ARGUMENTATION

Argumentation is referenced numerous times in the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Essentially, it means that students are able to create and write out a well-reasoned explanation. At the 4th grade level, we are really looking for a claim plus some sort of evidence.

Most students are excellent at providing claims. Our sentence starters are in fact claims, but we add the word because. We have found that by adding the word because, students naturally want to provide a reason, or evidence, afterwards.

Students need to learn to give their evidence from various sources. Often students will provide evidence such as, “Because I know,” or “It just is that way.” Have students think about their past experiences, not just at school but at home or other places as well. Remind them that they usually don’t like it when someone tells them, “Because I said so,” or “Because that’s just how it is,” so they should try to come up with evidence that might explain their answer.

Encourage your students to try and use the formula claim/statement+because+evidence. Argumentation can be applied to all school topics.

Argumentation = claims + evidence

• Full and well reasoned explanations

Example sources of evidence:

• Previous knowledge (experience or learned)

• Books and other content media

• Teacher

We also create opportunities for practicing argumentation when CyberPad asks for explanations. The image below is from an Investigation in the Circuit module where after students make a simple prediction, they are asked to explain why they believe it is true. Here we have used sentence starters to help students start with the argumentation formula: Make a claim, then add the word because, followed by evidence.

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