Introduction

• In Event: Unpacking the Teaching and Learning of Argumentative Writing in an Urban High School English Classroom

Abstract

In this introduction to the session, the purpose and structure of the session will be presented. Then, the broader study will be described. The broader study began in October 2010. Since then we have been researching the teaching and learning of argumentative writing in twenty-four 9th and 11th grade English classrooms employing participant observation, video recording, interviews with teachers and students, collection of student writing, and surveying of student backgrounds. In each classroom we studied one instructional unit from beginning to end. The classrooms studied were recommended by various educators as exemplars of excellence in the teaching of argumentative writing. Then, there will be a description of the classroom and school from which the target instructional unit was taken. The school is a comprehensive high school in an urban community. The student population is approximately 95% African-American, as is the 11th grade English classroom of 17 students. The classroom is heterogeneous in terms of student achievement. The teacher, an African-American woman, had been teaching for 24 years and was viewed by administrators and colleagues as excellent. After describing the broader study, the school and the classroom, a 5 minute video segment from that classroom will be shown. The purposes for showing the vide segment include: (a) providing a common source for illustrating some of the grounded hypotheses across the presentations, and (b) providing the audience with a sense of the classroom atmosphere and interactional style of the teacher and students.

Author

• George E. Newell, The Ohio State University