Facilitating fourth-grade students’ written argumentation: The use of an argumentation graphic organizer

Abstract

Literacy instruction in the 21st century must bolster students’ ability to critically process text and craft well-reasoned written argumentation. The authors investigated changes in fourth-grade students’ (N = 28; 15 girls) written argumentation as they used a researcher-developed graphic organizer (i.e., Quality Talk graphic organizer [QT_GO]). The authors also examined the extent to which students’ graphic organizer performance predicted their written argumentation and whether such prediction was sustained across genres. Both QT_GO responses and written argumentation essays were scored for quantity and quality. Multilevel modeling analyses reveal that (a) both quantity and quality of students’ written argumentation essays statistically significantly improved after students used QT_GO and (b) students’ graphic organizer performance seemed to attenuate the effect of genre on their written argumentation for both quantity and quality. Results suggest that QT_GO facilitated students’ written argumentation, making it easier for fourth-grade students to write about both narrative and expository texts.

Keywords:

• Written argumentation
• graphic organizer
• quality talk graphic organizer
• fourth-grade students

Notes

1 The data reported herein was collected as part of a larger project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. While participants in this study also make up approximately half of the participants reported in Murphy et al. (2017) the outcomes reported in this manuscript are not reported elsewhere. Additionally, the focus of Murphy et al. (2017) specifically pertained to the differences in grouping composition (i.e., comparing students in groups of homogeneous ability vs. groups of heterogeneous ability) as participants engaged in QT over the year.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences through Grant R305A130031 to the Pennsylvania State University.