Exploring Children's Argumentation as a Heuristic Intertextual Practice

• In Event: Exploring Children's Experiences Through Qualitative Methods

Abstract

Research into children’s argumentation in formal academic learning has mainly focused on argumentative writing in math or science classes. Much less is known about the youngest children's emerging argumentation in language art classes, where argumentation is formally introduced and learned. This paper reports a year-long ethnographic study on argumentation in a first-grade ELA classroom in the U.S. Ethnographic discourse analysis was conducted to analyze two key literacy events in their reader’s and writer’s workshops. Our findings highlight the inherent intertextual nature of children’s argumentation and a critical role the teacher played in steering the children’s argumentation construction through strategic instructional conversations. Our findings also revealed teacher-led children’s intertextual argumentation as a powerful heuristic process and tool to enrich students’ learning.

Authors

• Huili Hong, Vanderbilt University

• Qijie Vicky Cai, Towson University

• Min Wang, Houghton University