241: Highly Recommended: Reframe Argument like This for Students

<p dir="ltr">This week I want to talk about argument, and why it seems so esoteric to kids when they learn about it at school, and so relevant when they watch it unfold on their screens. </p> <p>This week a member of our Lighthouse community threw out a question - <strong>is the five paragraph essay dead</strong>?</p> <p>It really got me thinking about my experience as someone who basically writes all day long. I write podcasts, blog posts, Instagram carousels, social media captions, interview outlines, and emails from morning til night. And I am very often trying to argue something. I argue that slam poetry will help you engage students with poetry. Or that it’s important to build art and design into ELA classes because communication is increasingly through multimedia. Or that student podcasting is not as hard as it seems. </p> <p>But do I use the 5 paragraph essay structure that I learned back in high school? Do I use formal language and avoid contractions and keep slang out of it and always always always use 3rd person? </p> <p>Interesting question.</p> <p>I often do use elements of the 5 paragraph essay. Hooks matter. Introducing what a piece is going to be about from the get go so people know what to expect. Supporting ideas with anecdotes, statistics, or relevant visuals to help bring home a point that makes the argument. Wrapping it all up, at least to some extent, with a concluding bow. </p> <p>But I almost never go with formal language or 3rd person, and the extensive online writing class I took long ago basically told me I had better use contractions or suffer the consequences of sounding stilted and distant. Slang, pop culture references, and a good GIF help me make my point. Even emojis have been recommended to me by professionals in the online community as important additions to certain types of writing.</p> <p dir="ltr">So this week, I want to suggest that you talk with kids about how argument shows up in their world - maybe even ask them to go on a scavenger hunt for argument. </p> <p dir="ltr">Wha