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Narrative, Literacy and Other Skills: Studies in intervention
Edited by Edy Veneziano and Ageliki Nicolopoulou
[Studies in Narrative 25] 2019
► pp. 151–170

Chapter 7
Using narrative thinking in argumentative writing

| Harvard Graduate School of Education
| Salem State University
| Harvard Graduate School of Education
| Harvard Graduate School of Education

Narrative skills emerge in early childhood and are enhanced by exposure to oral traditions, bookreading, and caregiver questioning. Less is known about how argumentation skills develop, a question of increasing importance given that current standards specify that students should produce written claims with supportive evidence by the middle grades. In this chapter, we posit that narrative skills may be a transferable resource that facilitates students’ emerging argumentation, as both are extended discourse forms that depend on a sophisticated understanding of the social world. Two embedded studies draw on argumentative essays written by 4th–7th grade students during the implementation of an innovative, discussion-based curriculum to explore the question of how students use narrative thinking in their argumentative writing. In Study 1 we identified three emerging patterns in student writing: using narrative thinking in warrants, rebuttals, and qualifications. In Study 2 we found that in a random sample of essays, 7th graders were significantly more likely than 4th graders to exhibit narrative thinking in their argumentative essays. Our findings suggest that narrative, sometimes thought to be an early-developing genre of little importance beyond the early grades, may in fact play an integral role in students’ acquisition of sophisticated argumentation skills.

Keywords: narrative thinking, argumentation, discussion, genre, middle grade students
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Setting for the studies
  • Study 1
  • Evidence of narrative thinking in warrants
  • Evidence of narrative thinking in rebuttals
  • Evidence of narrative thinking in qualifications
  • Study 2
  • Methods
    • Sample selection
    • Participants
    • Defining narrative thinking
    • Inter-rater reliability
  • Results
    • Overall trends
    • Differences by grade
    • Differences by topic
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 6 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.25.08sur
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