Teaching Argument Writing:Creating THINKING Kids (part 1)

I took a class last year to learn some strategies for teaching writing. I got a lot out of this class and decided to put it to the test with my 6th grade Grammar class. The goal was to get kids to create writing that used FACTS and DATA to support an argument, rather than simply rely on opinion and snap judgments that are common to social media. I wanted them to start learning how to use their brains rather than their emotions to win a debate.

 Step 1: Choose a topic they'd be interested in and take a poll about it. I chose to focus on popular movies released throughout the past year.

 I gathered a list of family friendly movies released in 2013 and projected the posters onto the whiteboard. To see it click here!

 Then I asked each student to choose their top 3 movies of the year from the list and write one on each sticky note. We created this bar graph, then analyzed the results.

I used this data to teach Claims and Warrants. These were terms that I learned in my class. A claim is a statement of belief based on the data you are analyzing. A warrant is a statement explaining how or why the data supports the claim. It was a bit difficult directing the students' attention away from their passion about a certain movie, to focusing on the facts collected in the poll.

 We did some math. This was a great way to get number kids excited in a grammar class! We posted some percentages, then I assigned them the task to write three claims with three warrants to support their claims.

Here are some examples that we came up with together:

Claim: Catching Fire was the number one movie in 6th grade this year.
Data:60% of the class chose Catching Fire as one of their top three movies.
Warrant: Because more than half of the votes were for Catching Fire, it is clear that Catching Fire is the 6th Grade Class's favorite movie.

Claim: Despicable Me 2 was the second most popular movie in 6th grade.
Data: Despicable Me 2 received 15% of the votes, whereas, Catching Fire received 20% of the votes. Warrant:  Because the next highest vote-getter received 14% of the votes, Despicable Me 2 is the second most popular movie of the year.

Claim: There are a variety of movie interests in 6th Grade.
Data: Out of 24 total movie choices, 15 received at least one vote from the 6th grade class.
Warrant: More than half of of the movies watched this year received a "favorite" vote, so sixth graders have a variety of movie interests.