Middle School Argument Writing Unit Learning Progression 6 6 7 7 8 8 TEXT Make & Support a Claim Letter of Complaint Prove Your Point Proposal Essay Develop Complex Op-Ed Commentary Mentor Texts: Paragraphs and Mentor Texts: sample Mentor Texts: Mentor Texts: video Mentor Texts: op-eds from essays by students about complaint letters from real Paragraphs and essays by clips, magazine & Mentor Texts: Paragraphs newspapers, magazines, and school life scenarios experts and journalists newspaper articles, and essays by students other student-friendly about school lunch and essays that outline a about school uniforms publications nutrition problem and suggest solutions Differentiating between fact Crafting a formal Researching and Identifying a problem Crafting commentary to Taking a on an and opinion; supporting an complaint letter about a identifying effective and outlining potential explain evidence that important social issue and opinion with evidence real-life situation evidence to support a solutions proves a claim calling readers to action claim Generating Distinguishing between Defining key terms of Understanding the Defining key terms Understanding the Defining key terms for ideas for fact and opinion argument and the relationship between for the proposal essay relationship between the op-ed genre: argument Understanding the complaint letter genre claim and evidence genre: problem, claim, evidence and debatable claim, fact vs. concepts of claim and Analyzing examples of Defining and feasible solution, commentary opinion, problem, issue writing evidence complaint letters identifying the two cause and effect Defining and Analyzing examples of Generating and selecting main evidence types Analyzing examples identifying the two op-eds viable complaint letter of proposals main evidence types Understanding the topics Generating and Examining how of the op-ed: lede, selecting viable commentary works debatable claim, problems to propose counterargument, solutions for structures Generating and selecting viable issues to write about Understanding the prompt Finding evidence to Understanding the Using search terms Understanding the Understanding how to and pre-writing to discover support the argument prompt and driving questions prompt create a logical argument and narrow a claim through research and Searching for to perform research Searching for using ethos, logos, Finding evidence from personal reflection evidence on the problem evidence pathos, and kairos credible sources to support Examining evidence Selecting credible Examining evidence Developing a the claim to generate a claim sources to generate a claim counterargument Sorting, selecting, Identifying evidence to and paraphrasing support the argument and evidence counterargument 6 6 7 7 8 8
Middle School Argument Writing Unit Learning Progression 6 6 7 7 8 8 TEXT Make & Support a Claim Mentor Texts: Paragraphs and essays by students about school Letter of Complaint Mentor Texts: sample complaint letters from real life scenarios Prove Your Point Mentor Texts: Paragraphs and essays by experts and journalists about school lunch and nutrition Proposal Essay Mentor Texts: video clips, magazine & newspaper articles, essays that outline a problem and suggest solutions Develop Complex Commentary Mentor Texts: Paragraphs and essays by students about school uniforms Op-Ed Mentor Texts: op-eds from newspapers, magazines, and other student-friendly publications Differentiating between fact and opinion; supporting an opinion with evidence Crafting a formal complaint letter about a real-life situation Researching and identifying effective evidence to support a claim Identifying a problem and outlining potential solutions Crafting commentary to explain evidence that proves a claim Taking a on an important social issue and calling readers to action Generating ideas for argument writing Distinguishing between fact and opinion Understanding the concepts of claim and evidence Defining key terms of argument and the complaint letter genre Analyzing examples of complaint letters Generating and selecting viable complaint letter topics Understanding the relationship between claim and evidence Defining and identifying the two main evidence types Defining key terms for the proposal essay genre: problem, feasible solution, cause and effect Analyzing examples of proposals Generating and selecting viable problems to propose solutions for Understanding the relationship between claim, evidence and commentary Defining and identifying the two main evidence types Examining how commentary works Defining key terms for the op-ed genre: debatable claim, fact vs. opinion, problem, issue Analyzing examples of op-eds Understanding the of the op-ed: lede, debatable claim, counterargument, structures Generating and selecting viable issues to write about Understanding the prompt and pre-writing to discover and narrow a claim Finding evidence from credible sources to support the claim Finding evidence to support the argument through research and personal reflection Understanding the prompt Searching for evidence Examining evidence to generate a claim Using search terms and driving questions to perform research on the problem Selecting credible sources Sorting, selecting, and paraphrasing evidence Understanding the prompt Searching for evidence Examining evidence to generate a claim Understanding how to create a logical argument using ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos Developing a counterargument Identifying evidence to support the argument and counterargument 6 6 7 7 8 8
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