EasyBib

Delineating Arguments from Texts

Subject: History/Social Studies or English Language Arts
Grade: 6 – 12
Time frame: 1 class (60 minutes)

Introduction:

The Common Core Standards for English Language Arts state that students should be able to read closely and understand text, determine central ideas and themes, delineate and evaluate arguments and claims, and read and comprehend a variety of different texts independently and proficiently. These texts include literature, informational texts, history/social studies texts, and science and technical texts. In order to achieve these goals, students must approach the text with an analytical mind in order to identify the key points and structure of the text. This will help students develop a better understanding of the author’s argument and reasoning.

This lesson teaches students to read texts closely to identify the main argument and how the author supports his or her claims. By using various, high-level readings appropriate for the students’ grade level, this assignment will challenge them to understand texts more thoroughly and encourage them to approach all readings in a similar way.

Finally, the Common Core Standards advocate the use of technology, integrated throughout each of the standards, to help students become more technologically literate. EasyBib’s Notebook tool helps students develop their reading skills through our easy-to-use online program.

Objective:

1. Identify the main thesis of the essay
2. Identify the main claims
3. Identify the supporting evidence for each claim
4. Determine the sequence of arguments that lead up to the conclusion
5. Develop an understanding of how each piece of evidence relates to the essay as a whole

Materials:

• Computer with internet access
• EasyBib’s Notebook tool
• Copies of an argumentative essay of the teacher’s choice. We suggest “The Fallacy of Success” by G.K. Chesterton (1909) for grades 11-12.

Procedure:

1. Divide students up into groups of 2 or 3. Allowing students to work together in small groups to decipher difficult texts will promote teamwork and ensure an accurate interpretation of the text. Furthermore, students can discuss the reasoning behind how they chose to delineate the text.
2. Hand each student a copy of the text. Before analyzing the essay, students should do a thorough and complete read-through. Based on this read-through, students should decide on what they think the main thesis of the essay is.
3. Using EasyBib’s Notebook tool, students should go through the essay paragraph by paragraph, extracting the main ideas of each paragraph and listing all of the supporting evidence that follows each main idea. On the Notebook tool, students can assign each piece of evidence to a source or not. This will help students examine the authority behind each piece of evidence and evaluate how persuasive the evidence is in supporting the author’s claim.
4. After completing this task, students should look through the outline that they’ve created on the EasyBib Notebook to determine whether or not the information logically flows. Although the essay is now in outline form, the sequence of information should still make sense. If it does not, ask students whether or not this is a mistake in their outlining, or a failing on the author’s part.
5. Once the students have a finished outline, have them re-examine the thesis they identified at the beginning of the assignment. Do all the claims and evidence support this thesis?
6. Finally, have the students re-read the entire essay again. After analyzing the text in depth, is the essay easier to read and does it make more sense? Have the students print out their outlines from the EasyBib Notebook to turn in for assessment.

Assessment:

The finished outlines should be graded similarly to a research paper, but focus only on content, ideas, and organization. The outlines should also be:

• Accurately reflective of the author’s main ideas and claims
• Comprehensive, including all the supporting evidence used in the essay
• Concise; the claims should be succinctly stated in the students’ own words
• Adhering to the author’s original organization of the essay

Self-Evaluation:

At the end of this assignment, students should have achieved the objectives outlined at the beginning of the lesson plan. They should also have developed a better understanding of how to approach complex texts in order to identify the key points and reasoning behind argumentative essays.

In order to further develop students’ skills in reading complex texts, this lesson plan may be applied to a number of different texts of varying complexity. Approaching increasingly more difficult texts with the same methodology will give students a way to independently decipher hard texts.

Extension:

Additionally, this method can also be applied to improve students’ writing skills. After drafting argumentative essays, they can create a backwards outline on their own papers in order to identify any gaps in structure, flow, or ideas. This will help them edit their own papers and become better writers.

Additional Resources:

EasyBib Notebook

Common Core Standards: