III. Strategies
a. Teaching Argument in English Education
As mentioned earlier, students can often become overwhelmed with the discourse features of an argumentative text. They should remember that, in analyzing an argument, knowing what to pay attention to is as important as knowing what not to pay attention to.
Do's
Don’ts
Brian W. Carver, from the University of Berkeley offers the following prompts to help students analyze an argument.
1. What is the author's conclusion?
2. What premises does the author provide to support this conclusion?
3. What assumptions (unstated premises) are required for the author's argument to be valid?
4. Do the premises seem uncontroversially true? If not, explain.
5. Do the assumptions seem uncontroversially true? If not, explain.
6. Are all terms in the argument adequately defined? If not, explain.
7. Are there other facts, not discussed, that would be helpful to know in evaluating the argument? If so, explain.
8. Does the author appeal to emotion or use words designed to influence our response? (e.g., discounts, hedges, assurances, repetition, etc.) If so, explain.
9. Is your well-crafted version of the argument valid? That is, suppose the premises and assumptions are true, regardless of their actual truth or falsity. Ask yourself, given their truth, does the conclusion have to follow? (If so the argument is valid, if not, it is invalid.) If a clear valid/invalid answer is difficult, explain why.
10. In your opinion, is your well-crafted version of the argument sound? That is, does it both have a valid form and have all true premises and assumptions? (If so, it is sound, if not, it is unsound.) Explain your answer.
As mentioned earlier, students can often become overwhelmed with the discourse features of an argumentative text. They should remember that, in analyzing an argument, knowing what to pay attention to is as important as knowing what not to pay attention to.
Do's
- Identify the claim
- Identify the structure of the argument, or line of reasoning. Is each step in the thinking process logical?
- Pay attention to what in the text is offered as evidence or support. Certain words are clues that the author is making a logical connection: however, thus, therefore, evidently, hence, in conclusion.
- Pay attention to what is assumed without proof.
Don’ts
- Articulate your agreement or disagreement with the argument, unless asked to do so by the task.
- Favor the arguments, just because you agree with the author’s point of view. (Source)
Brian W. Carver, from the University of Berkeley offers the following prompts to help students analyze an argument.
1. What is the author's conclusion?
2. What premises does the author provide to support this conclusion?
3. What assumptions (unstated premises) are required for the author's argument to be valid?
4. Do the premises seem uncontroversially true? If not, explain.
5. Do the assumptions seem uncontroversially true? If not, explain.
6. Are all terms in the argument adequately defined? If not, explain.
7. Are there other facts, not discussed, that would be helpful to know in evaluating the argument? If so, explain.
8. Does the author appeal to emotion or use words designed to influence our response? (e.g., discounts, hedges, assurances, repetition, etc.) If so, explain.
9. Is your well-crafted version of the argument valid? That is, suppose the premises and assumptions are true, regardless of their actual truth or falsity. Ask yourself, given their truth, does the conclusion have to follow? (If so the argument is valid, if not, it is invalid.) If a clear valid/invalid answer is difficult, explain why.
10. In your opinion, is your well-crafted version of the argument sound? That is, does it both have a valid form and have all true premises and assumptions? (If so, it is sound, if not, it is unsound.) Explain your answer.
Writing to Comprehend Arguments
One of the ways that comprehension of arguments can be taught is by writing arguments. Unfortunately, most teachers have students develop their thesis in a vacuum. According to Hillocks, “Without analysis of any data (verbal and nonverbal texts, materials, surveys and samples), any thesis is likely to be no more than a preconception or assumption or clichéd popular belief that is unwarranted and, at worst, totally indefensible.” Source. Hillocks, therefore teaches the argumentative essay as an inquiry process, using the following steps:
1. Examine data.
2. Ask questions based on data.
3. Reexamine data.
4. Try to answer the questions.
5. Data that supports our answer = Evidence
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
To teach students how to understand and apply these rhetorical principles in an academic context, I first familiarize writers with the definition of ethos, pathos and logos with a short video from Read/Write/Think. Then I use the chart below to help novice writers apply the proofs to a variety of persuasive texts in their environment, such as magazine or newspaper advertisements and editorials:
One of the ways that comprehension of arguments can be taught is by writing arguments. Unfortunately, most teachers have students develop their thesis in a vacuum. According to Hillocks, “Without analysis of any data (verbal and nonverbal texts, materials, surveys and samples), any thesis is likely to be no more than a preconception or assumption or clichéd popular belief that is unwarranted and, at worst, totally indefensible.” Source. Hillocks, therefore teaches the argumentative essay as an inquiry process, using the following steps:
1. Examine data.
2. Ask questions based on data.
3. Reexamine data.
4. Try to answer the questions.
5. Data that supports our answer = Evidence
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
To teach students how to understand and apply these rhetorical principles in an academic context, I first familiarize writers with the definition of ethos, pathos and logos with a short video from Read/Write/Think. Then I use the chart below to help novice writers apply the proofs to a variety of persuasive texts in their environment, such as magazine or newspaper advertisements and editorials:
You needn't reserve the heuristic above for assessing dusty rhetorical moments (Charles de Gaulle's June 18th 1940 speech comes to mind). Instead, try having students analyze George Bush's Ground Zero bullhorn speech ("I hear you!"), an incontestably powerful moment of rhetoric that holds up to repeated viewing. A transcript and analysis of pathos, ethos and logos used in Bush's speech can be found in multiple places throughout the Internet.
Next, have students create Aristotelian advertisements for something they possess in their book bag or purse. Or they can use the proofs to persuasively design digital book trailers. When all three proofs are used effectively, prose is at its most persuasive.
21st Century Product Reviews: Ubiquitous Persuasive Texts
Let's look at some alternate 21st century persuasive texts. If you're like me, a wary consumer, you may have found that the product reviews from real buyers on Amazon greatly influence your purchase choices.
Next, have students create Aristotelian advertisements for something they possess in their book bag or purse. Or they can use the proofs to persuasively design digital book trailers. When all three proofs are used effectively, prose is at its most persuasive.
21st Century Product Reviews: Ubiquitous Persuasive Texts
Let's look at some alternate 21st century persuasive texts. If you're like me, a wary consumer, you may have found that the product reviews from real buyers on Amazon greatly influence your purchase choices.
Product Review
Invicta Men's 0555 Russian Diver Collection Black Rubber Watch
Hottest Watch I've EVER owned. I've collected many. November 2, 2010 by PMNOrlando
"This is definitely the hottest watch I've ever owned and I've owned many as I used to collect Men's watches. I just received it today and I have to say it had the biggest WOW factor straight out of the box. If you're a big man like I am you need a nice, classy, masculine watch like this. For the price I paid I feel like I stole it."
Other sites, like Cool Tools, Land's End or Yelp work just as well for students to analyze and contribute product reviews. Even Twitter can be a persuasive social media space. Cary W. tweeted,"Drive is such an amazing film, went in with a crush on Carey Mulligan. Left with a crush on Ryan Gosling."
General Strategies for Helping Students Read in the Content Area
Many different general strategies can be used to aid comprehension. Jim Burke advises that effective strategies for reading in the content areas should be able to…
The next section will introduce a high leveraged strategy, a double-entry notebook, which meets all aforementioned criteria.
b. The Double-Entry Notebook
Theoretical/Research Base
Writing is thinking—a way to amplify understanding of a text by seeing (in writing) what you think about the reading. The research of Steve Graham and Michael Herbert in their book, Write to Read (2010), states that “writing that unveils students' understandings of a text [...] improves comprehension.” The following approach is based upon the “writing is thinking” idea.
Ann Berthoff, the inventor and proselytizer of the double-entry notebook (sometimes referred to as a “dialectical journal” or “double-entry journal”), believed that meaning could be explored through the writing/process approach, where students understand what they know about a text, and understand how they know it.[i]
“In this way, Berthoff has expanded on the work of Louise Rosenblatt’s ideas of active reading through Berthoff’s own meaning-making emphasis in the “dialectical notebook” or “double-entry notebook” in which students write about what they read then revisit their writing to assess critically their own earlier observations. Students become critical thinkers and meaning makers of their inner thoughts and voices as they learn to notice and confront uncertainties.”[ii]
Another advantage of double-entry notebooks is that they are considered a “best practice” of repertoire-based assessment. According to Bill Younglove (2011), they are also an authentic way for teachers to calibrate a student’s understand. Vicki Zakrzewski (2014) suggests that double-entry notebooks are an excellent way for students to develop social-emotional learning (SEL). That is, they can use this specialized notebook to self-reflect on their own emotional experiences.
Teachervision discusses how the double-entry notebook is supported by the research of Marzano (1988) in that it...
“…emphasizes the importance of metacognition and student learning. By writing about what they are thinking, students show their thinking process as they read, allowing teachers to redirect or encourage students to be more effective readers.”[iii]
The Annenberg Learner calls the double-entry journal one of the...
“most simple and direct ways to teach students to read” carefully leveraged tool that a) helps students read and reflect, b) helps slow down the reading process, c) helps students ask questions and make predictions, and d) supports English-language learners improve their reading comprehension skills.[iv]
Steps for teaching the double-entry notebook with argumentative texts
1) Materials Needed (Adapted from Cuny Academic Commons[v])
a) An assigned argumentative reading.
b) A computer with a blank copy of template to complete or a print out to fill out with a writing utensil.
Invicta Men's 0555 Russian Diver Collection Black Rubber Watch
Hottest Watch I've EVER owned. I've collected many. November 2, 2010 by PMNOrlando
"This is definitely the hottest watch I've ever owned and I've owned many as I used to collect Men's watches. I just received it today and I have to say it had the biggest WOW factor straight out of the box. If you're a big man like I am you need a nice, classy, masculine watch like this. For the price I paid I feel like I stole it."
Other sites, like Cool Tools, Land's End or Yelp work just as well for students to analyze and contribute product reviews. Even Twitter can be a persuasive social media space. Cary W. tweeted,"Drive is such an amazing film, went in with a crush on Carey Mulligan. Left with a crush on Ryan Gosling."
General Strategies for Helping Students Read in the Content Area
Many different general strategies can be used to aid comprehension. Jim Burke advises that effective strategies for reading in the content areas should be able to…
- Help struggling students and those with special needs by providing structure and support.
- Support English Learners by helping them see how information is organized and giving them a more visual means of understanding or conveying ideas.
- Increase engagement by providing ways for cognitive collaboration on academic tasks.
- Achieve more sophisticated thinking by asking students to analyze, organize, and synthesize.
- Improve comprehension by allowing students to analyze text structure and connections
The next section will introduce a high leveraged strategy, a double-entry notebook, which meets all aforementioned criteria.
b. The Double-Entry Notebook
Theoretical/Research Base
Writing is thinking—a way to amplify understanding of a text by seeing (in writing) what you think about the reading. The research of Steve Graham and Michael Herbert in their book, Write to Read (2010), states that “writing that unveils students' understandings of a text [...] improves comprehension.” The following approach is based upon the “writing is thinking” idea.
Ann Berthoff, the inventor and proselytizer of the double-entry notebook (sometimes referred to as a “dialectical journal” or “double-entry journal”), believed that meaning could be explored through the writing/process approach, where students understand what they know about a text, and understand how they know it.[i]
“In this way, Berthoff has expanded on the work of Louise Rosenblatt’s ideas of active reading through Berthoff’s own meaning-making emphasis in the “dialectical notebook” or “double-entry notebook” in which students write about what they read then revisit their writing to assess critically their own earlier observations. Students become critical thinkers and meaning makers of their inner thoughts and voices as they learn to notice and confront uncertainties.”[ii]
Another advantage of double-entry notebooks is that they are considered a “best practice” of repertoire-based assessment. According to Bill Younglove (2011), they are also an authentic way for teachers to calibrate a student’s understand. Vicki Zakrzewski (2014) suggests that double-entry notebooks are an excellent way for students to develop social-emotional learning (SEL). That is, they can use this specialized notebook to self-reflect on their own emotional experiences.
Teachervision discusses how the double-entry notebook is supported by the research of Marzano (1988) in that it...
“…emphasizes the importance of metacognition and student learning. By writing about what they are thinking, students show their thinking process as they read, allowing teachers to redirect or encourage students to be more effective readers.”[iii]
The Annenberg Learner calls the double-entry journal one of the...
“most simple and direct ways to teach students to read” carefully leveraged tool that a) helps students read and reflect, b) helps slow down the reading process, c) helps students ask questions and make predictions, and d) supports English-language learners improve their reading comprehension skills.[iv]
Steps for teaching the double-entry notebook with argumentative texts
1) Materials Needed (Adapted from Cuny Academic Commons[v])
a) An assigned argumentative reading.
b) A computer with a blank copy of template to complete or a print out to fill out with a writing utensil.
[i] Berthoff, A.E. Forming, Thinking, Writing: The Composing Imagination. Rochelle Park,
N.J.: Hayden Book Co., 1978.
[ii] http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442108.pdf
[iii] https://www.teachervision.com/writing/letters-and-journals/48536.html
[iv] http://www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop8/teaching.html
[v] http://bacwritingfellows.commons.gc.cuny.edu/for-students/tutorials/from-reading-to-writing-double-entry-notebook/
N.J.: Hayden Book Co., 1978.
[ii] http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442108.pdf
[iii] https://www.teachervision.com/writing/letters-and-journals/48536.html
[iv] http://www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop8/teaching.html
[v] http://bacwritingfellows.commons.gc.cuny.edu/for-students/tutorials/from-reading-to-writing-double-entry-notebook/
2) Reading with Analytic Reflection Questions
Instruct students to read through the assigned argumentative text, writing down a loose summary and interesting/resonant elements of the reading. Tell students to focus on the following prompts, jotting down short answers about them:
3) Teacher Explanation
Explain and show what the double-entry format looks like; one side of their page is for writing down anything from the text that struck them as interesting, important, or “comment worthy” and the other side is for their comments, connections, questions, posing other views, etc.
For modeling purposes, use the double entry format to find a quote within the 1st paragraph or so of the argumentative text and show them where to write it down; have the students copy it as well. Then talk about why you chose that one and write down your response as students copy what you are writing.
4) Gathering Information
Tell the students to keep the analytic reflection questions and their brief answers in mind, then re-read the article and make entries in the DEN. Each entry in the DEN should relate to one or more of the analytic reflection questions.
5) Reflect
Have students reflect on their experiences with this exercise.
6) Closure
Leave time for sharing their entries and discussion of any misunderstandings of the text.[i]
[i] Adapted from http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/3038.html
Snapshot
Here is one of many different—more specific—versions of the DEN:
Instruct students to read through the assigned argumentative text, writing down a loose summary and interesting/resonant elements of the reading. Tell students to focus on the following prompts, jotting down short answers about them:
- What are the main arguments?
- To which counter-arguments is the author responding?
- What are other counter-arguments that can be made?
- What logic does the author use?
- What is the main evidence? What kinds of evidence does the author use?
- What is the goal of the article? Is the author arguing against another viewpoint?
3) Teacher Explanation
Explain and show what the double-entry format looks like; one side of their page is for writing down anything from the text that struck them as interesting, important, or “comment worthy” and the other side is for their comments, connections, questions, posing other views, etc.
For modeling purposes, use the double entry format to find a quote within the 1st paragraph or so of the argumentative text and show them where to write it down; have the students copy it as well. Then talk about why you chose that one and write down your response as students copy what you are writing.
4) Gathering Information
Tell the students to keep the analytic reflection questions and their brief answers in mind, then re-read the article and make entries in the DEN. Each entry in the DEN should relate to one or more of the analytic reflection questions.
5) Reflect
Have students reflect on their experiences with this exercise.
- How many entries did they have in their DEN? Does that seem like enough? Too many?
- Was this process useful or effective in gathering and organizing important information?
- What differences did you notice between your summary of each quote and what struck you about each quote? What does that tell you about the difference between the author’s opinion and your opinion?
6) Closure
Leave time for sharing their entries and discussion of any misunderstandings of the text.[i]
[i] Adapted from http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/3038.html
Snapshot
Here is one of many different—more specific—versions of the DEN:
Think about it
- What obstacles do you think students might face when reading an argumentative text?
- What obstacles do you think students might face when using a double-entry notebook?
- What might be an activity that you use after students have successfully completed the double-entry notebooks to analyze an argumentative text?