Presenting and supporting claims involves stating opinions and providing evidence to support them. To teach students how to present and support claims, we recommend the following process:
1.Present an example claim to students and model how to support it with evidence.
2.Explain the concepts of claims, grounds, backing, and qualifiers to students.
3.Explain that certain words and phrases can signal different parts of an argument.
This process is based on a number of sources (Marzano & Heflebower, 2012; Marzano & Pickering, 1997). The following sections describe each step of the process in detail.
Present and Support an Example Claim
Introduce the idea of presenting and supporting claims by modeling it for students. State a claim about an issue that will be of interest to students (for example, “Students should attend school year-round”). Explain that you are going to try to convince them to agree with your claim. Ask them to notice the strategies that you use to persuade them. Then present evidence for your claim. For example, you might say, “Students should attend school year-round because they often forget what they learned in school over the summer. A 2007 study by three researchers named Alexander, Entwisle, and Olson found that during the school year, the academic growth of low-income students was comparable to that of other students but during the summer, low-income students forgot more information than other students. It’s true that year-round schooling may not be the only solution to this problem of forgetting information, but it would prevent achievement gaps that are created by summer breaks.”
After presenting a claim and support for it, ask students to explain the strategies they observed you using. You can prompt them to notice specific parts of your argument using the following questions:
The first question is designed to help students identify the claim, the second prompts them to identify grounds for the claim, the third highlights backing, and the fourth concerns qualifiers. Once students have answered questions like these, you can introduce the formal terms for each part of an argument.
Explain Claims, Grounds, Backing, and Qualifiers
Robert Marzano and Tammy Heflebower (2012) described four elements of an effective argument, which are based on Stephen Toulmin’s (2003) model of argumentation: claim, grounds, backing, and qualifiers. Table I.5 describes and exemplifies each element.
Table I.5: Four Elements of an Argument
As shown in table I.5, an effective argument usually presents a claim and provides support in the form of grounds, backing, and qualifiers.
Teachers can explain each element in more depth. For claims, point out that there are different types of claims: value claims assert that something is good, bad, right, or wrong, and action claims assert that something should or should not be done. There are also different types of backing: expert opinion, research results, and factual information. The type of backing that students use in their own arguments and encounter in others’ arguments will vary, as different grounds call for different types of backing. Table I.6 defines and exemplifies each of these types of backing.
Signal Words and Phrases
Signal words (such as describing words or transition words) can help students identify each element of an argument. For example, the words because and reason often signal grounds. Phrases such as according to, reported in, and found by frequently indicate backing. Concession words and phrases like despite, although, granted that, and in spite of usually precede qualifiers. Table I.7 lists signal words and phrases for each element of an argument.
Table I.6: Different Types of Backing
Source: Adapted from Marzano & Heflebower, 2012.
Table I.7: Signal Words and Phrases for Argument Elements
| Element | Signal Words and Phrases |
| Claim | Describing words (such as awful, amazing, beautiful, disgusting, miserable, and favorite), modal verbs (such as should, must, and ought to), and superlatives (such as best, worst, most, and smartest) |
| Grounds | Cause and effect words (such as because, as a result, due to, since, and for that reason) and temporal transition words (such as first, next, and finally) |
| Backing | Illustrating transition words (such as for example, for instance, to explain, to elaborate, specifically, in particular, such as, according to, as reported in, and as found by) |
| Qualifiers | Concession words (such as even if, despite the fact, albeit, admitting, granting, although, at any rate, at least, still, even though, granted that, while it may be true, in spite of, of course, just because . . . doesn’t mean, necessarily, and whereas) |
Signal words and phrases can also alert students to the various types of backing being used to support grounds and claims. Table I.8 (page 20) lists the different types of backing and the signal words and phrases usually associated with each type.
Table I.8: Words and Phrases That Signal Different Types of Backing
| Signal Words and Phrases | |
| Expert Opinion |
According to, as [so-and-so] stated, in keeping with, expert, endorsed, believed, recommended, accomplished,
|
