Anna Layton

TAP Impact Statement

Overview of Unit
This is an argumentative writing unit in which students will be asked to
create a persuasive and argumentative essay, which they will present in the
form of a TED Talk speech. Students, even in the 6th grade, have a voice.
They have something to say and something they believe in. Framing the
argumentative text/writing unit in this context allows them to explore and
develop their own voices while they learn the processes of research and
writing. Students will have just completed reading the novel Red Scarf Girl,
which is a young girls story of her experience in the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution in China. They will have seen through her account the
power of voice, the power of speech, and the power of one person to make
change. Even if that change ended up being negative, they can see the
power that a voice can have. Students can feel like they get drowned by the
crowd, and this unit will give them the floor to make their voices heard. They
will listen to several TED Talks at the start of the unit as they see what the
end goal is, and then they will have the chance to create their own TED Talk
video and share their arguments with their peers and teachers.

Assessment

Assessment is the teachers way of knowing what the students

understand. I have come to understand that assessment does not mean
grade, test, or quiz, as had been my initial assumption. To say that an
assessment must be one of those three things is to place all of the
accountability on the student. But assessment also needs to include
accountability for the teacher. Summative assessment, which occurs at the
end of a lesson or unit, can be a fair accountability measure of the students
only if the pre-assessments and formative assessments have been analyzed
to improve the instruction to best serve the students. When I look at it that
way, pre-assessment and formative assessment places responsibility on the
teacher. Assessment must be done throughout a lesson and is a vital part of
the planning stages. Pre-assessment tells a teacher how much background
information must be reviewed before going in depth on the topic. Formative
assessment is done during the lesson and can be done informally based on
discussions with students, observation of group and individual work, and
participation. It is these first two types of assessment that must guide the
instruction for the remainder of a lesson and/or unit. It is my belief that these
types of assessments should never be judged or graded in a way that
negatively impacts a students grade, because poor results on a formative
assessment should tell the teacher that he/she needs to make corrections to
the instruction to aid that student. Summative assessment assesses
students understanding of a topic in its entirety at the end of a lesson or

unit. These types of assessments can be done in the form of tests, quiz,
projects, writing assignments or Total Participation Techniques.

Standards

W1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.
W4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
W5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and
strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach
W7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on
several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate
W8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources;
assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and
conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic
bibliographic information for sources.
W9. Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis,
reflection, and research.

Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:

evaluate claims and evidence and interpret information

determine credible sources and choose a topic
research for evidence
construct an outline
write a rough draft and edit
rewrite from edits
prepare and present a speech

Assessment Strategies in the Unit

Formative-Listening to reading of article and discussing what evidence the author uses to support
the argument
Summative-Collect rankings to see if students understand the importance of evidence to support
arguments
Formative-Discussing ideas with students during brainstorm session
Summative-Collect mind-maps to ensure that students are on the right track in the brainstorming
and pre-planning stages. Provide commentary on how they should take their thinking to the next
level.
Formative-Look-ins while students conduct research; circulate around the room while they
complete research, asking probing questions about whether they information they are finding is
truly going to make their argument stronger.
Summative-All of the research that they collect will be placed in a folder labeled with their
individual names (constructed by teacher prior to beginning of research project); at the end of
each day of research/writing, folders will be checked for progress made in research and building
support
Formative-Look-ins while students create their outlines: ask questions about their organization
and whether they are using the most important evidence to build support for their argument.

Summative-All of the research that they collect will be placed in a folder labeled with their
individual names (constructed by teacher prior to beginning of research project); at the end of
each day of research/writing, folders will be checked for progress made in research and building
support
Formative-Assisting with students as they transfer information from outline to paragraph form
Summative-Read and comment on thesis statements
Formative-Discussing ideas with students during brainstorm session
Summative-Read final drafts of papers before they produce multimedia presentation.
Formative-Look-ins while students practice their presentationsgive feedback on how to
conduct themselves during presentations
Summative-Read student essays and provide feedback
Formative-While assisting with technology, I will conduct informal checks on progress of
argument presentations, making suggestions for how to make their presentations better.
Summative-Final assessment of writing and presentations.