English · Inquiry B · Years 7–8
Crafting the Argument
A real audience — editors, councillors, or your school community — will read your work. Skilled writers anticipate objections and build arguments that hold up under scrutiny.
Your mission
Why it matters
Good arguments move from opinion to reasoning: structure, evidence and voice working together.
- You'll make
- A polished argumentative text for school publication, local paper, or public submission.
- Who it's for
- School publication, local paper, or public submission
- How long
- About 5 weeks, in any term
- Who takes part
- The whole Years 7–8 class, together
Your first step
Write your thesis in one sentence. List three reasons and one piece of evidence for each. Note who might disagree and why.
Your journey: AUTHOR
- Audience
- Understand
- Techniques
- Hear Voices
- Organise
- Respond
Every stage has Getting started, On track and Stretch support, so the whole class can work on it together.
Explore more
Trusted New Zealand sites for your research.
- Services to Schools ↗
National Library of New Zealand
Books, reading ideas and research help for NZ schools.
- NZ On Screen ↗
NZ On Air
New Zealand film and TV to study as texts.
For teachers: how to run it
Teach counter-argument explicitly. Use rubric aligned to audience. Optional submission to a real outlet if school policy allows.
Run it with a combined Years 7–8 class in any term. Students record each stage in Kōkiri Learn; you see progress by stage, never rankings or scores.
Ready to run it with your class?
Free trial for NZ schools. One combined Years 7–8 class, any term.