Top 3 Counterclaim Paragraph Practice Ideas

 

Once the counterclaim paragraph has been taught (perhaps with a handy mnemonic),  it's important to practice, right?  But how can one practice without writing an entire essay?  Here are my top three ideas:

1.  Task Cards

I made some task cards with two small (about 1/2 a page) texts.  Then I wrote questions about claims, opposing claims (counterclaims), and evidence and put them on task cards.  Then I put all of these task cards around the room.  After students read the texts, they wandered the room to visit all the questions and practice! 

They loved being up and moving about.  I loved hearing the natural conversations about opposing claims as well as claims and evidence!

2.  Break It Down

As a bell ringer:  Give your students a worksheet with 4 claims with evidence on the back.  Each day have students look at one claim and write a counterclaim paragraph.  

As a hands-on individual activity:  Take the sentences that one would use to respond to one of the 4 claims in a counterclaim paragraph and write them on sentence strips.  Have the students put the sentences in order and then write their paragraphs.  

As a hands-on group activity:  Give each group a different claim, have them organize the sentence strips, and then present their finished paragraphs to the class.

You can make this practice yourself or save tons of time with this ready-to-go resource:

3. Play A Game

This is a middle school student favorite!  Students love online games like Kahoot, Quizizz, and Gimkit. So I put together a quick Quizizz game and you can have it by clicking here!  

Students also love non-digital games!  One of the easiest games you can play is Tic-Tac-Toe because all you need is some kind of whiteboard or smartboard.

To play this game, draw a tic-tac-toe board on the whiteboard or smartboard and divide the class into 2 teams.  One team is the "x" and one team is the "o".  Pick a team to go first.  Ask the first member of that team about the counterclaim.  If that student answers correctly, they put their "x" or "o" on the tic-tac-toe board.  Continue asking questions until there is a winner!  Winners might earn bonus points on a test or quiz.  :)

I hope one (or all) of these three practice ideas for the counterclaim paragraph works for you and your middle school students!

Thanks for stopping by!