Teacher Commentary
At this culminating opportunity for argumentation for this unit, you may want to give the students an opportunity for peer review. This moves into evaluating historical interpretations, READI History Inquiry Goal 5.

First, ask students to generate a list of criteria for what would make a convincing/compelling argument in history. Use these criteria as a set of questions in evaluating one another’s work.

There are several options that might work for this task. Keep in mind the stamina of your students at this point in the module when deciding which of these to select.

1. Have students switch papers with a partner and evaluate one another’s argument using the criteria: Students could then have an opportunity to revise based on this feedback.

2. Collect the arguments and select 2-3 examples that represent common areas for improvement. You can have students compare samples side by side and use their list of criteria to analyze them. Be sure to make the samples anonymous before you share, and also preface the discussion by noting that all the samples do some things well, and also have room for improvement, and we can all get better and help our classmates get better at the same time.

3. Collect the small group arguments, order them more or less logically, and create one document from them. The class could read the entire argument, Talking to the Text, and then discuss it in light of the criteria.

•  What would need to happen to turn this into a great historical argument?
•  Which of the paragraphs about the relationship between the coup and the current situation would we want to use?
• If the class were on fire, you could do some of that work together, rearranging paragraphs, adding transitions, clarifying evidence, reasoning and qualifications.