Supporting argumentation in the elementary class

The author uses a debrief discussion as a “discourse routine” where students discuss their claims and evidence to support those claims in a group discussion. The teacher frames and restate... See More

The author uses a debrief discussion as a “discourse routine” where students discuss their claims and evidence to support those claims in a group discussion. The teacher frames and restates in terms of claims and evidence (modeling language) and accepts all answers. Then, through discussing what variables may have contributed to different answers and retesting, students try to resolve disagreements. This articles does a great job identifying a specific practice that will be helpful in creating a community of scientists that will foster the important practice of engaging in argument from evidence as listed in the Practices for K-12 Science Classrooms. This is one of the three interwoven dimensions of “A Framework for K-12 Science Education” that will be the basis for the Next Generation Science Standards.

Science Discourse/more than one right Answer

This article could help a teacher introduce & implement productive disagrement in science. It begins with modeling, showing studetns what it looks like. In the process of this modleing, stu... See More

This article could help a teacher introduce & implement productive disagrement in science. It begins with modeling, showing studetns what it looks like. In the process of this modleing, students are introduced to the language they will need to be able to disagree productively. The article also instructs the teacher in how to resolve the disagreement. think the article is great for someone hoping to implement scientific argumentation in the classroom.