ArgCoach

ArgCoach: Building Better Arguments Together!

Productive discussion involves more than just sharing opinions. Teachers can help students clarify their thinking, support their ideas with good reasons and evidence, consider different perspectives, and respond to challenges from their peers.

ArgCoach helps teachers develop these skills through a combination of expert guidance, collaborative learning, and practice with realistic AI-powered student avatars. Teachers learn to recognize opportunities for meaningful intervention, decide when and how to respond, and reflect on how their choices can deepen students’ thinking and improve the quality of classroom discussions.

Learn about facilitating productive discussions by practicing with experts, peers, and student avatars.

Learn: Build your knowledge with experts and peers

Practice: Try facilitation in a low-risk simulation

Reflect and Continue: Come back to deepen your understanding

Learn core criteria for evaluating arguments.
Connect evaluation criteria to facilitation practices that help students improve their reasoning.
Take part in text-based discussions with experts and peers.

Read or listen to student avatars develop and challenge ideas.
Decide when to intervene and what to say to improve group arguments.
Practice choosing responses that improve the quality of arguments.

Examine how different teacher responses can impact opportunities for student learning.
Discuss your facilitation with peers and experts.
Explore new discussion topics and facilitation practices.

Practice Today.
Be Ready for the Classroom Tomorrow.

Classroom discussions can be unpredictable.

Guided practice helps you get ready.

In a real classroom, teachers cannot easily pause a discussion, reflect on their responses, or repeat the same instructional situation to explore alternative facilitation strategies.

ArgCoach gives you a space to explore discussion topics, try out facilitation strategies, and see how your choices shape student thinking. It lets you practice facilitation in low-stakes simulated classroom on your time and at your pace.

Built with and for teachers

Why ArgCoach?

A research-based approach that improves teacher practice and student outcomes

We built ArgCoach on more than 20 years of research on classroom dialogue, argumentation, and teacher learning.

Backed by 20+ years of research

We designed ArgCoach to align with national and state educational standards for argument literacy in speaking, reading, and writing.

[View Standards]

Aligned with educational standards

We received support from the National Science Foundation, enabling us to offer high-quality professional development at no cost to school districts and teachers.

Available at no cost

We developed ArgCoach in close collaboration with elementary teachers and their students.

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The Research Behind ArgCoach

The Most Reasonable Answer

Alina Reznitskaya and Ian A. G. Wilkinson
Harvard Education Press

Based on years of research and work in nearly 50 classrooms, this book provides field-tested tools to help teachers develop students' argumentation skills through discussion, reading, and writing.

"Finally, a resource that can help elementary teachers engage students in deep, meaningful discussions about the texts they read!"
- Amy Pacifico, Grade 5 Teacher, West Orange School District, NJ

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Selected Publications

Classroom
Dialogue

Dialogic teaching

The Reading Teacher (2012)

Identifies key features of dialogic teaching and offers a tool for reflecting on classroom interactions.

Argument
Quality

Raising the Bar

Handbook on the Science of Literacy in Grades 3-8 (2025)

Presents principles and practices to help teachers engage students in collaborative and rigorous argumentation.