2nd Graders Learning Argumentation!

I was very excited to read this article as it demonstrates that young children are clearly able to engage in argumentation , one of the science and engineering practices found in the Next Ge... See More

I was very excited to read this article as it demonstrates that young children are clearly able to engage in argumentation , one of the science and engineering practices found in the Next Generation Science Standards. Second graders did not do this on their own. They had explicit instructions on how to write and speak in terms of argumentation. They learned to talk about claims and evidence. One way they learned was from the "modeling" done by their teachers similar to modeling they do in literacy such as "think alouds". The article provides strategies and sentence starters for students to use in both writing and speaking. definitely worth reading!

Good read

This article really helped me understand the purpose of scientific arguments and how to provide a way to implement it in my classroom.

Argumentation

This article has the following statements which sum up the article nicely...."A beginning step is to help students understand that a scientific argument is a discussion of ideas—one in which... See More

This article has the following statements which sum up the article nicely...."A beginning step is to help students understand that a scientific argument is a discussion of ideas—one in which people may not always agree. When that happens, they challenge the idea by putting forth evidence to dispute it or asking questions for clarification. It is important for students to understand that this is not a personal attack, but rather a discussion based on the evidence to build understanding." The author's of this article propose that primary grade students can defend their ideas by argumentation, even though most people did not think this could be done. The author's defend their idea with excellent examples of how they guided their students to learn how to argue their points.