Students are glued to their media…YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are the top apps used by secondary kids. As educators our job is to engage our students in the process of learning and what better way is there to engage than through video?!?! In this post learn some awesome strategies for teaching argumentative writing through video.
Ted Talks
There are tons of excellent Ted Talks out there that follow the structure of an argumentative essay but in the form of a talk. All Ted Talk speakers are trying to prove one single point, they all have reasoning, anecdotes, evidence in the form of statistics or references to scientific studies or articles.
Here’s an example of how to do this…
1. Show a video such as the one to the right.
2. Have students write claim, reasons, evidence. It is super fun to let students write on desks with expo markers to do this. You can see some of my students’ responses to the video below too:) See examples of this below.
3. Show the video twice if students missed some info.
4. Allow students to discuss their findings from the video!
5. Refer back to the strategies used in the Ted Talk you showed while students are writing argumentatively
PowToon
Students LOVE creating videos of their own. Why not have students create a cartoon of their argumentative essay. They can use graphics, music and their own voice to convey their claims with Powtoon! Here is another article I wrote about this topic: 10 Ways to Use Powtoon in the English Classroom.
My Simple Show
My Simple Show is an easier version of PowToon. It really is just a very simple way for students to create a video about their topic. The really awesome part is that they have to write a script before adding in the graphics, music and sound.
YouTube
There are so many student facing videos to teach argumentative writing on YouTube! They are short, entertaining and teach important writing skills. To the right is a video I created to help you teach the basics of argumentative writing.
Below are some of my other favorite educational YouTube channels:
Excellent channel with lots of free resource videos for a wide range of topics from teaching point of view to dialect in poetry. Of course there’s argumentative writing material too!
Critical Thinker Academy
This is definitely a channel secondary English teachers should subscribe to. It is jam packed with videos and podcasts to play for your students on the topic of argument, analysis, and critical thinking.
Teaching without Frills
Lots of awesome short Powtoon cartoons on this YouTube channel for teachers to use in their class. More for the elementary level but could definitely see myself using it with my sixth graders!
Want more videos to teach writing?!?! I create about a video a week just for writing workshop! If this sounds good to you, then should consider subscribing to my YouTube channel…
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There is an error in the way the word “to” is used in this sentence: “This is definitely a channel secondary English teachers should subscribe too.”
If this is a writing help-site, please correct this simple error.
Thanks for letting me know! It’s fixed now. This blog and website were created while teaching full time, so there will most definitely be errors. Also, I’ve always worked by myself, no team, no editors, just me. I have a lot on my plate but that doesn’t stop me from putting my ideas and resources into the world. Maybe someday I’ll be able to hire help, but for now I’m thankful to readers like you who take the time to let me know when they notice mistakes, so thank you again.