How Dialogic Approaches Affect Literature-Related Argumentative Writing in High School English Language Arts Classrooms

• In Event: 61.018 - The Power in the Word: Critical and Conscious Examinations of Text

Abstract

The current study compared the effects of dialogic literary argumentation (DLA) and close reading (CR) instructional approaches on high school students’ literature-related argumentative writing. The DLA approach emphasized rigorous dialogues as social practice to explore how a literary text might be read by different readers as ways to understand to the worlds in which they live. The CR approach emphasized close attention to the text and individuals’ sense-making process. DLA students outperformed CR students on argumentative writing after a year-long instructional intervention. The two instructional approaches were found to have differential effects on students holding varying beliefs about reading and writing. Students with higher transaction beliefs benefited more from DLA, whereas students with lower transaction beliefs benefited more from CR.

Authors

• Tzu-Jung Lin, The Ohio State University

• Seung Yon Ha, The Ohio State University

• George E. Newell, The Ohio State University