A guide on how to teach RI.8 in middle school ELA, including suggestions for learning targets, resources, and assessments.
Oooh! I love RI.8 because this is where we get to take a magnifying glass to other people’s arguments.
When starting to teach on RI.8, I like to encourage students to think like detectives. They do not want to take any argument as fact without fully investigating the information first and deciding whether or not there is evidence of some sneaky wordplay or persuasion techniques that could be distracting them from the point.
Depending on the decisions your department makes, there are a variety of different persuasive techniques you can focus on as they relate to RI.8, so I’m going to strongly encourage you to sit down with your content teams to decide what specific types of fallacy, logical reasoning techniques, and appeals you intend to teach at each grade-level as you conquer this standard. You’ll want students to be exposed to all of them, but they don’t have to all be introduced at once!
Learning Targets
When we take a closer look at the standards and break them down into digestible pieces, we create learning targets. Learning targets give us manageable goals for working toward mastery of a standard.
In this post about planning curriculum like a Boss, we talk more about how we use standards to create learning targets that decide which projects and activities we’ll use to master the standard. We also talk more about how we use our standards checklists to make sure all standards are being introduced, reviewed, and assessed throughout the year.
Here are the learning targets on which we developed our resources for RL.8.
Teaching RI.6.8 (6th Grade)
6th Grade Standard: Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
6th Grade Learning Targets
- I can identify the argument and specific claims in a text.
- I can evaluate the argument and specific claims for sufficient evidence to support the argument.
- I can determine which supporting evidence is most relevant and which evidence is not.
Teaching RI.7.8 (7th Grade)
7th Grade Standard: Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
7th Grade Learning Targets
- I can identify an argument and its claims in a text.
- I can evaluate an argument and its claims in a text, determining if the support is relevant.
- I can evaluate an argument and its claims in a text, determining if the support is sufficient.
- I can evaluate an argument and its claims in a text to determine if the reasoning is sound.
Teaching RI.8.8 (8th Grade)
8th Grade Standard: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.
8th Grade Learning Targets
- I can evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text.
- I can assess whether the argument or reasoning is sound and whether the evidence is relevant and sufficient in a text.
- I can recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced in a text.
Think Local
Since these standards are all about delineating and evaluating arguments, your content sources can be pulled from anywhere.
Although it is easy to find sources (especially extreme examples) on the internet or in the news, those are not the only kinds of statements and arguments students are exposed to.
For activities like this, I want to encourage you to think locally.
For example, you can watch commercials from local businesses and break down how they are using fallacy or persuasive appeals to make their points. You can also pick up pamphlets or handouts from the school office, the bank, the local pharmacy, or from other local businesses.
This gives students a chance to see that they can’t quickly trust any argument, especially those that are being made within marketing materials, even those from people they trust or know. They need to consider each argument or statement as something that needs to be considered for purpose and lens.
To keep this process positive, encourage students to consider why statements are being made and what the creator’s intent was. Always approach sources, especially these local sources, assuming good intent and pointing out positives when given the opportunity.
Resources for teaching RI.8
When picking resources to help teach RI.8, you’ll want to make sure the resource teaches, practices, and reviews the standard at the appropriate level for the students you’re teaching.
Each of our resources for this standard includes grade-level specific passages and activities that are fully built out with lessons/activities for each learning target, assessment posters, and answer keys.
Activities and Projects for Practicing and Assessing RI.8 in Middle School
We have fully built out RI.8 resources for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Within these resources are many fully built-out activities and projects for students to work through as they move toward mastery of this standard.
Below, we have outlined a few activities you can consider as you figure out how to teach RI.8 in middle school ELA.
- Mapping the Argument: Much like a traveler uses a map to move from one place to another, a writer’s argument and points can be mapped out as the reader moves through the text. Ask students to map out the idea’s path as it takes the reader from introduction to understanding to acceptance. This is an activity we have in our 6th-grade resource.
- Collect the Facts: Ask students to list out the facts or supporting details from an opinion piece. As students collect facts, they can determine the validity of the facts and whether or not other forms of persuasion are being used. This is an activity in our 7th-grade resource.
- Highlighting Appeals: Have students highlight a text based on the persuasive appeals (Ethos, Pathos, Logos) being used throughout an argument.
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