#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Informational & Argument Writing

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog host #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST. #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.

Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.

We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group, even if you aren't on Twitter. 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, resource links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

On Tuesday, September 26, our #2ndaryELA chat will be about informational and argument writing.

The Format:
8:00 – What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: How do you teach the difference between informational and argument writing? #2ndaryELA

8:10 Q2: What are your students’ favorite assignments for either or both? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: What are students’ struggles with these types of writing? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: How do you address these struggles? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share tips for getting students to avoid plagiarism and use proper citation in these types of writing. #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “Latest.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

You can also check out a quick video tutorial in this blog post.

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening and in our 2ndaryELA Facebook group!

Get caught up on past chats here:

Writing In The ELA Classroom: Argument Writing

This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about argument writing in the ELA classroom. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed favorite assignments, students struggles and solutions, and helpful resources. The highlights are below.

Favorite assignments:
*Argumentative research papers are argumentative. Students draw three topics from a set of idea cards and prewrite on all three before choosing one.
*After reading "The Lady or The Tiger?" by Frank Stockton, students write an essay debating the fairness of US justice system

*Using current events like racial profiling or school to prison pipeline
*Analyzing the argument of infographics
*Civil rights topic. Begin by separating students by ethnicity in the classroom and get their juices fired over "unfairness." (Note: do this activity with caution and sensitivity)

Struggles:
*Choosing the best evidence to support an argument
*Crafting the rebuttal paragraph
*Forming personal opinions/thoughts and expressing them in writing
*Coming up with own argument when analyzing sources
*Coming up with different types of evidence
*Revision
*Formation of ideas into sentences and grouping ideas

Solutions:
*Looking at sample rebuttal paragraphs, identifying the components, then use them as a model for students to write their own
*Practice finding strong evidence by ranking evidence for practice argument
*Select topics that are relevant and interesting
*Do a debate first. Talk about it, then write about it.

Helpful Resources:
*Everything's an Argument
*They Say I Say
*Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks

*Dave Stuart Jr.

*New York Times "Room for Debate"

Hope you'll join us next Tuesday night, December 8 at 8pm EST to discuss helping students think beyond themselves during the holiday season. The questions for our next chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed this chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Argument Writing

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST (we are trying out the half hour chat). #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we will post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.

Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.

On Tuesday, November 24, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on argument writing in the ELA classroom.

The Format:
8:00 Intros: What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: How do you incorporate argument writing in your classroom? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: What are your students’ favorite assignments? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: What are your students’ struggles with argument writing? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: How do you address these struggles? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share a resource for argument writing that you find invaluable (book, article, blog post, type of technology, etc.). #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening!
Get caught up on past chats here:

Common Core Writing: Wrap Up & Additional Resources

This is number ten and the final post in a series about my online course, Common Core: Implementing the Writing Standards. If you are looking to get caught up, check out:
Post #1: an overview of the writing standards
Post #2: the gradual release process and writing
Post #3: explicit teaching of writing skills
Post #4: argument writing
Post #5: informational writing
Post #6: narrative writing
Post #7: research and writing
Post #8: writing across the content areas
Post #9: assessing student writing

In this final post, I wanted to wrap up what I learned from the course and share a few additional resources to help you align writing in your classroom with the Common Core. As this was a series of ten posts, I will leave you with a top ten list of what I learned.

1: The Common Core standards are standard across grade levels; they just increase in complexity.
2: The gradual release process should be used with writing just as with any other lesson in the classroom to ensure students have ample time to practice before working independently.
3: Explicitly teach students even the most basic of writing skills because any gaps in knowledge will only continue to be a hinderance.
4: Argument is the most important type of writing and must be grounded in evidence.
5: Find great mentors texts on interesting topics to hook students when doing informational writing.
6: Narrative writing can be blended with nonfiction and research by writing historical fiction or science fiction pieces.
7: Practicing research skills is not limited to research papers and can be done with shorter assignments.
8: Schools should take a unified approach for teaching writing across content areas.
9: Assessment should be used as a tool to plan future teaching and students should be active participants in the assessment process.
10: Likely you are already doing parts of 1-9, but as you approach each type of writing, look back closely at the related standard to ensure that your lesson is truly Common Core aligned.

As you shift your teaching to better align with the Common Core, there are several valuable resources related to writing on the Common Core State Standards Initiative website.

The English Language Arts Appendix A reviews types of writing and related language skills. Pages 23 - 24 define the three purposes in writing: argument, informational, and narrative. Pages 24 - 25 explain why argument writing is so important as well as the difference between persuasive and argument writing. Pages 28 - 29 introduces teaching and learning the conventions of Standard English (grammar and usage). Page 30 has a graphic showing an example of the progression of a skill across grades. Page 31 showing the progression of all language skills from grades 3 - 12.

The English Language Arts Appendix B focuses on text exemplars and performance tasks, which will show you what kind of readings students should be analyzing in their writing. Page 2 discusses selection of text exemplars. Pages 4 -13 are a table of contents of text exemplars listed by grade band and by type of text: stories, drama, poetry, and informational texts for ELA, history/social studies, and math/science, and technical subjects. Excerpts of the listed exemplars are on the pages that follow.

The English Language Arts Appendix C offers samples of student writing so you can see what student writing should look like at your grade level. Samples are broken down by grade and the three purposes in writing: argument, informational, and narrative. Pages 3 - 4 are a table of contents of samples broken down by grade and the three purposes in writing: argument, informational, and narrative. Pages 6 - 107 are the samples, each with an annotation that breaks down how each piece meets the grade level standards, citing examples from the piece to support each point.

I hope you enjoyed this series on implementing the Common Core writing standards, and as always I would love to hear how you are implementing these ideas in your classroom.

Common Core Writing: Argument Writing

This is my fourth in a series of posts about my online course, Common Core: Implementing the Writing Standards. In my first post, I gave an overview of the writing standards. In my second post, I showed how the gradual release process can be used with writing. In my third and most recent post, I explain why it is so important that basic writing skills be explicitly taught, no matter the age or grade level.

Argument writing has a special place in the Common Core standards; it is listed as the first standard, before informational and narrative writing. As Common Core’s architect, David Coleman told a group of educators, the new writing standards are meant to reverse a pedagogical pendulum that has swung too far, favoring self-­expression and emotion over clear communication. “As you grow up in this world, you realize people really don’t give a shit about what you feel or what you think.” You can read more about why argument writing is so important in the Common Core's Appendix A (page 24 and 25).

So what is the difference between persuasive writing and argument writing? Evidence. While a persuasive essay might list the (very personal) reasons a teen should have a later curfew, an argument essay would have evidence from credible sources. Persuasive writing often relies on emotion, convincing the reader that the author is credible or that an issue should matter to the reader. Argument writing is all logic. To write an argument essay, students must be able to examine both sides of the issue, so that they have evidence to support their own viewpoint, but are also able to acknowledge and then refute opposing arguments.

Writing argument pieces with my students is a challenge for several reasons. The first and most important, is access to quality information at my students' reading levels. The Internet is a wealth of information, but as a ninth grader reading at a third or fourth grade reading level that information may be difficult to digest. The second challenge is having reliable access to technology. My school is pretty lucky to have a number of laptop carts in addition to a computer lab, but this year the number of students I have in a class exceeds the number of (working) computers in a cart or the lab.

To overcome these challenges and to support my struggling writers, I provided students with text sets on which to base their argument essays. My students were heavily impacted by the death of Trayvonn Martin last year (and Michael Brown this year), and I wanted them to have a better idea of how the justice system worked in our country so that they could make their own decision about whether it was fair or not. This led to the creation of a text set and argument essay focused on the fairness of the US justice system.

Before jumping into our readings on the US justice system, the students read "The Lady or the Tiger?", a short story by Frank Stockton. This got them thinking about how justice systems work and what makes them fair or unfair.

To help them better understand how the king's justice system works, I created a simulation. Each student was assigned a crime and guilt or innocence (which they keep secret at first). The students approached the doors of the "arena," selected one, and were punished or rewarded on the spot, just like in the story. A tiger or a lady appeared on the screen (with accompanying growling or a wedding march).

Once all the students received their fate, they then revealed their guilt or innocence. Students immediately noticed how many guilty people got married and how many innocent people were killed by the tiger. This was a perfect lead in to comparing the king's justice system to our own in the US. Doing a quick Venn Diagram will help you to assess how much your students already know of don't know about the US justice system, and to identify any myths or misconceptions they may have as well.

The first step of teaching argument writing is to introduce students to what argument writing should look like. Using a sample essay, students annotate the text, looking for an introductory statement, a thesis, topic sentences, facts and evidences, transitions, citations, an opposing argument, and a conclusion. Directions as well as explanations of each are alongside the sample essay.

This text set contains three articles about the American criminal justice system. The first is purely informational and covers how the court systems work. The second and third articles present different opinions; one article argues that the jury system is the best justice system out there (though not perfect) and the other article argues that our courts are terribly flawed. In reading this series of articles, students built their background knowledge of how the courts are designed to work and were exposed to both viewpoints.

Accompanying each article are instructions for annotation during reading as well as a graphic organizer for collecting key details and stating main idea. I find that my students can never get enough practice with identifying the main idea and saying it in their own words.

After reading all three articles, students brainstormed reasons why the US justice system is both fair and unfair. Even if students had already chosen a viewpoint, I made them generate ideas for both sides of the issue. This is extremely helpful when they must acknowledge and then refute an opposing viewpoint. At the end of their brainstorm, students select and state their position.

Once they chose a viewpoint to support, students organized their ideas in an outline. In their third body paragraph, students acknowledged an opposing viewpoint. Many students make the mistake of trying to support that opposing viewpooint rather than refute it, so watch out for that.

With a completed outline students moved on to drafting and then revising. Students annotated their own essay just as they did the sample essay at the start of the packet to ensure they have included all of the necessary components of an argument essay. Students then engaged in peer review and finally wrote a final draft.

Later in the year, my students wrote another argument essay, focused on teen's ability to make decisions, which built on the writing skills introduced in during the argument essay on the justice system. While I again provided a text set, students further developed their citation skills and sought additional sources outside of what I provided.

For other great suggestions on how to modify writing assignments for struggling writers, check out Teaching Argument Writing to ELLs. While the article is written with English Language Learners in mind, the strategies would work with any group of struggling writers.

Feel free to share your ideas and strategies for argument writing in the comments below. Next up, informational writing.