Despite the early emergence of oral argumentation, written argumentation is slow to develop, insensitive to alternative perspectives, and generally of poor quality. These findings are unsettling because high quality argumentative writing is expected throughout the curriculum and needed in an increasingly competitive workplace that requires…

Suggests that students in upper elementary grades and high schools may benefit from extended decoding and spelling instruction, requiring strategies going well beyond phonics. Asserts that learning about morphological structure may provide the strategies needed to decode and spell multisyllabic words. Reviews literature providing a rationale for…