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Argument in the Real World: Teaching Adolescents to Read and Write Digital Texts Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hicks. Heinemann, 2017.
"Do you tweet?" Ask a room full of English teachers this question and their responses will range from willful ignorance of social media to #triumphant bragging about the number of followers they have.
"Do you teach your students to tweet?" This second question sucks the air out of the room. Even teachers who espouse the microblogging site's potential as networking tool and professional development resource will tug at their collars when it comes to playing on their students' home turf. Others may respond with indignation, anger, or fear.
There are also, thankfully, pockets of curious teachers who are energized and enthusiastic when they think about the open water of digital reading and writing. For the better part of the last decade, Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hicks's scholarship has been crucial in addressing the challenges of teaching Engdish language arts in the murky waters of Web-based text, digital literacy, and online writing. Their new book Argument in the Real World is a clarion call for all teachers to help students wherever they choose to read and write. It's also a life-preserver for those who take the plunge.
Turner and Hicks make a convincing argument for teaching students to read and write digital texts. They have presented this evidence before, and they refer often to their quintessential 2015 book Connected Reading and to Hicks's groundbreaking 2013 book Crafting Digital W 'riting. Here they begin by describing the reading and writing life of a ninth grader, Natalie, who has more than _00 Facebook friends and often finds herself heading down rabbit holes in...