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Transforming Talk into Text—Argument Writing, Inquiry, and Discussion, Grades 6-12

Thomas M. McCann

Foreword by: George Hillocks Jr.

Publication Date: September 5, 2014

Pages: 176

Series: Language and Literacy Series

Available Formats
PAPERBACK
ISBN: 9780807755884
$32.95
EBOOK
ISBN: 9780807773314
$32.95
Transforming Talk into Text—Argument Writing, Inquiry, and Discussion, Grades 6-12 9780807755884
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  • Description
  • Author
  • Reviews

Description+

Author Thomas McCann invites readers to rethink their approach to teaching writing by capitalizing on students’ instinctive desire to talk. Drawing on extensive classroom research, he shows teachers how to craft class discussions that build students’ skills of analysis, problem solving, and argumentation as a means of improving student writing. McCann demonstrates how authentic discussions immerse learners in practices that become important when they write. Chapters feature portraits of teachers at work, including transcripts that reveal patterns of talk across a set of lessons. Interviews with the teachers and samples of student writing afford readers a deeper understanding of process. Students also report on how classroom discussions supported their effort to produce persuasive, argument-driven essays.

Book Features:

  • A focus on “the thinking behind the practice,” as opposed to a collection of lesson ideas.
  • Connections to important elements from the Common Core State Standards, especially arguments writing.
  • Examples of students at work with examples of the writing that emerges from their discussions.
  • Portraits of skilled teachers as they promote inquiry and sequence and facilitate discussions.
  • Appendices with problem-based scenarios, interview questions for students and teachers, samples of debatable cases in the news, and more.

Author+

Thomas M. McCann is associate professor of English at Northern Illinois University.

Reviews+

"Writing arguments for Common Core performance assessments is a HUGE need right now that this book helps address."
—Carol Jago, California Reading and Literature Project, UCLA.

“In this important book, Tom McCann has given us not only the admonition to change, but the details about what effective change must be and what it looks like, evidence that it works effectively, and details about how to bring it to pass.”
—From the Foreword by George Hillocks, Jr., professor emeritus, department of English, University of Chicago.

$32.95

Professors: Request an Exam Copy

Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.

Books In This Series
Educating Emergent Bilinguals
Educating Emergent Bilinguals
Teaching Beyond Spoken Words
Teaching Beyond Spoken Words
Amplifying the Curriculum
Amplifying the Curriculum
Reading, Writing, and Talk
Reading, Writing, and Talk
When Teaching Writing Gets Tough
When Teaching Writing Gets Tough
Reading and Relevance, Reimagined
Reading and Relevance, Reimagined
Equitable Literacy Instruction for Students in Poverty
Equitable Literacy Instruction for Students in Poverty
A Cyclical Model of Literacy Learning
A Cyclical Model of Literacy Learning
Teaching With Arts-Infused Writing Pedagogies
Teaching With Arts-Infused Writing Pedagogies
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