Portfolio entry # 10 A podcast

Jennifer Gonzalez was a writing teacher for seven years. She was certified as an English language arts teacher but she was always interested in teaching children how to write.

In her podcast on " A step-by-step plan for teaching argumentative writing", she describes the process she uses for teaching argumentative writing and the strategies to improve it.

The first step would be watching how it is done. Learners should start reading mentor texts in order to be exposed to samples of  real writings in the genre they will be required to write. Teacher should ask learners to read  and compare two pieces of writing to study the way the writers have used the strategies and evidence to back up their points of view and persuade the reader to think in a certain way.

Secondly, the teacher should use an interesting topic as an icebreaker and start a verbal arguing so that each student can defend his position.

In a third instance, a second debate is be set up but in this occassion, students should be supplied with a few articles that can give them arguments or evidence to support their assertions. Once the verbal argument is finished, students are asked to write what their position is and give three reasons to back up it. In sum, they are asked to write the thesis statement.

Next, teachers should introduce the peformance assessment, describe the task and the score that will be used. It would be a good idea to give students separate topics and provide reliable research material.

As a fifth step, it is necessary to build the base. Students should spend time in pre-writng work and outline the main points in a graphic organizer. For that, the teacher can write a model in class, on a different topic, to show how the process is and in this way, help students to start moving at their own pace.

Another instance is workshop. It would be a good idea to provide students with teacher created-samples of argumentative essays to show the kind of writing the teacher expects from them and they can appreciate how the writing skills are implemented. The teacher should monitor the students' performance and give feedback at all stages of the assignment as well as encourage collaborative work among students and benefit from each other.
Finally, students are ready to submit. In case they have not been able to meet the basic requirements, they should be given the opportunity to revise their assignment and resubmit.

Source: 

Retrieved from: http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/persuasive-writing/