Argumentative Essay Writing Middle School Challenge Activity Printable
Reviewing argumentative essay writing can be challenging, but this engaging and interactive football-themed challenge activity will break it down and make it fun!
Students are given a prompt, texts, and a checklist to write an essay. Each successfully completed step from the checklist earns a puzzle piece. On the appointed day, students are awarded whatever their puzzle shows that they earned!
What's included:
✅ A Challenge for embedded counterclaims
✅ A Challenge for separate counterclaim paragraphs
(These 2 challenges are the same, except for how the counterclaim is addressed.)
✅ Directions for the Teacher
✅ Two original articles and matching prompt
✅ Checklists
✅ Two Planning graphic organizers: 1 for embedded counterclaims and 1 for counterclaim paragraphs.
✅ Editable Puzzles
Your students will love the idea of working for a reward, and they will be more successful with writing as the essay is chunked into manageable pieces. You will love the results!
In my class, students earned a "mud pie" - a pudding cup with "fixins" like gummy bears and chocolate chips, but the puzzle included shows a popcorn reward. The puzzles come in an editable format so you can choose the best reward for your students. :)
The Argumentative Essay Challenge reviews the 5 steps in writing an essay:
1. Read and unpack the prompt. This is accomplished by circling verbs and underlining nouns. Then, the student makes a T-chart with verbs on one side and nouns on the other.
➡️The prompt is: Read the texts and write an essay in which you take a position on whether football is a meaningful part of American culture or is just a business.
2. Flip the prompt. This means to take the prompt and turn it into a statement with blanks for the reasons, thus creating a thesis “skeleton”.
3. Read and Mark the Texts. This is accomplished by setting up a second t-chart and recording the article number and paragraph number for any evidence that helps to support your flipped prompt.
4. Planning. This is accomplished by creating a graphic organizer (Included!)
5. Write the Essay with 5 paragraphs. There is a version for embedded counterclaims and a version for a separate counterclaim paragraph.
TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Laura L. said, "This is a great resource for breaking down argumentative writing. It made the concept more manageable for my students. Thank you!"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Krista D. said, "My students loved this activity! Made writing an arguments essay so easy!"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Lisa C. said, "My students loved this-everyone was engaged!"
SUPPORTS COMMON CORE STANDARD:
CCRA.W.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
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©Mrs. Spangler in the Middle (Elizabeth [Lisa] Spangler)
All rights reserved by the author.
Permission to copy for single classroom use only.
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Thanks, and Enjoy!
