Classroom Talk as Writing Instruction for Learning to Make Writing Moves in Literary Arguments

Although teaching argumentative writing in schools is often about teaching argumentative forms, this instructional approach limits students’ flexibility and choice as writers, readers, and meaning makers. An alternative method, rooted in tenets of genre theory, offers a different approach. Rather than treating argument as a static form, genre theory assumes that genres (including argumentative genres) are situated, typified ways that people make...