William & Mary's lilyPD Launches Free Course on Building Evidence-Based Arguments

lilyPD: Professional Development powered by William & Mary today released "Building Evidence-Based Arguments," a free microcourse that helps teachers build students' argumentation skills through repeated, low-stakes practice.

The course starts from a simple premise: no one runs a marathon without training. Yet students are often handed a rubric for an argumentative essay and expected to produce a polished argument on the first try. "Building Evidence-Based Arguments" reframes argument as a skill built in "laps": short, repeated cycles of claim, evidence and reasoning that students practice again and again before the high-stakes assignment arrives.

"Argument isn't a genre students master in one assignment. It's a way of thinking they get better at every time they practice it," said Rebekah O'Dell, W&M master teacher, who designed and presents the course. "When students work through claim, evidence and reasoning again and again in low-stakes ways, they start to see argument as something they can actually do, in English class, in social studies and well beyond school."

Course Highlights

"Building Evidence-Based Arguments" gives grades 6-12 educators practical strategies and classroom-ready activities they can use right away. Across six modules, teachers learn to:

• Define evidence-based argumentation and bring it into everyday instruction
• Teach the argument cycle of claim, evidence and reasoning, including counterclaims and rebuttals
• Help students gather, evaluate and organize evidence
• Design low-stakes instructional "laps" that build argument skills over time instead of in a single assignment
• Prepare for narrative assessment of student arguments

The course is built around transferable skills, so English language arts and social studies teachers alike can adapt the strategies to their own curriculum.

Course Availability

"Building Evidence-Based Arguments" is available now and free to all educators. The course takes about five hours to complete and carries five professional development hours, with a certificate issued by the W&M School of Education. Educators need a free lilyPD account to take the course.

Educators can also join a free live webinar, "Building Evidence-Based Arguments with lilyPD and ADE," presented with the Arizona Department of Education on Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM ET. Arizona educators can register at azed.geniussis.com (search "EVIDENCE"); all others can register at https://cwm.zoom.us/meeting/register/rzoIl5xCTjyG154xmj_1Tw.