Common Core Standard For English Language Arts (Page 25 of 43) in pdf

Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtS

the states of Virginia and Florida

, also found strong support for writing arguments as a key part of instruction. The

2007 writing framework for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (National Assessment Gov-

erning Board, 2006) assigns persuasive writing the single largest targeted allotment of assessment time at grade 12

(40 percent, versus 25 percent for narrative writing and 35 percent for informative writing). (The 2011 prepublication

framework [National Assessment Governing Board, 2007] maintains the 40 percent figure for persuasive writing at

grade 12, allotting 40 percent to writing to explain and 20 percent to writing to convey experience.) Writing argu-

ments or writing to persuade is also an important element in standards frameworks for numerous high-performing

nations.

Specific skills central to writing arguments are also highly valued by postsecondary educators. A 2002 survey of

instructors of freshman composition and other introductory courses across the curriculum at California’s community

colleges, California State University campuses, and University of California campuses (Intersegmental Committee of

the Academic Senates of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of

California, 2002) found that among the most important skills expected of incoming students were articulating a clear

thesis; identifying, evaluating, and using evidence to support or challenge the thesis; and considering and incorporat-

ing counterarguments into their writing. On the 2009 ACT national curriculum survey (ACT, Inc., 2009), postsecond-

ary faculty gave high ratings to such argument-related skills as “develop ideas by using some specific reasons, details,

and examples,” “take and maintain a position on an issue,” and “support claims with multiple and appropriate sources

of evidence.”

The value of effective argument extends well beyond the classroom or workplace, however. As Richard Fulkerson

(1996) puts it in Teaching the Argument in Writing, the proper context for thinking about argument is one “in which

the goal is not victory but a good decision, one in which all arguers are at risk of needing to alter their views, one in

which a participant takes seriously and fairly the views different from his or her own” (pp. 16–17). Such capacities are

broadly important for the literate, educated person living in the diverse, information-rich environment of the twenty-

first century.

Unpublished data collected by Achieve, Inc.

See, for example, frameworks from Finland, Hong Kong, and Singapore as well as Victoria and New South Wales in Australia.

Common Core Standard For English Language Arts Page 25