WVSU LESSON PLAN FORMAT (Updated 1/13)

Teacher Candidate Brooke Miller

Date March 20, 2014
School Poca High School
Grade/Subject English 12 CR
Unit Topic Claim/Evidence/Warrants
Lesson Topic Supporting a claim through evidence and warrants.
Lesson 1, Lesson 2, or Lesson 3? Lesson 1
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES/ STUDENT OUTCOMES
1. Students will establish a claim when given a highly argumentative, question-based prompt.
2. Students will justify their claims by giving reasons to why they chose the claim they did.
3. Students will correlate their reasoning with specific evidence they find via the Internet or
other sources.
4. Students will connect their evidence to their reasoning for their claim through a warrant.
WV CSOS
ELA.12.W.C9.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using
valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the
claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create
an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons and
evidence.
Develop and justify claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying
the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and
limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audiences knowledge level,
concerns, values, and possible biases.
Analyze words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major
sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between
claims(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence and between claim(s) and
counterclaims.
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the
norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the
argument presented.
MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Overall Time: 70 Minutes
Time Frame
10 Minutes Introduction: Why is argument important?
10 Minutes Take A Stand Questions
10 Minutes Board activity for reasoning
5 Minutes Explanation of evidence
15 Minutes Who Did It? Activity
20 Minutes Completion of worksheet
STRATEGIES
Teacher-Led Discussion
Questions Probing
Enhanced Lecture
Writing in Class
Problem-Based Learning Cases
Problem-Based Learning Guided Design
Reflective Discussion
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION/ ADAPTATIONS/ INTERVENTIONS
(Learning Styles, Students with Special Needs, Cultural Differences, ELL)
After introducing why argument is important, I will pass out a graphic organizer to all students so they
can see the different parts of an argument and how they relate to one another.
The exit worksheet I will give students will be sectioned off and labeled to correlate with the
responses they are expected to give.
If students are having a difficult time paying attention, I will allow them to be the ones to write on the
board rather than me.
PROCEDURES: Introduction/ Lesson Set

To begin the lesson, I will ask students to explain why they think argument is important. I will then ask
them if they think fact or argument rules intellectual thinking. Upon their responses, whether they
are correct or incorrect in their thinking, I will read to them the following: If you think fact, not
argument, rules intelligent thinking, consider the following example. For nearly 2000 years, educated
people in many Western cultures believed that bloodlettingdeliberately causing a sick person to
lose bloodwas the most effective treatment for a variety of illnesses. The fact that bloodletting is
beneficial to human health was not widely questioned until the 1800s, and some physicians
continued to recommend bloodletting as late as the 1920s. We have come to accept a different set of
facts now because some people began to doubt the effectiveness of bloodletting; these people
argued against it and provided convincing evidence. Human knowledge grows out of such differences
of opinion, and scholars, like many college professors and even high school teachers, spend their lives
engaged in debate over what may be counted as true, real, or right in their fields.

From this, I will then ask students if they can think of any other examples where an argument has
changed humanity. If they cannot think of any, I will add these on: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil
Rights Movement. Judith Sargent Murray and fighting for the equality of women against the
domestic sphere.

Through this introduction, students will have a solid understanding as to why it is important to learn
about argument.
PROCEDURES: Body & Transitions

After students begin to understand the importance of the ability to argue, I will read the following list
of argumentative prompts allowed one at a time. After reading a prompt, I will then call on a student
and ask them to take a stand on it:

Should teachers carry guns?
Should the school day start later for teens and earlier for younger students?
Should teachers be friends with students on social networking sites such as
Facebook?
Do online students have more opportunities to cheat?
Should energy drinks be banned in America?
To encourage healthy eating, should higher taxes be imposed on soft drinks and
junk food?
Should drunk drivers be imprisoned on the first offense?
Should all citizens be required by law to vote?
Should students caught cheating on important exams or papers automatically fail
the course?
Should all students be required to take a physical education course?
Should professional baseball players who are convicted of using performance-
enhancing drugs be allowed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Once each student has made a stance, I will explain how what they just did was made a claim. I will
then define for them what exactly a claim is and how it is the basis for an entire argument. From the
questions I asked them which they made a claim on, I will choose one that I think all students will feel
strongly about and write it on the board. I will then ask them for reasons for their claim, and write
them down on the board. As they go, if they pick out a reason that is illogical or weak, I will question
them by asking, Can you gather facts and data on this? These questions and small rebuttals will help
them to approach a formal and objective tone. After writing a few of their reasons on the board, I will
have them make the connection of why those arguments are stronger than what they had originally
said. If they give me all strong arguments, I will formulate a weak one myself and ask them why it isnt
strong enough to be considered an appropriate reason.

After students understand the importance of having reasoning for a claim, I will ask them what would
help to support their reasoning. If they dont directly say evidence, I will give them the term. From
here, I will explain what exactly evidence is. After this, I will ask them if they think providing evidence
for their reasoning and claim is enough. Before they answer, I will give them an example based on
their previous claim and reasoning on the board: So if I say this, do you think it would make for a
strong argument? All energy drinks should be banned in America. They are bad for the health of
those they who drink it. According to a study done in 2013 by the American Heart Association,
drinking one to three energy drinks could mess with ones heart rhythm and increase blood pressure.
Students should come to the conclusion that there needs to be something else included; there needs
to be a connection between the evidence and the argument: a warrant. I will then begin the
explanation of what a warrant is with the Who Did It? activity.

To begin the activity, I will project the image of the crime scene via the ELMO. After giving students
a minute or two to look at it, I will read to them the following story:

At five-feet six and a hundred and ten pounds, Barbie Thompson was a sight to
behold and to clasp. When she tore out of the house after a tiff with her husband,
Arthur, she went to the country club where there was a party going on. She left
the club shortly before one in the morning and invited a few friends to follow her
home and have one more drink. They got to the Thompson house about ten
minutes after Barbie, who met them at the door and said, Something terrible has
happened! Arthur slipped and fell on the stairs. He was coming down for another
drinkhe still had the glass in his handand I think hes dead! Oh my goodness
what should I do? The autopsy conducted later concluded that Arthur had died
from a wound on the head and confirmed that hed been drunk.

After reading the story, I will say, We need to attempt to determine what exactly happened in this
crime scene. The main question we are going to focus on is, Can we believe what Barbie says? Is
what you see in the picture consistent with what Barbie says? Students will then give me their claim:
whether Barbie did it or didnt do it. From the claim decided upon as an entire class, I will construct a
T-chart on the board and write the claim at the top. One side of the chart will be labeled evidence,
and the other side will be labeled warrant. I will then ask students to, based on the picture, give me
evidence to back their claim. I will write the evidence on the board as they go. After they have given
as much evidence as they can find, I will ask what students think a warrant is that would relate to the
evidence. From here, we will complete the entire T-Chart. If students begin to give warrants in a tone
that is informal or subjective, I will point this out, and have them rephrase their ideas. An example of
how the T-chart will look is as followed:

Evidence Warrant

Arthur is still holding his glass. When a person falls down, he or she
drops what they are carrying to save
him or herself.





PROCEDURES: Closure

After completing this activity, I will pass out a sheet with all the questions I asked earlier where they
simply stated a claim. I will then give them a second worksheet that will have three sections: each of
these will further be broken down into parts labeled prompt claim, reason, evidence, and
warrant. Students will choose a topic from the list and write it in the prompt section, then make a
claim on it, give a reason for their claim, give evidence to support their claim, and then give a warrant
to connect their evidence. I will allow students to use their cell phones or the class set of laptops to
find a specific piece of evidence for each claim they make. After completing three of them, they will
turn these in to me before leaving.

ASSESSMENT: Diagnostic
Diagnostic assessment for this lesson will be conducted informally through the different questions I
pose to students relating to why they believe argument to be important. Diagnostic assessment will
also be accomplished through the questions I ask them before introducing claim, evidence, and
warrant.
ASSESSMENT: Formative
Formative assessment will be done through the class discussions I will help to lead and the T-chart I
will help them to complete on the board for claim and reasoning. Their participation level in the
Who Did It? activity will also pose as an informal version of formative assessment.
ASSESSMENT: Summative
Summative assessment for this lesson will take place with through the worksheet students will have
to complete before leaving that has them make a claim, give a reason, give evidence for their
reasoning, and connecting the evidence to their reasoning via a warrant.
MATERIALS
White Board
ELMO (projection onto Smart Board)
Who Did It? crime-scene image
12 copies of argumentative prompts (questions)
12 copies of final, exit worksheet.
EXTENDED ACTIVITIES
If Student Finishes Early
If a student completes the final assignment early, I will ask him or her to continue
to make as many claims/reasons/evidence/warrants as they can on their own
piece of paper based on the other prompts they did not yet address.
If Lesson Finishes Early
If the lesson finishes early, I will have students to go around and share some of
their answers on their worksheets.
If Technology Fails
If the ELMO fails when I try to project the Who Did It? image, I will have a back-
up class set of copies for each individual student.
If the WiFi were to not work in the classroom when students are beginning to look
up their evidence to their reasons, I will ask them to make-up their own statistic to
back their reasoning.

POST-TEACHING
Reflections
Data Based Decision Making