Social and Cognitive Influences in Teaching Argumentative Texts

Mary Ann Reilly

Tasks

1. Define argumentive discourse and writing, clarifying differences btw argument and persuasion.

2. Examine quasi-experimental research related to argumentive discourse with 8th graders.

3. Examine case study of teaching argumentive writing in 7th grade.

Thinking and Middle Schoolers

• "[A]bove all else... middle grades schools must be about helping all students learn to use their minds well" (p. 11), and

• "The main purpose of middle grades education is to promote young adolescents' intellectual development." (p. 10)

From: Jackson, A., & Davis, G. (2000). Turning Points 2000: Educating adolescents in the 21st century. New York: Teachers College Press.

Why Argument?

• Constructing arguments (Voss & Wiley, 1997; Wiley & Voss, 1999; Zohar & Nemet, 2002) and engaging in argumentive discussion (Mason, 1998, 2001) enhance conceptual understanding of subject matter in school-age children, as well as college students.

• From Kuhn & Udell, 2003.

Persuasion and Argument

1. Same Goals: To convince, to defend, to question

2. Different Methods:• Persuasion: Built on logos, pathos, and/or

ethos• Argument: Built on logical models that include

claims, evidence, warrants, backing, & anticipated objections and rebuttal

Goals of Argument

• According to Walton (1989), skilled argumentation has two goals.

1. Secure commitments from the opponent that can be used to support one's own argument.

2. Undermine the opponent's position by identifying and challenging weaknesses in his or her argument.

Parts of an Argument (Toulmin Method)

1. Claim: General statement, assertion upon which the argument is based

2. Reasons: Why does a writer believe the claim s/he makes? The reasons a writer gives are the first line of development of any argument.

3. Evidence: Facts, examples, statistics, expert testimony, among others--to back up our reasons

4. Warrants: Explains how the evidence supports the claim5. Anticipated Objections & Rebuttals: What might others object too

and how does the author rebut those objections? (*Most often not attended to by adolescents)

6. Drawing Conclusions: Statement about the effectiveness of the argument by reader

Claims

• advertisements make unfounded claims• the NJASK prompt for persuasive writing is

based on making unfounded claims • Claims must be substantiated by...

…Evidence

• a claim (thesis) arises from a question which in turn rises from the examination of information or data of some kind

Steps to Establish Evidence

1. examine data

2. ask questions based on data

3. re-examine data

4. attempt to answer your questions

5. data that supports your answers = evidence

Evidence must be both useful and

verifiable.

Warrants

• The explanations of why the data we produce support the claims we make are called warrants;

• They can be common sense rules that are generally accepted as true, laws, scientific principles or studies, and/or thoughtfully argued definitions.

Example: warrants establish the uniqueness of

fingerprints as useful evidence.

Backing

• since warrants can be challenged, backing is the support for warrants (studying the development of beetles in corpses to establish time of death -- a warrant)

• when arguments of judgment are challenged, warrants need extensive backing via extended definitions of abstract ideas (what is courageous action?)

Qualifications and Counter-Arguments

• arguments deal with probabilities (likely, probably, almost certainly) and must be qualified.

• statistical evidence is used in medical, agricultural, educational, and social sciences to determine the probability of truth in a claim

Challenges for Adolescents Regarding Argument

• Adolescents are:1. unlikely to construct two-sided arguments 2. to distinguish evidence and explanation in

support of their claims

(Kuhn & Udell, 2003)

Developing Argumentative Discourse

• Academically at-risk middle-school students engage in a ten-week debate activity focused on the topic of capital punishment. Based on their initial pro v. con opinions, students are assigned to a 4-6 person team who share their opinion and with whom they work until near the end of the project.

• The social goal that unites and energizes the team is preparation for a final "show-down" debate activity against a team holding the opposing opinion.

• Assessments preceding and following the activity are based on – a student's individual argument in support of a pro or con opinion, for both the

capital punishment topic and a new, transfer topic, – a sample of argumentive discourse between two students holding opposing

opinions, again on both the capital punishment topic and a new topic. Initial results indicate significant progress in the quality of both individual argument and argumentive discourse following the activity.

Developing Argumentative Discourse

• 34 academically at-risk eighth-grade students attending two low-performing, inner-city public middle schools in New York City.

• Students were organized into Pro and Con teams concerned capital punishment based on student survey results. Experimental & Control group.

• Pre/Post Assessment designed to examine sophistication of argument (single to dual, reduction in expository response )

• Each team worked with an adult for two 90-minute lessons per a week for 8 weeks building argumentative discourse skills that are displayed during debate/showdown. Control group worked w/ adult for 7 of the 16 sessions.

Pair Teams: Pro and Con of a Claim

1. Generating Reasons2. Supporting Reasons with Evidence3. Evaluating Reasons4. Developing Reasons into an Argument5. Examining and Evaluating Opposing Side’s Reasons6. Generating Counterarguments to Others’ Reasons7. Generating Rebuttal to Others’ Reasons8. Contemplating Mixed Evidence9. Contemplating & Evaluating Two Evidence (Rehearsal)10. Showdown

Results

• Researchers coded students utterances during showdown as – simple disagreement (with what the partner has

said), – disagreement accompanied by an alternate

argument, and – disagreement accompanied by a critique of the

partner's utterance.• Increased production in all categories.

Example of Pre/Post• Initial assessment: If someone did something wrong, they should be

subject to capital punishment. (Why is that?) Because for instance if they kill someone, maybe the same thing is due to them. (Any other reason?) Well, I feel that people should pay if they did something wrong.

• Final assessment: If someone goes out and kills another person they should receive a justified punishment, an equal punishment. So that if they killed someone then they should receive the same thing. But I can also see how other people can have a different opinion because not everyone thinks the same and they may feel that it's wrong to kill another person, that people deserve a second chance. But personally I feel that if you have enough nerve to go out and kill somebody else, well then you just deserve to be killed as well. (Okay, anything else?) Well, one of the reasons why I have this opinion is that I've seen where facts have shown that capital punishment has reduced crime. And I always think that less crime will make a better life for everyone.

• “argument skills develop and that engagement in an argumentive discourse activity enhances that development (Felton & Kuhn, 2001; Kuhn et al., 1997). …such advancement can be observed not only in the arguments that an individual constructs in support of a claim but also in the quality of argumentive discourse generated in peer dialogues” (Kuhn & Udell, p. 1255).

Developing Demands, Orally Arguing, & Listening to Argument as per CCSS

•SL.6.3. Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.•SL.6.4. Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

•SL.7.3. Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.•SL.7.4. Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

SL.8.3. Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced.SL.8.4. Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

Developing Demands in Writing Argument as per CCSS

•W.6.1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.–Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.–Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.–Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons.–Establish and maintain a formal style.–Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented.

•W.7.1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. –Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.–Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.–Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence.–Establish and maintain a formal style.–Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

•W.8.1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. –Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.–Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.–Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.–Establish and maintain a formal style.–Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

Developing Demands in Reading Argument as per CCSS

•RI.6.8. Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

•RI.7.8. Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.

•RI.8.8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

What Types of Instruction Support the Argumentative Thinking?

• Kuhn et al. (1997) and Lao and Kuhn (2002) have shown that extended engagement in argumentative discourse, in the absence of any additional instruction, is a sufficient condition for enhancement of the quality of arguments produced by individuals following discourse.

Nystrand & Graff (2001)

• “Argumentation, especially, is an arduous and dialogic process of response to others, on the one hand, and anticipation of response, on the other. Skilled writers know how to peer over their shoulders, as it were, while pushing on with their own ideas. The writer's interlocutors hence play a key role in the ostensibly private act of writing, contributing to its development by elaborating different positions and by questioning and disagreeing with ideas the writer proposes. Yet these processes are often short-circuited when knowledge is routinely treated, as it is in many classrooms, as a given—fixed, and found in texts” (p.7).

Task 1

• Examine the transcript between the 7th grade teacher and the student. (Handout)

• Based on the transcript, what do you think the student is learning? What makes you say so?

Task #2 Examine the Teacher’s Instruction: What does she believe will best guide student writing/thinking?

• I was telling you before that when you write . . . a solid paragraph, you have a main idea here, and then you support it with details, . . . and the more details you have, the stronger that topic sentence is gonna be. Right? Okay. So here's my question to you: If you have your thesis and your assertions chart filled out and you're writing an introduction, can you do this? We will use this as a paragraph. Let's take . . . all the information you have, and you're going to write a draft of your paper. In your introduction, is it possible for you to — have your table top be your thesis statement and assertions one, two, and three? Okay? So, in your introduction, your thesis sentence is either going to be your, generally, it's either the first or last sentence of a paragraph in your introduction. And, in your introduction, you're also gonna state, just state your assertions. . . . So essentially, your paper could be 5 paragraphs in length. It could be an introduction, in which you state your assertions. It could be assertion one and the details, assertion two and the details, assertion three and the details, and a wrap-up, a conclusion. . . . now if you follow that format, which I think is easy to follow. . . . [3/2/98, from Nystrand & Graff, 2001 ]

Consider this question…

What happens to student learning when a teacher’s comments and actions move them towards closure rather than opening dialog?

Is completing the assignment more important than learning?

Directions from teacher to students in keeping a double entry notebook.

• [T]his is what things I personally thought about the book, and you can say, "Oh, this book is awful—I don't like it, I'm bored, I can't relate to the characters." You are certainly free to say whatever you honestly feel about the book, so just make sure you kind of back it with why. Don't just say [it's not a good book]—that's not enough. . . . I wrote, "Dear whoever-I-was-talking-to, Things must have been awful, This is hard to read, Awful for that boy to have run away. What do you think he is hoping to find in the city? Is he going to meet someone?" [1/27/98]

Intellectual Environment Matters

• The type of activities that happen in the classroom influence how well students think. How the complex demands of a large modern classroom configure writing and reading activities can inhibit the epistemology of argument.

• In the 9 weeks researchers observed (in blocks of two 55-minute classes back to back), not 1 of the total 4,950 minutes was given over to discussion in any extended form (they defined discussion as the free exchange of information among students and/or between at least 3 students and the teacher that lasted at least a half minute).

Summary

• “…the idea of writing as argument imply changes not only in student products but also in the overall teaching practices of classrooms. A few changes in writing instruction, while important, may not have the desired results if the dominant epistemology of the classroom derails the instructional goals for writing” (Nystrand & Graff, 2001).

Recommended Next Steps

• During Fall-Winter 2012, develop a unit of study appropriate for your grade level that:1. Emphasizes thinking related to argument2. Emphasizes argumentive discourse3. Provides you and your students with scaffolded

approach to discussing and writing argumentive text

4. Connects talking and writing with reading/analyzing argumentive text

5. Is ready to implement for February, 2013

Works CitedFelton, M., & Kuhn, D. (2001). The development of argumentive discourse skills. Discourse Processes, 32, 135-153 Jackson, A., & Davis, G. (2000). Turning Points 2000: Educating adolescents in the 21st century. New York: Teachers

College Press. Kuhn, D. & Udell, V. (2003). The development of argument skills. Child Development, 74( 5), 1245-1260.Kuhn, D., Shaw, V., & Felton, M. (1997). Effects of dyadic interaction on argumentive reasoning. Cognition and

Instruction, 15, 287-315. Lao, J., & Kuhn, D. (2002). Cognitive engagement and attitude development. Cognitive Development, 17, 1203-1217. Mason, L. (1998). Sharing cognition to construct scientific knowledge in school contexts: The role of oral and written

discourse. Instructional Science, 26, 359-389. Mason, L. (2001). Introducing talk and writing for conceptual change: A classroom study. In L. Mason (Ed.),

Instructional practices for conceptual change in science domains. Learning and Instruction, 11, 305-329. Nystrand, M. & Graff, N. (2001). Report in argument’s clothing. An ecological perspective on writing instruction in a

seventh-grade classroom. The Elementary School Journal, 101(4), 479-493.Voss, J., & Wiley, J. (1997). Developing understanding while writing essays in history. International Journal of

Educational Research, 27, 255-265. Walton, D. N. (1989). Dialogue theory for critical thinking. Argumentation, 3, 169-184. Wiley, J., & Voss, J. (1999). Constructing arguments from multiple sources: Tasks that promote understanding and not

just memory for text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 301-311. Zohar, A., & Nemet, F. (2002). Fostering students' know-edge and argumentation skills through dilemmas in human

genetics. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 35-62.