Instructional patterns for the teaching and learning of argumentative writing in high school English language arts class
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Instructional patterns for the teaching and learning of argumentative writing in high school English language arts classrooms Tzu‑Jung Lin1 · Manisha Nagpal1 · Jennifer VanDerHeide2 · Seung Yon Ha1 · George Newell3
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Argumentative writing has long been considered an essential skill for disciplinary learning. For researchers and curriculum developers to develop ecologically valid instructional approaches to argumentative writing, a pivotal prerequisite is the understanding of how teachers use various instructional methods in tandem to teach different argumentative components. This exploratory study identified instructional patterns for the teaching and learning of argumentative writing by observing 187 English language arts class sessions taught by 31 highly regarded high school English language arts teachers (529 students; 40% of the students were males). Multidimensional scaling identified three instructional patterns that vary in the level of teacher centeredness and dialogic interaction. These instructional patterns may reflect the occurrence of explicit teaching, dialogic learning, and in-class writing that was sometimes accompanied with teacher conferencing or coaching. Common across all of these practices was the teaching of claim and evidence. Warranting, counterargument, and response to counterargument, which are more complex forms of argumentation, tended to be taught by instructional practices involving low- to mid-level teacher centeredness and high-level dialogic interaction (e.g., small grouping, discussion). Overall, our findings highlight the gaps between what researchers suggest as effective approaches to teaching argumentative writing and how argumentative writing is currently taught in classrooms. Keywords Argumentative writing · Dialogic interaction · English language arts · Instructional grouping · Teacher centeredness · Teacher–student interaction * Tzu‑Jung Lin [email protected] 1
Department of Educational Studies, Ohio State University, 145A Ramseyer Hall, 23 W. Woodruff Ave, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
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Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
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Department of Teaching and Learning, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
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T.-J. Lin et al.
Although school writing includes a range of genres, teaching and learning argumentative writing is of particular significance in U.S. high schools. The Common Core State Standards (NGA Center and CCSSO, 2010) emphasize argumentation and argumentative writing as passports to higher education and career opportunities. For example, argumentative writing is one of the key assessment components in highstakes college entrance exams (i.e., the ACT and SAT) that have played a key role in college admission decisions. However, high school students’ argumentative writing scores have shown a significant decline for both ACT and SAT in recent years (ACT, Inc., 2017; U.S. Department of Education, 2016). This signals the need to understand how argumentative wri
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