[Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6-12: Supporting Claims with Relevant Evidence and Clear Reasoning] [By: Hillocks Jr, George] [March, 2011]

by George Hillocks Jr.

"In this book, George Hillocks teaches us not only what an argument is, but how to teach it and why we should. Essential reading for those preparing ALL students to think critically, write well, and succeed academically in both high school and college." -Jim Burke, Author of The English Teacher's Companion and What's the Big Idea?Argument writing can be difficult to teach, but it may be the most important set of skills we teach in English. According to the National Common Core Standards, by the end of high school, students should be able to write arguments to support claims with clear reason and relevant evidence-and they should be able to do so "well." Designed for middle and high school students, the activities in this book will enable students to "write" strong arguments and "evaluate "the arguments of others. When they are through, students will be able, as the Common Core Standards ask, to "Delineate and evaluate an] argument and specific claims...including the validity of the reasoning and] the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence." Developed by George Hillocks, Jr. and others in diverse inner city classrooms in Chicago, students are easily engaged in the lively problem-solving approach detailed in this book. "Teaching Argument Writing" begins with how to teach simple arguments and moves onto those that are more complex, showing step-by-step how to teach students to write and arguments of fact arguments of judgment arguments of policy Student handouts, activities, and models of classroom discussions are provided to help you bring these methods to your classroom. Among other things," "Hillocks guides you through teaching your how judgments are made in the real world how to make literary judgments based on criteria how to develop and support criteria for arguments.

Genres: Teaching, Education, Professional Development, Writing, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only one of the best and most practical books on teaching argument I've read, one of the best PD books I've read. Of course it helps that it's based on inquiry, a method I've come to believe more and more in.

Hillocks' guiding philosophy: "... the unit is not designed to elicit specific information but rather to enable students to bring complex knowledge to bear on complex problems and to write thoughtfully and effectively about those problems." And on the cover, the book's purpose is spelled out as "supporting claims with relevant evidence and clear reasoning." I mean, to get your students to do THAT on their own (and I don't care what grade, 6-12)? Now that's a feat, my friends.

Reading all of Hillocks' class transcripts and seeing his handouts, you'll soon discover that your present persuasive unit is the equivalent of your father's Oldsmobile. What were you thinking?

Using inquiry, Hillocks starts simple with cartoon murder scenes. Students must observe details for evidence, make claims based on warrants (rules), then come up with conclusions. Hillocks follows this with writing the reasoning up in groups. You see the connection between this fun activity and writing argument? Yes!

From there Hillocks goes to more complex arguments of judgement. He tackles abstract words like "courage" and asks students to create a list of criteria to define the concept. Definition is important, as are examples of what something is and what something is not. Using handouts that provide numerous cases for students to judge, Hillocks shows how we can deepen student thinking and even link it to literary analysis.

Loved it. I cannot believe anyone wouldn't, really. Highly recommended, it goes without saying.

[BookChampions · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another solid effort from Hillocks at a much needed time (the dawning of Common Core Standards). I know many of my colleagues haven't heard much about Common Core, and it is going to change a lot--possibly for the better! I am hopeful at least.

This book was the focus of my most recent teacher study group, the second that I have facilitated. I was partnered with 9 of the best English teachers I have ever met, and the conversations we had were thought-provoking, challenging and stimulating. We are currently creating our own PD for our local Writing Project site inspired by the theories of this book. (A 3-day workshop is our goal; Fall 2012 is our launch date.)

I've already implemented some of the strategies in the book, and they really seem to set the stage for the kind of thinking we want our students to engage in and the kind of conversation we want our students to have.

Pairs nicely with the NCTE publication Talking in Class by Hillocks students Thomas McCann, Larry Johannessen, Elizabeth Kahn, and Joseph Flanagan.

[Desiree O'leary · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an awful book. The only useful information is in the preface and then when the author finally talks about planning instructional units...in the last chapter!. The author spends so much time creating fake conversations/lessons or sharing student conversations that he never actually teaches how to teach/plan argumentative writing. The commentary on what the teacher should be doing during these student conversations was ridiculously offensive. I have been a teacher for 13 years and I have never been talked down to like this before. The author speaks to his readers has half-wits and has similar commentary on administrators as well.
This book is definitely not geared toward 6th-8th. For example, Appendix A is all about the Definitions of Murder in the United States, also in one sample lesson there is talk of sensual pleasures and gratification. Although the preface does share information about arguments and the pieces that work together to make a sound argument.
Choose this book with caution! It does not live up to it's title for a middle grade teacher or student.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book as a handbook. Some consider it the seminal text for teaching writing. And I admit that it was good, but not as the end-all, be-all to argument writing. In my opinion, argument writing is more than the practices Hillocks shares; however, they are good practices. If you use this as a guidebook, and not the Bible, you'll do okay teaching argument writing.

[Chelsea Courtois · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book a few years ago in my English teaching course. At that time, I remember unenthusiastically flipping through it to finish whatever assignment I had at the time. Now that I’ve more classroom experience, I’ve grown in my ability to understand the difficulties you experience in making argument writing accessible to students.


This year I was desperate to reach my struggling ninth graders with the foundations for argument writing. I came back to this book, reread Hillocks’ transcripts, and was very impressed with all of the teaching tips. It was refreshing to read a book that represented the candid dialogue that occurs between learners and teachers while students are engaging in thinking. I will treasure the book as a resource.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are quite a few significant strategies to be gained from this. While some need readjustment for my content area, I found some concrete suggestions to better teach arguments, particularly warrants.

[Christine Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED THIS. This was a wonderful, very approachable way to teach the basics of argumentation to young minds. I used the first unit very successfully with my own classes, and have adjusted the material up a little for my older students. Great read.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very nice and offers great lesson ideas and points to use in the classroom. However, I do wish that their was more talking about the lessons and less dialogue only because the dialogue was sometimes very long and could have been explained a lot shorter in paragraph form.

[LeeAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highlighted? Check.
Sticky notes? Check.
Notes? Check.
Ready to teach? Possibly.

[Amy Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent teaching tool narrative for research writing.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good ideas and lots of examples

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tips and lessons presented in this book are engaging and insightful. I enjoyed the tone and honest moments in the book. Small steps forward are still steps toward progress--even if it takes a bit longer than expected.

[Megan Schemenauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical, engaging ways to teach the thought process behind logical reasoning and supporting arguments. I especially enjoyed the narrative-style scenes depicting these techniques employed in the classroom and the student dialogue that often accompanied them. This past fall my freshmen English department adopted several of these exercises for our argument unit: Slip or Trip? The Lunchroom Murder, and the Mascot-Naming Contest, all with much greater success in teaching the necessary skills to writing and supporting claims than previously. While I enjoyed the book in its entirety, the chapters toward the end of the book seem geared for a more upper-high-school level.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn on this one. There are some good ideas in this text, but I feel like none of the ideas are really usable unless one was to adopt Hillock's seven-week course wholesale, since each idea builds off the previous. And it's not that that would be a bad thing--just that his book, while called Teaching Argument Writing has very little to say about actual writing instruction. He discussed argument thinking a great deal, but not the actual writing, which was disappointing to me. Much of the chapters are made up of long recorded conversations of his students demonstrating the skill he is teaching, and while they are interesting at first, I eventually started skimming them; there were far too many and they were far, far too long.

I'm hoping to use some of his ideas--particularly those in his last chapter, which I thought was the most useful and practical chapter--to teach my students about supporting their analysis, and the difference between analysis and summary. His ideas are interesting and might provide for some good discussions and lessons; I am sure they will make my students more critical thinkers and will help clarify the different between summary and analysis (something my 9th and 10th grades routinely struggle with). As for the actual writing, I'll have to figure that part out for myself.

[Sarah Zerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

why: This is a book I need to review for the course I'll be teaching at CU this fall. And it's also a book I've been interested in due to the demands of the Common Core State Standards for teaching argument.

when: start and end 7/19 (we were in the car for about 10 hours that day, ok?)

how: I read this in hard copy and in its entirety in the passenger seat of the car as we drove from Grand Teton National Park to Grand Mesa, Colorado.

thoughts: So George Hillocks has been in the education business for 55 years. I'm not kidding. FIFTY FIVE YEARS. Isn't that awesome? I actually saw him in person at a presentation at the NCTE conference in Chicago in 2011. This book is a great resource on argument and shows how to use crime scene investigation to teach students about argument. Cool stuff. I think, though, that it might be a bit more in-depth work than is necessary for my CU students this fall. I may have them read an excerpt but not the whole book, and I will definitely include it on a list of recommended teaching resources that I am building for them.

review haiku:
an old but smart guy
explains teaching argument
excellent resource

[Mark]

Why is it that so many of these kinds of books devolve into irrelevance? I'm interested in developing a unit on argumentation for high school students. This book looked like a promising companion to Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkentstein's "They Say/I Say": The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, so I bought it immediately. Indeed, the book begins with a helpful but far too brief exposition of Stephen E. Toulmin's logic of argumentation (which Professor Toulmin explains in his book The Uses of Argumentation), but then quickly goes downhill.

In the end, fully one-third of this book consists of transcripts of student conversations, presumably, but not particularly demonstratively, meant to show how classroom discussions lead to postulating arguments.

Alas, nothing of the sort occurs, and the reader is left with a mish-mash of ideas, none of which cohere to each other. My advice? If you want to learn something about argumentation, or the teaching of it, leave this waste of paper and time of a book alone, and go straight to Stephen E. Toulmin or Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein,

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome job showing how to get students to experience the intellectual moves behind argument. It's clear students at all levels will be engaged by Hillocks' methodology. I especially enjoyed the teacher lead project on investigating the "no gum chewing" rule at her school. The kids did real research on the problem and then presented a solution to the principal on reducing gum stuck to all the furniture. Their solution included a program designed to educate their peers on the problem. The principal's reaction to the students' clearly laid out research and solution? No way. Gotta love our democratic institutions.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is well worth the read for those teachers trying to understand the new differentiation between persuasion and argument. This is useful not only to English teachers but also social studies and science especially. Some of the examples are more interesting than others (i.e. I liked the gum-chewing project, but I also struggle to see how similar projects could be established to keep an entire class on-task.) It was certainly not a fast read as I had to have complete quiet to be able to focus on the material. The other part that seems to be troublesome here is that these lessons focus on the forest, which is fine, but students have to understand the trees sometimes, too.

[Wolfman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains some engaging lessons to help students develop and practice critical thinking skills, but they are buried in long (fictional) transcripts of how those leesons would play out in a classroom, which comes across as self-serving for the author and useless for the classroom teacher who knows what it is REALLY like. (Oh, and he says that the classes he is addressing in these fictional transcripts have 26 kids in them. I have 37+ in every class and more every year, which precludes a lot of the good ideas.)

[J.M. Brister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Instead of doing any more argumentation training for Common Core, my school and school district should just give us this book first (I was told that this might be the case in the fall). THEN, when everyone has read it, do more training for argumentation to refine what we have learned.

With this book, I FINALLY understand the difference between argumentation and persuasion and have been able to write Common Core W1 tasks that actually are Common Core W1 tasks (instead of thinly veiled persuasive tasks).

[Karin Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best books on writing that I've read in a long time. It was exceptionally helpful in clarifying skills and understanding students need to write good arguments.

I especially liked how Hillocks explained how to move from simpler ideas to more complex thinking.

But, I was struck how the author incorporated the role of vocabulary, grammar and sentence construction into the meaning making. It was seamless. And this is the type of language instruction that is effective.

I feel that I am a good teacher of writing, but this makes me feel even more competent.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book with exceptional ideas and thoughts. This book taught the importance of using data to back up your argument (not the kind where you have to run statistical analyses) and teaching students to think critically and independently. I was impressed with the amount of activities this book provides to teachers that will surely be a benefit, especially since the new common core has an added emphasis on argument writing and inquiry.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! I hope to work with some teachers in developing activities based on the ideas.

I think this book really demystifies argument for teachers so that they can really break down the elements for their students. This book really highlights the need to practice these skills over and over again. Best of all, the book doesn't advocate a formula, but a way of structure.

I'm embarrassed that I didn't read this sooner. That's how amazing it is.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book for teachers of English dealing with the teaching of argument in the Common Core curriculum. I highly recommend any teachers who really want their students to know, understand, and use critical thinking to enhance their ability to analyze, evaluate, and write arguments to read this book.

[Guida Al·lès · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un llibre ple de seqüències pràctiques per ensenyar els alumnes a argumentar. M'ha descobert la relació entre les inferències, les bones preguntes i l´argumentació. També entre una bona definició i el valor argumental que la sosté. D´una banda et desanimes perquè t´adones de que és possible treballar millor i aquí no es fa. De l´altra t´entusiasmes i te mors de ganes d´aplicar-ho avui mateix.

[Sierra Charlesworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

See more here:
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I wanted to focus on teaching my students to use argument writing and evidence correctly this year, so this one was a good reminder. This is a great book!! One I would recommend to anyone who needs to learn to teach or write argumentative essays!

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hillocks explanation of warrants and argument are clear and finally make the bridge between real and useful argument structure and the classroom. He provides useful models and ways of thinking about argument and teaching argument. His insistence in adding pages of conversation is tedious and nothing is lost by glossing or skipping them.

[Jilane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best writing book. Most of the book was "replays" of how the lesson went in the class the author was teaching. They sound great, but are my students going to follow the script just like his students did? I really wasn't impressed.

[Derrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only just begun, but already I think the world of Professor Hillocks. His experience exudes every sentence. I do not normally enjoy books on pedagogy; this well-written, practice-oriented gem is, for the moment, an exception.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The focuses of the writing tasks were morbid, immoral, and rather inappropriate for 6th grade students. There are more appropriate topics that would be better implemented, and complement the 6th grade curriculum such as mysteries in history. I didn't find much here I could use.