CCRA.R.8: Delineating and Evaluating Arguments, Reasoning and Evidence

Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-60 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up5 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "A student tells the principal: 'Our class should get a fish tank, because fish are fun to watch and my friend's class has one.' Write the claim in one sentence. Then write the two reasons the student gives. Would either reason persuade a principal who has to pay for the tank? Why or why not?"

   Take three answers. On the board, write the claim (the class should get a fish tank) and the two reasons in a column under it. Ask what the principal would want to know that the student never says: cost, care, space, what students would learn. That gap is the subject of the lesson: an argument can be easy to lay out and still give too little support.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Terms for the whole period.

   • Argument: a main claim plus everything offered to support it. Delineate means lay it out part by part.
   • Specific claim: a smaller claim that supports the main claim. Each one needs support of its own.
   • Evidence: facts, numbers, examples or quotations offered as proof. Reasoning: the explanation of why the evidence leads to the claim.
   • Relevant: the evidence bears on this claim. Sufficient: there is enough of it, of good enough quality, to carry the claim.
   • Valid: the conclusion follows from the reasons. A fallacy is a common pattern of invalid reasoning, such as a false choice between two options or a hasty generalization from one case.

   Progression of CCRA.R.8 in grades 6-12 (there is no RL standard 8)

   Grade-level standard	Band and text type	What this band adds
   RI.6.8	Grade 6, informational text	Trace an argument and tell claims backed by reasons and evidence from claims that are not
   RI.7.8	Grade 7, informational text	Judge whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence relevant and sufficient
   RI.8.8	Grade 8, informational text	Delineate the argument and notice when irrelevant evidence is brought in
   RI.9-10.8	Grades 9-10, informational text	Judge whether reasoning is valid; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning
   RI.11-12.8	Grades 11-12, informational text	Evaluate reasoning in seminal U.S. texts: legal reasoning, constitutional principles, public advocacy
   RH.6-8.8	Grades 6-8, history/social studies	Tell apart fact, opinion and reasoned judgment
   RH.9-10.8	Grades 9-10, history/social studies	Judge how far the reasoning and evidence support the author's claims
   RH.11-12.8	Grades 11-12, history/social studies	Test premises, claims and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information
   RST.6-8.8	Grades 6-8, science and technical	Tell apart facts, reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation
   RST.9-10.8	Grades 9-10, science and technical	Judge how far reasoning and evidence support a claim or a recommended solution
   RST.11-12.8	Grades 11-12, science and technical	Evaluate hypotheses, data, analysis and conclusions, checking the data and other sources

   Model text. Read the opinion piece below aloud. It was written for this page with deliberate weaknesses for students to find; the town and the figures are invented. As you read, students mark each sentence C (claim), E (evidence) or R (reasoning) in the margin. Then work through the four examples.

   1The Maple Falls Public Library is open six days a week, but its doors stay locked every Sunday. The town council should open the library from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Sunday is the one day when many families are free at the same time, and a library should be open when people can use it.

   2The library's own numbers show the demand. Last spring the library asked 400 card holders to choose the time they would most like to visit. Sunday afternoon was the top choice: 172 of the 400 picked it, compared with 96 for weekday evenings and 84 for Saturday mornings. The other 48 chose weekday mornings.

   3Students need Sunday hours most of all. Every student I know finishes homework on Sunday, and the library has the only free printers in town. My cousin says the library in Riverton is packed every Sunday, so ours would be packed too.

   4The library also deserves more visitors because it is the oldest building on Main Street. It opened in 1911, and its reading room has a painted ceiling that visitors from other towns come to see.

   5Some council members say Sunday hours cost too much. Two staff members working four extra hours every Sunday, at $21.50 an hour, would cost $8,944 a year. The choice is simple: either the council pays for Sunday hours, or it admits that it does not care about reading.

   6Open the doors on Sunday. A library that is closed when people are free is a library that does not serve them.

   • Delineate the argument

     What is the main claim of "Open the Library on Sunday Afternoons," and what specific claims hold it up?

     Result: Main claim (paragraph 1): "The town council should open the library from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays." Specific claims: families want a weekend afternoon (paragraph 2), students need Sunday hours (paragraph 3), the building deserves visitors (paragraph 4) and the cost is a fair price (paragraph 5). Writing them as a list shows at once that each one has to be checked separately.

   • Relevance of evidence

     Paragraph 4 says the library "opened in 1911" and has "a painted ceiling that visitors from other towns come to see." Is this relevant to the main claim?

     Result: No. The facts may be true, but the age of the building and its ceiling say nothing about whether people need it open on Sunday. Compare paragraph 2: a survey of when card holders "would most like to visit" bears directly on which hours to open. Relevance asks whether the evidence touches this claim, not whether it is true or interesting.

   • Sufficiency of evidence

     Paragraph 3 claims "Students need Sunday hours most of all." Is the support sufficient?

     Result: No. "Every student I know" is a small circle of friends, and "My cousin says the library in Riverton is packed" is one secondhand report about another town. Both are on topic, so they are relevant, but there is far too little to show what students in Maple Falls need. A count of students who use the printers, or a student survey, would be needed.

   • Validity of reasoning

     Paragraph 5 ends: "either the council pays for Sunday hours, or it admits that it does not care about reading." Does this conclusion follow?

     Result: No. It is a false choice: a council could care about reading and still spend the money on something else, such as new books or longer weekday hours. The cost figure in the same paragraph is useful evidence; the reasoning built on it is invalid because it leaves out the other options.

   Close by having students rank the four specific claims from best to worst supported. Paragraph 2 is the best supported, because it gives numbers from a survey that asked the right question. Point out one limit even there: the survey asked only card holders, so people who never use the library were not counted.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   A harder argument. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) was an English biologist who gave many public lectures. On January 4, 1868, he spoke to the South London Working Men's College, a school for adults who worked during the day, about what a real education is. The passage below gives three paragraphs of that address; one short paragraph between the second and third, in which Huxley compares his image to a painting, is left out and marked [...]. The text follows the 1870 book Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews, which prints dashes as a double hyphen.

   1Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game at chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight?

   2Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but without remorse.

   [...]

   3Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor less than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the other side.

   1. Find the conclusion. Ask: "Which sentence says what Huxley wants us to accept?" Students should land on paragraph 3: "what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty game." Have them restate it in plain words: education means learning how nature, and people, really work.
   2. Lay out the comparison. Draw two columns, Chess and Life, and have students fill in the pairs Huxley gives in paragraph 2: the board and the world, the pieces and "the phenomena of the universe," the rules and "the laws of Nature." Explain that an argument built on a comparison like this is an argument from analogy: if two things are alike in the ways that matter, what is true of one should be true of the other.
   3. Look for the evidence. Ask students to underline every fact, number or example Huxley gives to show that our happiness depends on knowing nature's laws. Then ask what Huxley offers in place of evidence, and whether it would be enough for a listener who doubts him. Students should notice how few underlines they have.
   4. Test the analogy. Ask: "In what way is life not like a chess game?" Take answers (no written rulebook, no agreed end of the game, no single opponent) and ask which difference, if any, weakens the conclusion. Leave the question open; students return to it in the quiz.

   Close by asking students to sort what they found into the three tests: what they now think of the validity of the analogy, the relevance of the chess example, and the sufficiency of the support. Grades 6-8 may work from paragraphs 1 and 3 only, with the chess terms glossed: a gambit is an opening move that gives up a piece for an advantage, and a pawn and a knight are two kinds of chess pieces.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read the original proposal below on their own. It was written for this page, with deliberate weaknesses mixed in with its strengths, and the measurements are invented. They complete a claim-map handout with one row for each specific claim and four columns: Specific claim (with paragraph number), Support given, Relevant? and Sufficient?, with a one-sentence reason in each of the last two. Grades 9-12 add a fifth column, Valid reasoning?, and name any flaw they find. The quiz also uses this text.

   1Our science club asks the school board to plant six shade trees along the south edge of the east blacktop, where classes line up after lunch. We believe the trees would make the blacktop cooler and safer on hot afternoons.

   2To test this, on June 3 we measured the surface temperature of the blacktop with an infrared thermometer at 2:00 p.m. The air temperature that afternoon was 31°C. We took readings at five spots in full sun and five spots in the shadow of the gym wall, on the same blacktop.

   3The sunny spots measured from 52°C to 56°C, with an average of 54.2°C. The shaded spots measured from 33°C to 37°C, with an average of 35.2°C. Every shaded reading was lower than every sunny reading. Blacktop at 54°C is painful to touch with a bare hand.

   4Shade trees would also raise test scores. Students who stand in the heat come back to class tired, and tired students do worse on tests, so cooler students would earn better grades.

   5Oak trees are also a fitting choice for our school. Our sports teams are called the Oaks, and an oak appears on the school seal.

   6Six young trees would cost about $1,800 to buy and plant, and club members will water them during the first summer. We ask the board to approve the plan this spring, so that the trees can be planted in the fall.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Write the main claim of "Plant Shade Trees on the Blacktop" in your own words. (2) Name one paragraph whose evidence you would keep and one you would cut, and give a reason for each using the words relevant or sufficient.

   Teacher note on the 1868 address: Huxley writes in the style of his time, using "men" and "every man and woman of us" for people in general and "the father who allowed his son" where today we would say parents and children. Point this out as a feature of the period. It is also worth noting that the address was given to working adults, which helps explain why Huxley chose a familiar game as his example.

   For homework: students read the original letter below, written for this page with invented figures and with deliberate weaknesses to find. Its paragraphs are numbered 1-7.

   1Maple Falls Middle School teaches basketball, soccer and volleyball in physical education, but it does not teach swimming. I believe every seventh grader should take six weeks of swimming lessons at the town pool.

   2Swimming is a skill that can save a life. The town pool's lifeguards report that over the last two summers they helped 23 swimmers out of the deep end, and 19 of them were under 15 years old.

   3Many of our students cannot swim. In a school survey last fall, 61 of the 240 seventh graders said they could not swim one length of the pool.

   4Swimming is also the best exercise there is. My grandfather has swum every morning for fifty years, and he has never been sick a day in his life.

   5The lessons would be easy to arrange. The pool is a ten-minute walk from the school, and it was rebuilt in 2019 with a new blue tile floor.

   6Some parents say swimming lessons would take time away from other sports. But if students do not learn to swim at school, they will never learn at all, and the school will be to blame for every accident near the water.

   7Please add swimming to the seventh-grade program next year.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Read this short argument: "Our town should build a skate park. Skating gives teens a safe place to exercise. Last year the police logged 40 complaints about skateboarding on downtown sidewalks." Which sentence is the main claim?

   AOur town should build a skate park. BSkating gives teens a safe place to exercise. CThe police logged 40 complaints last year. DTeens should skate on downtown sidewalks.

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A student argues, "Our school should start a chess club, because playing chess builds planning skills." Which piece of evidence is most relevant to the specific claim that chess builds planning skills?

   AChess was first played more than a thousand years ago. BA plastic chess set costs about fifteen dollars to buy. CAfter a term of lessons, club members could plan more moves ahead. DThe school library already owns four complete chess sets.

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which argument is valid, meaning that its conclusion follows from its reasons?

   AMany famous writers kept diaries, so keeping a diary will make you famous. BEvery library laptop needs a password, and this is a library laptop, so it needs one. CThe team lost its last two games, so it will lose every game this season. DEither you join the band, or you must not care about music at all.

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A student claims, "The new crosswalk signal on Elm Street makes the street safer." Which support would be the most sufficient?

   AMy neighbor says she feels much safer crossing the street now. BThe new signal is a bright green light that is easy to see. CSeveral other towns in the county have crosswalk signals too. DThe city counted near-misses there for six months before and after it.

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 1 of the Huxley passage opens with a supposition and then asks two questions, one beginning "Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty" and one beginning "Do you not think." What do these questions do in his argument?

   AThey show that Huxley is unsure whether chess is worth learning. BThey ask the audience to vote on whether the college should teach chess. CThey lead listeners to agree on a simple case before he applies it to life. DThey prove with numbers that most people never learn to play chess.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 1, Huxley says we would look "with a disapprobation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight." Which specific claim does this sentence add to the argument?

   AChess should take the place of other subjects in the college. BFathers are better teachers of chess than any school can be. COnly the sons of wealthy families need to learn to play chess. DFamilies and governments are responsible for seeing people taught.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 2, Huxley calls his key premise, that our life and happiness depend on knowing the rules of Nature's game, "a very plain and elementary truth." Why is this phrase a weak point when the argument is judged for sufficiency?

   AIt calls the premise obvious instead of giving facts or examples for it. BIt admits that the premise is false but asks listeners to accept it. CIt gives so many examples that the main claim is hard to follow. DIt quotes an authority whom his listeners would not have trusted.

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 3, Huxley says that if something "fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the other side." What kind of support is he refusing to accept?

   ASupport drawn from the experiments of working scientists BSupport drawn from what powerful or numerous people say CSupport drawn from the rules of the game of chess itself DSupport drawn from the laws of Nature and their forces

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Huxley's argument can be laid out in three steps. (1) If our lives depended on a chess game, we would be wise to learn its rules. (2) Our lives do depend on a game whose rules are the laws of Nature. (3) So we should learn the laws of Nature. Which statement about this reasoning is accurate?

   AIt is circular, because step 3 only repeats step 1 in other words. BIt does not follow, because steps 1 and 2 are both about chess only. CIts form is valid, so a critic has to show that step 2 is false. DIt is a false choice, because it offers only chess or Nature to study.

10. Question 10 of 20 · Short Answer

    Is Huxley's chess analogy convincing? In three or four sentences, judge the reasoning and the support in paragraphs 1-2. Quote the passage at least once.

    Show model answer

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What is the main claim of "Plant Shade Trees on the Blacktop"?

    AThe blacktop should be torn up and replaced with a grass field. BThe school board should plant six shade trees by the east blacktop. CClasses should stop lining up on the blacktop after lunch each day. DThe science club should be given a new infrared thermometer.

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 5 says, "Our sports teams are called the Oaks, and an oak appears on the school seal." How does this support do on the relevance test?

    AIt is relevant, because it is true and easy for anyone to check. BIt is relevant, because it proves that oaks grow well at the school. CIt is not relevant, because the club did not measure the team names. DIt is not relevant to whether trees would cool the blacktop.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The temperature evidence comes from paragraphs 2-3. Which is the strongest reason to call it insufficient for the claim that the trees would cool the blacktop "on hot afternoons"?

    AAll the readings were taken on a single afternoon. BAll the readings were given in degrees Celsius. CThe air temperature was recorded at the same time. DThere were as many sunny spots as shaded spots.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 2 says the shaded readings were taken "in the shadow of the gym wall." Why does this detail matter when the evidence is judged?

    AIt proves the trees would be planted in the wrong place on the blacktop. BIt shows that wall shadows are always hotter than the shadows of trees. CThe shade came from a wall, not from trees like the ones being proposed. DIt means the club measured the gym building and not the blacktop itself.

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to paragraph 3, how much lower was the average shaded reading than the average sunny reading?

    A4.2°C B19.0°C C23.2°C D15.0°C

16. Question 16 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 4 reasons that students who stand in the heat come back tired, that tired students do worse on tests, and so "cooler students would earn better grades." What is the main problem with this reasoning?

    AIt misuses the averages that are reported in paragraph 3. BIt offers a false choice between trees and air conditioning. CIt relies on an expert whom the proposal never names at all. DIt treats a chain of guesses as proven, with no evidence for a link.

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Paragraph 3 reports that "Every shaded reading was lower than every sunny reading." Explain what this sentence adds to the evidence and what it still cannot show.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence from the proposal states a fact that could be checked, rather than a judgment or a prediction?

    AThe air temperature that afternoon was 31°C. BWe believe the trees would make the blacktop safer. CShade trees would also raise test scores. DOak trees are also a fitting choice for our school.

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Name two kinds of evidence the science club could add to make its temperature claim sufficient, and explain why each one would help.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Judge this argument in three or four sentences, using the words valid, relevant and sufficient: "Our school should switch to recycled paper. Recycled paper saves trees. My sister's school switched, and nobody complained. Also, our paper supplier is the largest in the state."

    Show model answer

These are the grade-level standards that carry anchor CCRA.R.8 in grades 6-12, plus closely related anchors.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.