Works Cited
Faulkner, W. (1950). Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Stockholm, Sweden.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment. (Producer). (2006). Pride & prejudice [Motion picture on DVD]. Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
Scaffolding Analysis With Webb’s DOK
How Spencer Worked
Level One (Recall)
Sample Task: Annotate or make notes in order to identify and remember appropriate evidence for your analysis.
What Spencer Did: Read through the speech, marking phrases he thought he might quote, with particular attention to inferences.
Level Two (Skills)
Sample Task: Organize the details you have found into categories that will contribute to your understanding of the bigger picture. How do details x and y differ from z?
What Spencer Did: Analyzed each paragraph of the speech, homing in on the main point and how it contributed to overall meaning.
Level Three (Strategic Thinking)
Sample Task: Plan your argument by considering an overall point and how to support it. Which groups of evidence can support, and how should they be presented?
What Spencer Did: Developed a thesis statement and wrote the essay by integrating quotations, paraphrasing, and his own interpretations.
Level Four (Extended Thinking)
Sample Task: Compare this piece to others of similar or different genres and, using research and knowledge built over time, analyze it in the context of other speeches and its historical time.
What Spencer Might Have Done: Spencer might have gone on to compare Faulkner’s speech to another Nobel acceptance speech, such as Toni Morrison’s, researching context and applying knowledge built from other units of study or even from other classes in his comparison.
Rubric for Analytical Responses
Planning Page: Analyze
Analyze: break something down methodically into its parts to understand how it is made, what it is, how it works; look at something critically in order to grasp its essence
2 Argue provide reasons or evidence to support or oppose
claim • persuade • propose
The Main Idea
Students argue every day. But arguing with your parents about cleaning your room is not the same as constructing an intellectual argument. In the latter case, the word argument describes the process of stating and supporting a claim, as well as taking into account possible counterclaims. An academic argument is not one you win or lose, and it’s not simply an opinion; it’s a balanced and reasoned process that requires accountability.
Underlying Skills:
Engage ideas critically. Passive learning is not an option when students write even the simplest pieces, much less sophisticated arguments. Students must approach topics and texts with critical thinking in order to argue effectively.
Consider multiple sides of an issue or idea. An ability to consider counterarguments (easily represented by a Venn diagram) is crucial to structuring a solid argument.
Support an idea. Arguments demand evidence tied thoughtfully to statements of position (such as a thesis statement or hypothesis). You can illustrate a point when describing something (“The cups in the cafeteria are all red”), but arguing a point requires more nuanced detail (“The cups in the cafeteria should be blue”) and demands reasons and evidence.
Argue: provide reasons or evidence in order to support or oppose something; persuade another by reason or evidence; contend or maintain that something is true
Core Connections
Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence (R8)
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence (W1)
Construct and present oral and written arguments supported by empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support or refute an explanation or a model for a phenomenon or a solution to a problem (NGSS, MS-PS2–4)
Before: Preparing Students to Argue
As you introduce students to the concept of argument, it’s important to discuss the related but not synonymous term persuade. Keep in mind that an argument is always an attempt to persuade, but a piece of persuasive writing may not be an academic argument; it may simply be an opinion and an attempt to win.
We include both of these terms in this section, but students need to learn to recognize them in assignments and prompts and answer accordingly.
Before you teach students to analyze a text, issue, situation, or work, try these four things:
Model: Gather several articles from a local newspaper, including those from the front page and the editorial section. Ask students to discuss which present an argument and which merely report information. Then, for any articles that argue, analyze the components of that argument. To whom do they appeal and how?
Define Expectations: You may wish to develop a rubric and discuss it with students before they write or speak. Are you requiring a claim and counterclaim? How much and what kinds of evidence must be used?
Build Content Knowledge: As you will with other terms in this book, discuss the nature and conventions of evidence in your subject area. What type of details might a student use to support an argument in a history class, a science discussion, or a literary analysis?
Practice Mental Moves: As students prepare to construct academic arguments, have them research ideas and then discuss those ideas in small groups or pairs by answering the questions listed in the Mental Moves feature in the sidebar. Post these questions on the wall and keep circling back to them so that students internalize them and can transfer them to new learning situations.
Obstacles to the Moves
When teaching students to argue, watch out for these areas of difficulty:
Faulty Logic. Basing an argument on a mistaken assumption (such as