In order to write a good piece of an argumentative essay, we need to understand different fields of arguments and debates.
I have involved in an activity called Philosophical Chairs, which participants are required to get up and speak to defend their claims or position (against or for) of a particular topic. This activity is similar to debate, the only difference is that it has a different structure of the argument.
In my Literacy class, our topic for the Philosophical Chairs was “Schools Should Stop The Practice of Giving Letter Grades ”
I was in the “in favor” team because I believe that letter grades do not fully reflect on the student’s progress, causes the student to have a huge amount of uncertainty of what particular or specific field to improve on, and it decreases the interest for many students who do not get good grades. Neattoday.org stated that “It seems that letter grades are no longer making the grade when it comes to measuring student progress.” In addition, an education expert (Alfie Kohn) stated that letter grades are relics from a less enlightened age. To add on to this, I have also experienced two different scenarios when my teacher gives me a letter grade and feedbacks. I noticed that feedbacks help me to work on the specific things that need improvement and it tells me, personally, how I have completed the tasks or the tests while letter grades give me a vast comment on my work.