Teaching Argument Writing with Frankenstories

Structured vs open prompts

In this lesson, we'll be using structured argument prompts, but you can also get great results with open-ended prompts.

TWFS Argument game pairs Open Structured

For example, here's an open-ended argument game from a 5th-grade class:

Persuasive arguments for or against gaming

R1

Dont get me wrong, i love gaming. But if your not careful, it can change you. From headaches to people stealing your data, all of these reasons may make you addicted, and make you a new person.

Some games are creative, and social. But some people are going to try and steal your personal data form scams, and ive fallen for this before.

R2

Gaiming can be terrible for your heath and can really kill brain cells. scientists belive that the key to being smart and succesful is to completely block all types of gaiming. Every mum can relate to when their children are saying 5 more minutes please well this is 

R3

I strongly agree that gaming provides a great mental break for people who feel stressed or anxious. Gaming should give them a great break. Although it is not great if you use it more than 20 minutes a day. I am an expert on this topic as I ensure I play 20 minutes per day so know that you should stick to 20 minutes and you will get all the benefits from gaming.

"Persuasive arguments for or against gaming"

As you can see, open prompts can be great for generating lots of material (claims, evidence, rebuttals) on a topic, without worrying about overarching structure.

So, while this lesson is all about structure, you don't necessarily have to bake that structure into your prompts.

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