Creating Intelligent Contexts for

Opinion and Argument Writing

Facilitated by Angela Stockman

Twitter: @AngelaStockman

Email: stockmanangela@gmail.com

Web: www.angelastockman.com

Today, We Will:

Situate the study of opinion and argument writing inside of frameworks and contexts intended to produce rich, rewarding, and rigorous learning.

Unpack a variety of instructional strategies intended to help us assess and provide feedback to opinion and argument writers.

Sharing Our Learning Stories:

An Exhibition

Telling Our Learning Stories

Characters

Setting

Challenges

Turning Points

I’m Wondering……..

My Story

Feedback

Documenting Your Learning

6 Hours

3 Photos

1 Story

Centering Around Complexity

Challenge: Given thirty minutes and the resources provided, make an evidence based opinion or an argument. You must use as many of the materials in your center as possible.

• Light and Shadow
• Mirrors and Magnifying Glasses
• Black and White
• PlayDoh and Print

The Art and Science of

Creating Intelligent Contexts for Writing

• What is the relationship between PLURALITY and COMPLEXITY?
• How do we create an environment that encourages PLURALITY of meaning?
• Why must we become far more INTENTIONAL about the materials we offer?
• How might we HANG questions inside of the environment and WEAVE them through CONTEMPORANEOUS learning experiences rather than POSING them inside of singular activities?

Divergent, Emergent, Convergent Thinking

And

The Importance of Just-Right Questioning

The Power of Compositional Research

What can be learned by observing how children build? What can be learned by observing how children put materials away after building?

• Study how children organize and tinker with materials.
• Study how they order and reorder their spaces.
• Study how they come to implicit and explicit agreements.
• Study how they work toward conventionality.
• Inspire, rather than demanding.

Questioning the Materials We Offer:

• Do we sort and categorize them first, or do we mix them together?
• How many materials?
• How much of each?
• How might the materials function independently?
• How might they function when they’re combined?

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WHY ARE WE OFFERING THE MATERIALS WE OFFER?

A Peek into A Classroom

The Argument Invention Table

• Look around this space for interesting, mysterious, curious materials that might provoke opinions or arguments
• Display them on your argument invention table
• Label
• Relabel
• Auditory argument writing

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Natural Inclinations that Lend Sophistication:

Quick Peeks into Student Work

Personification

Metaphor and Simile

Imagery

Emotion

Personification

While investigating and designing columns: “The column already told me what kind of rubber it wants. It wants thin rubber.” ---Paolo

Advising new students about the gardens of beauty at their school: “If you like to make observations, the worms are easy to observe. If you dig a little, there are lots of them. Our garden is their protection camp. We save them from their enemies, the birds. We used to have peacocks in our garden, but they told us that they needed more space and more friends, so we set them free.”

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Metaphor and Simile

Observing a knot in a tree that is crawling with ants: “It’s a doorbell. It rings where the ants live.” ---Aurora

Upon reflection, during building: “I’m making a circle, a little bit round, that is like a face.” ---Luca

Advising three year olds on how to use the playground in Advisories: “There are trees that are fun to climb. You have to be careful not to get your foot stuck, otherwise you’ll be a prisoner of the trees forever. It’s hard to do because they’re sort of slippery, the trees. We think it is dangerous for three year olds. You’d better wait until you’re five.”

“The sun’s rays look like spider webs made of light!”

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Imagery

While choosing materials to make a column:

Paolo: We need to choose a soft rubber for cutting out shapes.

Andrea: And a very smooth, thin one like the column wanted.

Allesandro: And a shiny one so that it can reflect the other columns.

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Teacher: Have you observed, there are lots of kinds of black rubber. Which one would you like? Why?

Imagery

“When there are lots of leaves crowded all together on the playground, you can’t see who’s there, you can tell a secret to a girlfriend or a boyfriend or a friend, or you can say, ‘I discovered a ghost house?’ or ‘Let’s run away from school! (but just for fun).’”

“Our school has lots of light because it has lots of windows and lots of long, skinny bulbs. It’s great to have lots of light because that means the sun’s rays are coming in. Some even come in when the curtains are closed and we’re sleeping, so it’s not totally dark and you never have scary dreams.”

----Advisories

Emotion

“We’ll (make) a road in the city Park, which is the prettiest one. We’ll make it at the start at the swings and go where they cars go by. Then, we’ll stop it so the cars can pass….then we’ll make it start again, we’ll make it turn here and then go straight here at the newstan. This road has to be the prettiest one because all the people that see it will say, ‘Wow! Who made it?’ Well, I made it. Me and the other kids.” ---Rebecca

Quick Independent Studies:

• Plurality Projects: A Text Based Study
• Taboo Stories: A Micro-Writing Workshop
• Environment as a Third Teacher: An Investigation of Diverse Resources
• Design Sprint and Journey Mapping: Roughing Out a Plan, Anticipating Needs

Improving the Quality of Our Feedback

Assuming a Reflective Stance

BUILD: MAKE a story that reveals your most important learning.

SPEAK: Use your story to share your OPINION with a friend.

WRITE: Use evidence to craft an ARGUMENT that inspires others to elevate the opinion and argument writing process in their own classrooms.

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ADVOCATE: How might we help you more? Email me. stockmanangela@gmail.com