Literature Responses Part VII: Uncovering Nuances of the Toulmin Method and of the Debater Role

It seems the more I co-teach and collaborate with Carol the more I'm impelled to be reflexive about what we're been working on in her classes as regards the Debater Role of Literature Responses (or the Toulmin method of argumentation).

In helping students try to understand and find logic and clarity in planning their essays/paragraphs using the Debater Role, it struck me that all the supporting Evidence needs to be aligned with a specific portion of the Warrant, usually the adjectives contained in the warrant.

OEQ: Do you think the government should have enacted the Removal Act that displaced many Shawnees? 

Claim: I believe the U.S. government shouldn't have enacted the Removal Act
Warrant: because the Shawnees were a resourceful people who could have helped the Ohio settlers
Evidence (3): 

1. Shawnees used all parts of an animal when they killed it  

2. Shawnees were peaceful (and proved it when they captured and then released Daniel Boone and his men unharmed and with supplies of food and weapons)

3. Shawnees knew how to survive in harsh conditions and were used to Mid-Western winters. 

In the above example Evidence #2 does not support the Shawnees being a resourceful people; if the original Warrant had been "because the Shawnees were a peaceful and resourceful people who could have helped the Ohio settlers," then #2 can be kept.  As it stands, however, a new idea needs to be proffered that directly supports the notion of the Shawnees being a resourceful people.

Another issue that's actually more of a reminder is that when creating their Claims, students should re-state the original open-ended question as can be seen in the Claim above.  Last, Carol and I have been having quite a time in steering students away from excessive pronoun use where the original OEQ is concerned as these can really muddy comprehension for readers...or for that matter, scorers.

Literature Responses Part VI: The Debater Role & Satisfying the NJASK

While collaborating and co-teaching with Carol, she and I came up with an interesting twist to the Debater Role, which is really just a stripped-down version of the Toulmin method of argumentation.  As it stands, the Debater Role is the Following:

Claim: I believe _________________________
Warrant: because _________________________
Evidence (3):
1. _____________
2. _____________
3. _____________

The small evolution of this could be:

Claim: I believe _________________________
Warrant: because _________________________
Evidence (3):
1. Text to self
2. Text to text
3. Text to world

In this way, evidence is still being proffered by the student, but s/he is also making those important connections that the scorers at the state are looking for when they're reviewing students' responses to writing prompts.

Literature Responses Part V: Intersections with Guided Reading

It isn't that what I'm presenting to you as a very encapsulated version of Guided Reading is repetitive--(stop me if you've heard this one before as the saying goes)--so much that in the realm of Literacy and Instruction, all roads lead to “research-based, best practice methods.”  And it just so happens that there's a very fortuitous and pragmatic overlap between Literature Responses and Guided Reading.

The basic instructional outline of Guided Reading:

1. A Guided Reading group is a small group of students who are roughly at the same reading level. 

2. A book is selected that students have not seen before and is at the instructional (not independent) level of reading; that is, a text students can read with 90-94% accuracy. 

3. All students silently read the book to themselves. 

4. The teacher conducts a teacher-led mini lesson for focused exploration:

·        Story Elements

·        Vocabulary*

·        Sequencing

·        Character Development*

·        Predicting*

·        Fluency

·        Decoding Strategies

·        Making Connections* (personal, to another text, to the world)

·        Inferring*

·        Summarizing

·        Analyzing*

·        Critiquing*

·        Skimming and Scanning

·        Retelling*

·        Word Meanings

5. Students respond in reflective discussion as a group.

*Contained in Mr./Ms. Lexicon, Role Model, At First Glance, Face-to-Face, Predictor, 5/15/30, Connector, Reader's Theater roles of Literature Responses
*Contained in the Questions Types workshop students need to become a Discussion Director in Literature Responses

In the Fountas and Pinnel/Four Blocks method, there are four concepts students work in when responding to the text:

·        Predicting

·        Questioning

·        Clarifying

·        Summarizing      

This is where Literature Responses come into play.  If you look at the roles within Literature Responses, especially the first four (discussion director, connector, quoter, and predictor), they bear a striking similarity to what is asked of students during and after a reading session in Guided Reading.

One of my main goals when modifying Literature Circles was to build in “research-based, best practice methods” that lend some meaning to what students are reading in a way that is immediate, authentic, and fun.  I would suggest to those teachers who prefer using the Fountas and Pinnel/Four Blocks method of Guided Reading to delete “summarizing” from the four roles as this is something teachers should be doing with students as a comprehension check during reading (every few pages depending on the grade and ability level).  Additionally—again, stop me if you've heard this one before—whatever summaries students come up with should be written down in their Writer’s Notebooks in the section set aside for Guided Reading.

(The links I'm including here are the same ones used in a workshop which Clelia conducted; just know that some of the links presented on those sites are broken, outdated, or not useful to someone who's not a primary grade teacher.  If you need assistance or supporting materials, please e-mail me.)

Literature Responses Part IV: The Debater Role (Streamlining Toulmin)

As I referred to in a previous post, the Debater Role (in Literature Responses) is a more stripped down version of the Toulmin method of argumentation, a great way to get students to write and think more clearly and more critically.  It can be used to brainstorm and pre-write, and is very effective for creating air-tight (logically) blog posts.

The simplest break-down of it is:

Claim: I think ____________ = What's being proposed in response to an open-ended question
Warrant: because_______________ = Finishes the sentence and starts with "because"
Evidence: (3): ________________ = The 3-5 pieces of supporting evidence form the text

For example...

"Do you think it's hazardous for an 11-year-old boy to make such a journey on his own...?"

Claim: Nathan really has to make this journey on his own or his family will have nothing to return to if/when his father heals
Warrant: After all, if he doesn't do it, no one else will...
Evidence (3):

1. He is young, but in those days young people took on all kinds of responsibilities people nowadays would consider "hazardous"
2. Ezra can't (and shouldn't) be expected to help Nathan because they just met and Ezra has to protect Molly from Weasel and help Pa convalesce
3. It would be more hazardous for the Fowlers to return to a non-existent farm--one that has been robbed of its animals, or the animals having died from exposure and negligence--than for Nathan to make this journey

Some great links for finding out more about the Toulmin method of argumentation:

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/305/toulmin_model.htm

http://www.mesacc.edu/~rrodrigo/lessons/arrangement/juicy_fruit_warrants.htm

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/03/

http://www.slideshare.net/soul4real/toulmin-model-of-argumentation-presentation

http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/rgass/toulmin2.htm

Literature Responses Part III: Roles, Rubrics & More Rubrics!

Some of you may be wondering why I've chosen to concentrate on Question Types when it seems to be such a niche way of going about literacy; some of the most important roles in Literature Responses, however, require students being in the full working knowledge of how to construct, deconstruct, and respond to each of the Question Types (e.g., Discussion Director and Predictor), or require students to be able to think in a sophisticated, logical, or higher-order manner, much as open-ended questions do.

Just for everyone's convenience, I wanted to post PDFs of Literature Responses and to let everyone know that whatever they whittle the roles down into, the ones I would consider to be essential going forward are:

• Discussion Director
• Connector
• Quoter
• Predictor
• Debater
• Reader's Theater
• Take-Away
• Best Case/Worst Case Scenario

Coming up as soon as I get all of the Question Types covered: the Debater role!  Here's where teachers will get a chance to practice Close Reading with their students.

Literature Responses Part II: Disallowed Question Types

What's in a question?  Quite a bit, actually, much to the amazement and amusement of our students as they learn the three question types: recall, inferential, and open-ended.  There are certain sub-sets of question types, however, that should be disallowed unless there is some specific purpose for engaging in them.

These are:

"Yes or No" Questions: These basically dwell in the realm of recall-based questions anyway, but they rarely serve purposes other than checking to see if students read, say, a passage for homework...though they do suffice for quick quizzes, too.

"Stumper" Questions: Questions that are impossible to answer based on recall or inferential knowledge of the text.

• What was Ponyboy's mother's middle name?
• If the Curtises had a dog, what would be it's favorite kind of tree?

Prediction Questions: These should be reserved for the start of a text, the predictor role of Literature Circles, the predictor role of Literature Responses, tantalizing students at the end of a day's reading with what will follow, or extending the end of a novel/text.

***
A fairly excellent rule-of-thumb to use--especially when trying to create great open-ended questions--is asking if the question could, in and of itself, lead to a sustained and meaningful discussion/essay prompt.  The whole point of assigning texts is encouraging students to authentically and meaningfully respond to the texts.  In this new light "What was Ponyboy's mother's middle name?" doesn't stand very tall against "In your opinion do you think Ponyboy should be tried for murder/manslaughter? Why/Why not?"