Students need to be able to make a great argument to find success at school, and in many professions. They need to come up with an idea, find evidence, analyze their evidence, and tie it all together with a well-written bow.
Thus, for many decades, students have written essays. We’ve taught them to write thesis statements, organizing sentences, transitions, topic sentences, and conclusions. We’ve taught them how to punctuate their quotations and how to analyze them. We’ve typed up fixes for common errors, guided peer editing workshops, created revision stations, and so much more to help them write better essays.
Then they go home.
And so often they just don’t see the relevance of their essays to their lives. They see argument all around them – in the children’s books they read their little siblings, the political ads on Youtube, Instagram carousels on big issues, polarized podcasts playing in the background of their lives, infographics hither and yon, Tik-Tok videos trying to convince them to dump their gummy bears in Sprite and stick it in the freezer, and in a million other places.
So what if, mixed in with our essays, we pushed students to NOTICE how argument surrounds them. To learn from new ways ideas are shared and supported, outside the traditional essay sphere.
Today’s request for this summer’s “Plan My Lesson” series comes from a teacher looking for ways to practice argument that don’t revolve around an essay.
This is a fun one for me, because I’ve designed SO many projects like this. But it’s also challenging, because I’ve designed so many projects around this!
I’d like to give you about 50 ways to practice argument without an essay, and I probably could. We could get into designing literary food trucks and arguing for each detail as a reflection of the book, hexagonal thinking for argument, designing infographics, recording podcasts, holding mock trials, creating visual research carousels to argue for an issue, real-world quick prompts with real-world audiences, argument one-pagers… honestly, there are so many ways to go.
But we’ve covered a lot of this on the pod already, and we have just ONE class period to plan here. So instead of diving back into one of these topics, let’s explore a new one – using children’s books to search out fresh craft moves when it comes to argument.
Today we’ll explore one lesson in which students see how an author can combine visuals, humor, argument, and counterargument to make a clear, persuasive case on an issue. Sure, to children. But the same rules could apply for any argument! After exploring some fabulous mentor texts, students will try it out for themselves, focusing on the hesitations of their audience (or in other words, counterargument).
Classroom Set-Up: Groups
Before students arrive for today’s lesson, pull your seating into small groups. You’ll want to have as many groups as you have children’s books from the library (more on that in a moment).
A bit of context – this lesson is going to revolve around children’s books that make an argument. Though there are many texts you could use, my top pick today is Mo Willems’ work, specifically humorous titles like The Pigeon has to go to School, Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late, The Pigeon Needs a Bath, Waiting is not Easy, and Should I Share my Ice Cream? Willems carefully addresses counterargument after counterargument in these books, as his characters go through a long process of NOT wanting to follow a common rule of childhood (and coming up with dozens of reasons to support their opinion), then realizing it’s for the best.
Agenda & Attendance Question
As we’ve talked about throughout this “Plan My Lesson” series, I suggest you have your agenda up on the board as students come in, and that you kick off class with a quick community-building attendance question. Today, as a segue into the topic of the class, I’d suggest asking students what book they loved most as a little kid. Hopefully you will hear about a range of fun books they remember, and get them thinking back to what books they found meaningful when they first began to read.
Book Tour: Mo Willems
For this next part of the lesson, you’re going to need to visit your local library, or snag some digital copies of children’s books that you can showcase on the media you have access to in class. Or, if you’re a parent, raid your kids’ shelves. You could do this lesson with a wide range of children’s books that make an argument about something, but, as I said, I’m choosing Mo Willems’ books today because I love them and I think they’re a great example of argumentative children’s books. They’re especially wonderful for introducing and showcasing counterargument.
Any of the books pictured here would work to introduce the idea for today, that many children’s books make arguments (subtle or not-so-subtle) to kids, and make them well. And if you can get ALL of these books, so much the better for the next part of class.
So take a few minutes with your students now to read one or two of these books out loud, or to watch an online read-aloud.
I’d choose “Should I share my Ice Cream?” and “The Pigeon Needs a Bath” if I had them all available.
Ask students to notice how Willems’ makes his argument, in this case for sharing and for taking a bath (but for whatever book you use). And also how he addresses – honestly – the hesitations that kids might feel about these things. If this is your first time introducing counterargument, take a few minutes to talk about why it’s important to address when you’re trying to convince someone of something.
Mapping an Argument
Next, scatter however many children’s books you’ve found around the groups in your classroom. Let students know they’ll have a few minutes to look at the book at their station before you’ll call “rotate.” Provide them with a graphic organizer called “Map the Argument.” The graphic organizer should have space for them to jot down what they notice about the structure of the argument in the book they’re looking at. How does the author make the case for their argument? In the case of Mo Willems, it just might include 20 or so counterarguments before moving into a meaningful argument that tops them all.
For example, in The Pigeon Has to Go to School, the argument is really that kids should attend school even though they might be feeling nervous before their first first day. The pigeon comes up with page after page after page of reasons why he is scared to go to school and should not have to go (mimicking so many things kids might be thinking). Then, at the every end, he imagines a place that would fix all the worries he’s just listed, which the reader knows is actually how school is, thus refuting every single argument he made and driving home the thesis. Then he realizes he will get to go in a bus for school – which he loves – and it provides a fun little additional argument in the conclusion to humorously drive (get it, DRIVE?) home the point one more time. It’s the complete opposite of a traditional argument format, and yet it works extremely well for validating but ultimately gently arguing against the many fears kids experience around school.
Students are likely used to the idea of introducing an argument, then providing analysis for several pieces of evidence for it, then making a conclusion.
Children’s books like this one will completely turn that idea on its head, often using humor, visuals, metaphors, storytelling, windy possible counterarguments, etc. as part of the overall argument.
Your graphic organizer might look a little different depending on what books you’re showcasing. You could include a checklist of possible elements for them to search for, room for them to create a little coded diagram of the argument elements they see as they read the book (like the one above), open-ended questions, etc. But you want them to be able to jot down what they notice for several books as you call for 2 or 3 rotations, depending on the length of your period.
Storyboarding Children’s Stories that Make an Argument
Now it’s time to give students a chance to experiment with making a short argumentative illustrated story of their own.
Take a few minutes as a group to brainstorm topics that young children might need to be convinced about:
- I Don’t LIKE sharing
- Lines are Stupid
- I’m just not a homework person
- I’ll climb that tree if I want to, thank you
- I prefer not to play with my sister
OR, give it a little comic twist and address things that teenagers might need to be convinced about.
Then invite students (in partners or on their own) to storyboard a few pages of a children’s book with stick figures (or on Canva, if you want to turn this into a more major project), playing around with the argument elements they’ve discovered in their children’s book tour. For an added twist, you might have them use characters from one of your recent reads as inspiration to help tell the story and make the argument.
Gallery Walk
Now, you could easily extend this into a full project that spills over into another class period or two. Or you could just wrap it up after a quick session of storyboarding and move into a short gallery walk for students to see the kinds of arguments others’ created.
As ever with a gallery walk, give kids a specific purpose as they move around the room to view each other’s work. In this case, invite them to search out the storyboard they find most convincing and give it a “Book Contract.” Essentially, they’re an agent in search of an author’s proposal to bankroll, and this is their chance to choose one.
Have them jot down who they’d give their contract to and why, then turn that into you for a bit of accountability.
Exit Task
As you wrap up the day, invite students to think about all the places argument shows up in the world besides in essays. Have everyone contribute one or two mediums to a giant list on the board.
Optional Extension in the Coming Days
If you’d like to build more children’s book exploration into the week following this lesson, try including quick argument prompts into your lessons. I created this series for our children’s book theme in The Lighthouse, but you could also create your own.
Incorporate different elements of argument writing into the prompt, to invite students to experiment with using their own voice, adding in anecdotes, addressing counterargument, or whatever else you want them to push themselves to try.
For example, here’s one prompt from my series:
It’s easy to see books as already chosen by a team of knowledgable people and therefore beyond questioning or reproach. But what if you read one you don’t agree with? One where you feel like the main character got stifled, forced to fit in with a crowd. Or was given bad advice. Or was too cutesy, giving kids unrealistic expectations. Or…..
Choose a children’s book that you’d like to tweak. What went wrong for you and where? What would you change and why? In this argument, let your voice and personality come through with first person. Consider using a story from your own life to make a point.
Teaching Takeaways
One of my favorite takeaways from today’s lesson is the idea that you can find fodder for your lessons EVERYWHERE.
If you loved it, or everyone is talking about it, or it’s gone viral, or your kids liked it, etc., why not design a lesson around it?
My own children and I have loved Mo Willems’ stories so much, and we watched his amazing video series at the Kennedy Center during the pandemic, so it was easy for me to imagine a way to use them in a lesson. But the same can be true for so many things. You stop at a beautifully designed food truck and suddenly start to wonder – what would a Macbeth food truck look like? You watch the latest viral cat video and think to yourself, my students could write the internal monologue of that cat using their vocabulary words from this week. You hear a popular rap song and notice six literary devices in it, and soon a new lesson on poetic language is born.
Another big one for today is the idea of mentor texts. When it comes to argument, finding people making their points in interesting ways can help amp up students’ engagement AND give them fresh options for their writing toolboxes. Penny Kittle did an amazing workshop about the way she uses mentor texts and writing notebooks in class for us in The Lighthouse, if you want to dive deeper into this idea. Mo Willems is incredibly persuasive when it comes to teaching kids that school’s not so scary, waiting is worth it, sharing is rewarding, and so much more. Why not apply some of his techniques to arguing for, well, just about anything?
Then there’s the gallery walk, a real go-to for me as a way to get kids out of their seats and let them see the best work happening in class. I ALWAYS suggest a specific action for students to do while they gallery walk, as it becomes social and finishes way too quickly if you just let kids wander. Give them a ballot or takeaway sheet of some kind to keep them on track for the best results.
