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Home > Pre-AP > Workshops > Pre-AP: Interdisciplinary Strategies -- Argumentation and the Writing Process
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Pre-AP: Interdisciplinary Strategies -- Argumentation and the Writing Process
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| | This one-day workshop is designed to help social studies, English, and humanities teachers address a task that challenges many middle and high school students: developing a logical and effective argument. This workshop offers middle and high school teachers strategies that enable students to discover and work with the elements of argumentation. Topics addressed in the workshop include using texts to analyze and construct arguments and assessing written performance.
General Themes
- Identifying the elements of effective argumentation
- Examining various graphic organizers that can help students to dissect texts, analyze arguments, and collect evidence for use in their own arguments
- Using classroom strategies that enable students to construct sound written arguments
- Developing criteria for assessing students' written performance
- Using strategies that encourage students to ask questions and draw inferences
- Fostering the skills and attributes that will prepare students for college-level work in a variety of AP courses
The workshop conforms to:
- The College Board's mission, particularly access and equity
- Rigor expected in a variety of AP courses
- AP Vertical Teams approach
The workshop provides:
- Substantial content background for teachers
- Activities for students across grade levels
- Activities meant to illustrate good pedagogy (various instructional approaches, including cooperative learning)
- Activities that require communication to support arguments, theses, and conclusions
- Opportunities for reflection
- Connections between one activity and another
Agenda
Section 1: Elements of an Effective Argument
Most students hold strong personal opinions on a number of topics. They want to be heard, and they are often disappointed when their presentation of these opinions does not gain immediate acceptance. The result is that they may begin to shout or resort to emotional hyperbole. If they understood the integral parts of an argument, however, they might be more successful. This section will offer activities by which students can identify these elements as an initial step in creating an argument.
Break
Section 2: Analyzing Texts to Construct Arguments
It is important for students to recognize the topic under discussion before they begin to fashion their own arguments. Whether they are reading a text or listening to speakers, students should have a plan by which to analyze other points of view. This section offers activities to help students acquire a more specific focus of the argument and to examine the evidence presented.
Lunch
Section 3: Constructing a Written Argument
This section will demonstrate how students can use the skills developed in the previous activities to create an effective written argument. Participants will be given a new set of texts and a choice of formats to follow in preparing an outline, which will consist of a thesis statement, presentation of evidence pro and con, and topic sentences linking the evidence to the thesis. In the final activity, they will write and present the opening paragraph of their proposed paper.
Break
Section 4: Assessing a Written Performance
Participants will revisit the elements of an effective argument in section 1 and develop a diagnostic rubric for evaluating student papers.
Authors:
Mike Henry taught AP United States History for 20 years in Princes George's County, Maryland. Currently he is an adjunct professor of history at Prince George's Community College and University of Maryland-University College. He also is a College Board consultant and writer. He has been an AP Reader and Table Leader for 14 years and has given numerous presentations at the regional and national level. He has written two books on preparing for the AP United States History Examination and coauthored a College Board workshop on argumentation
Ogden Morse is a retired English teacher and department chair, last affiliated with Joel Barlow High School in Redding, Connecticut. He served on the development committee for Pre-AP: Interdisciplinary Strategies for English and Social Studies, wrote much of it, and has since revised it for the most recent edition. He served on the development committee for The AP Vertical Teams® Guide for English and has written a one-day workshop, Pre-AP: Strategies in English-Writing Tactics Using SOAPSTone. He now serves as a presenter and trainer for the workshops he helped develop.
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