Essential Question: What role does argument play in your life?
Dear Parents and Guardians, What is the most effective way to prove your point or win an argument? Module 3 strives to teach students about the power of understanding arguments, positions, claims, reasons and evidence. Students will read a variety of texts on the topic of animals in captivity to understand how authors present arguments within informational texts. Students will understand an author’s perspective on topics through the claims he/she presents in a written text. Students will further analyze text and determine how an author supports their claim using reasons and evidence. In order to develop this kind of thinking, we need your help! Students need to become text analysis detectives while reading, and they will need encouragement throughout this transformation. Here are a few ideas of activities that would support our home-school partnership:
Write the assessment dates and project due dates on a shared calendar. Then ask your student about how you can help as the date approaches.
Read or reread the excerpts together. Discuss the text structure, the features, the ideas and the author’s perspective.
Read the newspaper or current events together. This Module focuses on two important types of articles: informational or feature articles and editorials. By reading about the world or high interest articles together, you can reinforce all that we are learning in class.
Practice! Encourage your student to use iReady, Achieve3000 and MyOn as these resources use a variety of texts. (Students may stay in for recess to do so if technology is not available elsewhere.)
Ask why as often as possible. Students need to add a layer of thinking to their understanding of the world by processing the ideas, “What main idea is the author trying to convince readers to agree with?” Therefore, while viewing any persuasive texts, try to understand and evaluate the argument.
Assessment Dates: Short quizzes will be used after we feel the students have mastered the content. As of now, here is the quiz schedule. Please note: These dates may change based on our pacing, but we will update Weebly as soon as possible.
Unit 1- On or around January 18
Unit 2- On or around January 26
Department Final Exam- February 3rd A study guide will be provided by January 31. Please help your student memorize the important information. Then practice applying it as you talk about text in the world.
Formal Writing Task: Due on January 31 Students will be required to take a position on whether it is beneficial for animals to be kept in captivity or if they should stay in the wild. They can choose between three different sub-topics of pets, zoos, and aquariums.Students must demonstrate that they can take a position on the topic, introduce and develop a claim based on their topic, and use evidence from the text to support their claim. To complete the formal writing task, students must include:
An introduction that gives background information on the topic and takes a position.
A claim that is supported by 2 pieces of evidence from at least two articles we have read.
Proper organization into an introduction and body paragraph.
Use of proper evidence to support a claim.
Look for these incremental pieces on or around the due dates:
Argument Graphic Organizer: Due Jan 13 Introduction Outline + Rough Draft: Due Jan 17 Body Outline: Due Jan 19 Body Rough Draft: Due Jan 24* Final Copy with Feedback Implemented: Due Jan 30
*Students will need your help writing the final copy of this task. All feedback will be distributed 1/27/17. They will then need to write the final copies at home.
Culminating Activity: Debates in Action: In class on February 6 & 7: Students, as a class, will choose a topic they feel strongly about from a predetermined list. They will then be divided into groups based on their positions, with each member of the group fulfilling a different role. The roles will be: speaker, presentation designer, researcher, and moderator. The speaker is the person who presents the group’s argument to the class, and designer will make a visual for the speaker’s presentation, the researcher will select evidence from various texts to support the speaker’s claims, and the moderator will ask the speaker questions questions to answer so they have points to address.
Students will be graded based upon their presentations, a research graphic organizer, their visual presentations, and participation in the debate project. Students who are in the audience will have an active notes sheet to complete and must be able to understand the arguments of their peers.
Independent Reading: In addition to our class work, students need to be reading each night for at least 20 minutes. Throughout this unit, we will provide the novels and small assignments that students need to complete to show evidence that they are reading each night.
607 On Targets On Target # 8: Slake’s Limbo Part 1 due 1/20/17
Part 2 due 1/25/17
Part 3 due 1/31/2017 On Target # 9: Freak the Mighty Part 1 due 2/3/17 Part 2 due 2/10/17 Part 3 due 2/17/17 On Target # 10: Because of Winn Dixie Part 1 due 2/24/17 Part 2 due 2/28/17 Part 3 due 3/3/17 On Target # 11: Charlotte’s Web Part 1 due 3/10/17 Part 2 due 3/17/17 Part 3 due 3/24/17 * On target resources are all in the independent reading tab**
608 On Targets
On Target # 8: The Whipping Boy Part 1 due 1/20/17 Part 2 due 1/25/17 Part 3 due 1/31/2017 On Target # 9: Free Choice Part 1 due 2/3/17 Part 2 due 2/10/17 Part 3 due 2/17/17 On Target # 10: Charlotte’s Web Part 1 due 2/24/17 Part 2 due 2/28/17 Part 3 due 3/3/17 On Target # 11: Because of Winn Dixie Part 1 due 3/10/17 Part 2 due 3/17/17 Part 3 due 3/24/17 Thank You!