persuasive example (15 min). I periodically stopped the video in order to check with students that they understood what was happening. I asked questions such as: "What is this commerical about? What are they trying to persuade us to do? Or buy? Why? How do you know? Was this an effective commercial? Why or why not?"

“Now that we have watched the video and you have taken notes, please turn to the person on your right and create a list of items that you saw.” (3 min)

“Great. Let’s create a class list of what we saw. If you do not have these items on your list, please add them as we go along.” I will write down student suggestions on the overhead. (2 min)

Now that we have created our own list, please return to the page of definitions and add the following.

Support: something that serves as the foundation

Evidence: that whichtends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief; proof. (2 min)

Evaluation: “I really appreciate how hard you have worked today. As our final activity I would like you to pull out a new piece of paper from your notebook and spend the next few minutes coming up with ideas for your own persuasive argument. This is something we will be working on all week. Think about everything that we have discussed today. What might you want to write about?  For example, you could write an argument convincing your mom to let you eat dessert before bed. You could write an argument convincing your friend to give you a dollar. I will be walking around to see what kinds of examples you come up with.” (5 min) This took longer than five minutes, which was fine because the closing did not actually take three minutes.

Closing: “It looks as though you all have come up with some great topics for your argument. For homework tonight I would like you to choose one of these topics and begin writing your argument. By tomorrow I would like to see what argument you have chosen, and have two pieces of evidence or support you think are important to making your argument effective. Have a great day!” (3 min)

Reflection: This lesson was overall a success, although I found myself changing pieces of it as I actually got into the application. I realized that I needed to provide more visuals to help explain some of the concepts, and therefore drew a house on the whiteboard to explain the concept of providing support for the argument. Additionally, I found myself stopping the video periodically to check in with the students and summarize what we were seeing. Students seemed hesitant to share as a group at first, but with some prodding they did begin to interact and share their experiences. One mistake that I did make was not using proper capitalization when creating a list (as Mrs. Brown pointed out I should not capitalize the first letter in a list if it is not a proper noun), and not giving clear enough instructions for the quick write. I will make an effort to be more clear, as well as allow a few extra minutes for them to do the quick write. I’m thankful I only have to do this first day once, and now it is over. It will only get better from here!

VOCABULARY LIST:

Argument:a discussion involving differing points of view; debate; a process of reasoning

Persuasion: a deep conviction or belief; to influence to believe by appealing to reason or understanding

Support: something that serves as the foundation

Evidence: that which tends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief; proof.