My student Soyeon, a third-grader, was arguing about how I was allotting points in class. When a student gets a wrong answer, I go to the next, and if that next student gets the right answer, that student gets the point. The exception, however, is if the question is binary choice: true/false, or only two choices a/b. If the first student is wrong, then I just announce, no, it's the other one, and we move to the next question. Soyeon either didn't realize this was my procedure, or felt it was unfair in some way. She was arguing with me. It was one of those passionate kid-arguments over something seemingly trivial – she seemed on the verge of tears.
So I took the time to try to explain the procedure. I went back over the last few questions we'd done in the workbook, showing how for the true/false ones, we'd simply moved on. She seemed to be understanding, but she still was saying "It's not fair." Her English is remarkably good, actually.
Finally, I said, "I think you just like to argue."
She sat back. "No. I don't."
"Really, you like to argue."
"No! It's not true. I don't like to argue."
"You're arguing now."
"No I'm not."
She sat back, though, thinking this through. I knew that she knew and was comfortable with the word "argue" as she'd used it earlier, correctly, talking about the story we were reading.
There was no real resolution. We moved on. But at the end of class, she said very cheerfully, "Bye!" so I guess she got over it.
[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]