Teaching Argument Writing

I selected Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks, Jr. for my literature circle reading. I knew that this book was geared toward middle school students; however, it is the gold standard in argument strategies; I knew I had to read it. I have had many takeaways from this text. I have closely read the text and these are passages that gave me pause, inspired me, and you should ponder.

TEN QUOTES TO PONDER

1. “If kids are to be engaged in their writing, they have to write what they care about. Teachers can create interest… students do not have to be interested in the topic before one begins to teach it” (xi).

2. “When teachers talk, student experience is necessary limited to listening or daydreaming, or simply messing around” (6).

 3. “Csikszentmihalyi’s idea of flow experience is clearly related to far more experience than the passivity of listening to a teacher talk. The experience of optimum learning and flow must be active, most of the time” (6).

4. “Poorly conceptualized objectives undermine the entire process of teaching and lead to poor learning or nonlearning”(6).

5. “Small-group discussions make for powerful learning environments when they are carefully planned and monitored”(65).

6. “Socrates and the Stoic philosophers believed that all people have the capacity for practical reason but tend to lead somnolent lives accepting traditions, norms and beliefs learned from infancy without questions, without taking charge of their own thinking” (103).

7. “Common Core Standards state that students should ‘not simply adopt other points of view as their own but rather evaluate them critically and constructively’” (103).

8. “Units of instruction nearly always benefit by problematizing the concept with which they deal”  (143).

9. “Students who have learned to think through the criteria for making judgments are less likely to jump to conclusions; they consider their ideas more carefully” (172).

10. “In short, if we want to help students become strong inferential readers we must provide the knowledge, experience, and practice that will allow them to do so. And that knowledge and experience must be developed incrementally…” (179).