Persuasive Language and Argument
Claim, evidence and reasoning -- plus spotting the loaded language in someone else's argument.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Do the labelling before the producing. Identifying claim, evidence and reasoning in someone else's argument is easier than building one, and it gives the student the frame. The rewrite task is the most immediately useful — converting a dismissal into an argument is a skill with obvious social value. The question about what evidence would change your mind is the hardest and the most worth asking. Twenty minutes covers half the board.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- PromptAsk 'What's your first step?' or 'What would you say here?'Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two responses and talk through which one fits the situation better.Log as cued
- ModelRole-play it yourself first, then the student tries it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give the student a written script to read from during the role-play.
Drop the script, and play a less helpful partner who asks a follow-up question.
Matching IEP goal
Given a real-life scenario, Student will give a clear, appropriate response in 4 of 5 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than one prompt.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight tasks on argument structure and its manipulation: label claim, evidence and reasoning in a passage about later start times; which is fact and which is opinion — practice runs until six, or practice is too long; name the counterargument to phones should be banned in class; rewrite that's dumb as an argument someone would actually listen to; spot the loaded word in only a reckless district would cut the program.
What to listen for
Listen for claims presented as evidence. Practice is too long is an opinion doing the work of a fact, and students reliably conflate the two. Watch the loaded word item, since reckless is the persuasive machinery of that sentence and a student who cannot see it will be persuaded by it. Notice whether they can concede a point — the final card requires it, and many students read any concession as losing.
Carrying it home
Any disagreement at home can be run this way. Asking for a claim and one piece of evidence, rather than an assertion repeated louder, changes the argument and occasionally settles it.
What's in this activity
- Label claim, evidence and reasoning: 'Later start times help. Districts that switched saw attendance rise. Teens sleep on a different clock.'
- Which is fact and which is opinion: 'Practice runs until six' or 'Practice is too long'?
- Name the counterargument to 'phones should be banned in class.'
- Rewrite 'that's dumb' as an argument someone would actually listen to.
- Spot the loaded word: 'Only a reckless district would cut the program.'
- What evidence would actually change your mind about school uniforms?
- Turn a complaint into a request with a reason attached.
- Concede one point, then argue your own: 'You're right that ___, but ___.'
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth, matched to argumentative writing and discussion expectations.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight tasks play free.
- Why teach spotting loaded language?
- Because it is how arguments are actually made. A student who can name the word doing the persuading in someone else's sentence is much harder to move by rhetoric alone.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.