Critical Questioning and Specificity in Evidence

1. Critical Questioning and Specificity in Evidence Josefino Rivera, Jr. AOSR: English 10 September 22-23, 2010

2. Homework • Read “The Games of School”: Middle School • Prepare for Card Quiz • Reading Log “Middle School”

3. Today’s Objectives • To review Costa’s Questions • To summarize the reading from last night • To showcase reading comprehension • To analyze Fried’s argument • To understand specificity in evidence

4. Costa’s Questions Review • Purpose: • To think critically in order to read, write, listen, and speak critically • Review: • Level 1: Input questions or information gathering • Define, list, name, identify, scan, observe, name, recite • Level 2: Process questions or working with the information • Sequence, compare, contrast, classify, analyze, synthesize • Level 3: Output questions or creating new knowledge • Imagine, speculate, hypothesize, evaluate, judge, predict

5. Costa’s Questions Pop Quiz (C) • Bianca is working on a new photo. How is shooting in black and white different from shooting in color? • Benny and her friends are watching a video of themselves playing a volleyball game they lost. Based on what they see, how could they have won that game? • Caera is in the middle of a performance and her guitar goes sharp. How could Caera prevent her sound from being out of tune? • Prateek is running his 5th mile. What is he doing so he doesn’t burn out? • Ginevra is organizing all her CD albums. How can she classify the CDs so they are easy to find? • Jinhie is creating a new recipe for a homemade hamburger. How does she know which order to put the ingredients in? • Lucas is finding similarities between the other two languages he knows: Spanish and Italian. What are the similarities between the two languages?

6. Costa’s Questions Pop Quiz (F) • Domitilla is working on a new series of night photography. How does she capture photos at night without using a flash? • Luca and Jacopo are watching a video of themselves playing a rugby game they lost. Based on what they see, how could they have won that game? • Neha and Chiara are both dancers, but Neha performs traditional Indian dance and Chiara performs hip hop. What makes each dance unique? • Silvia translates “jejune” in Mandarin because she doesn’t know its definition. What is the Mandarin word for jejune? • Federica is the lead in the new school play. What are her opening lines? • Faisal is creating a new recipe for a homemade hamburger. How does he know which order to put the ingredients in? • How is Amalia’s freestyle stroke in swimming similar to Vicky’s serve in volleyball?

7. Creating and Classifying Questions • On your post-its, create a total of 3 questions between you and your partner: • 1 input • 1 process • 1 output • Once you and your partner have finished, exchange your post-its with another pair of students. Decide if they are input, process, or output. • I will card call students and you will have to classify or categorize one of your questions on the board and explain your thinking out loud. • Audience will evaluate their placement: • Thumbs down: incorrect • Thumbs up: correct

8. Homework Check • Pair share your Reading Log to your partner. • Readers, remember to show your partner that you are reading to them by turning your bodies toward them and giving them some eye contact every now and then. • Listeners, remember to show your partner that you are listening by turning your bodies toward them, giving them complete eye contact, and nodding your head as needed.

9. The Game of School Quiz • The “Game of School” is… • According to Fried, every child entering elementary school has… • Ira Glass noticed that the longer a child was in school, the… • According to a group of elementary school teachers, students “turn off” to school at the age of… • …because… • From the fourth to the fifth grade, Kate O’Regan experienced… • Fried argues, “As the child proceeds through school, he may, in fact, learn many useful and interesting things.” But he also learns to… • Chris, a former student of the author, was able to con his parents by…

10. Essays: The Written Sequence 1 Introduction + Thesis 2 Claim, Evidence, Commentary 3 Claim, Evidence, Commentary 4 Claim, Evidence, Commentary 5 Conclusion (so what?)

11. Major Claim • What is Fried’s argument? • Take a Stand: • Do you agree of disagree with Fried’s argument? • Provide examples from your own life.

12. Analysis of Fried’s argument • Purpose: to find patterns • Card Sort: organize cards by finding patterns. • 2 Groups • Matching: evidence with claims

13. Claims/Arguments “School too often insists…” “Ira Glass, host of the radio program…” “A group of elementary teachers…” “A child may learn…” Evidence “How do I get…” “Everyone always… “ “That’s when they start…” “I was an avid reader…” “Basically, the game of school…” Two groups

14. Evidence • What makes strong evidence? • Specific who • Specific what • Specific when • Specific where • Specific why (significance)

15. Strong Evidence • Claim: A child may learn many useful and interesting things. But he also learn to undervalue his own learning in favor of “doing the work,” pleasing his teachers, getting good marks on his report cards so his parents will be happy. • Evidence: I was an avid reader through fourth grade. I read every Babysitter’s Club book ever made. What I went to fifth grade, I was faced with grades! My teacher had the reputation of being extremely strict. I was no longer allowed to read any Babysitter’s Club-type books. Every semester if we wanted an A in reading, we had to read 1,000 pages. Now, I loved reading, yes; but I wasn’t a fast reader. Yet I wanted that A. I started complaining of my “eyes hurting” when I read, and I stopped reading. I lied about the books I read, and I faked all the book reports. I didn’t read a book from fifth grade until my junior year in high school. ~Kate O’Regan, former student

16. What’s missing? • Claim: A child may learn many useful and interesting things. But he also learn to undervalue his own learning in favor of “doing the work,” pleasing his teachers, getting good marks on his report cards so his parents will be happy. • Example 1: Once when I was in fourth grade, I used to collect things because I wanted to know more about them. But when I started going to science class, he killed my love for it. • Example 2: This one time my parents didn’t let me go to my best friend’s birthday party because I got bad grades. • Example 3: In elementary school, my teachers would put stickers only on my completed assignments.

17. Daily Journal • Date: 22/23.9.2010 • Title: Elementary School • Prompt: Evaluate your participation in the Game of School in elementary school. Recall a point when you turned your focus away from learning new things to pleasing the teacher in elementary school and think about what happened and why. • Reminder: Be specific in your examples!

18. Homework • Read “The Games of School”: Middle School • Prepare for Card Quiz • Reading Log “Middle School”

19. Exit Card 3 Questions (1 input, 1 process, 1 output) 2 Things that make evidence strong 1 Problem, concern, or question you still have