Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
Applying Toulmin: Teaching Logical Reasoning and Argumentative Writing.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Rex, Lesley A. Thomas, Ebony Elizabeth Engel, Steven |
| Copyright Year | 2010 |
| Abstract | U ? rank I. Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, has made a successful ?iML?? career out of crafting the language of political debates. He encouraged the Republican Party to speak about the "death tax" rather than an inheritance, or "estate taxes." This shift in language altered the public s stance on this topic. While Americans were nearly split about tax ing inheritances or estates, nearly three-quarters of them were opposed to a government tax on death (Luntz 164). Though we admire Dr. Luntz's skill with language and his keen awareness of audience, we are tired of sound bites that masquerade as sound arguments. We think it is time to reinvigorate pre vailing notions about critical thinking in English language arts. How we logically relate ideas and in formation to argue well has been given short shrift at a time when distinguishing between haranguing pundits and careful thinkers seems especially impor tant for the future health of our democracy. With this in mind, we refocused our teaching and curriculum on developing students' ability to create and articulate soundly reasoned arguments. We wanted to promote their capacity to engage big ideas, important questions, and complicated prob lems. By this, we mean that we wanted students to start by putting ideas, questions, and problems into words, and mulling them over so they could see them from different angles and reason their way through to where they wanted to stand. Then, hav ing decided their position, we wanted them to per suasively argue their case in talk and writing with pertinent evidence and explanations. This ability to interrogate and create not just a stance but also evi dence and warrants is crucial for a productive and informed public. In what follows, we explain the framework we used and describe how we taught reasoning to stu dents at an alternative high school, where we re corded what happened. Some of those records, including student work, lessons, Web resource links, and teaching videos, can be found at the Michigan Argument Research Group website, where Steven is the designer and webmaster: http:// sitemaker.umich.edu/argument/home. |
| Starting Page | 56 |
| Ending Page | 62 |
| Page Count | 7 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 99 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=coe_ted |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rex/Reasoning%20&%20writing.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
