Presentation at the NCState New Literacies Workshop on the use of online role-play to teach argumentative writing--a key focus of the ELA Common Core Standards

1. Using Online Role-plays to
Teach Argumentative
Writing
Richard Beach
NCState New Literacies workshop
Slideshare:

2. Formulating arguments using
online role-play/games
• Select an issue
• Formulate a primary argument
• Choose roles and conduct research
• Post arguments on a blog or online
forum
• Step out of roles and reflect

3. Collaborative arguments:
(May, 2011, English Journal)
• Test out different arguments
o "House": determine
alternative diagnoses
• Find common ground to
develop solutions

5. Through online role-
play, students learn to:
construct a persona
employ rhetorical appeals
support their position with reasons
identify and refute counter-arguments
revise or modify one’s own positions

6. Selecting an issue
Selecting an issue with possible
opposing positions versus a “one-
sided” issue
Question: What contentious issues
could you use that would engage
students?

7. Context: issues:
literaryworlds.org

8. Censorship: The Perks of Being
a Wallflower
http://schooledthewriteway.blogspot.com/
http://wallfloweronline.blogspot.com/
http://charactershighschool.pbworks.com/
The PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association)
of Maui High School is looking for feedback on
the following book titles available to students
through the school library and/or taught by the
English department. Several parents and
guardians have contacted school administrators
about the questionable content and educational
merit of these and other books.

9. Issue: Blocking websites in
schools
Tension: Access to sites for learning
Legal protection of students from
porn/problematic sites

10. Identifying tensions between
policies and practices
Today I was attempting to do some
research for our next Youth Against War
and Racism meeting and I came upon a
school Block when I was looking for Abu
Ghraib, and SURPRISE! It’s Blocked. It’s
blocked for Obscene/Tasteless content. Do
you know what I find Obscene and
Tasteless? The idea that a school has a
right to hide things from students. Are we
communists that we are going to restrict
what our students can know?

11. Social bookmarking:
Diigo.com
• Set up Groups based on classes
• Students share bookmarks to the class
• Students tag bookmarks
• Students annotate online texts/sites using
sticky notes

12. Use of Diigo: Online role-play
• Sharing sites related to the topic of violence and video games
• Supporting evidence: Links and sticky note comments

13. Using Diigo sticky notes to reflect on a role-
play
http://grou.ps/cwhybrid2010t1/talks/5160010/4

14. Email from Diigo group

15. Using a Ning as the platform
for online role-play:

16. Threaded discussion allows students easily

17. Students use their role to create an arguments
and use hyperlinks

18. Students use the bio pages and comments
sections to personally connect to other
characters.

19. Bubbl.us mapping to identify roles and

20. Role construction: Adopting
different perspectives
EmoGirl: Critique of school
Internet policies
I think the internet
usage policies are ridiculous.
The policies are
almost impossible to find. I
spent half an hour trying to
find them and I'm a
young, computer savvy
person.

21. Students evaluated themselves by using
the rubric below (see handout for
rubric)

22. Students step out of roles and
reflect on:
• Use of arguments
• Comfort in role
• Targeted
audiences/alliances
• Who has power?
o Reasons: strategies
• Sense of potential change

23. . Students wrote a paper from their
own point of view addressing a
problem with Internet access

24. Discourses: Con student
access
Students will access problematic/porn sites
that will adversely influence them (“Strict
father” cultural model” (Lakoff))
Students are not mature enough to select
appropriate sites (Developmental
discourse)

25. “Strict Father” cultural model:
Charles Hammerstein III
The issue with sites like
YouTube is that it is a
helpful site when used
correctly, but the ratio of
students who would use it
to the students who would
abuse it would greatly
favor the later of the two.
R-rated sites are not ok
because they usually
contain information and
content that may be
considered offensive. The
internet policies are very
clear, if your grandmother
would not appreciate it,
then you probably
shouldn't be doing those
kind of things at school.

26. Student’s reflection
• I think it was a valuable learning experience
because we actually got to argue back and forth
with other people. If this had just been a writing
assignment, it would have only been one-
sided. You can use persuasive arguments in a
paper but you can’t have a back and forth
conversation on it. I really felt like it helped me
get into someone else’s shoes and think like
someone different from myself.

27. Topic: Identification of
“unhealthy” food
Issue: Should “unhealthy” food be
banned from grocery stores or schools
Pro: Yes: should be banned
Obesity/diabeties a “national epidemic”
Foods can be identified as “unhealthy”
Con: No: should not be banned
Difficult to distinguish “healthy/unhealthy”
Negative economic consequences

29. Criteria for “unhealthy” food
> 35% from calories
> 10% calories from fat
> 25% calories from total sugar
High sodium >480 mg a serving
Low fiber <1.25 g a serving

30. Results
Over half (57%) of the study products were
high sugar, and 53% were low in fiber.
Cereals were not only high in sugar
(93%), but over half (60%) were low in fiber.
Over one-third (36%) of prepared foods and
meals were high in sodium,
Nearly one-quarter (24%) were high in
saturated fat, and nearly one-third (28%)
were low in fiber.

31. http://unhealthyfoodroleplay.ning.com
Adopt a role consistent with that stance:
farmer, parent, grocery store
owner, nutritionist, food manufacturer, fast-food
restaurant owner, scientist, teacher, student, etc.
Post a position with supporting reasons/evidence .
Begin by identifying your role, for example, Fast-
food restaurant owner.
Respond to other messages with counter-
arguments