[Don't] Argue with me!

I'm guessing I said the above to my kids when they were teenagers more often than I'd like to admit (!) ...

Ethan Heine@Flickr

But one area the new Common Core curriculum standards covers is argument--argument in the formal sense with a claim, evidence, warrant, and rebuttal. Today I introduced those terms to kids. If you'd like to view the Prezi yourself, link here. For this marking period, students will become familiar with the terms as they plan their oral arguments; next marking period they will write a formal argument for their research paper.

Today and tomorrow students will sign up in groups. This marking period we are allowing kids for form their own groups. Of course, if there are any students who are at loose ends, I will intervene and get them into a group. I've also encouraged students to look around for others who may not have friends in class and offer them an invitation to join their group.