Argumentation
RANT VS. ARGUMENT
We want our students to produce emotionally charged, logical arguments; however, too often our students fill their essays with emotion and leave out the logical arguments. To demonstrate this point, I "duped" my students. I had my principal come in to my classroom and tell the students that our class was going to be canceled because he did not see the merit in the work that we were doing. I also had a student teacher at the time and the prinipal told the students that her placement was in jeopardy. When he left the room, the students were angry. I told the students that their voices should be heard, so I recommended that they write a letter to the school board. They did not need to put their names on them as I "did not want them to be punished". I told them that I would take the blame for the course, but the board did need to hear from them. The students did share some of their letters aloud which fueled their fire. After the debate over the issue, I did tell them that it was a dupe and that they proved my point very well: an effective argument is not a rant. Below are copies of a rant and a final argument, produced by the same student. When you read the rant, obviously, the young man was emotionally charged and never considered his audience!
We want our students to produce emotionally charged, logical arguments; however, too often our students fill their essays with emotion and leave out the logical arguments. To demonstrate this point, I "duped" my students. I had my principal come in to my classroom and tell the students that our class was going to be canceled because he did not see the merit in the work that we were doing. I also had a student teacher at the time and the prinipal told the students that her placement was in jeopardy. When he left the room, the students were angry. I told the students that their voices should be heard, so I recommended that they write a letter to the school board. They did not need to put their names on them as I "did not want them to be punished". I told them that I would take the blame for the course, but the board did need to hear from them. The students did share some of their letters aloud which fueled their fire. After the debate over the issue, I did tell them that it was a dupe and that they proved my point very well: an effective argument is not a rant. Below are copies of a rant and a final argument, produced by the same student. When you read the rant, obviously, the young man was emotionally charged and never considered his audience!
| rant_student_sample.pdf |
| an_unexpected_killer_in_a_suicide_case-1.pdf |
| argumentative_paper_job_sheet.pdf |
| argumentative_essay_rubric.pdf |
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Students first wrote an argumentative essay about a topic of interest to teens, with topics ranging from cyber-bullying to eating issues, to bad teaching strategies. While doing this, we practiced using Monroe's Motivated Sequence of Argumentation. After converting these essays to a speech, they compacted their messages to a 30 second PSA. Before creating their PSA, we analyzed many different PSAs, looking at how the visual elements, audio elements, and messages all worked together to produce an intended and specific effect on the viewer. I have never had students show such pride in their own creations-- they were very excited to share their PSAs with our class, and later with the whole school in the announcements and on the cafeteria TVs. A few even wanted to enter their work in national contests!
Connect to Lauren's example
Connect to Alex's example
Connect to Colleen's example
Students first wrote an argumentative essay about a topic of interest to teens, with topics ranging from cyber-bullying to eating issues, to bad teaching strategies. While doing this, we practiced using Monroe's Motivated Sequence of Argumentation. After converting these essays to a speech, they compacted their messages to a 30 second PSA. Before creating their PSA, we analyzed many different PSAs, looking at how the visual elements, audio elements, and messages all worked together to produce an intended and specific effect on the viewer. I have never had students show such pride in their own creations-- they were very excited to share their PSAs with our class, and later with the whole school in the announcements and on the cafeteria TVs. A few even wanted to enter their work in national contests!
Connect to Lauren's example
Connect to Alex's example
Connect to Colleen's example
| psa_plan_and_jobsheet.pdf |
| psa_list.pdf |
| psa_analysis_guide.pdf |
