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In a unit on argumentation, a team of teachers encouraged students to deeply consider alternative views to combat the tendency to "listen only to those with whom we agree."
While visiting Erica's tenth-grade classroom, Jen approached Cameron (student names are pseudonyms), asking him what he was going to write about for his social justice research paper. Cameron briefly looked up and mumbled, "Abortion, I'm against it." Looking back at his Chromebook screen, he pulled his headphones from around his neck and placed them over his ears. Jen took the hint and moved to another student.
Two weeks later, as Cameron walked into the classroom at the beginning of class, he set his Chromebook on his desk and called Jen over. In response to her "What's up?" Cameron sighed and said, "Can you help me? I'm changing my topic, and I basically have to start over now." He explained that at home the night before, he had been looking online to see how the government supports mothers who are experiencing unexpected pregnancies and realized, "We don't do much." He wanted to shift his claim from "The government should make abortions illegal" to "The government should support pregnant mothers."
Cameron's experience took place during a month-long unit on Listening Arguments, a form of argumentative writing that Erica, a high school English and History teacher, and Jen and Allison, university teacher educators, were exploring with six other National Writing Project teacher consultants in a teacher inquiry group. After a year of reading and discussion, the group developed the following definition of a Listening Argument: an argument that listens to and explores multiple perspectives on an issue, including one's own multiple perspectives, in order to come to a decision or new understanding.
LISTENING TO OTHER PERSPECTIVES
We began to explore the idea of listening arguments in response to our growing concerns about the kinds of arguments taking place in online spaces and the media, as well as our experiences with argumentation and argumentative writing in schools (Newell et al. 5). The current national discourse is increasingly polarized and lacks acknowledgment of multiple, nuanced perspectives, particularly on issues such as policing, immigration, health care, foreign policy, and education. Online spaces, in particular, where people can participate anonymously or via...