5 Strategies for Teaching Argumentative Writing
A couple of weeks ago, I finished all of my homeroom duties, and we were just sitting and waiting for our morning news show to start.
In order to keep their free time to a minimum, (when left to their own devices, they can get a little squirrelly) I decided to show them a funny picture of our cat. We opened the door to the garage and found her like this —>
One of my sassy students in the back raised her hand and said, “Oh my gosh, Mrs. Kepley, you’re a cat person?”
I said, “Of course, just like all the other great lovers of literature.”
“Ewww!” She responded, “Dogs are so much better.”
With a slight chuckle, I asked her why. She paused for a while and then confidently countered with, “because they just are.”
“Well,” I countered, “cats are much more low maintenance. They don't need to be taken for walks, they clean themselves, and they're perfectly content just to lounge around all day.”
I proceeded to tell her that she would have to develop a more convincing argument if she wanted to turn me into a dog person.
For some reason, even though many of our students like to argue, they struggle with developing sound arguments.
That’s where we come in, right?
We have to teach our students how to form an argument so their main point is better than, “because they just are!”
A structured argumentative writing unit is just the thing to make that happen!
Here are the five steps you can follow to create a structured, engaging, and meaningful argumentative writing unit.
1. Split the unit into bite-size mini-lessons
Writing a six-paragraph argumentative paper is a daunting task. Especially for students who lack writing skills and confidence. Mini-lessons are a great way to make the process more manageable!
I break the unit into seven mini-lessons (each is linked to the short YouTube instructional video):
2. Have an engaging group activity with each mini-lesson to help reinforce the skills.
Personally, I think this step is essential for getting the students invested in what we’re doing. They think it’s fun, and I think it helps reinforce what we are learning or have learned in the mini-lesson!
The one that is always a big hit is the activity to go with How to Write Thesis Statements - Take a Stand.
With this activity, you place Agree and Disagree signs around your room. I put the signs on different tables around the room. Then, I provide students with prompts like Schools should block gaming sites on school-issued technology devices. Students will move to the agree or disagree table, depending on their opinion.
When students get to their table, they work together to come up with three reasons why they agree or disagree with the statement. They will write the reasons on a whiteboard or chart paper.
Allow time for groups to share their ideas. Encourage students to be respectful of differing ideas and opinions.
Students will move back to the perimeter. Set the expectation that when you read the next statement, students will need to sit with at least two different people. They can not keep the same group the whole time.
It's a great introduction to thesis statements!
3. For each mini-lesson, analyze mentor texts, focusing on the target skill for that lesson.
Before students can start writing, they need to analyze quality examples. The goal throughout this unit is to avoid overwhelm, so I only have a paragraph or two students work on.
For example, in the lesson that deals with relevant evidence, I give students one paragraph. We read it, highlight the evidence used, determine its relevance, and explain how the author connected the evidence to the topic sentence.
I love that students interact and analyze quality examples. It provides them with exemplars for their own papers!
4. Let’s Write! Provide students with a graphic organizer to go with each lesson so they can plan as they go.
After we go through each step together, it’s time for students to apply what they learned. I give them a graphic organizer to go with the lesson and provide them time to complete it. At this point of the lesson, you are a facilitator and expert that students can use when they get stuck.
From this point, all students have to do is use the quality information on the graphic organizer to write their papers. I find it beneficial to write as we go, so students have a complete draft by the end of the seventh lesson!
Resources to Help You
Argumentative Writing Unit on TpT
7 mini-lessons with guided notes, instructional videos, mentor texts, and graphic organizers.
ELA Unlimited
For about the same price on the TpT, you can download this COMPLETE unit on ELA Unlimited along with other amazing and creative ELA resources
FREE Let’s Write Argumentative Activity
This resource has 50 argumentative writing topics. As students read through the list, they highlight the ones that are interesting to them. They review the highlighted ones and put a checkmark next to three that draw their interest. From there, they do a quick research on the three in order to narrow it down to a topic they feel excited to write about.
Fill out the form for immediate access to the Google Doc!