When comparing Indiana Academic Standards with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), one significant difference is the addition of argumentative writing at the middle school and high school levels.

Students are used to aggressively convincing a reader to take their side in persuasive writing. However, argumentative writing is much more balanced. It requires the development of both sides of an issue, offering several claims for one side while acknowledging that there are valid counterclaims from the opposition. Argumentative writing is not about winning to "get" something, but rather giving the reader another perspective to consider on a debatable topic.

When introducing argumentative writing to students, describe it as a debate on paper--with both sides represented by facts, evidence, and relevant support. It's similar to the closing arguments at the end of a Law & Order episode. Consider showing clips of the closing arguments from various trial scenes. Students have to perform a similar role in their writing; they have to be both the prosecutor and the defense attorney. They have to roll out the key facts of the case, the issue, for both sides. Although they are definitely more for one side, their writing has to include valid points from the other side.

A second strategy to introduce argumentative writing is to reveal two essays on the same topic--one that's written persuasively and one that's written argumentatively. Before writing arguments with two sides represented, they have to be able to identify them in anchor papers. Charge students to read both essays and highlight every sentence as either a claim helping the writer's argument (highlight those sentences in yellow) or a valid counterclaim from the opposition (highlight those sentences in pink). Students will quickly see that argumentative writing is more balanced and offers facts on both sides, whereas persuasive is all me and what I want. (Access two essays on Animal Testing--the black and white handout and the color-coded answer key.) Studying a persuasive and argumentative piece on the same topic helps students see the subtle, but significant differences between them. 

After this activity, you can then study a T-Chart that breaks down the specific ingredients of both types. It's helpful to compare what students already know about persuasive writing as you introduce them to the new and less familiar concepts of argumentative writing. 

Over the past few months, I've come across a couple of new picture books that I love for word choice and voice.

WOW! SCHOOL!, by Robert Neubecker is a little misleading in its title.

The book itself does NOT include WOW! words. But it's a great way to introduce the concept of what "WOW!" means. This book can help you define WOW! as amazing, unbelievable, exciting. Each 2-page spread has 2 words, one of which is always WOW! (WOW! lunch, WOW! playground, WOW! art, etc.).

As you turn each page of WOW! SCHOOL!, ask students to identify why each picture is so exciting. Defining what makes it such a WOW! scene will help explain the definition of WOW! words in the future.

Limelight Larry, by Leigh Hodgkinson, demonstrates the same skills young writers utillize when playing with voice.  

This book is filled with voice-filled conventions and print (e.g., ALL CAPS, underline, bold, ellipses, font changes for feeling).

In addition, the first-person (peacock) narration demonstrates audience awareness when he speaks directly to the reader or when parentheses show that he's whispering to the reader. 

Students will love how Larry learns that sharing the limelight is even more fun than being in it! And you will love all the voice mini-lessons you can teach using this mentor text.

Cloze is short for closure. So a cloze activity can bring closure to a reading assignment by assessing how well students understood a passage after reading independently. During a cloze activity, students complete a fill-in-the-blank summary of the passage WITHOUT looking back at the original text. The blanks represent key vocabulary, specific details, and main ideas students should have gleaned from the original passage.

Students often go into an after-reading cloze activity thinking it will be easy. However, because the fill-in-the-blank passage is a paraphrase of the original text, students who didn't glean specific details from the reading could potentially make many different (incorrect) words fit any blank. To help you appreciate this, imagine the teacher assigned a textbook section to be read about nurturing and caring for dependents. Then the teacher asked you to complete the following cloze paraphrase. (TIP: Read the entire passage before beginning to fill in the blanks.) A weak reader not paying attention when reading could still complete the cloze paraphrase using only his background knowledge. But that would not have resulted in the correct information. (Compare your answers to the answer key.) We need to teach students to read texts carefully so they are comprehending the new ideas.

Create your own cloze activity.

1. First, identify a future independent reading assignment. What pages in the textbook would you assign for homework or in-class reading?
2. Before assigning that reading to students, write a thorough paraphrase yourself that includes the big ideas and concepts outlined in that passage. (Think of this as an ideal, meaty summary of the text. It should not be a word-for-word repeat of the original passage.) Include key vocabulary words from the original text within your paraphrase, including how those terms relate to one another.
3. Now, turn your specific summary into a cloze passage by replacing the concepts and key terms with blanks. Delete nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that carry specific content meaning.

For cloze activity examples sorted by content area/topic, click here.  

In addition to writing the paraphrase and choosing which words to omit, you can also determine how hard or easy you want to make the activity. There are four ways to format a cloze passage.

• You can omit the words entirely, making each line an equal length to challenge your strongest readers.
• You can omit the words entirely, but adjust the line length to represent longer words or shorter words. (This is still very challenging.)
• You can provide the first letter or two of each missing word, to make the activity a little easier. (This is the format used in the downloadable example.)
• You can provide a word bank for students to choose from, differentiating this activity for your most struggling readers.

The cloze activity informs the teacher where the students are in their ability to comprehend when reading independently. After determining the results of the students' cloze answers, a teacher can then recalibrate future instruction to clarify inaccurate information and fix-up misunderstandings.