Summarize
A STUDENT and a LEARNING COACH sit at a table on which are various notepads.
LEARNING COACH: What’s your speech on?
STUDENT: I’m running for team captain!
LEARNING COACH: That's amazing!
STUDENT: But...
LEARNING COACH: But what?
STUDENT: I know I have to write an amazing speech but I don’t even know what goes into an argument.
LEARNING COACH: Ah. Well, why don’t we try looking at a good argumentative text and see how it works?
STUDENT: Sure, that sounds good.
LEARNING COACH: I just so happen to have Alicia Jennings’ speech from the year she was elected team captain. So, let’s take a look.
The LEARNING COACH opens a ring binder and shows the contents to the STUDENT.
STUDENT: How’d you get this?
LEARNING COACH: I know people.
STUDENT: Hmm.
The STUDENT smiles and rolls her eyes.
STUDENT: Well, she starts by listing qualities that she thinks makes a good team captain. A strong leader who understands her fellow players and is good at solving problems. Then, she makes her claim, that she is the person who best fits all of these qualities and should be elected captain.
LEARNING COACH: Off to a good start!
STUDENT: Next, she explains her reasons. For each reason, she gives evidence.
LEARNING COACH: Okay, so what’s her first reason?
STUDENT: Well, she says she is the right choice because she has good leadership qualities.
LEARNING COACH: I hope she gives some evidence for that.
STUDENT: Yes, she gives evidence about how she successfully organized a charity car wash for the team, and how often she is chosen as the leader when she does group projects with her friends. Then she has quotes from her teammate, Sara, who says, Alicia is the person who would do anything for you. And she is kind and respectful to everyone, so everyone respects her.
LEARNING COACH: Sounds like she’s a good leader. Is that the only reason she gives?
STUDENT: No, in the next section, she argues that she has the best ideas and lists a number of ideas as evidence.
LEARNING COACH: Oh, well, that’s the tough part, where you try to explain your ideas.
STUDENT: Yes, but she does do a good job. For example, she says that one of her ideas is to change their stretch routine from 10 minutes to 20 minutes to reduce the number of shin splints. They had 3 strain-related injuries last season that could have been helped by stretching for longer before the game.
LEARNING COACH: Well, that makes sense.
STUDENT: I hope I can write a speech as effective as Alicia’s.
LEARNING COACH: I’m sure you can! You can start by thinking how you have similar qualities to her but also how you’re different. So, what new ideas can you bring to the team this year?
STUDENT: Ok, great. Thanks.
LEARNING COACH: Anytime.
A student is running for team captain and is unsure about how to write an effective speech. Their learning coach offers to look at a previous successful speech to understand the structure. The student learns that the speech starts with listing qualities of a good captain and then making a claim to be the best fit for those qualities. The speech also includes reasons and evidence to support the claim, such as past leadership experiences and teammate testimony. The student hopes to write a speech as effective as the example speech and the learning coach encourages them to think about their own qualities and new ideas they can bring to the team.
Main point.
The main point is that the student is seeking advice on how to write an effective speech for their campaign as team captain, and the learning coach provides guidance by analyzing a successful speech from a past captain.
Message their trying to give
The message they are trying to give is that by studying and understanding effective examples, such as Alicia Jennings' speech, the student can learn how to structure their own speech and present compelling arguments to support their candidacy for team captain. The learning coach also instills confidence in the student by highlighting their own unique qualities and encouraging them to bring new ideas to the team.
Does anything about tracing arguments relate?
Yes, in the conversation, the learning coach suggests looking at a good argumentative text to understand how it works. They then proceed to examine Alicia Jennings' speech, which serves as an example of how to structure arguments effectively. The student learns about listing qualities and making a claim, providing reasons and evidence, and explaining ideas. This discussion highlights the importance of understanding and tracing arguments in order to construct a persuasive speech.
The student learned that:
The student learned that in order to write an effective speech, they need to understand the structure of arguments and how to present evidence to support their claims. By studying Alicia Jennings' speech, they gained insight into listing qualities, making a claim, providing reasons and evidence, and explaining ideas. This knowledge will help them in crafting their own persuasive speech for their team captain campaign.
The student is preparing a speech for running for team captain and is seeking guidance from the learning coach. The student expresses concern about not knowing how to structure an argument in their speech. The learning coach offers to look at a successful argumentative text by Alicia Jennings, a previous team captain.
The learning coach shows the student Alicia's speech, which begins by listing qualities that make a good team captain and makes the claim that Alicia possesses these qualities. The student notes that Alicia supports her claim with reasons and evidence.
The first reason Alicia gives is that she has good leadership qualities. She provides evidence of organizing a charity car wash for the team and being chosen as the leader in group projects. Quotes from her teammate also support her leadership abilities.
In the next section, Alicia argues that she has the best ideas and provides a list of ideas as evidence. The student comments that explaining ideas can be challenging, but Alicia does a good job. One example of her idea is to increase the stretch routine from 10 minutes to 20 minutes to reduce the number of shin splints, citing previous strain-related injuries that could have been prevented with more stretching.
The learning coach assures the student that they can write an effective speech like Alicia's by identifying their own qualities and bringing new ideas to the team. The coach advises the student to think about what new ideas they can contribute to the team and encourages them to start writing their speech.
Overall, the exchange between the student and the learning coach emphasizes the importance of providing reasons and evidence in an argumentative speech and encourages the student to reflect on their own qualities and ideas.