Portfolio Entry # 10 - A PODCAST on Argumentative Writing

Summary

A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing Podcast

            Jennifer Gonzalez Boss is the Editor-in-Chef at Cult of Pedagogy, an online magazine for teachers. In her podcast A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing Gonzalez shares with the readers, mostly educators of different areas and levels, the strategies she uses in order to teach how to write this type of essays. We can realize that she considers writing as a process that can be learned, taught, practiced and improved. Besides, we can appreciate the importance she gives to the use of examples and good  pieces of writing to acquire this skill. Finally, even when she recognizes that real writers do not use the five-paragraph essay model rigidly, she believes that students need a model; they need to understand the basic structure of  argumentative writing. 

            Gonzalez presents a gradual plan for teaching argumentative or persuasive essays. First, she provides students with some quantity of appropriate, real world writing on the target genre. Reading abundant and varied good examples helps students to appreciate how writers do it in real world. Furthermore, she analyzes the material with the students so that they can notice the diverse strategies writers use. Gonzalez called this process “reading (the texts) as writers”.

            In the second step, students practice the strategy of arguing orally, which is something they already do regularly. Thereby they start thinking consciously of ideas and evidence that support, defend and sustain their opinion. It is remarkable that the first steps are concerning to reading and speaking instead of writing. In this way, Gonzalez shows that writing is a process that starts before one sits in front of a blank page.

            Students start writing at the third step, practicing how to write a thesis statement. At this point, Gonzalez expresses that she provides students with material that helps to support their opinion rather than making students do the research. She believes that it is important to practice one skill at a time, so that they can concentrate on thinking how to use the material wisely.

            Steps four and five involve the writing task itself. The teacher explains exactly what students have to write, shows the rubric they are going to be scored and gives them a limited number of topics to choose. She helps and guides them along the writing process allowing them to learn at their own pace. During this process she uses different strategies, for instance writing her own essay with them in order to show them that even decent writers as her have difficulties at writing times.

Step six deals with some skills students need to build up, for example how to present the evidence wisely that supports their opinions, how to introduce a quotation or how to use linking words effectively. After several corrections, students finally submit their piece of writing.

Gonzalez exposes in this 33:27 minutes podcast the strategies that have helped her students to write competently. Besides, she proves that writing is a complex process that should be gone through at the student´s own pace. Furthermore, Gonzalez reveals that the pre writing task is an essential step in order to provide a solid base for  successful writing.

      

Resource:

The Cult of Pedagogy, (2016). Episode 36. [podcast] A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing. Available at: http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/persuasive-writing/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2016].