Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6-12 ─ Supporting Claims With Relevant Evidence and Clear Reasoning

This book for in-service teachers presents readings, activities, and discussion prompts for teaching middle and high school students how to write strong arguments and evaluate the arguments of others, focusing on arguments of fact, judgment, and policy. The book was developed by the author in high-poverty, inner-city classrooms in Chicago, and includes vignettes from real classrooms, showing how to use the book's lively problem-solving approach to engage students. Activities are presented in the context of discussions of pedagogy and curriculum issues, and an introduction explains basics of argument and critical thinking for teachers in readable terms. In simple and gradually more complex activities, students solve murder mysteries, consider what makes a good leader, deal with arguments of judgment and policy in which warrants must be defended, and make literary judgments. In addition to student handouts and models of classroom discussions, the book includes chapter-by-chapter discussion questions for teachers about pedagogy and curriculum. Hillocks is professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

George Hillocks, Jr. is Professor Emeritus, departments of Education and English Language and Literature, The University of Chicago. He and his MAT students have taught writing in Chicago schools for over twenty-five years. In 1997 he won the NCTE David H. Russell award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English for the book Teaching Writing as Reflective Practice. In 2004 he received NCTE's Distinguished Service Award. George Hillocks was named the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Lifetime Researcher Award given by the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy. George's book Narrative Writing has also just been named the winner of the Richard Meade Award, given by the National Council of Teacher's of English. In 2011, he won NCTE's James R. Squire Award: a special honor given to an NCTE member who has had a transforming influence and has made a lasting intellectual contribution to the profession.