Teaching writing. Teaching argument. A process.

How do I know what I think until I see what I say. E.M. Forster

Day 1: the first class of the school year.  I try something new. I ask students to become detectives. They work in small groups with handouts from a wonderful children’s book by Lawrence Treat Crime and Puzzlement. 

There are a number of crime scene line drawings, with titles like “Slip or Trip,” “Junior Prom,” and “Dead Aim.” A body lies on a bathroom floor. There is a shard of glass. A puddle. A footprint. Some of the scenes are hilarious. That first class establishes a collaborative sense of playful investigation and irony. 

Students examine the picture, look for clues, develop a theory, and a logically sequenced possible order of events. They share ideas and have conversations and solve “the crime.” They wrestle with a problem and seek a solution.

An article in the NCTE English Journal “Teaching Argument for Critical Thinking and Writing: An Introduction” by University of Chicago’s George Hillocks describes teaching students the basic elements of argument usingTreat’s picture books.

This exercise engages students in a process of inquiry and gives them a foundation for expository writing. Most students are skilled descriptive writers by 10th grade. But ask them to write an essay, and they freeze.

Beginning with crime scene visuals provides a framework for reading “text,” for finding evidence, and developing a theory. This is a useful schema for teaching expository writing and the conventions of the academic essay.

In tenth grade the critical thinking goals are close reading and analysis. Guiding students to move from reading for information to reading for meaning and to discover the author’s purpose. Reading for ideas, not just for plot and character. Determining  traits and values of major and minor characters. Mining the text for relevant data, for warrants to back up claims, and developing an interpretation. An argument.

Toulmin’s Model of Argument is a great resource for teaching students to write short Two Reasons papers. This format gives useful practice in cranking out a short essay, and it is an efficient model for the SAT.

Some helpful tools for collaborative talking to the text and about the text:

1.Google Docs to track key themes and develop inquiry questions, and to engender lots of lively, engaged, informal conversations that are accessible.

2. Wordle clouds for each character, of  language from the text that reveals traits and values associated with each character.

3. Informal reading journals and blog posts.

4. Forum discussions on the class Moodle.

5. Mindmapping, using Word or Mindmeister (or that old technology — colored pencils and paper) to map and cluster ideas. Students seem to love this. They enjoy the exchange of ideas and seeing the variety of their peers’  mapping styles.

6. The Ken Robinson RSA Animate shows them the flow of generating ideas and lateral thinking.

Then it’s time to go linear. I give them a format  for a Two Reasons paper. I counsel that this is merely a working scaffold upon which to build their argument.

• Intro paragraph ending with a proposition (a thesis). Thesis answers How…? Why…? And so…what…? 
• Paragraph 2 develops a single reason and a line of thinking that supports or explains the proposition/thesis
• Paragraph 3 develops a 2nd reason and line of thinking that supports/explains the proposition/thesis.
•   Paragraph 4 makes deep connections to other texts read this year.

Writing workshops and peer editing take up the next four hour-long classes. Students engage in focused exchanges about writing and thinking: sentence structure, evidence, word choice, sub-ideas. There is a great buzz in the room. They write and revise and check in with me.

Next step: some metacognitive reflection. They shoot me an email about the process. What worked? What were some of the challenges? What are some of the strengths? What are you going to continue to work on?

Final step: Assessment.  I use a grid based on the grading philosophy of  Peter Elbow that “writing comments is a dubious and difficult enterprise.” I have found that rubrics can be too complicated, and that most student writers prefer a grid that makes clear the components or elements of a strong piece of writing.

The grid guides students to become aware of the following:

Insights | Organization of ideas | Development of ideas | Introductory paragraph | Thesis | Paragraph Structure | Textual evidence | Connections | Sentence fluency, grammar, mechanics | Style | Vocabulary and language use | Voice | Concluding paragraph

Instruction in writing is a complex art.  I am always looking for new and fresh ways to teach writing. The organization of language into units of thought is a process infused with paradoxes — hunches and precision, flow and craft, clarity and coherence, energy and control, fluency and patience. For the students who are concrete thinkers, these paradoxes present challenges.

Teaching writing begins with noticing and observation at the level of language, at the level of diction, of a key word.  Students know all about key words, and they enjoy finding them. They also work at the level of a sentence, with style and voice, learning to notice different writing styles. Often they like to diagram sentences. This practice gives makes them aware of the shape and design of a sentence.They review sequencing by revisiting a process they learned in lower school.  How to eat an Oreo. How to make a peanut butter sandwich.

The oddest and most challenging part of teaching expository writing is that as literature teachers we ask students to de-construct a work of fiction by analyzing it in discursive, digressive, non-linear, messy, sprawling, and lively discussions. 

And then we ask them to re-construct their thoughts about a text in a logical and linear form of non-fiction.

Oh the irony.