Forming the Body Paragraphs Body 1 Choose your transition State your 1st reason Provide the evidence for this reason (fact or statistic) Explain the evidence in your own words Support the evidence with an expert’s quote. Find another example or additional evidence (another fact or statistic) Explain this in your own words Support this with an expert’s quote

Where critical thinking is harmed, so too is creativity… One reason standardized testing is harming our students is because educators have been transformed from creative and innovative teachers to “robot-like” delivery trucks, delivering “drill and kill” methods to help students make the score. Such teaching methods stifle innovation and suck students of a most valued tool – critical thinking. This “drill and kill” idea is supported by a five year study from the University of Maryland: “The pressure teachers were feeling to 'teach to the test’…[has resulted in] declines in teaching higher-order thinking, [decline] in the amount of time spent on complex assignments, and [decline] in the actual amount of high cognitive content in the curriculum” (procon.org). When our country’s major Universities speak out and illuminate a problem within education, our politicians need to take notice for it is our Universities that are the foundation of the American education system. Furthermore, as Daniel Pink explains in his book, A Whole New Mind, “We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computer like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age” (pg#). According to Pink, when we stifle critical thinking we are stifling the potential of American students and their place on the world stage of competition. Where critical thinking is harmed, so too is creativity… Transition – Red 1st reason (from thesis) – Purple Evidence to support reason – Blue with expert quote. Explanation of evidence in your own words– Green

Forming the Body Paragraphs Body 2 Choose your transition for second body paragraph State your 2nd reason Provide the evidence for this reason (fact or statistic) Explain the evidence in your own words Support the evidence with an expert’s quote. Find another example or additional evidence (another fact or statistic) Explain this in your own words Support this with an expert’s quote

Forming the Body Paragraphs Body 3 Choose your transition for third and final body paragraph State your 3rd reason (which could potentially be seen as your weakest by the other side). Provide the evidence for this reason (fact or statistic) Explain the evidence in your own words Support the evidence with an expert’s quote. Acknowledge the counterargument for this possible reason Explain in your own words why this is a weak counterargument (this is your rebuttal) Support your rebuttal with an expert’s quote