Teaching Argumentation - Julia A. Simms What Principals Need to Know

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was scarcely visible— The Cornice—in the Ground— We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess—in the Ring— We passed the Fields of Grazing Grain— We passed the Setting Sun— Since then—’tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses’ Heads Were toward Eternity—

      After highlighting all instances of personification, the student arranges the textual evidence into categories, which become the grounds for the claim. The textual evidence itself is the backing for each of these grounds. Table I.12 illustrates how the student might sort his textual evidence.

Grounds Backing
Dickinson portrays Death as a kind person. “Death” (line 1) is capitalized like a person’s name. The speaker refers to Death with the pronoun “He” (line 2) instead of the pronoun “it.” The line “He kindly stopped for me” (line 2) makes Death seem courteous and thoughtful—the speaker could not stop for herself, so he does it for her.
The speaker embraces Death as she would a suitor. Death picks up the speaker in a “Carriage” (line 3) as if he is courting her. The carriage held “but just Ourselves” (line 3), which makes the two seem like lovers. The phrase “His Civility” (line 8) portrays Death as gallant or chivalrous; he is taking care of the speaker. From the repeated use of the pronoun “We” (lines 5, 9, 11, 12, 17), we can infer that the speaker has accepted her union with Death.
The speaker seems relaxed by the fact that death is out of her control. The line “We slowly drove” (line 5)—as well as the repeated use of the phrase “We passed” (lines 9–12)—makes the journey to death seem painless and relaxing. The speaker is able to look one last time at the world she is leaving behind. The setting sun is also personified as a man: “He [the sun] passed us” (line 13). Because the only other inhuman thing personified in the poem is Death, it could be that the gradual beauty of a sunset also symbolizes death.

      Highlighting potential evidence, narrowing it down, and sorting it into grounds is an excellent way for students to support a pre-existing claim with textual evidence. Sometimes, however, students must collect textual evidence and use it to construct a claim.

       Construct a Claim

      When students need to construct a claim based on textual evidence, they must first find textual evidence that seems interesting or important. One of the best ways to do this is to annotate the text by marking important or interesting quotes with pencil, highlighter, or sticky notes and then organize the quotes in a double-entry journal, as shown in table I.13.

Quotations Why the Quotation Seemed Important
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast (line 6) This seems like a really big, noble idea.
Upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat (line 11) This seems like something really important and bad has happened, like somebody died.
When the dust had lifted (line 15) This is what people say after horrible fights or wars.
Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell; / It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; / It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat (lines 17–19) This is exaggerating how the audience acts when Casey heads to bat. It makes it sound like a tall tale (like Paul Bunyan or something).
There went up a muffled roar, / Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore (lines 33–34) This seems really important too because it makes it sound like the audience is as powerful as the ocean.
“Kill him! Kill the umpire!” shouted some one on the stand; / And it’s likely they’d have killed him had not Casey raised his hand (lines 35–36) Did Casey really keep them from killing the umpire? Killing is pretty serious. Could one person really stop thousands of people?
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone (line 37) This makes me think of God.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped — / “That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one,” the umpire said (lines 31–32) But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, “Strike two” (line 40) Casey has ignored two pitches which means he is being cocky.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; / The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, / And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout; / But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out (lines 49–52) This sounds like something really bad has happened, a lot worse than someone just striking out in a baseball game. It is kind of funny that everyone is so depressed about a baseball game. It’s also funny that Casey struck out because he was so sure he was going to win.

      In the double-entry journal in table I.13, the student first filled in the left column with phrases from the poem that seemed important or interesting. Then the student explained why each quote seemed important or interesting in the right column. Once students have identified textual evidence that seems important and articulated why it is important, they can look for connections or patterns in the quotations they have found. For example, the student who identified the textual evidence in table I.13 might notice three patterns: (1) some of the textual evidence compares the baseball game to a war, (2) some textual evidence compares the power of the audience to natural forces, and (3) other textual evidence makes Casey seem almost godlike. These patterns together make the events of the poem seem exaggerated. Finally, students should make a general statement that explains the connections or patterns they observed. The student who read “Casey at the Bat” might make the claim “The author of ‘Casey at the Bat’ uses exaggerations to make fun of how seriously some people take sports games.” The student would then arrange the textual evidence into grounds and backing to support the claim, as shown in figure I.4.

      After organizing the grounds and backing in their double-entry journals, students should skim or reread the text to search for more textual evidence to use as backing in support of their claim. As shown in figure I.4, the student has added some new quotes from the text that were not included in her double-entry journal. At this point, students should also search for contradictory or conflicting evidence and use it to refine their claims or grounds.

       Figure I.4: Organization of an argument using textual evidence from “Casey

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