How High School Students Learn to
Write Literary Arguments through
Social Interaction:
An Apprenticeship
Dr. Jennifer VanDerHeide
Michigan State University
Meet Ashley and Nick
Seniors in an Advanced Placement Literature
and Composition course at a small suburban
school
Nick: “I understand the poem, but
sometimes I have trouble saying how the
author makes it happen.”
Ashley: “If you actually back up your
statements, it can be about anything really,
which sounds easier, but it’s not. I don’t
know, I take things more on a literal level, so
it’s harder for me, poetry.”
Ashley’s argument is that Billy Collins’
poem “Sonnet” uses figurative
language, tone, and allusion to reveal
that sonnets are overrated.
The figurative language throughout the poem helps portray Collins’
attitude toward sonnets. In one of the first lines, the speaker says,
“only ten more left like rows of beans” (4). Sonnets are known to be
magnificent and interesting, yet the simile of “rows of beans”
portrays them as boring and homogenous. By comparing the next 10
lines of the sonnet to “rows of beans,” the reader now compares the
form of poetry to something that is very dull, connecting back to the
overrated idea.
The poem is abundant with imagery
thatargument
helps to communicate
theDenby’s
theme. Tactile
Nick’s
is that Edwin
poem “I
imagery is most prevalent becausehad
theheard
feel of it’s
death
is veryuses
important
to Denby’s
a fight”
imagery,
figurative
and diction
argue that Prior
deathtohas
argument. The speaker begins thelanguage,
poem by explaining
his to
expectations.
his
an attractive allure and mysteriousness that is
own experience with death, he had
heard
“at the first clammy touch / You yell,
hard
to that
overcome.
you wrestle with it, it kicks you / In the stomach, squeezes your eyes” (1-3). The
speaker first describes his expectations of death in order to provide the contrast from
which he bases his argument. These expectations allow him to communicate his
personal experiences and how they were so different from what he had “heard.” The
speaker describes “the afternoon it touched [him]” (5) as “a sweet thrill / Inside my
arms and back” (6-7). Here the speaker is describing positive tactile imagery,
describing a sweet, enjoyable feeling. This directly contrasts his expectations, which
were highlighted by tactile imagery describing pain. The description of a good feeling
along with the fact that the speaker is essentially disproving his expectations make
death seem alluring and attractive.
Arguments about literature
• Argumentative writing: Writing that takes an arguable stance
that is supported by evidence that connects to the claim in a
principled way
• Site for reading, writing, and thinking
• “When students frame an argument, locate the evidence that
will support it, and choose the language that will carry it, they
may be constructing both a written product and an intellectual
representation of the story—a representation that may stay
with them and become for them, finally, the basis for what is
remembered and understood about the story over time”
(Marshall, 1987, pg. 60).
Research on Argumentative
Writing
• Students struggle to write arguments (Applebee & Langer,
2006; McCann, 1989)
• Interventions such as explicit instruction in argumentation and
writing scaffolds have a positive effect on students’
achievement in argumentative writing (Yeh, 1998; Nussbaum
& Schraw, 2007)
• What argument is and how the elements of arguments are
understood and enacted are socially constructed (Lunsford,
2002; Newell, VanDerHeide, & Wynhoff Olsen, 2014)
Research Questions
• What is argumentative writing about literature in this
classroom; what are the ways of reading and writing of this
learning community?
• How do the teacher and students, through interaction, guide
students’ increasing participation in these ways of reading and
writing?
• How do individual students change in their participation in
writing moves over time?
Theoretical Assumptions
• Reading and writing are forms of literacy, which are situated
within particular contexts
What counts
argument
• Learning is a process of changing participation
in theas[learning]
Socially situated
ways
of contexts
varies
across
community’s activities
doing things
with texts
(Newell,
VanDerHeide, &
• People participate in cultural (Heath,
contexts—or
community—
1983; Wynhoff
Street, 2005)
Olsen, 2014)
Not
a
cognitive
outcome;
through action, primarily mediated by language, both in
learning takes place within
speaking and in writing
social interaction (Rogoff,
1990; Vygotsky, 1978)
An utterance is always a Move: Action in speaking or
Participation takes place
response in a social, cultural, writing, simultaneously
through mediated action
historical context (Bakhtin, situated in social situation
(Wertsch, 1985)
and individual cognition
1986)
(draws from Graff &
Birkenstein, 2009)
Method
Interactional Ethnography and Case Studies
•
•
•
•
•
Data Collection and Organization
Choosing and Transcribing Focal Discourse and Writing Events
Searching for Patterns Across Events and Artifacts
Discourse Analysis of Discourse Events
Contextualized Analysis of Writing Events
Rogoff’s three analytic planes for
studying sociocultural activity
Research Questions
• What is argumentative writing about literature in this
classroom; what are the ways of reading and writing of this
learning community?
• How do the teacher and students, through interaction, guide
students’ increasing participation in these ways of reading and
writing?
• How do individual students change in their participation in
writing moves over time?
Ways of Reading and Writing
Teacher: Ms. Howard
Ashley: Find the deeper
“I come from a new critical
meaning of the poem, not
background because that is what
just on the literal level but
AP Lit is all about, and I think it is
on the poetic, what it’s really
about
just as
“I want tounderstanding,
get them
sayingto a level of
physics
is about
understanding
analysis
where
they’re
able to develop
how
the
world
works,
English
their own ideas about literature,
Literature
about understanding
they’re
able toissupport
them with
how stories
work
andthey
whycan
we also
tell
evidence,
and that
then
stories,
the
tools that
authors
explain
howand
that
evidence
supports
Nick: Analyze,
I guess,
the meaning
use to tell those
stories.”
their
callpoet
of
theargument
poem butwith
alsowhat
how Ithe
commentary,
where
they
show that
says the meaning,
like
howuhthe
interpretive
connection.”
meaning is evident
through the
devices the author uses
Move
Retelling: Providing a summary or paraphrase of
main points or events
Stating Meaning: Stating a theme explicitly or
indexing a previously named theme
Identifying Device: Identify poetic device in a
poem explicitly or referencing a previous naming
Pointing to Text: At least one word is directly
quoted
Explaining Effect of Device: Explains particular
effect of named device on poem
Making a Claim: States an arguable stance
Providing Evidence: Gives support for arguable
stance
Providing Commentary: “Commenting on”
evidence in a way that works toward showing
the reasoning that links evidence to claim
The figurative language throughout the
poem helps portray Collins’ attitude
toward sonnets. In one of the first lines,
the speaker says, “only ten more left like
rows of beans” (4). Sonnets are known to
be magnificent and interesting, yet the
simile of rows of beans” portrays them as
boring and homogenous. By comparing
the next 10 lines of the sonnet to “rows of
beans,” the reader now compares the form
Move
Retelling: Providing a summary or
paraphrase of main points or events
Stating Meaning: Stating a theme
explicitly or indexing a previously
named theme
Identifying Device: Identify poetic
device in a poem explicitly or
referencing a previous naming
Pointing to Text: At least one word is
directly quoted
Explaining Effect of Device: Explains
particular effect of named device on
poem
Making a Claim: States an arguable
stance
of poetry to something that is very dull,
Providing Evidence: Gives support
for arguable stance
connecting back to the overrated idea.
Providing Commentary:
“Commenting on” evidence in a way
that works toward showing the
reasoning that links evidence to
claim
The figurative language throughout the
poem helps portray Collins’ attitude
toward sonnets. In one of the first lines,
the speaker says, “only ten more left like
rows of beans” (4). Sonnets are known to
be magnificent and interesting, yet the
simile of rows of beans” portrays them as
boring and homogenous. By comparing
the next 10 lines of the sonnet to “rows of
beans,” the reader now compares the form
Move
Retelling: Providing a summary or
paraphrase of main points or events
Stating Meaning: Stating a theme
explicitly or indexing a previously
named theme
Identifying Device: Identify poetic
device in a poem explicitly or
referencing a previous naming
Pointing to Text: At least one word is
directly quoted
Explaining Effect of Device: Explains
particular effect of named device on
poem
Making a Claim: States an arguable
stance
of poetry to something that is very dull,
Providing Evidence: Gives support
for arguable stance
connecting back to the overrated idea.
Providing Commentary:
“Commenting on” evidence in a way
that works toward showing the
reasoning that links evidence to
claim
Research Questions
• What is argumentative writing about literature in this
classroom; what are the ways of reading and writing of this
learning community?
• How do the teacher and students, through interaction, guide
students’ increasing participation in these ways of reading
and writing?
• How do individual students change in their participation in
writing moves over time?
Teacher asks questions to prompt moves
T: All right, so, just on a purely literal level, what is the speaker talking about
in this in this poem? What's going on here?
S1: His father
T: What about his father (laughing), yes
S1: He's a tyrant
Questions prompt
retelling
T: Okay
S1: Like the speaker doesn't really recognize the hard work their dad does
Ashley: I wrote about how people express their love in different ways and
some people will misinterpret it and it's love either way they just express
something different
T: Yeah, yeah, good
T: So the next
stanza:prompts
Question
“I wait and
hear the cold
splintering breaking when the rooms were warm he
identification
of devices
andslowly
pointing
to the
text
called and
I would
rise
and dress
fearing the chronic angers of that house”
I'm going to pause there. What do you see here?
S3: It's kind of like auditory in that first line, like the cold splintering breaking
you would think of that as like a fire crackling I think like kind of like turns it
around, instead of the fire crackling it's the cold
T: So how does that correspond with some of the emotional content of this
poem. How does it kind of help you create an emotional tone?
S4: I think that people think of coldness as kind of like distance between
people and usually that would kind of melt away or fade away as people get
Question
prompts
closer but instead it's splintering
and breaking
so even though they're closer
explanation of the particular
they're
effect of the device on the
poem
T: So how to sum up, how would you say the imagery in this poem as a whole
reinforces what this poem is doing? How does the imagery work for the
poem's purpose? What are some ways we can pull together the things you
guys have said?
S: Well I think the physical descriptions really parallel what emotions they are
feeling, the emotional relationship
Questions to prompt
T: Great, so the tactile imagery of the cold air in particular, a great
parallel and
commentary
there. What else? What about the auditory imagery?
effect of poetic device
Ashley: I think you can parallel the feel of the house kind of
on meaning
T: How so?
Ashley: Um well they describe the cold is cold splintering breaking and then
they said chronic anger to the house so kind of like a distant
T: and a harshness to it
Ashley: yeah
Student questions prompt moves
Nick: So you think it's saying like the unbroken glory is the fact that
men died in battle or something?
A: I don't know, I'm just like thinking of things, like the glory,
radiance and peace of the men have left in their wake
S: So, um what is imagery do to the poem?
1. Read poem aloud more than once
A: It doesn't do anything
2. Paraphrase for literal level
laughing
3. Interpret poem on deeper, figurative level.
Nick: I guess it just I don't know how toWhat
word
butprompts
just
tells
Question
Nick
tous grow
is this
purpose?
Howlike
does
meaning
what the, it seems like I guess in the second
stanza the
thateffect
the speaker
explain
of the
and shift?
doesn't think that death is a bad, a negative
causeon
like
they
say
when
4. Annotate
poem
imagery
device
thefor
poem
and
to
this guy dies he leaves like all this like 5. Discuss
role ofcommentary
imagery in poem
provide
Vivid experience? Convey emotion? Suggest
S: radiance and
ideas?
What is
rolelike
of predominant
forms of
Nick: the imagery communicates his ideas
they're
not
normal
ideas, through this imagery you can seeimagery?
what heHow does it match meaning or
S: so he so the dying isn't like that bad experience of poem
7. How does imagery correspond to shifts?
Nick: yeah
8. Significance of particular instances of
S: and the imagery shows that it's kind of
an odd thought
imagery
Nick: yeah
The poem is abundant with imagery that helps to communicate the theme. Tactile
imagery is most prevalent because the feel of death is very important to Denby’s
argument. The speaker begins the poem by explaining his expectations. Prior to his
own experience with death, he had heard that “at the first clammy touch / You yell,
you wrestle with it, it kicks you / In the stomach, squeezes your eyes” (1-3). The
speaker first describes his expectations of death in order to provide the contrast from
which he bases his argument. These expectations allow him to communicate his
personal experiences and how they were so different from what he had “heard.” The
speaker describes “the afternoon it touched [him]” (5) as “a sweet thrill / Inside my
arms and back” (6-7). Here the speaker is describing positive tactile imagery,
describing a sweet, enjoyable feeling. This directly contrasts his expectations, which
were highlighted by tactile imagery describing pain. The description of a good feeling
along with the fact that the speaker is essentially disproving his expectations make
death seem alluring and attractive.
Questions and moves
• Early in the semester, students did not always respond with
the moves the teacher prompted with her questions
• Later in the semester, students would respond with the move
before the particular move was prompted
• Example: Teacher asks students to identify instances of poetic
devices in a poem, and students responded by identifying the
device and talking about its effect on the poem’s meaning
• Later in the semester, students did not need teacher
scaffolding to ask each other questions that prompted moves
Research Questions
• What is the nature of the apprenticeship in the ways of
reading and writing of this learning community?
• How do the teacher and students, through interaction, guide
students’ increasing participation in these ways of reading and
writing?
• How do individual students change in their participation in
writing moves over time?
General trends of student
appropriation of moves over time
• Students made more moves over time that were consistent
with the valued moves of the classroom
• Students were working on different moves at different times
in the semester
• When they were working on a particular move, they appeared
to “lose” other moves that they had used previously, but
typically picked up lost moves on the next writing assignment
Nick's Argumentative Moves Over Time
0.6
0.5
0.4
Claim
0.3
Evidence
Commentary
0.2
0.1
0
1
2
3
Essay #
4
Ashley's Argumentative Moves Over Time
0.6
0.5
0.4
Claim
0.3
Evidence
Commentary
0.2
0.1
0
1
2
3
Essay #
4
• What is argumentative writing about literature in this classroom; what
are the ways of reading and writing of this learning community?
• How do the teacher and students, through interaction, guide students’
increasing participation in these ways of reading and writing?
• How do individual students change in their participation in writing
moves over time?
Apprenticeship in writing
arguments about literature
• Teacher and students co-constructed an understanding of
what it means to write arguments about literature and worked
together to help all students transform in their ways of
reading and writing
• The apprenticeship was not just about learning “moves;” the
moves just made visible their changing participation
• Students grew in their participation in the discipline of literary
analysis and argument as it was situated in this particular
classroom
Implications
• Classroom talk as writing instruction
• Research to investigate effectiveness of interactions on student
writing
• Training for teachers in how to support students’ writing through
talk
• School contexts that support time for classroom talk and ample
time to learn to write
• High-stakes standardized tests of argumentative writing
• Are they measuring what students are learning in particular
classrooms?
• Do they account for variability in when and how students learn to
write?
Thank you!
jvheide@msu.edu