Knowledge and Skills Statement
Provide students with an argumentative text. Instruct them to read the text, underline the author's claim, and analyze characteristics and structures of the text that provide support for the author's claim.
Further Explanation
For this assessment, the student will determine the position or arguable statement that the author holds about the topic or issue being discussed in the text.
Research
1. Wagemans, J. H. M. (2011). The assessment of argumentation from expert opinion. Argumentation, 25, 329–330. doi: 10.1007/s10503-011-9225-8
Summary: This article introduces a tool that can be used to format an argument from a position of expertise and experience. The tool allows students to learn how to analyze opposing positions and develop questions from a critical perspective. The tool fosters reading comprehension and writing skills.
2. Mirra, N., Honoroff, B., Elgendy, S., & Piertzak G. (2016). Reading and writing with a public purpose: Fostering middle school students' academic and critical community literacies through debate. Journal of Language and Literacy Education. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1100979.pdf
Summary: This study looks at debate as a way to encourage students to analyze complex texts, increasing their academic reading comprehension skills and critical literacy skills. Middle school students were given writing prompts from which they built evidenced-based argumentative essays. Those essays were further refined through the debate process. Administrators noted the way the debate helped students improve their reading and listening skills.