Persuade Me: Writing an Argumentative Essay (FLEX)

It's no surprise that arguments are everywhere, and because of this, having the ability to effectively express a stance on an issue is an important life skill that will be used far beyond the classroom. Knowing how to present a point of view and back it up with evidence is essential for students to develop critical thinking and research skills, which is one of the many reasons why argumentative writing is assigned in a variety of subjects, from science to math to English.

This course is designed to teach students how to write a highly persuasive argumentative essay. Throughout this course, we will cover the basics of argumentation, as well as take a deep look into the structure of an argumentative essay. Students will specifically learn the details of a structurally sound essay, how to incorporate a claim and how to develop a counterclaim, and strategies for supporting arguments with text based evidence. We will also cover how to cite textual evidence using MLA format.

While no formal prerequisites are required, this course will rely heavily on writing and identifying/creating persuasive arguments. It would be helpful for students to be familiar with writing a claim and with ethos/pathos/logos (I offer specific courses on both of those subjects), but we will quickly review these concepts before we dive deep into the content.

This course is designed to be four segments long. Each week, students will receive teacher-recorded instruction videos, as well as worksheets, examples, a rubric, and handouts to help guide them through the writing process. Each week, this course will include class discussion and analysis questions (via the Outschool classroom) to both spark academic conversation between their peers and teacher on the subject, as well as assess students' learning and understanding throughout our course. Additionally, each week will include one-on-one collaboration between each student and the teacher in regards to class assignments, writing development, and editing. The instructional path of this course will be as follows:

Week 1: This week will teach the basics of an argumentative essay through a detailed look into a sample essay, along with a review of the elements of argumentation. Students will be asked to participate in class discussion questions, read the sample essay prior to teacher-recorded instruction, collaborate with peers/teacher to choose a topic for their own argumentative essay, and complete a pre-writing worksheet.

Week 2: We will begin the second week with class discussion on the difference between fact and opinion. This will lead us to take a deeper look into evidence through teacher-recorded instruction on how to find evidence to support various claims, the importance of tying evidence in, and how to both integrate and cite evidence successfully. Students will be asked to collaborate with each other and the teacher via the Outschool classroom to create a claim for their essays, as well as complete an evidence worksheet in which they will submit to and get feedback from the teacher.

Week 3: This week will begin by a classroom discussion aimed at further analyzing the sample argumentative essay in regards to evidence analysis. We will then dive into the world of counterclaims with both teacher-recorded instruction and collaborative examples (via the Outschool classroom), analyzing more in depth what counterclaims are, why they are important, and how we can create them. Students will also learn how to effectively write an introduction and conclusion. They will be asked to submit a rough draft of their essay via Google Docs for teacher/student collaboration and editing.

Week 4: The last session will include teacher-recorded instruction on essay formatting and the works cited page. Students will be asked to participate in class discussion questions, and collaborate with the teacher on final essay editing for rhetorical appeals, writing style, spelling and grammar. At the end of the course, students will submit their final essay to the teacher for grading. Essay grades will be given based on the rubric given to students during week 1. Students will receive final comments from the teacher on their writing, highlighting the areas of argumentative writing that they excelled in, as well as areas in need of improvement.

Throughout the course of this class, students will be provided with weekly instruction videos to watch, as well step by step scaffolding assignments to write their argumentative essays. Students will be expected to spend about an hour to two hours a week in addition to watching the teacher-recorded videos. They will share their essays with me via Google Docs, where I will give individualized feedback and guidance for each student to improve his/her writing.

The idea behind this class is that students will gain an in depth understanding of argumentative essays and how to write them so that they have the foundation to support and prove their main argument. Even though this is a FLEX class in which there will not be any live video sessions, this class will be highly interactive, with a lot of guidance and feedback along the way.