On Defending Controversial Viewpoints: Debates of Sixth Graders About the Desirability of Early 20th‐Century American Immigration

Abstract

Sixth-grade students with and without mild disabilities participated in an eight-week projectbased investigation about immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Students' investigations were designed to promote their understanding of the perspectives of immigrants and Americans who opposed immigration, as well as the "ways of life" that gave impetus to immigration and often resulted in conflict between these groups. At the conclusion of these investigations, students were assigned the role of the immigrants or opponents of immigration and were asked to debate the desirability of immigration to the United States during this historical period. The primary focus of this article is on the opportunities afforded by, and the limitations of, these classroom debates. The debates promoted high levels of engagement and equal participation by students with and without disabilities as well as by boys and girls. Analyses of content and structure showed that students' discourse was influenced by the knowledge they gained during their investigations, but the use of this knowledge was shaped by the competitive rhetorical goal of defending a particular viewpoint. Later rounds of the debates were more balanced and drew more on the breadth of available knowledge than did earlier rounds. Overall, the debates were more typical of everyday arguments than academic arguments. The implications of our findings for the design of instructional opportunities in the social studies in inclusive classrooms are discussed.

Improving Comprehension of Expository Text in Students With LD

“…Fourth, studies included at least one measure of expository text comprehension; otherwise, the study was excluded (e.g., Glaser, Reith, Kinzer, Colburn, & Peter, 1999;MacArthur, Ferretti, & Okolo, 2002). Fifth, studies had to provide sufficient quantitative information (e.g., means, standard deviations, t or F values) regarding outcomes so that effect sizes could be calculated (Cooper & Hedges, 1994).…”

Science and Social Studies for Students With Disabilities

“…Ferretti and colleagues (Ferretti, MacArthur, & Okolo, 2001;MacArthur et al, 2002) developed several frameworks around which to organize historical content. A migration and conflict schema was used as a foundation for teaching about several different immigrant groups during the early 20th century and in a unit about westward migration in the United States.…”

“…Ferretti and colleagues (Ferretti & Okolo, 1996;MacArthur et al, 2002;Okolo & Ferretti, 1996a, 1996b) have used a project-based learning approach to teach a number of different social studies topics (e.g., the American Revolutionary War, immigration, westward expansion, industrialization, and the Spanish conquest of Latin America). In this approach, students are assigned a controversial topic to investigate in a heterogeneous cooperative group of learners.…”

Special Education Curriculum in an Era of High Standards

“…Okolo and her colleagues (MacArthur, Ferretti, & Okolo, 2002;Okolo, Ferretti, & MacArthur, 2007) draw on cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives in their work with intermediate and middle school students by emphasizing authentic tasks and classroom discourse in the area of social studies. Their work underscores a number of cognitive and social constructivist principles: social mediation, authentic tasks, constructive conversations, and cognitive strategies.…”