Hi folks!
This spring, I’m delighted to be facilitating an online course for The National Writing Project on teaching argument writing rhetorically. If this sounds like something that might interest you, please keep reading for the course description and schedule.
Kind regards,
Jennifer Fletcher
Course Overview
A rhetorical approach to argument writing cultivates adaptive, independent learners who can analyze and compose texts in diverse situations. In this four-week course, author and teacher Jennifer Fletcher provides strategies and frameworks for taking argument writing to the next level by developing students’ rhetorical problem-solving skills. These include the inquiry and reasoning skills that help learners communicate and collaborate across contexts. Special attention is given to rhetorical concepts—such as audience, purpose, context, and genre—that help writers adapt to new situations. Using examples from Jennifer’s book, Writing Rhetorically, participants in the course examine and design instructional activities that foster inquiry-based argumentation and rhetorical decision-making. Participants will leave the course prepared to support students in making their own informed choices as thinkers and writers.
There is a six-week break between Week Two and Week Three of this course to allow participants time to apply and reflect on their learning.
Registration
Agenda and Schedule
| Week One: March 3-9, 2024 Approximately 5 learning hours | ||||
| Focus | Explore/Learn | Try | Post to Discussion | Learning Task |
| Writing as Communication and Problem-Solving | Teaching for Transfer and Agency | Read the introduction to Writing Rhetorically. Skim Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing (NCTE). | Introductions | Reflection: Describe your writing process. What kinds of decisions do you make when you write for different audiences and purposes? |
| Taking the Rhetorical Approach | Rhetorical Style Makeovers Rules vs. Choices | Writers Two Ways Planning Tool for Taking Rhetorical Action | What writing rules were you taught as a student? Where did these rules come from? | Reflection: What does it mean to write rhetorically? How is this different from formulaic writing? |
| Teaching Writing for Transfer (One-Hour Zoom Meeting) | Transfer of Learning Procedural, Conceptual, and Conditional Knowledge Expansive Framing | How Do You Know When…? Scaffolding for Transfer Blackout Templates | Write a few introductory sentences for a writing lesson you teach that frames this lesson for transfer. Identify underlying principles and concepts. Note additional times, settings, communities, and applications in which this learning can be used. | Activity: Post a photo of a blackout template you created using an argument text your students read. |
| Week Two: March 10-16, 2024 Approximately 5 learning hours | ||||
| Focus | Explore/Learn | Try | Post to Discussion | Learning Task |
| Entering the Conversation | Inquiry Invention Rhetorical Thinking | Concept Map Identifying the Question at Issue The Doubting and Believing Game Exigence | What can writers learn through class discussion? What protocols do you use to support equitable discussion? How do these protocols help students understand the conversations they’re joining? | Activity: Read the directions for “Practicing Rhetorical Problem Solving: Choosing a Logo for an Animal Shelter” in Appendix B to Writing Rhetorically. How do you think your students would respond to this activity? Why? How could this activity be framed for transfer? |
| Negotiating Different Voices (One-Hour Zoom Meeting) | Paraphrase Summary Synthesis Citation | Citation Yearbook Conversation Planning Notes | What “beginner moves” do you see students making when they first learn to write source-based arguments? How can we help novice writers develop expertise in this area? | Reflect: What rhetorical concepts and principles support students in ethically and effectively responding to sources in argument writing? How does rhetorical thinking change how students cite sources? |
| Designing and Conducting Research | Scaffolding the Inquiry Process Gathering and Analyzing Evidence Evaluating Sources Rhetorically | Examining the Contents of the Mystery Bag Evidence Coding List, Group, Label | What can design thinking contribute to the research process? How do design principles and rhetorical concepts change how writers approach inquiry? | Activity: Create a List, Group, Label activity for your curriculum. Include direct quotations, numerical data, titles of sources, terms, examples, and any other evidence appropriate to a unit of study you teach. |
| Week Three: May 5-11, 2024 Approximately 5 learning hours | ||||
| Focus | Explore/Learn | Try | Post to Discussion | Learning Task |
| Reflecting on Professional Learning | Discussion of Pilot Experience | Bounded Framing vs. Expansive Framing | What strategies, concepts, activities, and/or resources did you try with your own students? How did that go? How did you modify the materials or strategies for your instructional context? | To what extent do you see your students developing a conceptual framework that helps them analyze and compose arguments across diverse situations? What rhetorical concepts and principles are they starting to understand (or understand more deeply)? How will these understandings help them transfer their learning new tasks and settings? |
| Reasoning from Evidence (One-Hour Zoom Meeting) | Models of Reasoned Inquiry Surfacing Assumptions | Four-Square Reasoning Anticipation/Reaction Guide Claim Analysis | What are you noticing about teaching reasoning in the context of writing? | Activity: Post a photo or link for a text that your students can use as a model of reasoned inquiry. |
| Making Choices About Genre and Structure | Scaffolding Rhetorical Decision-Making Mentor Texts Genre Awareness and Analysis | Graphic Organizer: Making Choices About Audience and Genre Descriptive Outlining Says/Does Graphic Organizer: Making Choices About Focus | Complete the reflection activity on genre and structure choices on page 185 of Writing Rhetorically (Figure 7.1). What do you notice? What are your thoughts about what you’ve noticed? | Activity: Describe what the writer is saying and doing in your assigned section of the text. |
| Week Four: May 12-18, 2024 Approximately 5 learning hours | ||||
| Focus | Explore/Learn | Try | Post to Discussion | Learning Task |
| Revising Rhetorically | Descriptive Outlining Revisited Conditional Knowledge Reader-Based Writing | PAPA Square Analysis Say, Mean, Matter, Do Audience Analysis | How does descriptive outlining support both reading and writing? What other rhetorical analysis strategies can be repurposed to support revision? | Activity: Consider the revision advice in Figure 8.3 of Writing Rhetorically. Provide expansive framing for each piece of advice by explaining why this advice is important and when it is relevant. |
| Course Closure (One-Hour Zoom Meeting) | Rethinking Postsecondary Success: Learning That Transfers Cultivating Expert Learners | Scaffolding the Process, Not the Product Connective Learning Log | Reflection: What is one idea or concept that you will continue to think about after this course? How do you see yourself adapting and applying your learning in the future? | Success Stories Takeaways |
Participants Receive:
- Four real-time virtual workshops with author and teacher Jennifer Fletcher
- A print copy of Writing Rhetorically: Fostering Responsive Thinkers and Communicators
- Digital study guide and appendixes for Writing Rhetorically and Teaching Arguments
- Activities and graphic organizers for teaching audience, purpose, genre, and structure
- Support for teaching evidence-based reasoning, synthesis, and claim development
- A digital badge indicating completion of twenty learning hours
Course Notes:
- This course will run for 2 weeks in March and 2 weeks in May:
- March 3 – 16, 2024
- Real-time events: March 6th and March 13, 4-5pm PT | 7-8pm ET
- May 5 – 18, 2024
- Real-time events: May 8th and 15th, 4-5pm PT | 7-8pm ET
- March 3 – 16, 2024
- 1 hour of synchronous and 4 hours of self-paced learning per week for a total of 20 hours
For questions and payment options, email teachargument@nwp.org. Please see this link for more courses offered by NWP.
Jennifer Fletcher is a professor of English at California State University, Monterey Bay and a former high school teacher. She is the author of Teaching Arguments, Teaching Literature Rhetorically, and Writing Rhetorically.
Rhetorical Thinking 
