STELLAR

1. Welcome to STELLAR, February 13th, 7 p.m.
Please have a seat and try out tonight’s bell-ringer.
Select a Would You Rather and answer it using the sentence frame below. Type your
answer in the chat box.
Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future and
meet your great-great grandchildren?
Would you rather have more time or more money?
Would you rather be able to talk with the animals or speak all foreign languages?
Would you rather win the lottery or live twice as long?
Would you rather be without internet for a week, or without your phone?
Would you rather lose your vision or your hearing?
Would you rather work more hours per day, but fewer days or work fewer hours per
day, but more days?
Sentence Frame from They Say, I say:
I would rather_____________than_________________because____________.

2. Add one of the following frames to your I Would Rather Than:
On the other hand____________________.
Although____________________________.
Followed by:
The upshot of all this is that_________________.
So_________________________________.
They Say, I Say by Graff and Birkenstein
http://www.signupgenius.com/groups/would-you-rather.cfm

3. You just created a Simple Paragraph of
Argument. (10 minute activity)
Claim—Evidence—Counterclaim—Conclusion
Daily Practice

4. What makes good
evidence? What about framing?
How do I
integrate
argument into my
current
curriculum?
I am not sure
how I feel
about
journaling.
Keep the water cooler conversation moving forward.

5. Overarching Understanding:
What is the understanding you want students
to leave with? With argumentation, the desired
understanding is that there is no single, agreed-
upon understanding.
The learner must be helped to realize that learning is
an unending quest for understanding, not the search
for “final facts” handed down by the “authorities.”
Grant Wiggins, Understanding by Design

6. There is no right answer to what the text is
about. But that doesn’t mean that all answers
are equal. There may be no right answers, but
some answers are better than others, and
figuring out what that means and how it can
be so is one of our major challenges.
Jay McTighe from Understanding by Design

7. Big Picture Goals for Argument:
Students as thoughtful participants in democracy
Students as future college students

8. Goals for Argument in the Present
Developing skills in argument writing is not just about
student’s future. By practicing arguments, students
become more thoughtful members of their schools,
better learners, and more capable test-takers.
Joy Alpers, NWP

10. A few good stories…

11. What’s going on in this picture?
EvidenceWhat do you see that makes you say that?
Claim
What more can you find? 1. Sub Claims
2. Counter Claims

12. The Magic Number

13. Getting started…
Argument is everywhere. In VTS/
argument writing students experiment with
making oral claims and developing recursive
claims, followed by attaching evidence to
claims.

14. 1. Daily Schedule
2. Bulletin Board for Arguments
3. Picture Books/Images with Strong Narratives
4. Texts (Hillock, p.14 )
5. Advertisement
6. Videos
7. Scientific Phenomena
8. Poetry
9. STELLAR web site
10. VTS Image Library

15. Resources
http://learningblogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/200-prompts-for-
argumentative-writing/?php=true& type=blogs& r=0
http://theweek.com/
https://www.newsela.com/
http://tweentribune.com/
http://kellygallagher.org/resources/articles.html
http://www.teachingthecore.com/resources/article-of-the-week-aow/