A few years ago, we were discussing how our own young children were already practicing scientific thinking. As early as kindergarten, some students could clearly define and develop hypotheses. As mothers of elementary-aged students, and as educators at the middle school level, we couldn't help but notice that the work in elementary-level social studies classes was very different. Our kids were learning a lot about historical figures and topics in the primary grades, but were rarely asked to make an argument about these areas of study. In fact, in an informal survey of 116 8th graders, we discovered that 85 percent could clearly define the term hypothesis, but only 42 percent were able to explain the meaning of the phrase thesis statement.
We realized that social studies might be missing the mark early on (both in elementary and later in middle school). It's our job to teach kids that history is not a series of dates or important people. Historical study is an opportunity to make sense of the past and, in doing so, to create clearly stated, evidence-based arguments about it. This work needs to start early. Just like students write hypotheses in science class, they should be writing evidence-based thesis statements in early-grades history units.
We set out to develop supports for making argument-based writing more accessible to elementary and middle school students. If we wanted to see change, we needed to start in our own classrooms, library, and school. This multi-year journey has led us to create a variety of tools that can be used in a writing workshop model or as stand-alone instructional activities. Although we started out with a focus on history, civics, English, and science teachers have also used these tools have successfully throughout our school and district. All of our materials are available for free at BubbleupClassroom.org.
Thesis Statement Graphic Organizer
The foundation to our argument writing instruction is our thesis statement graphic organizer. We wanted to create a clear and concise way for students to collect and organize their thoughts. We began by defining a thesis statement:
A thesis statement is one or more sentences on an issue or topic that takes a position and offers reasons for support.
Then, we use a video created by Andrew Kappel, titled "How to Write a Thesis Statement for Beginners," to introduce the concept. Next, we model for students how to use our graphic organizer based on the Superman example explained in the video: we introduce an issue, take a position on it, and provide three reasons for support.
Thesis Statement Writing Workshop
Our thesis statement writing workshop allows students to think critically; collaborate; and develop the building blocks for developing strong, clearly written thesis statements. Students travel through five different stations during the class period, learning how to craft thesis statements supported by evidence. Each one of these stations could also work as a stand-alone activity.
Station 1: Pick the Best
Given pairs of thesis statements, students are challenged to choose the strongest statement of the pair. They repeat this task four times. Each of the thesis statements has a piece of a QR code, and if they select the correct statement in all four sets, they are able to crack the QR code puzzle using an iPad.
Station 2: Block Party
In this activity, students look at large interlocking toy bricks displaying one word per brick, including sentence starters as needed. They then arrange the bricks, physically building a thesis statement. This is a tactile way to get kids thinking about making an effective argument.
Station 3: Map It
Students take already written thesis statements and deconstruct or map them into the thesis statement graphic organizer. Working backwards helps students build an understanding of how strong thesis statements are written.
Station 4: Rewrite It
We give students a range of weak thesis statements, and they choose three to improve by adding evidence and detail. For example, the statement Goldfish are the best pets might become Goldfish are the best pets because they are inexpensive, are easy to care for, and live a long time. This activity is easy to complete using a Google form or as a paper-and-pen task with the weak statements written on laminated strips.
Station 5: Thesis CSI
Students review cards with evidence statements——quotes, statistics, and data—on a specific topic. Students use the evidence to create a thesis statement and then record it in the graphic organizer. This activity gives them a chance to build an evidence-based argument without asking them to do research, which makes the lesson far more accessible.
Closure: Write Your Own (Exit Pass)
After students have completed one or more of the station-based activities, they go out into the world and write a thesis statement on a topic of their choosing. We get exit passes back that range from arguments about sports to siblings to the reasons why the student's parents should buy them a new smartphone. These exit passes provide an easy way to check for understanding.
Once we tackled the basics of thesis statements with our workshop, we developed additional supports to help students as they write their argument-based thesis statement and essay.
Essay Roadmap
The essay roadmap is our thesis graphic organizer on steroids. It is foldable (see photo), which allows students to first write a thesis statement, and then unfold it to fill in the evidence-based supports for each argument.
We recently used this activity to help students create thesis statements about President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Students worked in small groups to collect evidence from an informational text. Next, these groups drafted a thesis statement about the topic and wrote it on large butcher paper. This large, shareable format allowed them to talk through what evidence was most compelling and why. Once they settled on their final thesis statement, they wrote it on to their essay roadmap graphic organizer and then set to finding details in the text to best support their argument.
Essay Outline Generator
To avoid the panic that can ensue when students encounter a blank page, we worked with our school's technology specialist to develop an online essay outline generator. Students type their thesis statement into a graphic organizer, which then generates an essay outline complete with tips on what to write in each paragraph. Using the superman example from the thesis graphic organizer above, the outline generator tips prompt students to start their essays with a general discussion of their issue, and to end the first paragraph with their thesis statement. In paragraphs that discuss reasons for support, the outline generator reminds students to write topic sentences that focus on a specific reason for support, and to use details and specific examples to make their ideas clear and convincing. By responding to each prompt in the outline generator, students are able to overcome writer's block and compose a solid first draft foundation for their final essay.
Fairy Tale Grab Bags
In this strategy, teachers gather different items relevant to a variety of fairy tales, comic book stories, and movies. Each Fairy Tale Grab Bag is full of evidence related to a particular story. For example, the Snow White bag has an apple, a mirror, a diagram of a heart … you get the idea. Students work in groups to create a thesis statement based on the story and the items in the bag. For example, one group of students wrote about Snow White: Snow White is not very smart because she eats food offered to her by a complete stranger, walks in the woods alone, and lives with seven men that she doesn't know. To keep things light and engaging, we both wear costumes (Gretchen dresses as Little Red Riding Hood, while Corey comes as an evil witch).
For older students, teachers can easily reimagine Fairy Tale Grab Bags without costumes as evidence envelopes. Evidence envelopes can include maps, charts, images, and related documents on an issue for students to review and then craft a thesis statement and an essay based on the evidence.
Start Early
Learning to write a strong thesis statement and then to use that as the basis for an essay can take students years to perfect. Our activities and tools help by providing a strong foundation for writing evidence-based arguments. However, beyond these activities, teachers must promote a growth mindset with this type of writing by providing students with actionable feedback as they write and let them return to their writing, with your feedback in hand, to rewrite and improve.
On this writing journey, we are there to lend not only the tools our students need to be successful, but also feedback and moral support. For so many students, writing can be scary. These activities make it fun.