This dissertation is composed of an introduction and two journal-length manuscripts. Both manuscripts focus on the same descriptive case study of teacher-student narrative writing conference enactment in two primary-grade settings, which addressed the following research questions: (1) When conducting narrative writing conferences with primary-aged students, what conference genres do the experienced writing teachers in case study classrooms draw upon across the writing process in order to guide conversational interaction so as to perform specific work for specific instructional purposes? and (2) How, in general, does talk in case study classrooms operate within each identified conference genre in order to support conference purpose? The first manuscript is written for researchers. It introduces the concept of a conference genre, and builds a rationale for its use. Furthermore, it defines and characterizes four potential conference genres utilized by study participants when composing narrative text. The second manuscript is written for teachers, literacy specialists, and teacher educators. It emphases the practical implications of conference genre usage and illustrates their ability to support purposeful talk in primary-grade writing classrooms. Abstracts for each manuscript are given below:Manuscript 1: A common practice in today's primary-grade classrooms, teacher-student writing conferences are considered by accomplished writing teachers and process writing advocates to be a vital component of instruction. Moreover, it is suggested that how teachers and students interact while conferring is of critical importance to their utility as an educational tool. Building an understanding of the discourse that ensues during a writing conference, those purposes that such talk serves overall, and the significance of their pedagogical appropriateness, then, is essential. Typical examinations of the discourse structures used by conference participants, on their own, however, are not enough. In doing so researchers risk isolating the function of such talk to how it operates within a particular moment in a writing conference, while ignoring the greater function such talk might play. Instead, this article offers an alternative framework—the conference genre—that more fully accounts for purpose when examining writing conference talk. Four potential conference genres used to structure conference talk toward particular instructional goals during the production of narrative text in two primary-grade case study settings are defined and characterized; each named according to the type of work it immersed students and teachers in (conferencing as verbal rehearsal, conferencing as criterion specific collaboration, conferencing as transcription activity, and conferencing as find-and-fix correction). Implications for research and practice are also discussed.Manuscript 2: When making determinations about how to teach students educators often give thought to the content of their talk. However, the ways in which they deliver that content—or the talk itself—receives considerably less attention. Yet how talk functions is of critical importance to the success of the teacher-student writing conference as a pedagogical tool in primary-grade settings. In this article, two illustrative narrative writing conference interactions are shared from one high-functioning first-grade writing classroom that showcase how teacher talk, and especially teacher talk in relation to overall conference purpose, greatly shaped the nature of work young children were able to accomplish within a particular conference. Recommendations for implementing purposeful talk when conducting writing conferences in primary-grade classrooms are also offered.
Read
