Step by Step with Teacher Zee: Critical Thinking in Reading and Writing (2 of 2)

One of the things that excite me as a literacy skills teacher and reading interventionist is the engagement I have with students and the manner in which they provide knowledge and reason when we encounter new words. My recent session with my student a week ago led us to opportunities to talk about words in length.

The words we unlocked are argue and argument. Of course, the dictionary is a handy tool where he learned that argue is the root word of argument. The suffix "ment" is a noun suffix that when it is placed after a verb, the word becomes a noun. Argue is the verb; ment is the noun suffix. This makes argument a noun. I then asked him to verbally use the words argue and argument in a sentences - one for each.

In context, I asked him what he knows of the word argue. He said that he associates the word as a violent exchange between two people. To this I replied, that it is a common understanding because when we argue, we insist on the other/s our beliefs with no basis but our feelings and ego. When we argue, I added, it has to be based on facts, a pattern that follows a logical sequence, a truth that has been in existence for so long it is considered universal. 

The point of an argument is to make us think. People go violent when they argue because, one, they cannot hold their statements with pieces of evidence and two, their egos are bigger than the points they want others to consider.  

I will definitely go back to this experience with my student when we begin writing the persuasive essay.