The Editorial

The best-written argument is not the same as the strongest one.

The Editorial seats your eighth graders on a newspaper's editorial board, choosing which arguments are strong enough to run. Over ten days a credentialed voice, a beautiful sentence, and the loudest crowd all push against the evidence. The boards who judge the reasoning, not the polish, publish the arguments that hold. It is argument evaluation they have to defend.

See what your students get, and why it lands.

No mockups. Every page below is real, pulled straight from the files you download. Tap any one to see it full size.

A worksheet was never going to teach this.

Your eighth graders are not underlining the thesis in a passage. They are an editorial board deciding which arguments earn a place in the paper, where the same issue gets framed to make a weak case sound strong. A polished paragraph and an expert's name pull at them. The boards who test the evidence behind the writing, not the writing itself, choose the arguments that stand up. That is argument analysis with a real decision attached.

Tap to read the framing

They are graded on their reasoning, not on which arguments they run.

Here is what surprises teachers. A board that ran the arguments the designers intended is not graded higher than one that did not. There is no answer key. Students are assessed on the quality of their reasoning, traced through their own daily journal. A defensible call that ran against the room scores higher than a popular one with no thinking behind it. That is how an eighth grader learns that a defensible judgment beats a polished one.

Tap to read the grading note

Let the workbook score the arguments.

The Editorial comes with a workbook that holds each argument against the same criteria, evidence, logic, and counterargument, side by side. The board logs its evaluation, and the comparison builds across the ten days. Their attention stays on the hard part, which argument actually holds, instead of on keeping the submissions straight.

Tap to see the scoring sheet

Every day is already scripted. You just run the room.

You do not need a journalism or rhetoric background to teach this. The guide scripts every day, names what students will likely say, and gives you exactly how to respond. The submissions, the peer review, and the final editorial decision are all written for you. You bring the facilitation. The simulation brings everything else.

Tap to read the teacher guide

The lesson plan is already written.

Every simulation comes with a fully editable, admin-ready lesson plan. Standards alignment, daily pacing, learning objectives, differentiation, and an assessment plan are already done, so you can hand it to an administrator or adapt it to your district template in minutes.

Tap to preview the lesson plan

Everything you need to run it.