Search

Chapter 14 – CCSS – Anchor Standard 8: Opinions, Reasons, and Evidence

smoore31175
Nov 18, 2015
5 min read

Ch. 14 – CCSS – Anchor Standard 8: Opinions, Reasons, and Evidence

Anchor Standard 8: Argumentation
The ability to write or speak in order to inform, persuade, or motivate an audience to support one side of an issue
Persuasion vs. Argument
Persuasion
A writer or speaker attempts to change the readers mind, often trying to convince the reader to feel a certain way
Bandwagon, slogan, repetition, expert opinion, and emotional appeal
Argumentation
“The facts are on my side”
Reasons and evidence or speaker attempts to convince the reader to one side of the issue regardless of how the writer feels about the issue
3 Skills to Teach in Reading by the End of 5th Grade
Support points in a text with reasons
Make connections between sentences and paragraphs
Identify information and facts that supports reasons
Making connections to how the text is structured
Literacy Skills and Strategies That Support Standard 8
Informational picture books, magazine articles, and digital texts that contain strong main ideas, facts, and supporting details
To learn how to form the foundations of an argument, students need to read informational texts where the author has stated their opinion and then used reasons and evidence to support it
How to Teach this Standard
Do a read aloud and ask the students, “What does the character want and how does the character get (or not get) what they want?”
Literature books can still be used as an engaging way to introduce the concept of supporting and providing reasons for opinion for elementary students
Supporting Points in Text with Reason
Guide students to think about how the authors attempt to convince readers using the supporting evidence and opinions. Then, transition the students into how authors use reasons in an informational text.
Connections between Sentences and Paragraphs
Students in the third grade will learn to understand the connections between sentences in paragraphs
A study done by Garner et al suggests that the students view paragraphs as graphics they often do not realize the paragraph is connected by a set of sentences in logical order or sequence.
Activity
Give the students sentences and have them arrange them into an order. Students will learn to connect the sentences through the topic sentence and supporting details
By 5th Grade…
Students should have an opinion, be able to back it up, and write about it.
Questions to ask while reading:
What does the author think?
Why does the author think this?
How do the facts support the author’s opinion?
Writing standard 1 requires that students are able to write about an opinion and support their writing.
Use the editorial contest to teach this skill so the students have something to look forward to!
Technology Resources
Read, Write, Think!
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/persuasion-30034.html
Writing a letter: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/letter-generator-30005.html
Activities
Kindergarten
Let’s Get Moving!
Students will get up and moving by acting out different animal movements. The students will then discuss their favorite animal movements and write about them in a sentence. Some fun animal movements could include a wiggling snake, a trumpeting elephant, a bucking horse, and a hungry alligator.
“My favorite animal was the snake because I got to wiggle on the floor.”
Differentiation: ELLs may use their native language to "teach" the class the word for an animal. For instance, "caballo" is horse in Spanish. The motions from the other students will also help ELLs make the connections between the words and their meanings. Then, they may write in their native language, if applicable, a sentence containing both the English and L1 word for their favorite animal. Gifted students may come up with their own animal during the group activity for their writing portion. Students with difficulties may orally explain their reasoning.
1st Grade
Who do you believe?
The class will have a read aloud of The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. After a discussion, they will write their opinion about whose side of the story they believe and use evidence from the text to explain their reasoning.
Differentiation: Students with difficulties and ELLs may draw pictures instead of write evidence, though they should write at least one sentence of their opinion, and orally explain their opinion and reasoning.
2nd Grade
What a Pig!
Students will read/be read to the two versions of The Three Little Pigs. They will chose one character from the stories to write an opinion piece about using organizers. These graphic organizers will ask students to choose events in the story and ask them probing questions like, “How does the character react during the event?” and “What do the characters actions tell you about the character?”
Differentiation: ELLs will be provided with translations of both stories. They will also be paired with another student when writing the graphic organizers. Gifted students may write a short story/rewrite the story from another character's point of view. It can be a character not mentioned in the story.
3rd Grade
Reading is Fun!
Students chose four books to read on their own or to be read to and then rank them from best to worst in their own opinion. Students will use the reasoning based on the genre, number of pages, difficulty, and overall enjoyment. They will write short summary of each book and write their opinion of the book including why they ranked in the place they did.
Differentiation: ELLs will use a visual organizer to rank the books. They may draw the books' covers or titles on the organizers with a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" rating sheet. This sheet will be leveled depending on the ELLs usage of the English language. (e.g. If the ELL is Pre-Production, then it will be more visual. If the ELL is closer to Advanced, it will use words.) Gifted students can record their reasonings on a tape to use as a progress monitoring.
4th Grade
Playground Perimeter
Incorporates math and writing!!
Students look at different locations for a playground, and then rank them from best to worst. They rank from best to worst by looking at the space needed for the playground and the location. Once they have done this, they will write out their opinions on their decisions of where the playground should go and use citations from research.
Differentiation: ELLs, depending on their level, may orally explain their reasoning. It may also benefit the ELLs if they have instructions or labels in their native language to aid the visuals. Students with difficulties will have similar accommodations and any others according to their IEPs or 504 plans.
What-Why-How?
Students will fill out a What-Why-How organizer to state the opinion of an author and pull evidence from the text to support their reasoning. Once they have completed the organizer, they will write about the author’s opinion using the information from their graphic organizer.
What – What does the author think?
Why – Why does the author think this way?
How – How do facts in the text support the author’s thinking?
Differentiation: ELLs will work in pairs with another student to talk about their ideas. If the ELL is Pre-Production, they will work with an ESOL para or translator to express their opinions and they will be allowed to write in their native language. If the ELL is closer to Advanced, they will work with another student on the graphic organizer to develop their ideas.