This Day In History: Argumentative Writing Skills
Mount Vesuvius erupts; Killer in Norway massacre is sentenced; Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre; Spain accepts Mexican independence; Poet Alan Seeger volunteers in French army; U.S. unit refuses commander’s order; Captain Webb becomes first person to swim the English Channel. Make it stand out.
Whether you are teaching World History, American History or European History, This Day In History is a great resource to build your student’s argumentative writing skills. Below are a few ideas:
Historical Background Sentence—Argumentative writing includes a historical background sentence to give readers the historical context of the argument. Students can read through one of the topics/assigned topics from This Day In History, highlight important facts from the article, use a who, what, when, where, how, why chart and fill in using the highlighted facts, and then create their historical background sentence. (Skill needed for We The People, Project Citizen, History Day)
Research—Argumentative writing MUST include evidence. Students often struggle with finding creditable sources when researching. Using This Day In History to kick off researching primary sources is a great way to get students to engage in the Library of Congress primary sources and secondary sources. Have students use the Library of Congress to find primary sources that support the information stated in the article. Students can present their evidence and practice in text citation as well as sourcing. (Skills needed for We The People, Project Citizen, History Day)
History Day—Students read the article and find primary sources using the Library of Congress that connect to this year’s History Day Theme. 2022 theme is Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences. This can also be used for We The People Unit Research. Students read the article and find primary sources that support their assigned Unit Question.
Students use Padlet to display their information to the class. If you haven’t used Padlet, it is a great way to display student work in real time.
This Day In History https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov
Padlet https://www.padlet.com