Teaching how to write argumentative texts at primary school

We need education to fight armed conflict

We need education to fight gender discrimination

We need education to end child labor. 

The first thing that strikes in our minds when we think about education is gaining knowledge. Education is a tool which provides people with knowledge, skill, technique, information, enables them to know their rights and duties toward their family, society as well as the nation. It expands vision and outlook to see the world. It develops the capabilities to fight against injustice, violence, corruption and many other bad elements in the society.

Education is an important aspect that plays a huge role in the modern, industrialized world. People need a good education to be able to survive in this competitive world. Modern society is based on people who have high living standards and knowledge which allows them to implement better solutions to their problems.

An educated person is more likely to develop better moral and ethical values as compared to an uneducated person. Lack of education creates problems like superstition, domestic violence, poor health, and poor living standards. Education brings equal opportunity for both men and women and educated people will be able to create a better society. Without a good education, a better society can’t be formed. The importance of argumentation in science education is outlined and the relatively low level of argumentation typically observed in classrooms in the UK is noted, along with possible reasons for this. The research sets out to determine the extent to which primary school pupils engage in argumentation and to characterise their arguments in primary science lessons. A provisional framework is developed for analysing argumentation in this setting. Transcripts of pupils arguing are used to illustrate how pupils co-construct arguments without teacher intervention or guidance. A number of factors which appear to influence argumentation are noted.  Learning to reason is also determined by learning how to construct arguments which link evidence with ideas and theories (Wellington & Osborne, 2001). The argumentation is the process of evaluation and justification of claims (Naylor et al., 2007). Argumentation is implemented in practice through debate or discussion. ...

... Argumentation is implemented in practice through debate or discussion. Such situations are dialogical, in which two ore more individuals assert conflicting claims to knowledge based on reason (Naylor et al., 2007), but if narrative skills are more or less intuitive, pupils need to learn to develop the skills of argumentation. Among the different strategies for promoting argumentation, those which are addressed in primary school, often offer a situation based on two characters who disagree about their scientific understanding (e.i Naylor et al., 2007;Simon et al., 2008). ...

... Such situations are dialogical, in which two ore more individuals assert conflicting claims to knowledge based on reason (Naylor et al., 2007), but if narrative skills are more or less intuitive, pupils need to learn to develop the skills of argumentation. Among the different strategies for promoting argumentation, those which are addressed in primary school, often offer a situation based on two characters who disagree about their scientific understanding (e.i Naylor et al., 2007;Simon et al., 2008). We propose here another strategy for the development of argumentation based on 'realistic fiction' storybooks (Bruguière et Triquet, 2012) in which the particularity is that the narrative provides a fictional world based on a real world with its own rules and logics. ...

. Several researchers have identified difficulties in applying Toulmin's 12 schema that underpins many argumentation activities. 13,14 Although it draws on the work of the Toulmin model, the Downing Model of argumentation 13 is more often used with concept cartoons as it focuses on the nature of interactions between students and places a greater focus on the socio-cultural context. This model has seven levels 13 (p. ...

... It is important that the teacher is non-judgemental at this stage and to welcome students' suggestions. Naylor et al. 13 have found that following the opening statements (where the different points of view are outlined), students tend to build on each other's contributions in order to reach a shared understanding, through dialogical and interactive conversations. It is notable that the 'thinking out loud' conversations often tend to be overlapping, rather than following a monological chain of reasoning. ...

... It is notable that the 'thinking out loud' conversations often tend to be overlapping, rather than following a monological chain of reasoning. Naylor et al. 13 identified that students were capable of engaging in and sustaining an argument without the teacher's direction or intervention. This has implications for the teacher's role when using this classroom strategy. ...

The government of Uzbekistan is clearly aware that the development of any country is closely linked to the breadth and accessibility of education, therefore, its own model of education has been created. At the initiative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sh. Mirziyoyev, a set of measures aimed at increasing the prestige of education was taken, a number of programs related to the education of young people were developed. Decrees of the President have become a practical step in the implementation of a new approach to the training of specialists at a higher quality level.

New priorities in education encourage teachers to search for new, modern, effective teaching technologies, allowing them to achieve higher learning and education results and introduce new educational technologies in the educational process. One of the main tasks for us is the development of students' interest in learning, creativity, because interest and creativity in the learning process is a powerful tool that encourages students to a deeper knowledge of the subject and develop their abilities. One of the ways to solve this problem is the use of modern teaching technologies in the educational process, which allows to diversify the forms and means of training, which increases the creative activity of students. These technologies and even their constantly used elements, built systematically, help rationally organize the learning process, apply a student-centered approach, actively use TSS and ICT, Internet technologies, create conditions for students' own active cognitive activity, encourage the student’s aspirations to find their own trajectories and solutions, create “situations of success”, develop self-control and mutual control. Each specific training technology has its own characteristics, definition, function, structure, characteristic only for it. My experience shows that modeling lessons in various technologies is not a simple matter, but today it is a requirement of time. The teacher already in elementary school should demonstrate in the lesson different teaching strategies in order to form the ability of the individual to learn all his life, the ability for self-development. The activity of analytical understanding of educational material by younger schoolchildren is rapidly reduced if students have to analyze the same unit of educational material and perform similar thinking operations for several lessons. It is known that children quickly get tired of doing the same thing, their work becomes ineffective, the process of development slows down. In order for the material to contribute to the development of the child's ability to independently comprehend the phenomena of the life around him, to think productively, I use problem-based learning in my practice. Its essence is that I put a problem (a learning task) for the students and consider it with them. As a result of joint efforts, ways of solving it are outlined, a plan of action is established, independently implemented by students with minimal teacher assistance. At the same time, the entire stock of knowledge and skills that they have is actualized, and those that are relevant to the subject of study are selected from it. Any subject studied at school, in my opinion, does not begin at all with an account, not with the study of letters, concepts, which seems obvious, but with... riddles, problems. Problem learning provides a more solid learning; develops analytical thinking, helps to make learning activities for students more attractive, based on constant difficulties; It focuses on the integrated use of knowledge. Group work in the classroom is very attractive for younger students. However, as practice shows, the first experience of its organization can be unsuccessful (excessive noise, slow pace of work, their inability to act together, etc.), which repels from further use of this form of education. Meanwhile, group work is a full-fledged independent form of organization of training. The use of group work in the classroom convinces me that this technology bears in itself the features of innovative education: the independent acquisition of knowledge as a result of search activity, therefore: − increasing the depth of understanding of educational material, cognitive activity and creative independence of students; − the nature of the relationship between children is changing; − the friendship in a class becomes stronger, the relation to school changes; − class cohesion increases dramatically, children better understand each other and themselves; − growing self-criticism, more accurately assess their capabilities, better control themselves; − Students acquire the skills necessary for life in society: frankness, tact, ability to build their behavior, taking into account the positions of other people. In class I use the following types of group work: − work in pairs; − brainstorm; − game “Continue”; − treasure hunt; − snowball; − mosaic group. At the end of group work, the decisions developed by each group are discussed by the whole class. Thus, it is estimated not only the result of solving the problem, but also the work of the group. Educational dialogue can be considered a specific type of educational technology. It acts not only as one of the ways of organizing education, but also as an integral component, the internal content of a person-centered learning technology. I believe that the use of educational dialogue, allows for the personally oriented educational process, develops the curiosity and independence of the child, contributes to the enrichment of his subject experience. Project activity is effectively used by me, starting from primary school, while not replacing the traditional system, but organically supplementing, expanding it. When carrying out each new project (conceived by the child, group, class, independently or with the participation of the teacher), I solve several interesting, useful and real-life tasks. The child is required to coordinate their efforts with the efforts of others. To succeed, he has to obtain the necessary knowledge and with their help to perform specific work. Today, modern information technologies can be considered the new way to transfer knowledge, which corresponds to the qualitatively new content of the child’s learning and development. This method allows the child to learn with interest, find sources of information, fosters independence and responsibility in obtaining new knowledge, develops the discipline of intellectual activity. Information technologies allow replacing almost all traditional technical training aids. Personality-oriented technologies are the embodiment of humanistic philosophy, psychology and pedagogy. The focus of personality-oriented technologies is a unique holistic personality, which seeks to maximize the realization of its capabilities (self-actualization), is open to the perception of new experience, and is capable of making a conscious and responsible choice in various life situations. It is the attainment of such qualities by a person that is proclaimed the main goal of education, in contrast to the formalized transfer to a pupil of knowledge and social norms in traditional technology.

1.3.Stages of reading development

Literacy is not something that just happens. One does not wake up literate nor does one become literate in the same way that one learns to walk. It is not intuited from the environment nor is it simply a matter of physical maturation. Literacy learning requires instruction and practice,  and this learning occurs across discrete stages. The following notes explore the five stages of reading development as proposed by Maryanne Wolf (2008) in her book Proust and the squid: the story and science of the reading brain. These five stages are:

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  the emerging pre-reader (typically between 6 months to 6 years old);
  
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  the novice reader (typically between 6 to 7 years old);
  
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  the decoding reader (typically between 7 - 9 years old);
  
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  the fluent, comprehending reader (typically between 9 - 15 years old); and
  
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  the expert reader (typically from 16 years and older).
  

Please explore, and also visit the Stages of Literacy Development page for a more detailed discussion. Before we begin with the stages, there are two preliminary notes to make.