English Workshop Notes

Having students write an argumentative essay about something they are passionate about.

We do the Clarke Essay; it allows us to talk about essay structure.

"What makes Clarke great; what could make it even better."

Scrambled paragraphs

claim

difference between argumentative and information

begin widely -- speeches, reasoning, helmets,

soundness of reasoning -- analysis or

-- emotional

--

extension into logical

-- identifying a thesis -- not always at the end of a first paragraph

-- thesis: anchor of the arguments

-- claims and evidence -- from an insurance point of view

-- use a simple article as a cheat sheet for terms

-- delineate, distinguish,

-- for final assessment -- read both argumentative and informational texts, evaluate the articles,

-- keep it authentic, their activity,

-- generate a paragraph where they talk about claims, evidence, and thesis

-- under two pages

-- kids move from identifying (learning topic #1) to evaluating (learning topic #2)

-- argument from a painting, a poem,