Spanish Language Arts and Reading.6.9.E.iii

The student is expected to

analyze characteristics and structures of argumentative text by:

 

identifying the intended audience or reader; and

Artes del lenguaje y lectura en español.6.9.E.iii

Se espera que el estudiante

analice las características y estructuras del texto argumentativo al:

 

identificar al público o al lector al que va dirigido; y

SLA multiple genres strand teks talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.

Provide students with several single-paragraph excerpts of argumentative texts and task them with identifying the intended audience for each. The paragraphs should contain enough information that students, with minimal inferring, can reasonably be expected to determine for what audience the author is writing.

Possible Questions:

  • ¿Hay palabras en el texto que indiquen quién es la supuesta audiencia del autor?
  • ¿Qué personas o grupos podrían estar interesados en el tópico del texto?
  • ¿Cuál es la postura del autor? ¿Quién apoyaría o se opondría a esa postura?

Further Explanation

This assessment requires students to identify the group for whom the author’s message is intended. In order to do this, students must first determine the author’s purpose.

a text written to demonstrate to an audience that a certain position or idea is valid and that others are not The writer appeals to reason, develops, defends, or debates the topic, connecting a series of statements in an orderly way so they lead to a logical conclusion.
Students should be able to examine specific components of an argumentative text and make determinations about how and/or why the components were used. Students should know that argumentative texts have unique characteristics such as a claim, an intended audience, and the use of facts in support—or refutation—of an argument. Students should also understand that argumentative texts tend to be structured based on the structure of the claim. For instance, if the claim is that one course of action might be better than another, an advantage/disadvantage structure might be used.
Students are expected to identify the group meant to receive an author’s message. Authors may have various motivations for what they decide to write. They may want to inform readers about something, explain something, persuade them to do something, or simply entertain them. It is also possible that the author intends to do any number of these things within the same text. Students should think about who would be interested in the topic being presented and be aware that the intended audience could be a single person, a group of people, or the general public.

Research

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.