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An Inquiry: Can studying science fiction improve students argument writing skills?

THE CAST: A selection of 7th grade ELA students who remain convinced that school is the ultimate dystopia. For many, the introduction of a scifi unit was a refreshing break from the snowy monotony. But did this help their writing? How could two unrelated learning topics be utilized to support one another?

THE SETTING: Eaton Rapids Middle School, Home of the disheartened Greyhounds. There are seven 7th grade ELA sections, two of which I am responsible for educating, all of which took part in this caustic experiment.

Would getting spacey help strengthen students' abilities to take a giant leap? Could student investment in subject material transport their writing to the final frontier? Or were they bound to crash and burn in confusion and terrible puns?

Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching

THE RESOURCES

Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (Jeff Vandermeer)

Shared Worlds: Advice from SF Writers

Textual aids in the uphill battle!

THE MOTIVE: Early in the year, my students took part in a fall assessment which required them to write an argument piece about changing a school rule of their choice. The results across the board were disconcerting. Students failed to state their positions clearly, let alone support those positions with any coherence. They had more interest in informal and narrative writing, but by 8th grade they're expected to write formal arguments with clear counterarguments and strong evidence. Faced with bridging a black hole, I determined that my students needed more background as a basis for argument -- they needed to be scaffolded from learning extensively about a subject to becoming experts in it before they could take sides with confidence. Once given free reign in redesigning the 7th grade science fiction unit, I made it my goal to use the genre to hone their argument writing skills to laser pinpoints. Science fiiction is an engaging genre, one prevalent not just in popular culture, but also in history and our very imaginations. Students interact with scifi on a daily basis, in everything from video games, comics, films and books, to the technology that dictates so much of our lives. Science fiction is becoming something of a reality. Making it conducive to learning seemed like a worthy goal, especially since I share many of my students' passion for it. Speculation has its place in the classroom. Thus was our Frankenstein hybrid of a reading/writing unit brought to life!

Mixed Media/Visual Aides

THE PROCESS 1. TEACHING SF: Students were introduced to the scifi genre as a whole, including recurring story elements, patterns in story conflict, and SF as a visual experience. They read stories and excerpts from notable authors such as HG Wells, Mary Shelley, and Ray Bradbury, participated in Reader's Theaters, illustrated invented civilisations, and conducted an interview with award-winning SF writer Karin Tidbeck before all was said and done. 2. INCORPOATING REALITY: I knew that student investment was partially dependent on historical context. Why does scifi matter? What relevant issues did these stories reflect upon? Some of these issues, such as animal testing and the use of nuclear weapons, incited passionate responses and a willingness to argue in even the most passive of students. 3. INCORPORATING ARGUMENT: To proliferate student comprehension of both scifi and supporting a position with evidence, we tied our readings to class discussions that often took inini-debate form. After class discussions, students responded to prompts that required them to argue both sides before establishing their own position. 4. CEMENTNG STRUCTURE: Once students had written several informal argument pieces in their Writer's Notebooks, they selected one response to use as a basis for a final argument piece. These final arguments were given structure with the aid of think sheets and charts, and served as the unit's major writing assessment.

Students charted stories on personal scifi spectrums and debated story placement as a class.

Class Class Debates/Group Debates Discussion

Whenever possible, we held dialogic discussions before writing.

The The Power Power of Choice, of The Choice Comfort of Structure

While final essays were outlined in a provided format, students were allowed myriad choices that prevented the papers from feeling restrictive.

RESULTS In all hours, the class average scores on the scifi argument essays improved upon fall assessment scores by a significant margin. This number in each hour was at least 11% higher. The majority of students used at least three pieces of evidence to support their positions and many of them successfully incorporated counter-arguments. Almost every student provided work that clearly supported her/his thesis. On the whole, we were pleased with the results yielded by this approach to teaching argument writing.

QUESTIONS RAISED *How can I determine to which degree of student success was dependent on scifi when there were so many other variables in play? *If this proved effective due to being structured around a preset central focus, what other genres or concepts could serve the same purpose as scifi did in this case? *Does SF have unexplored classroom merits? What if it hadn't been taught in conjunction with argument writing?

CONCLUSION While these essays were a real step forward, there are too many variables to say with certainty that science fiction is solely responsible for this success. However, SF did provide a framework and a central focus for debate topics, and I believe that consistency contributed to student success. Having a creative central focus that provided fertile ground for deeper thinking was crucial. The context gave them structure, and the high-interest content gave them motivation. When we finished the SF Unit, students were disappointed to see it go. More than that, some argued that we should extend the unit. For once, I was glad they wanted to argue with me. For once they weren't half bad at it.

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