Yes! Your Elementary Students Can Engage in Scientific Argumentation!

When I first learned about the NGSS practices, I felt overwhelmed with what was expected of elementary students. One practice in particular, Engaging in Argument from Evidence, seemed particularly overwhelming. Through my own professional development and investigation, I have learned that this practice is absolutely doable with elementary aged students if the proper scaffolding is provided.  

The key to getting your students comfortable with this practice is to give them opportunities to practice this skill using a variety of specific step by step instructions.  

Step 1:  Establish agreed upon rules for argumentation and discussion sessions

Step 2:  Provide sentence starters to help students get started with discussion

Step 3:  Provide "talking chips" to assure that all group members get a chance to share ideas

Step 4:  Require students to restate what the speaker before them said before sharing their ideas

Step 5:  Require students to provide evidence for their claims

In addition to these tips, the key is to find interesting topics that are a little ambiguous. This will allow for evidence to support each side depending on the way the argument question is worded. I've developed my first two argumentation activities and plan to make more. The first one involves debating which is worse, a tornado or a hurricane.This is ambiguous because the word "worse" is not defined and is up for interpretation. The other topic I have developed is Which is worse, an earthquake or a volcanic eruption? Again by using the word worse, it is left up to interpretation and could be argued from every side. Check these products out below: