Lesson Plan Template

WCSD Writing Program

Teacher’s name: Sara Jones

Teacher’s school: Edward C. Reed High School

Writing Type/Genre: Argument

Lesson Title: “How to Win an Argument”

Standards-based Outcomes: Argument:

Introduce precise claims, and create and organization that establishes clear relationships

among claims, reasons, and evidence.

Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and

conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument

presented.

Student Outcomes: Students will be able to name the three important parts of an argument and

use them to organize an argument with another person.

Audience and Purpose for Lesson: Any class beginning the discussion of organizing written or

verbal argument.

Pre-requisite Skills/Background Knowledge: I teach the “Fact vs. Opinion” trio of mini-

lessons before I teach this unit. It’s useful because students can easily understand that

EVIDENCE is factual and COMMENTARY is opinion.

Resources/Supplies Needed: Each student needs one of the “Argument Organizers” included

with this lesson. You should also make one copy of the “Argument Topics” and cut it apart into

its component slips. If you have more than 32 students in your class, you may need to add a topic

or two. You will also need the electronic files of the clip from Billy Madison and Monty Python.

Billy Madison Clip link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9EhvDAMjWc

Monty Python Clip link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTmBjk-M0c

Mentor Text(s): Any script in the literature book or outside text

Brief Overview of Lesson: Students will use 3 important parts of an essay (CLAIM,

EVIDENCE, and COMMENTARY) to structure an argument.

Steps in Implementation:

Day 1: 1. Ask students to get out a piece of paper, their script sample, and a pen. As they are

getting out what they need, tell them that today they are going to work on

2 things: 1. Win an argument, and 2. Learn organization, which, incidentally, is one of

the BIG THREE that will help them pass the proficiency exam the first time (note: the

BIG THREE are organization, evidence, and voice).

2. Tell students that before they start, they need to come up with some format rules that

really are not part of the argument process, but they need them to complete the

assignment. Ask students to look at the script sample you provide and notice the layout.

Why is it laid out in that fashion? Give students one minute to discuss this in their groups.

What are the “rules” of scripts? Then ask for volunteers to explain what they came up

with. Call on several people to gain a good explanation of the layout of a script, and chart

the most pertinent “rules” about script layout.

3. Next, tell students that you are going to get to the heart of the argument process. Ask

students to close their eyes and imagine the last argument they have had. Some students –

especially girls - will claim that they have never had an argument. This is a social

construct that you need tear up (preferably into little pieces). Explain to students that

arguments are differences of opinion in which people have something they are trying to

prove, they offer evidence to try to prove it, and they explain why that evidence is

important in trying to prove their point. No yelling, cursing, or name calling is involved.

Once yelling, cursing, and name calling are involved, it’s a fight, and we’re not interested

in those because life is a struggle to look more intelligent, if not to be more intelligent.

Fights are not intelligent. (This is very directive and authoritarian, but I’m OK with that.

This is the first big unit of the year, and I need to establish the acceptable norms in my

classroom. One of them, “Thou shalt not indulge in fighting, nor talk about it, nor

encourage others in it in any way,” is important to establish before the kids who do fight

make their first enemies of the year and end up suspended for their behavior).

4. Show the clip from Monty Python (“The Argument Bureau”). Ask students what the

problem is with the arguments Michael Palin (in glasses) has with John Cleese (black

hair, sitting in the room with two white chairs). Students will say that the fight is boring,

but you must ask them WHY. You may need to ask it several times, of several different

people. Eventually, they will say that the fight(s) is boring because the two characters are

involved in NEGATION (“I did,” “No, you didn’t”) behavior. Students will most likely

not use that terminology, so it helps to name the thing they notice.

5. Ask students who won these arguments, and how one person might have won. They will

say that no one wins, because the point is not to win, but to argue. Acknowledge that

observation, and push students to figure out what might have made it possible for one

person to win.

6. Now that they have all come to an understanding about what it means to argue with

someone, ask students once again to imagine the last argument they had. Give them one

minute of silence to imagine that argument. Then ask them to write a script of their last

argument. Give them five minutes to complete this writing. I require at least three-

quarters of a page of writing.

7. At the end of the writing time, ask students to write in the blank space at the top of their

page- the thing they were trying to prove in their argument. (“The thing you’re trying to

prove” is the definition of CLAIM that we use in my classroom.) Once students have

written this, have them write the word “claim” next to their argument.

8. Ask students what the issue they are trying to prove is called. Someone will look at you

like you’ve just lost your mind, roll his or her eyes, and say, “The claim?” I always act

surprised by this and ask how he or she knew, which prompts more eye-rolling. Write the

definition of “claim” on the whiteboard or ELMO display.

9. Ask students to go through the script they have written and identify which statements are

facts and which ones are opinions. They should use the same process they used in the fact

vs. opinion mini-lesson, marking the sentences F, O, or F/O.

10. I tell students that if they want to win an argument, or turn a fight into an argument, they

need to keep careful control of their tempers and rely on the facts. Ask students to total

up the number of facts they used and compare it to the number of opinions they used. Ask

students to raise their hands if they have more than 50% facts in their arguments. Point

out that these people have a better chance of winning their arguments, and that once their

proof devolves to 100% opinion, they are likely to lose.

11. Ask students to draw a line across their papers under the argument script they wrote.

Under that line, they should make a short list of the facts they used to back their

argument. When they have finished, ask them to write “evidence” in the space to the left

of the list their list.

12. Ask students to discuss where we get evidence from. Answers will vary, but students will

usually say something along the lines that “Evidence is the facts you use to back your

argument;” Answers may come from school, personal experience, quoting other people,

and from otherwise, being factual. Write the students’ sources of evidence on the

whiteboard or ELMO display, next to the word EVIDENCE.

13. Ask students to draw a line under their list of evidence. Under that line, they should make

a short list of the opinions they used to back their argument. When they have finished,

ask them to write commentary in the space to the left of the list they have made.

14. Ask student to discuss where COMMENTARY comes from. Answers will vary, but

students will usually say that commentary explains why and how the evidence is

important to the claim. Ask students to hand in their papers (you’ll hand them back out

again the next day).

15. Use the papers the students handed in to ask 10 questions, using the new terms students

learned that day. Things like: “This is from Joe’s paper. He says, “XXXXXX.” Is that

evidence or commentary?” or “This is from Ivette’s paper. She says, “XXXXX” is a fact.

Is she correct?” Looking at the results, either on paper or as students answer the question,

will inform you how many of them understood the objective.

Day 2:

16. Ask students to turn their papers from Day 1 over to the clean side.

17. Show the clip from Billy Madison. Tell students that you will show the clip again, and

this time, they should attempt to identify the CLAIM, EVIDENCE, AND

COMMENTARY from both sides of the argument. Show the clip again. Discuss the clip

with students. Help them notice that while both sides have a CLAIM and a bit of

COMMENTARY, the EVIDENCE is sorely lacking.

18. Ask students to discuss who won the argument with their groups.

19. Take a vote: who won? Answers will vary. The important thing is that they talk about it

and make a decision.

20. Ask students to choose one partner. If your classroom has an odd number of students, the

leftover person has two choices: he or she can either join a pair or make it a trio, or he or

she can be a group of one (read on and you’ll see why this can be hilarious).

21. Hand out one slip from the “Argument Topics” to each group.

22. Hand out two “Argument Organizers” to each group (the person by him- or herself needs

two, as well).

23. On the ELMO, display Argument Organizer 2a, “Why Mrs. Jones belongs with Hugh

Jackman.” Tell students that you filled out the argument organizer with a valid argument.

(Side Note: I use this organization because the running joke in my classroom is my

perfectly justified crush on the actor Hugh Jackman. I use “my boyfriend” in examples

for practically everything. It bears saying that students will connect more to your writing

if you write things that are personal to yourself in your examples. Most people do not

care about things that are not personal, and students need to see you give yourself, and

implicitly them, permission to be both personal and silly).

Explore the organization with them, asking them if they can figure out why you wrote

what you did, where you did. This may take more than 5 minutes. Be patient. This is a

crucial step and rushing your students will only cause them to falter when they perform

the task on their own.

24. Now display Argument Organizer 2b, “Why Mrs. Jones does NOT belong with Hugh

Jackman.” Tell students that you also filled out the other side of the argument. Explore

this organization with them. This will go much quicker than the first time, but again, do

not rush it.

25. Now have students write the topic from the Argument Topic slips into the “Topic” space

on their Argument Organizers. But, there is a catch: The pair must take opposing sides. If

there are three people in the group, one person will take one side and the other two will

take the other side. If there is only one person in the group, he or she has to argue both

sides (I have the whole class do this later, so it is good practice).

26. Ask students to finish filling out their Argument Organizers. They can help each other

organize, even though their arguments are opposing. Walk around the room and check

their work, being certain that they are helping each other, that they are indeed arguing

opposing sides, and that they are writing mostly facts for evidence and mostly opinion for

commentary.

27. Once all the organizers are filled out, ask students to staple their Argument Organizers to

their papers from Day 1 and hand them in.

28. Look at the papers and ask questions like you did at the end of the previous day. I like to

ask, “Maria’s topic is X, what kind of evidence do you think she used?” and “One of

Megan’s pieces of evidence is X. The commentary she put with it is Y. What’s the

connection?” types of questions. I especially pick out two types of papers: students who

struggle in the class and students whose work is cursory. Both types of students are

supported by class participation in their work. If the work is particularly bad, I don’t

mention names, but still give examples from the papers and allow the class to provide

some supportive suggestions.

Day 3: (60 minutes)

Preparatory instructions:

Today, you will be asking students to speak in front of their classes. DO NOT WARN

STUDENTS THAT THEY WILL BE SPEAKING IN FRONT OF THE REST OF THE

CLASS!. Some students, especially as freshmen, are fearful about public speaking. It’s important

that you complete the whole preparation, provide time for practice, and complete all of the

arguments in one day so that everyone speaks and doesn’t have a chance to skip school to avoid

it. In my classroom, the rule for semi-formal speaking like this is that the student must stand in

the front of the room.

If you have a student who is particularly terrified, make some accommodations:

Allow him/her to read from the Argument Organizer

Allow him/her to read someone else’s argument

Allow him/her to stand next to the argument partner

Allow him/her to sit in a tall chair, or stand behind the chair

29. Hand out the previous days’ work. Tell students that they will be reading their arguments

for the class, and the class will be judging the effectiveness of the arguments. Tell

students that you will be giving them time to practice with their partners.

30. Show students the list of things you expect from them in this argument (attached).

31. Tell the students this story: “I watch PBS all of the time. Not long ago, Alan Alda

narrated a Nature story about behavior in chimpanzees. Here’s what the program showed

that chimpanzees do when you scare them: they turn one shoulder to the thing that

frightened them and back away (demonstrate this). They rock from foot to foot

(demonstrate this). They smile, but it’s not a real smile, it’s a scared smile (demonstrate

this). They even laugh sometimes, but it’s not a real laugh (demonstrate this). At the end

of the program, they showed a clip of kids playing, and the kids did all of the same

behaviors when they were scared.

“It’s OK to be scared when you speak in front of a group. But it’s not OK to be so

scared that you stop doing it. You’ll speak in front of groups many times in your life, and

you may never like it, but you cannot let yourself be so scared you stop doing it.”

“Because we all know that some people are frightened by public speaking, here is

what we are going to do: We are going to look right at the speaker, we are going to keep

our hands still, we are going to be perfectly silent unless they ask us to speak or we feel

the speaker is trying to be funny. At the end, we are going to clap like we mean it. (Some

of my classes have asked if they could snap their fingers. One class invented “The Clap,”

in which, by some mysterious process, a random person shouted, “One, Two, Three!” and

the whole class would clap once, as hard as they could.) Let’s practice this now. Show

me what it looks like when someone is giving their presentation. (they do this) Now, let’s

clap like we mean it.” (they do this)

32. Tell the class that they have five minutes to read their arguments to each other and

practice what they are going to say and how they are going to say it. Remind them that

they may either just read what they have on their papers or they may improvise.

33. When the time is up, ask for a volunteer pair. This pair will come to the front of the room.

Tell them (after) that because they volunteered, their reward is a 100% on the assignment.

This encourages future volunteers and relieves some of the pressure on this first pair.

(This is the point at which that person who wanted to work along discovers that he’s

made his life difficult, as he has to read both arguments. Trios take turns on the side that

includes two people.)

34. Ask the pair to read their respective claims. The person with the affirmative argument

(supports the Argument Topic) goes first, reading his or her EVIDENCE and

COMMENTARY pairs, along with any supportive improvisation. Then the person with

the negative argument reads his or her EVIDENCE and COMMENTARY pairs, along

with any improvisation.

35. Allow the person with the affirmative argument to read his or her FINAL WORD (what

we will later to come to understand in my class is the CLOSING).

36. Allow the person with the negative argument to read his or her FINAL WORD.

37. Clap for the speakers.

38. Ask the class to vote for the “winner.” (You may choose to run a tournament, but I am

not a huge fan of competition and it takes too much time)

39. Ask the class to offer 2 reasons the winner won and 2 suggestions for the loser.

40. Move on to the next pair, continuing through the class.

Revision Strategy:

At the end of the class, ask students to get out the Argument Organizer they wrote and

turn it over. Ask them to write a short description of their argument and its results. Did they win?

Did they lose? Why? What could they have done differently? Most importantly, what did they

learn from this unit that they will be able to use the next time they argue with their parents?

It’s worth knowing:

In my Freshman classes, we spend a great deal of time on the idea that organization is

one of the three big ideas that will earn a pass on the proficiency exam the first time out of the

gate. We go over and over and over the ideas that writers have something to prove, that they

bring up evidence to prove it, and that they explain why that evidence is important to their

argument in commentary. If you use this lesson on argument, be aware that it is just a first, tiny

step toward organization and the understanding of the integration of claim, evidence, and

commentary.

It’s also worth knowing:

This is the introductory lesson in argument, and nothing more. It’s a foundation upon

which I can build lessons that will cement this information in students’ minds. “Grading,” per se,

is not as important as having the experience, having the notes in the students’ folders in the

cabinet, and establishing vocabulary and organizational techniques that we will use the rest of

the year.

Rubric: attached

Student Samples: to follow

Universal Access: Some students – usually the least skilled - are terrified of speaking in front

of other students. I tell my students that it’s OK to be terrified, but it’s not OK to give in to it. If a

student is chosen to give a public argument and does not wish to present it, the student may

choose someone else to read his or her part, but they MUST stand next to the speaker, owning

the words even if they cannot speak them out loud.

The entire unit is collective until the very end, when students can read from their own

papers to complete their argument. Encourage students to read aloud what they wrote, as reading

it to themselves does not address the skills of speech.

Connections/Extensions: This unit is simple to alter for use in other classes, even science,

math, or social studies. Each of these disciplines require that students have an opinion (CLAIM)

and back it up with EVIDENCE and some sort of interpretation of the evidence

(COMMENTARY).

In my classroom, we progress from this basic understanding to using these ideas to

structure written argument, to support public speaking, and to diagnose both professional and

personal work.

School uniforms: Should you have them? Driver’s licenses: Should you be allowed to get one at

15?

Open campus: Should we close campus? Math: Should you have to take it?

Starting school at 7:30: Is this a good plan? Cleaning your room: Should you have to?

Breakfast: Should you eat breakfast? Study hall: Should we require one?

Staying up late: Should your parents let you? Getting a job: Should you be allowed to get a job if

you have bad grades?

Facebook: Should your parents read everything your

post? Graduation: Is it important?

Loud music: Should your headphones be limited so

they don’t play too loudly?

Emancipation: Should you have to live with your

parents if you don’t want to?

High school: Should you have to go? Curfew: Is the current curfew (11:00pm) set at a good

time?

Argument Organizer

Topic (the question on the slip of paper):

Claim (what you’re trying to prove):

Evidence (fact):

Commentary (opinion):

Evidence (fact):

Commentary (opinion):

Evidence (fact):

Commentary (opinion):

Your Final Word (You have one last chance to win this argument; what are you going to say?):

Argument Organizer

Topic (the question on the slip of paper):

Claim (what you’re trying to prove):

Evidence (fact):

Commentary (opinion):

Evidence (fact):

Commentary (opinion):

Evidence (fact):

Commentary (opinion):

Your Final Word (You have one last chance to win this argument; what are you going to say?):

Argument Organizer

Topic (the question on the slip of paper): Hugh Jackman: Should Mrs. Jones marry him?

Claim (what you’re trying to prove): Mrs. Jones should marry Hugh Jackman.

Evidence (fact): Hugh Jackman can dance and sing, as evidenced by his starring role in The Boy From Oz, a Broadway

musical.

Commentary (opinion): While Mrs. Jones is not fan of musicals, she does love to see Hugh do the high kick. When Hugh

did the high kick in the Tony awards several years ago, Mrs. Jones had to have her blood pressure checked. She also

adores a good love song, especially sung by someone so delicious.

Evidence (fact): Hugh Jackman was voted “The Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine.

Commentary (opinion): Mrs. Jones nearly fainted in the scene where Hugh pours the bucket of water over himself in

Australia, an otherwise completely forgettable movie. Mrs. Jones would probably starve to death with something so

fabulous to look at all the time.

Evidence (fact): Hugh Jackman plays jokes and laughs all the time, which is a big part of the commentary on the Van

Helsing DVD.

Commentary (opinion): Mrs. Jones loves people who laugh! She and Hugh would have a great time together, laughing

about all of the ridiculous things in life.

Your Final Word (You have one last chance to win this argument; what are you going to say?): While some people

might say that since they are both already married, Mrs. Jones and Hugh Jackman do not belong together, it is obvious

that they would be happy. At least Mrs. Jones would be happy, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

Argument Organizer

Topic (the question on the slip of paper): Hugh Jackman: Should Mrs. Jones marry him?

Claim (what you’re trying to prove): Mrs. Jones should not marry Hugh Jackman.

Evidence (fact): Both Hugh Jackman and Mrs. Jones are both already married to other people.

Commentary (opinion): While Mrs. Jones’s husband is a tolerant and forgiving man, he probably wouldn’t be thrilled if

she was a bigamist. The upstairs closet in their house would be overcrowded, too. Forget about the master bathroom,

which only has one sink. Getting ready for work in the morning would be ridiculous!

Evidence (fact): Hugh Jackman and Mrs. Jones have never met. He lives in LA, Sydney, and New York and she lives in

Nevada.

Commentary (opinion): While Mrs. Jones has great hopes for kidnapping Hugh at the Comic Con this summer, in which

case they will choose a place to live together, at the moment, it’s difficult to sustain a relationship. It doesn’t help that

she doesn’t like big cities.

Evidence (fact): Hugh Jackman travels all of the time.

Commentary (opinion): If Hugh is travelling, it will be difficult for him to maintain his relationship with Mrs. Jones. She

has to be at work at Reed every morning at seven o’clock, and the commute back and forth from the movie sets will be

terrible.

Your Final Word (You have one last chance to win this argument; what are you going to say?): As terrible as it may

sound, Mrs. Jones and Hugh may not belong together. They have a lot of obstacles to overcome, not the least of which is

their spouses. Though they will struggle to fulfill their love, fate may be against them!

Argument Expectations:

1. You will establish your CLAIM at the beginning.

2. You will keep a close eye on your temper, steering away from curse words and insults.

3. You will focus on EVIDENCE and the COMMENTARY that supports it.

4. You will give at least the evidence on your Argument Organizer, but you may add if you wish.

RUBRIC

1 2 3 4

You established a CLAIM

You stayed calm, didn’t curse, and didn’t call names

You focused on EVIDENCE and COMMENTARY