Writing in Higher Ed: What the Common Core Talks About When It Talks About “Argument” Workshop
Published:January 5, 2012
The following workshop information is being sent on behalf of Nancy Lamontagne at the Maine Department of Education. If you have any questions on this event, please contact Nancy directly at 624-6822 or nancy.a.lamontagne@maine.gov.
Thank you
The MLTI Team
Writing in Higher Ed: What the Common Core Talks About When It Talks About “Argument”
Presenter: Dylan B. Dryer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Composition Studies Department of English, University of Maine
Although negative connotations of “argument” tend to dominate everyday usages of the word, teachers know that an “argument” is any reasoned, internally consistent means of advocating for the validity of a position, a finding, a belief, a discovery, or a conclusion to a line of inquiry. “Arguments” are ubiquitous: they change or confirm readers’ points of view; they move readers to act or dissuade them from acting; they ask readers to accept or refute an explanation or evaluation; they raise readers’ consciousness of concepts, issues, and problems.
While writing conventions differ from department to department in Higher Ed, all disciplines demand that students be able to ground their arguments in careful syntheses of other texts and to understand that any text they might use is itself an argument—with strengths and weaknesses, uses and limitations.
In this workshop, we will draw on recent research in Composition Studies to think through what the Common Core asks of us when it insists that “the overwhelming focus of writing throughout high school should be on arguments and informative/explanatory texts” (5). Small-group sessions will examine samples of college freshman and sophomore argumentative writing, will extrapolate salient features of the more successful samples, and with the assistance of the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, will work collaboratively to design assignments that will push high school students to develop the argumentative skills they need to survive—and thrive—in college and beyond.
An email confirmation will be sent out to you one week prior to workshop date. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Nancy Lamontagne at 624-6822 or nancy.a.lamontagne@maine.gov.
Online Registration (choose Argument Writing, Friday, January 13, 2012)
Registration Deadline: Friday, January 6, 2012
Event Details:
Event Date: Friday January 13, 2012
Location: Augusta Civic Center
Time: 8:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m.
Cost: $25.00
Checks Payable to: Treasurer, State of Maine
Mail payment to: Nancy Lamontagne, Maine Department of Education, 23 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333