Generating Questions with a Question Creation Chart (Q-chart)

There is significant evidence that learning how to generate and answer questions while reading improves memory, integration and identification of main ideas, and overall comprehension.  Generating questions helps students make predictions about what they will learn from their reading, focus on the most important information, and read with greater purpose because they are looking for answers to their questions.

Generating questions, however, does not always come naturally to students.  Some students can generate simple who, what, where, when types of questions, but have difficulty generating the more complex "how and why" questions that require more critical thinking.  It is important for teachers to provide direct instruction, modeling, and significant guided practice in how to self-question while reading.  

A Question Creation Chart or Q-chart is a perfect tool to help students recognize and self-generate a continuum of questions ranging from simple "remember" questions through "understanding" and "evaluative" questions.  This chart is especially useful as it can be used with both literature and informational text.

After careful teacher modeling, students will use the Q-chart to formulate questions about the text they've read by selecting one word from the left-hand column of the chart (who, what, where, when, how, why) then selecting a word from the upper row (is, did, can would, will, might).  Students locate the square where the question will be recorded and write their "remember" or "evaluative" question. The further down and over to the right students move, the higher the level of critical thinking.  

It is important to note that this chart can be used before, during, or after reading the text!

Once students have generated several questions about the text they've read, it is important for the teacher to build in opportunities for student talk.  Using think/pair/share or other small groupings, students should share, compare, and discuss the questions they've generated.  As students are discussing their questions, the teacher can circulate the room and provide support as needed.

After student talk, the teacher should offer a final discussion on the importance of using questioning as a metacognitive strategy as a whole-class.  Some guiding prompts that can be used are:

• Why is it important for a reader to ask questions and make predictions before reading a text?
• Why do you think good readers ask questions as they are reading?
• Why do good readers answer and generate questions after they've read a text?
• Would anyone like to share a question from their Q-chart?
• Does anyone have a question that wasn't answered in our reading?

We hope you enjoyed reading about how to generate questions using a Question Creation Chart.  You may begin using this effective strategy by downloading our FREEBIE.
**In order to give students sufficient space to record their questions, this chart must be printed on 11x17 Ledger paper.

Enjoy!

How to Ensure You've Included Writing Across the Curriculum

Sound effects? Powerful quote? Leading questions?   No matter what hook idea students choose to use as the opener for their papers, students still need to be able to carry out a central idea in well structured paragraphs and this takes practice.  If your days are like mine, we are hard-pressed to find all the time we need to build writing skills to the degree we'd like no matter what grade level you're in.  If that describes your reality, then perhaps today's post will give you a new perspective on how to incorporate writing throughout the day, and therefore build those writing skills.

Earlier this week, Melissa mentioned in her post that the teachers in Virginia were gearing up for the state writing assessment.  In our state, students are assessed for the first time in fifth grade, and as we know, the fifth grade teachers are not miracle workers.  Writing skills build over time, and struggling readers are typically struggling writers, so in order to build strong writers, our writing programs need to include these key components:

• Informal writing opportunities
• Modeling and practice with Process Writing
• and Genre Writing experiences.  

Each type of writing addresses specific skills. Informal writing is intended to build writing fluency while process writing develops writing skills and abilities,  and genre writing teaches organizational patterns of writing.  It is the informal and genre writing that can be incorporated into the content areas offering struggling writers a "double dip" of writing.  By increasing informal writing opportunities and genre writing in the content areas, we improve writing skills, reinforce content learning, and address reading comprehension of the content for deeper understandings.  If we weave writing through all of our subjects, students learn that writing is a tool they can use to learn and express their thoughts about it.

What's considered informal writing?  Informal writing includes using journals of various types for prompted writing and choice writing, responding to literature, and writing to learn.  With these types of experiences, students should be free from grading, but rather assessment is more about encouraging the thinking and effort.  Below are a list of ideas for each writing option:

Informal Writing Opportunities

Journal writing can be used much more than just morning work. I've seen in many classrooms journals are done in the morning with the prompt of the day, but try to expand your use of them. There are far more options than just a daily prompt. Below are a few options you might try. Don't limit to just one classroom journal. Consider including them for each subject you teach. When you think about how you can incorporate additional writing opportunities, you'll find your kids will need more than one.

• Personal Journals-allow freedom of expression about whatever is important to the child.
• Writer's Notebooks-helps students keep track of and add their ideas for writing opportunities they may use later.
• Family Message Books-these journals are used as a way for children to communicate feelings and opinions with their parents and for parents to provide guidance.
• Speedwriting-students are provided an amount of time to just write their ideas on a topic.  This works well as a schema building activity with content areas.
• Sensory Writing-students write what they hear, see, feel, smell, and taste with a certain topic.
• Memory Writing-students write about memories related to a topic...walking in the woods, power outages, beginning school, etc.

Responding to Reading is another great way to weave in additional writing (and check comprehension at the same time). From graphic organizers to interactive notebooks to questions and exit tickets, the options are almost endless. Just make it purposeful and linked to the learning your students have completed with the chosen text in reading.

• Response Journals-These ideas are almost endless...letter to a friend about reading, a play, song, news report, blogging, wanted ad, etc.
• Response charts-Quotes and Connections
• Response questions-Reading to find answers to questions, and learning to respond in complete sentences are helpful to students in building sentence fluency.
• Blogging and Social Media-The internet is here to stay, so it's important that we embrace it and learn how to use it for learning. Edmodo is a great website you might try for monitored class discussions.

Writing to Learn is the third informal writing option. Students use writing when they put together interactive notebooks, lapbooks, and even when they take notes about their content. Again, graphic organizers and exit tickets are used for learning too. 

• Learning Logs and Interactive Notebooks-Students can take photos, graphics from the content area, and foldables, glue them in their notebooks, and go one step further to record their thoughts about them.
• Questioning-Give students key questions to respond to at stopping points within the lesson. Students can use information from their learning and work on writing well thought out responses.
• Exit Cards-These are fairly common, and very quick to include.  [Here's] a great little freebie from Mad Science Lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers
• Various forms of the KWL Chart
• Writing projects-news articles, bumper stickers, letters to people in history, lab reports, epitaphs, memories of learning, boasts or brags about what they've done well, posters, interviews and more.  

Genre Writing Experiences

You might be wondering how genre writing experiences can tie into the content areas. and what genre writing is. We study genres in reading, but what does it have to do with writing? Some genres lead writers to use organizational patterns.  Teaching text structure has become a focus with the Common Core with reading comprehension, but applying that knowledge in writing can reinforce learned concepts. We have three basic patterns; fictional plot structures, exposition which includes description, sequential, and compare/contrast, and persuasion which includes cause/effect and problem/solution. Understanding the organizational patterns applies to writing as well as in topics we read with science, history, and math. Take for example studies of erosion.  Writing a problem and solution essay would help students learn about ways they might prevent erosion, but also how to organize those ideas in their writing too.  Another example would be writing lab reports.  Lab reports are done sequentially (or chronologically), and when writing a lab report, teachers can help students learn to use transition words to help their writing flow sequentially.  

Here are a few ideas you might try.  (For young writers, some of these can be done in a shared writing fashion versus independently.  Scaffold as you need.)

• Personal Experience Stories
• Writing Frames
• Graphic Organizers 
• Me Museums (writings about life...include timeline, pictures/captions, maps)
• Fictional Stories using information learned
• Character Webs
• Plot Cubes
• Compare/Contrast writing (Indian Tribes, Landforms, Electrical Circuits)
• Cause/Effect writing (Effects of Pollution, Results of War, Laws)
• Persuasion (What XXX means to me, School Lunch)

Process Writing

I don't think I need to spend a great bit of writing space to talk about process writing. It is simply work that you take through the full writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, proofread/editing, publishing). Students should always have at least one piece of work going through the writing process at all times, and from my experience, the greatest need for struggling kids is the revising stage. For many of my kids, their understanding of revising is just recopying it neater. It's taken a long time to correct the misunderstanding, and now, the published work has a much different look from the first draft. For struggling students, I highly recommend bringing in an assistant or parent volunteer who loves working one-on-one as this is the most effective way to help students hear and see errors they've made.

When time is limited, my hope is that writing won't be the activity that gets cut now that you've read this. Instead of cutting, work to weave it in.  Writing should be a common thread throughout all of the core subjects. It improves reading comprehension, reinforces learning, and improves writing fluency and expression.  Plus, writing is just plain fun!

Writing: Sentence Fluency

Hi! It's Melissa again from Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late here to talk about...

I know in Virginia, our 5th grade students are working hard to prepare for their big writing assessment at the very beginning of April, and all the snow we've had is just causing more stress for the poor teachers. However, we had a ray of hope last week at our school in the form of professional development...no joke! Our school system began implementing Six Traits this year, and we had Fred Wolff of Six Traits Live come to our school and do LESSONS with actual classes for teachers to understand how to implement his ideas in the room.

I was able to sit in on the 5th grade lesson for sentence fluency, and there were two simple yet powerful tips that he taught. If you read my blog on Wednesday, you will just want to skip to step 2, but that's where the meat is anyway! Step one is pretty simple.

He began the lesson by reading an excerpt from Gary Paulsen's Harris and Me and then having a student write the first word of each sentence. We circled words that we didn't typically use to begin sentences (basically anything other than a pronoun, person's name, or "the") and talked about how most of the sentences started with a different word. This helped make it sound more interesting. He gave the students 5 "Power Starters" and encouraged them to try and use these words to make stronger sentences and add variety.

His suggestion to teachers later was to have a "When Week", etc, where students practiced making sentences with each specific starter.

But there's more to sentence fluency than just having different beginnings. You also need a variety of lengths, and I think this was my students' favorite part!

I actually implemented this part of the lesson with one of my 4th grade groups on Friday to help prepare them already. They complained at first that we weren't doing games, but by the end they were hooked!

First, I gave them a recording sheet you can download here to find the first word and number of words in the first 10 sentences. As you can see below, we crossed out the final category (part of speech) because my kids just aren't ready for that yet. I still included it because I hope to get there soon. Then I gave each of them Abe Lincoln's Dream, which we read earlier in the week. We did the first two sentences together, and I had to help them a little to make sure they didn't skip little sentences and stopped in the right place (there was a tricky sentence that had a quote with a question mark at the end and then two more words after, so they needed guidance there).

After they finished with the first ten sentences, I gave them the second sheet and helped them make a line graph using the data they collected (Math in reading? What?!).

We discussed how the line graph reminded us of a heart monitor, and it looked like a "life line". I asked them what happens if the line stays the same or barely moves ("You're dead!"), and then we talked about how it's the same with our writing. We need to have a variety of sentence lengths to keep things interesting and make our writing more lively.

After going through the process once, they were ready to try it on their own. I gave them a nonfiction book that we had been working through, and they were SO engaged!

I was so proud of them because they quickly noticed that the first 6 sentences in this book are about the same length, but that the book started to pick up the pace at sentence 7. They could point to their graph and show me exactly when it started to get interesting.

Later, we will do one of these on their own writing (which is what 5th grade is already doing), and we will discuss ways to improve the fluency by making sentences longer or shorter. However, this first step of making them aware was VERY important and well worth the time it took!

What other struggles do your students have with writing? How many of you are preparing for a big writing assessment right now?

Responding to Informational Text using the 3-2-1 Strategy!

Hello, friends!  We are Colleen and Stacy from The Rungs of Reading here to talk to you about an effective "After Reading" strategy for informational text called 3-2-1!  This strategy can be used in both primary and intermediate grades in whole-class, small group, or individual settings.  The 3-2-1 strategy is especially successful with struggling readers as it helps them comprehend, summarize, and retain information they've read.

The 3-2-1 strategy can be used with informational books, magazine articles, biographies, even websites!  Here are a few of our favorite books and websites we have used with this strategy!

After reading, exploring, and discussing an informational text or website, students actively engage with their reading by summarizing three important points from the text.  Summarizing requires the reader to focus on the major elements of the text and to determine what is important.  When students are selecting these important points, the teacher should guide students in choosing new facts and information they learned from the text (not prior knowledge).

After recording three new discoveries on their graphic organizers, students go back into their reading to choose two interesting facts.  At this point, the teacher should guide students in selecting facts and information that is unusual or exciting.  For example, "the baobab tree can reach the height of a five story building".  

Finally, students brainstorm and record one question they still have about the topic they read.  This is a good opportunity for students to share and discuss their questions with classmates in preparation of additional research.  Students complete the graphic organizer by drawing an interesting photograph, diagram, timeline, etc. that illustrates the topic they read about.



We hope you enjoyed learning more about the 3-2-1 reading strategy!  Here is a little FREEBIE to get you started!  Depending upon the age and ability of your students, you may want to differentiate your expectations when having them complete the graphic organizer.  For example, younger students or struggling readers can be instructed to copy facts and information directly from the text.  Older or more capable students can be instructed to paraphrase or summarize information in their own words.  When initially modeling the strategy for students, you can explain which expectation you would like them to follow.

Engaging Reluctant Readers

Hello, Adventurers!  Jana, from Thinking Out Loud, here with you today to give you a few ideas on engaging reluctant students.  My post is inspired by Lauren's "Are You a Book Whisperer" book review over Donalyn Miller's fabulous book.  I read her book this summer as part of an online book study and still can't get it out of my head.  As I read the book, I kept nodding my head and saying "I am so glad that I am not the only one who thinks this way."

Before we delve into helping reluctant readers, let's define it so we are all on the same page.  Scholastic had a great definition:  "reluctant readers are those who, for a variety of reasons, do not like to read, do not like to expose themselves as readers, and have a hard time finding books they want to read."  I love this definition because reluctant readers aren't just those students who do not like to read.  This group also includes students who don't want others to know that they are readers and those who haven't found the right book yet to introduce them into the wonderful world of reading.  Donalyn Miller put a positive spin on reluctant in her book The Book Whisperer by calling them "DORMANT" readers because "they have a reader inside themselves somewhere" and "need the right conditions to let that reader loose" (p.28).

So many times we focus on the struggling reader:  the one who has trouble decoding, who has poor fluency, who struggles with comprehension.  With that as our only focus, the reluctant/dormant reader can fall through cracks.  These readers can read but don't.  As teachers, what can we do for the reluctant/dormant ones?  We need to wake them up and show them the wonderful worlds that await in books.

Student Choice
Donalyn Miller begins chapter 4 with a wonderful quote from Richard McKenna:  "Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."  Student choice can be difficult for teachers because it is a time when we have to let go.  When Henry continually picks Captain Underpants books to read, I wanted to scream, "Pick something new!"  Instead I should be celebrating the fact that Henry is continuing to read, no matter what it is.  Giving students choice in what they read creates buy-in.

Be a Reader
Time to be honest.  How many of you read on a daily basis?  When I was teaching reading, I could have raised my hand.  Today, I cannot and that makes me sad.  However, I am working on bringing reading back into my life through on One Little Word, passion.  Books are a passion for me and I let everything else get in the way and push that passion to the side.  Teachers need to be role models for their students and that includes being a reader.  I could not stand in front of my seventh and eighth grade students every day and tell them that reading is important if I was not reading on a daily basis.  Why?  Because actions speak louder than words.  If they know that I am reading, if they see me read, if they see the stack of books I am reading and the stack that will be reading, then they will believe me when I tell them that reading is important and should be done every day.

Giving Honest Recommendations during Book Talks
Let students know that it is okay if they don't like a book.  Let students know that you don't like every book you have read.  Let students know if there are genres you do not read.  I was honest with my students when I gave book talks.  I would tell them if I liked or disliked the book and why.  Why would I book talk a book I disliked?  I knew that some of my students would like it.  It is also a good thing to let students know that you abandon books.  Even good readers don't finish every book that is started.  A book that I recently abandoned was the first City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.  One of my friends and my husband told me it was a good book, but I could not finish it.  I got bored and didn't care what happened to the characters.

Some Recommendations
Any of these books are fantastic read alouds to draw students in and have them complete the series on their own.  They are also great books to give book talks on to draw students interests.

Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
I was just going to put the first book, but I love the series so much that I have to include them all.  The first one is short compared to the rest and gives an introduction into a world different but the same as our own.  Students can relate to Harry, through his horrendous family life, going to a new school, making friends for the first time, and learning to find his way.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (series:  Percy Jackson and the Olympians)
Riordan draws you into the books before you even start chapter one.  Reading through the table of contents will draw in any reluctant reader.  Chapter titles include:  "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-algebra Teacher" and "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom."  The main character is a middle school boy who struggles in school, has ADHD, which makes it easy for kids to identify with him.  The story is filled with adventure and is fast paced so it keeps the reader's attention.

Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman (first in the series)
The series is written in journal format from the viewpoint of one of the main characters Ryan, who is investigating the strange things that are happening in his town, Skeleton Creek.  What really draws in the reluctant reader?  The video component.  The other main character Sarah takes videos and emails them to Ryan, so you get the story from the journal and through the videos.  The videos are accessed online with the use of a password you get while reading.  The videos are creepy also.  Middle school students love that!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (first in a series)
Jeff Kinney writes his books through a journal format also, but it is different that Carman's.  Kinney's are written through a younger middle school student's eyes.  From Kinney's website:  "It's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary."

Phonics: The Recommendations and What They Might Mean to You

Hi everyone! It's Bex from Reading and Writing Redhead with some phonics recommendations. Read on to learn more, see what it might mean in your classroom and for some resource ideas!

Why is phonics instruction so important? I went to school (and student taught) when it seemed like whole language was all the rage. Luckily for me, I found it easy to learn to read and write. Things came naturally to me so I did not have to have phonics instruction in order to succeed as a reader. Unfortunately, that is not going to work for all students. As a reading specialist, I am always thinking about those students who are struggling. We now know that learning phonics will help children learn to read and spell. Written language is like a code, so knowing what sounds the letters and combinations of letters make will help students decode words while reading. Knowing phonics skills will also help students decide what letters to use when they are encoding (or writing words down- or these days, perhaps writing them in a text message or on social media?).

The National Reading Panel examined tons of reading research to find out what it tells us about teaching phonics. I could explain in more detail what kind of studies they used, and how they did it, but let me give you the abridged version. After analyzing all the studies,  the National Reading Panel determined that  phonics is an  essential part of beginning reading instruction. Specifically, systematic and explicit  (follows a particular order/sequence and is directly taught) phonics instruction is more effective than other kinds of phonics instruction or no phonics at all.

What might systematic and explicit phonics instruction look like in your classroom?

•     teaching letter shapes and names
•     teaching phonemic awareness
•     teaching sound/spelling relationships of both consonants and vowels
•    ensuring that students have tons of practice applying the knowledge of  letter-sound relationships  as they learn to read
•    ensuring that students practice this knowledge when learning to encode (spell words in their     writing)
•   using texts that contain many words students can decode using what they have learned 
•   providing students with opportunities to practice spelling words and writing stories while               applying their knowledge of letter-sound relationships

Let me break down some of the more specific recommendations and share what this may mean for your teaching and your students.

 Research has shown that students who received phonics instruction in kindergarten or grade 1 are more successful in learning to read than students who did not. Okay... but WHY is this? I suppose it is for several reasons. A few I can think of may be that kindergarten and first grade is when the bulk of getting students to "learn to read" occurs. After first grade, most children know how to read and you might only teach basic phonics skills systematically to students who have never had it and are also struggling to read. I can't imagine a teacher saying, "This student is new to our school and never was taught phonics, and is reading above grade level, so we need an interventionist to teach her phonics skills".  So, if students receive appropriate instruction in phonics from the get go , they will be less likely to struggle, and those struggling students who never had phonics and who start learning later than grade one tend to not make as much progress and see the same type of success? 

Of course, phonics can be taught to older students and can be used with older students by doing activities with suffixes, prefixes, word origins and more!

 It takes a while for a student to get to where has has instant recognition of words. In the meantime, teaching phonics helps students improve word recognition skills by providing information on which letters and letter combinations make what sounds (such as that ir, er, and ur all make the same sound). Also, with an understanding of more advanced concepts like rhyming and syllabication, the student has a lot of tools that he can keep in his reading "toolbox" for when he comes to new words when reading.

As far as comprehension, if a student can recognize or decode words quickly and easily, he is  much more likely to understand what he is  reading.

With spelling, what usually happens is as a child's reading skills improve, so does his spelling. Instructing students on letter-sound relationships also your student tools to use when trying to encode (spell) a new word. For example, if a student wants to write the word "turn" but has never done so, he can draw on knowledge that t makes the first sound of turn, n is the ending sound, and that the middle sound is probably er, ir, or ur. This is why when students are learning to spell you may come across spellings that are close and that make sense, but not quite correct, such as "tirn" for "turn".

Quality phonics instruction helps students no matter what their background may be. I don't know if there is much that needs to be explained here, but even if a child comes from a home where  there are no reading materials, or if a student is an ELL student, effective phonics instruction gives them the tools to decode words and develop their skills as a reader.

Reading Specialists are often doing phonics  interventions with students who need extra help; however, classroom teachers can and should teach phonics to all students. Here are some general tips, whether you are teaching your whole class or a small group (or tutoring an individual student).

• Focus on a few regular sound and spelling patterns and then move into irregular sounds and spellings later 
• Include a lot of practice (fun, not tiring!). There are tons of resources to make phonics instruction and practice fun.
• Use multisensory materials and strategies. Paper and pencil gets tedious!
• Frequently review previously taught material, especially with students who have struggled to learn to read. This will ensure they do not lose skills they previously learned.
• Include words and text at an appropriate developmental level for the students
• Give immediate feedback if students make errors - it may be better to correct them so they don't learn it wrong, but you can give feedback in a positive way rather than be overly critical.
• Frequent assessment (formal and informal) will help you see if students are making sufficient progress.

So phonics is important, but research and experience has taught us that the best reading programs are well balanced. Students should be working with the alphabet, doing phonemic awareness activities, listening to stories and texts read aloud, reading texts themselves, and practicing writing in whatever way is appropriarte (words, stories, letters, poems...) 

Also, keep in mind the major areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. If you want to see our other blog posts of those topics, click on the "Topics" heading up at the top of our page and find the one you want to see more of!

Resources
Here are some resources for phonics instruction that I have come across. Do you have a resource to share or a link? Please comment below and let us know!

Geraldine Giraffe Videos - my class loves her! She is a puppet that teaches phonics skills. The link will take you to Mr. Thorne's youtube channel. he also has awesome lessons that he does himself without Geraldine.

Teachers Cauldron's Reading Mini Lesson with Phonics 

Make Take Teach's Phonics Folder Games and Actvities and segmenting and blending activities

Teacher Mom of 3 has a guest blogger with great information about phonics and some resources

Applicious Teacher has a helpful post about phonics in action with some resources for you

 Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera shares some fun way to teach phonics

Games 4 Learning has a phonics freebie

Heidisongs has a detailed post on the DIBELS (reading assessment) and what phonics skills are involved, aslong with resources to help students

Sarah Winchell's Teaching Resources for the Classroom always has great information and freebies for you. a recent post has a free phonics game.

On Teachers Pay Teachers Marsha McGuire has a throrough resource of word work.

Karen Jones has a huge phonics pack you can check out.

You can also take look at my Mystery Words Pack or the individual sets to help students review common letter and sound combinations.

Online games and activities include:
Phonics games at a UK site

Phonics games online Family learning
Starfall's website

Persuasive vs. Argumentative Writing: What's the Difference?

Hi! It's Erin from Lovin' Lit, here to discuss the differences between persuasive and argumentative writing.

Argumentative vs. Persuasive: What’s the difference between argumentative writing versus persuasive writing? The answer is simple. Research.

Persuasive writing is opinion based.

Argumentative writing is research based.

You might have your students write a persuasive essay, and it probably would require little or no research. Example: Should uniforms be mandatory in schools? Students can easily come up with valid arguments without doing any research. That is persuasive writing.

One shift with the Common Core is that students should be doing more argumentative writing. That is, writing that persuades the reader one way or the other with research.

Does this mean that your students have to go out in search of their own information? Not necessarily.

The best way to ensure that the writing activities you are doing with your students are argumentative and not simply persuasive is to find writing activities that cannot be done without the specific reading passage or passages you give them. In other words, for argumentative writing, you want your students to be writing about something they didn’t know anything (or at least not much) about before your lesson started. Having students take a stand based on evidence in a reading passage and write an organized paragraph or essay about it is the ultimate goal in writing.

It’s combining:
Reading comprehension
Citing text evidence
Persuasive writing
Research

All rolled into one activity!

It’s the ultimate Common Core writing experience. Master this, show your principal, and you’re golden! Because argumentative writing is such a hard and complex skill, you must keep student interest at the center of any activity you do. Don't attempt to practice such a hard skill with a topic or subject that your students care little about. If your students care about the subject and actually have an opinion about what you are asking them to write about, their writing is going to be SO MUCH BETTER!

I’m constantly thinking of and looking for topics that my students would care to write about.  A prison escape with an open ending is something that is interesting to just about everyone. This activity on the Escape from Alcatraz is my favorite argumentative writing activity. It’s definitely introductory level as I do it with my 6th graders early in the year. I have made changes and added options in this packet so that it can be done with students as low as 3rd grade or as high as 8th. I've done it with my own son (3rd grader with exceptionalities – autism) and he was riveted and interested from the start.

Grab this lesson for free (only through February 28th!) from Google Docs.