Unpacking the Teaching and Learning of Argumentative Writing in an Urban High School English Classroom

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session focuses on three issues in the teaching and learning of argumentative writing: teaching and learning decision-making in composing an argumentative essay, transfer of argumentative practices in instructional conversations for use in composing argumentative essays, and the (re)construction of social relations between teacher and students, among students, and between writer and audience. As part of a larger, multidisciplinary study, we collected video recordings, student writing, interviews, field notes, and survey data on 24 classrooms in secondary English classrooms. In this session, each of the three papers focuses on the same instructional unit in one classroom employing different perspectives in order to generate grounded hypotheses about key processes and practices in the teaching and learning of argumentative writing.

Sub Unit

• Division C - Learning and Instruction / Section 1: Reading, Writing, and Language Arts

Chair

• George E. Newell, The Ohio State University

Papers

• Introduction - George E. Newell, The Ohio State University

• Teaching and Learning Decision Making in Argumentative Writing - Alan Hirvela, The Ohio State University

• A Sociocognitive Perspective on Transfer in Teaching and Learning Argumentative Writing - George E. Newell, The Ohio State University; Jennifer Lynn VanDerHeide, The Ohio State University

• (Re)constructing Social Relations and Rationality in the Teaching and Learning of Argumentative Writing in One Urban High School English Classroom - David M. Bloome, The Ohio State University; Allison Wynhoff-Olsen, Ohio State University

Discussants

• Robert J. Tierney, The University of Sydney

• Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University