Write Like a Lawyer: Argumentative Writing Class, Grades 5-6 & 7-8
Grades 5-6 (Tuesdays): February 21, 28; March 7, 14, 21, 28; April 4, 11
Grades 7-8 (Thursdays): February 23; March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; April 6, 13
8 class sessions, 1.5 hours per class (12 hours of instruction)
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. PST
Course Description:
Adopt the skills, habits, and mindset of a lawyer while developing 21st Century Learning Skills of Critical Thinking and Communication.
Develop your legal analysis skills as you gather valid and relevant evidence, make inferences, create claims, consider multiple perspectives, examine consequences, and draw conclusions.
Learn to write like a lawyer, constructing arguments based on REAL-LIFE cases. Develop your vocabulary with legal terms and learn about courtroom procedure with a mock trial.
Some of the cases you will analyze include these:
- Monkey Business: Intro to Legal Writing
- The Chair: Compare and Contrast/Multiple Perspectives
- A Challenge for Whom: Root Cause Analysis/Jury Deliberation
- And more!
The evidence is clear: You need this class! Case closed!
Instructor Biography:
Mrs. Lisa Tarkoff is a teacher and administrator from Red Hill Lutheran School in Tustin. A fellow of the UCI Writing Project since 2008, she has delivered numerous, research-based professional development presentations to educators in both public and private schools throughout Southern California. Her work with Project-Based Learning has been featured in these books: Thinking Tools for Young Readers and Writers: Strategies to Promote Higher Literacy in Grades 2–8 and Helping English Learners to Write: Meeting Common Core Standards, Grades 6–12. Most recently, she was an Orange County Teacher of the Year semi-finalist and was recognized as one of the Top 25 Teachers of Orange County by Parenting Magazine. Mrs. Tarkoff is also certified in Gifted and Talented Education and is a National Board Certified Teacher. Her main goal as an educator is to foster a love of learning in her students by engaging them in motivating, real-world learning activities that stimulate them to higher levels of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.
Adopt the skills, habits, and mindset of a lawyer while developing 21st Century Learning Skills of Critical Thinking and Communication.
Develop your legal analysis skills as you gather valid and relevant evidence, make inferences, create claims, consider multiple perspectives, examine consequences, and draw conclusions.
Learn to write like a lawyer, constructing arguments based on REAL-LIFE cases. Develop your vocabulary with legal terms and learn about courtroom procedure with a mock trial.
Some of the cases you will analyze include these:
- Monkey Business: Intro to Legal Writing
- The Chair: Compare and Contrast/Multiple Perspectives
- A Challenge for Whom: Root Cause Analysis/Jury Deliberation
- And more!
The evidence is clear: You need this class! Case closed!
Instructor Biography:
Mrs. Lisa Tarkoff is a teacher and administrator from Red Hill Lutheran School in Tustin. A fellow of the UCI Writing Project since 2008, she has delivered numerous, research-based professional development presentations to educators in both public and private schools throughout Southern California. Her work with Project-Based Learning has been featured in these books: Thinking Tools for Young Readers and Writers: Strategies to Promote Higher Literacy in Grades 2–8 and Helping English Learners to Write: Meeting Common Core Standards, Grades 6–12. Most recently, she was an Orange County Teacher of the Year semi-finalist and was recognized as one of the Top 25 Teachers of Orange County by Parenting Magazine. Mrs. Tarkoff is also certified in Gifted and Talented Education and is a National Board Certified Teacher. Her main goal as an educator is to foster a love of learning in her students by engaging them in motivating, real-world learning activities that stimulate them to higher levels of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.