They are a recurring nightmare in the United States, a horrifying symptom of some dysfunction in our culture. In the past six months, victims have been theater-goers, Sikh worshipers, and now first graders. A big part of me hates writing this post, instead wanting simply to admire and affirm Jim Burke’s noble call to continue the […]
Gerald Graff
8 Reasons I Embrace Arguments in my Classroom
While writing yesterday’s post about the first writing anchor standard (W.CCR.1), I began to list some reasons why arguments really were a highlight of my past school year’s English and world history classes. I didn’t think I’d do anything with the list so soon… Until today. While I was outside in the driveway cutting some […]
Common Core W.CCR.1 Explained
W.CCR.1 — that’s the 1st College/Career Readiness anchor standard within the Writing strand of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA/Literacy — reads as follows: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Before exploring the actual standard, let’s discuss the “specialness” […]
5 Ways to Make Rigorous Arguments Fun
“Argument,” mentions Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), “is the soul of an education” (p. 24). Why? According to Neil Postman, argument forces the arguer to consider the strengths and weaknesses of multiple perspectives (p. 24, CCSS Appendix A). In other words, arguing helps you see the complex nature of things; it […]
A Class Purpose and the Promotion of Student Flourishing
I love summer break’s gift of decompression. It is during the weeks from mid-June to mid-August that my brain defrags the preceding school year’s experiences, condensing them into a more manageable series of memories, lessons, and principles. What are we about? One principle that I began examining in the Fall of 2011 is that of […]