1. Argument Writing Introduction
Experiencing and Scaffolding the Cognitive Writing Demands in Module 9.4
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2. Session Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Describe the cognitive demands of and recursive relationship between close reading and argumentative writing.
Explain how Module 9.4 supports adolescent development of argumentative writing.
Adapt lessons based on the analysis of sample student writing in Module 9.4.
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3. Materials in this Session
9.4 Module Overview
Sugar Changed The World excerpt
9.4.1 Lesson 14
9.4.1 Lesson 16
You can download all of the modules on EngageNY.org:
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4. Overview of Module 9.4: Design Considerations
Students closely read the supplementary texts as examples of argument writing, learning the skills and components necessary for strong argument writing.
Lessons build towards written performance tasks, providing students with the tools to evaluate and synthesize arguments, culminating in a student’s own argument.
Instruction should respond to the immediate writing needs of students.
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5. Overview of Module 9.4: Focus
In Module 9.4, students read, analyze, and evaluate informational and argument writing and build, through focused instruction, the skills required to craft strong and well-supported argument writing of their own.
Through the study of a variety of texts, students learn to think of the products they use and consume everyday as part of a complex web of global production and trade that extends not only to distant lands but to the past as well.
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6. Overview of Module 9.4: Texts
Central Text:
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science
Supplementary Texts:
“Globalization: The Growing Integration of Economies and Societies Around the World” (World Bank)
“How Your Addiction to Fast Fashion Kills” (law.fordham.edu)
“Where Sweatshops Are a Dream” (The New York Times)
“Bangladesh Factory Collapse: Who Really Pays for Our Cheap Clothes?” (CNN)
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7. Overview of Module 9.4: Mid-Unit Assessment
Student complete an Argument Outline Tool in response to the following prompt: “Who bears the most responsibility for ensuring that clothes are ethically manufactured?”
Students are assessed on their ability to introduce a precise central claim and clearly organize and develop a relationship between two supporting claims and counterclaims, including one piece of evidence to support each supporting claim and counterclaim.
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8. Overview of Module 9.4: Ongoing & End-of-Unit Assessments
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9. Overview of Module 9.4: Module Performance Assessment
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10. You Are Here
Part 1: Experiencing the Cognitive Demands of Argumentative Writing
Part 2: Analyze How Module 9.4 Lessons Scaffold The Tools to Evaluate and Synthesize Arguments.
Part 3: Adapt Lessons Based on Student Writing Needs
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11. Reading to Support A Written Argument
Task #1: Independently, read p. 70 from Sugar Changed the World and “How Your Addiction to Fashion Kills” to build an argument about how low cost fashion relies on harsh labor practices. Annotate the author’s claims and evidence. Use the Argument Outline Tool to organize your planning for an individual response.
Prompt: “Who bears the most responsibility for ensuring that clothes are ethically manufactured?”
Time: 15 minutes
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12. Quick Write Jot down your reflections on completing this task.
What reading skills did you find yourself using?
What did you find most challenging about the thinking involved in the reading of these excerpts?
What does your experience suggest about the relationship between reading and writing?
Use the “Quick Write” section in your packet.
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13. Reading to Support A Written Argument
Task #2: With a partner, discuss your argument, sharing your Argument Outline Tool. Use the following questions to guide the conversation:
What arguments does the author make about who bears the most responsibility for ensuring clothes are ethically manufactured?
What claims does the author use to support the argument?
What possible counter-claims could challenge the author’s point of view?
Time: 10 minutes
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14. “Bottlenecks”
Points where the learning of a significant number of students is interrupted (Anderson, 1996).
The predictably complex phases of writing can be impediments to developing the desired close reading and argumentative writing skills.
Can be seen as cognitive, affective, or motivational “obstacles” (Pace & Middendorf, 1994).
Underscores the necessity of ongoing and authentic formative assessment.
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15. Deconstructing Our Literate Thinking
Task #3: At your table, discuss how you closely read the two text excerpts and created your Argument Outline Tool. Use the Grade 9 standards (CCRA.R.9, RI , RI , RI , and W a-e) and the following questions to guide the conversation:
How did your thinking with the text align to the Grade 9 writing standards?
What skills did you employ to closely read the text excerpts?
What questions about the topic did the text evoke?
What “bottlenecks” did you encounter with the text and how might these be similar or different than those “bottlenecks” experienced by your students?
Time: 15 minutes
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16. Bon Appétit
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17. Session Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Describe the cognitive demands of and recursive relationship between close reading and argumentative writing.
Explain how Module 9.4 supports adolescent development of argumentative writing.
Adapt lessons based on the analysis of sample student writing in Module 9.4.
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18. You Are Here
Part 1: Experiencing the Cognitive Demands of Argumentative Writing
Part 2: Analyze How Module 9.4 Lessons Scaffold The Tools to Evaluate and Synthesize Arguments.
Part 3: Adapt Lessons Based on Student Writing Needs
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19. Analyze the Scaffolding and Sequencing of Module 9.4 Lessons 1-14
Task #4: Annotate the Module/Unit at a Glance Calendar (p. 8-11). Use the following questions to guide your annotations and explore relationships between text excerpts, standards, tools, and the mid-unit assessment:
What text excerpts are used and how are they sequenced?
What writing and reading standards are addressed in lessons 1-13?
What tools are introduced and scaffolded for students in lessons 1-13?
How do the lessons prepare students for the mid-unit assessment?
Time: 10 minutes
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20. Meet Ani Rosario 3rd year English teacher at Dansville High School
Teaches both 9th grade Honors English and 9th grade regular English courses
Piloted ten lessons of Module 9.4 during April-May
Used Lessons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, leading to Mid-Unit Assessment
Had previously taught the Odell Close Reading Unit with these same students
Has met with fellow English teaching colleagues (cross- district) since September to unpack modules
Dansville High School: 575 students, rural, 65% low income
83% of students at/above a “3” on State English Accountability
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21. Analyze the Writing of Ani’s Students
Task #5: You have been provided with writing samples for two of Ani’s students. For each student, you have been provided an initial quick write, a close reading annotation, and the mid-unit assessment. Annotate the student writing samples using the following standards:
CCRA.R.9 RI RI RI
W a-e
Time: 15 minutes
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22. Comparison of Annotations
Join a set of partners who reviewed a different student’s writing.
Share evidence of students meeting the standards.
Discuss evidence of standards not seen in the writing standards.
Identify the top two/three writing needs of each student using the standards below as a guide.
CCRA.R.9 RI RI RI
W a-e
Time: 10 minutes
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23. Looking Ahead: End-of-Unit Assessment
What skills must these spotlight students master in order to be successful on the End-of-Unit Assessment?
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24. Backward Design: Begin with the End in Mind
Stage 1: What do we want students to understand, know, and be able to do?
Stage 2: What will be the evidence that they have accomplished this?
Stage 3: What learning activities will lead to the desired outcomes?
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25. Stage 1 – Learning Goals
Common Core Standards, Content Standards, and Other Established Goals
Transfer Goals (CCR)
Meaning Goals (Understandings and Essential Questions)
Acquisition Goals (Knowledge and Skills)

26. Stage 2 – Evidence Directly reflects goals identified in Stage 1
Elicits evidence to validate that the targeted learning has been achieved
Sharpens and focuses teaching
Performance tasks: Students apply learning to a new and authentic situation to assess their understanding and ability to transfer their learning
Other evidence: Assessments of discrete knowledge and skills
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27. Stage 3 – Instructional Activities
Instructional activities are designed after identifying desired knowledge, skills, and understanding, and determining acceptable evidence toward those goals.
Formative assessment practices are part of lesson design to check for student understanding and progress toward desired goals.
Activities are differentiated to ensure that all students will reach the desired outcomes.
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28. Analyze the Writing of Ani’s Students
Task #6: Choose one of the lessons (15-18) following the Mid-Unit Assessment. Annotate the lesson by identifying evidence of each stage of Backwards Design. Then, adapt the lesson according to the previously identified writing need of at least one spotlight student. Consider the following:
How might an additional standard need to be addressed in the lesson?
How might formative assessment provide a richer understanding of the writing growth and ongoing needs of students?
How might the planned activities be adapted to provide more focused and explicit writing instruction for the spotlight students?
Time: 10 minutes
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29. Closing Discussion
What “bottlenecks” did the spotlight students encounter?
How do the current lessons in Module 9.4 account for these “bottlenecks?”
What adaptations could help address these “bottlenecks?”
What do we want our fellow teachers to understand about supporting adolescent argumentative writing in Module 9.4?
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30. Online Parking Lot
Please go to and select “Online Parking Lot” for any NYSED related questions.
Thank You!
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