Are zoos good or bad for animals?  Ask Mrs. Bentley’s 8th grade Language Arts students.  Students used a short article about zoos to learn about argumentative writing.  Students had to take a stand after reading the article, support their claim based specific evidence from the text, and make counterclaim to their stance.  Today, students focused on planning their thoughts using a graphic organizer.  Students will then take these thoughts to use them to write an essay based on their claim.