After reviewing Hillocks article again (sometimes I have to read information a few times to really digest it), I realized I have access to the whole book from which it came at school. With this new revelation, I am excited to read more and hopefully gain more effective strategies for teaching, and a better understanding just what argument writing is.
I actually tried the crime scene case scenario activity he describes with my students last year. They did a great job with it, and had I read as much as I have now about argument writing, I think I would have taught it more effectively. It was interesting, as in the case Hillocks documents in the article, that students were able to go from specific statements about the picture, oh he..., to general statements, or claims, such as when a person... I think where we faltered was my own shortcomings. After I completed the activity, I was not really sure how to get students to go somewhere with this new way of thinking and writing. We even did another of the crime scenes that are available in the book, and students worked more independently on their claims and "reports," but I wasn't sure, after that, how to get students to generalize that new knowledge, and apply that thinking process to a broader area of research and writing. I'm hoping, through more exploration of the book, and the other resources I am currently exploring through this study, that I can better help my students make those general claims about research they conduct, and in turn, help them develop stronger argumentative writing skills.
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