Think about a time when you made a claim or gave an opinion, but someone asked you, “Why?” or “How do you know?” Describe the situation. What evidence did you use to support your point, and why is explaining your evidence just as important as providing it?

 Prompt Response: One time I told my friend that I thought that the character Serena Van Der Woodson from Gossip Girl was the worst character in the show. When she asked why I thought that I explained that Serena was extremely selfish, manipulative, and always tried to make herself appear better than everyone else when she was just as toxic as the rest of her friends. Explaining each of these points with specific instances in the show helped me demonstrate to my friend why I believed she was the worst character and afterwards my friend also agreed with me. 

Summary: Today in class we evaluated a passage and looked at the prompt "Is there ever such  thing as a 'good kill?'". While we didn't begin writing, we looked at the OJ Simpson case to see what explaining evidence looks like and why it is important to support your claim. We also had a class discussion on our stance for the prompt. 

Reflection: It was interesting to hear how different people had different viewpoints on the matter and while I definitely didn't agree with some of the things said, it was helpful to hear them so I could strengthen my own evidence and it allowed us to practice explaining our reasoning on why we thought what we did.