Through the use of case study portraits, this article examines naturally occurring one-to-one writing conference conversations between a ninth-grade English teacher and three students in his class. Suggesting a broadened model of effective writing conference instruction, the article considers composing processes that appear to be privileged in the conference context when different students are learning to write. The focus is on the dialogic nature of markedly contrasting conversations, demonstrating that while dialogue wears many guises and while the give and take between teacher and student can be fleeting and “forgettable,” the conversational context contributes to a deliberative process critical to the process of composing. Methodology for the research on which this article is based drew on ethnographic techniques combined with discourse analysis of writing conference conversation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Athaneses, S.
(n.d.). From recitation to discussion: Shaping classroom discourse in the study of literature. Manuscript in preparation.
2.
Bakhtin, M. M.
(1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.
3.
Bereiter, C.
, & Scardamalia, M. (1982). From conversation to composition. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Advances in instructional psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 1-64). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
4.
Blenski, M.
(1976). The conference evaluation: A renewal. In P. Geuderet al. (Eds.), They really taught us how to write (pp. 136-140). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
5.
Bruner, J.
(1978). The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In A. Sinclair, R.J. Jarvella, & W. Levelt (Eds.), The child's concept of language (pp. 241-255). New York: Springer-Verlag.
6.
Cazden, C. B.
(1983). Peekaboo as an instructional model: Discourse development at school and at home. In B. Bain (Ed.), The sociogenesis of language and human conduct: A multi-disciplinary book of readings (pp. 33-58). New York: Plenum.
7.
Chafe, W.
(1982). Integration and involvement in speaking, writing, and oral literature. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Spoken and written language: Exploring orality and literacy (pp. 35-53). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
8.
Cook-Gumperz, J.
(1979). Communicating with young children at home. Theory into Practice, 18, 207-212.
9.
Cooper, C.
(1976). Teaching writing by conferencing. Survival through language: The basics and beyond. Proceedings of the 29th Language Communication Conference.
10.
Daiute, C.
, & Dalton, B. (1988). “Let's brighten it up a bit”: Collaboration and cognition in writing. In B. Rafoth & D. Rubin (Eds.), The social construction of written communication (pp. 249-269). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
11.
deBeaugrande, R.
(1984). Advances in discourse processes: Vol. 2. Text production: Toward a science of composition. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
12.
Dyson, A. H.
(1989). The multiple worlds of child writers: A study of friends learning to write. New York: Teachers College Press.
13.
Florio-Ruane, S.
(1986, April). Teaching as response: The problem of writing conferences. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.
14.
Flower, L.
, & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32, 365-387.
15.
Freedman, S. W.
(1981). Evaluation in the writing conference: An interactive process. In M. Hairston & C. Selfe (Eds.), Selected papers from the 1981 Texas Writing Research Conference (pp. 65-96). Austin: University of Texas Press.
16.
Freedman, S. W.
, with Greenleaf, C., & Sperling, M. (1987). Response to student writing (Research Rep. No. 23). National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
17.
Freedman, S. W.
, & Sperling, M. (1985). Teacher-student interaction in the writing conference: Response and teaching. In S. W. Freedman (Ed.), The acquisition of written language: Revision and response (pp. 106-130) Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
18.
Graves, D.
(1983). Writing: Teachers and children at work. Exeter, NH: Heinemann.
19.
Grice, P.
(1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics (Vol. 3, pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press.
20.
Gumperz, J.
(1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Halliday, M.A.K.
(1975). Learning how to mean. London: Arnold.
22.
Heath, S. B.
(1989). Talking the text in teaching composition. In S. de Castell, A. Luke, & C. Luke (Eds.), Language, authority, and criticism: Readings on the school textbook (pp. 109-122). London: Falmer.
23.
Jacobs, S.
, & Karliner, A. (1977). Helping writers to think: The effect of speech roles in individual conferences on the quality of thought in student writing. College English, 38, 489-505.
24.
Knapp, J.
(1976). Contract/conference evaluations of freshman composition. College English, 37, 647-653.
25.
Murray, D.
(1979). The listening eye: Reflections on the writing conference. College English, 41, 13-18.
26.
Perl, S.
(1979). The composing processes of unskilled college writers. Research in the Teaching of English, 13, 317-336.
27.
Rose, A.
(1982). Spoken versus written criticism of student writing: Some advantages of the conference method. College Composition and Communication, 33, 326-330.
28.
Roth, P.
(1979). The ghost writer. New York: Ballantine.
29.
Sacks, H.
, Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696-735.
30.
Sperling, M. (1988). The writing conference as a collaborative literacy event: Discourse analysis and descriptive case studies of conversations between ninth grade writers and their teacher. Unpublished doctoral dissertation.
31.
Sperling, M.
(1990). I want to talk to each of you: Collaboration and the teacher-student writing conference. Research in the Teaching of English, 24, 279-321.
32.
Sperling, M.
, & Freedman, S. W. (1987). A good girl writes like a good girl: Written response and clues to the teaching/learning process. Written Communication, 3, 343-363.
33.
Stone, C. A.
(1989, April). What's missing in the metaphor of scaffolding? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.
34.
Ulichny, P.
, & Watson-Gegeo, K. A. (1989). Interactions and authority: The dominant interpretive framework in writing conferences. Discourse Processes, 12, 309-328.
35.
Vygotsky, L. S.
(1962). Thought and language. Cambridge: MIT Press.
36.
Vygotsky, L. S.
(1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
Walker, C. P.
, & Elias, D. (1987). Writing conference talk: Factors associated with high-and low-rated writing conferences. Research in the Teaching of English, 21, 266-285.
38.
Walters, K.
(1984a, March). Ethnographic perspectives on the writing conference. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York.
39.
Walters, K.
(1984b). “Its like playing Password”: Questions and questioning at school. Texas Linguistic Forum, 24, 157-188.
40.
Wertsch, J. V.
(1984). The zone of proximal development: Some conceptual issues. In B. Rogoff & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), Children's learning in the “zone of proximal development” (pp. 7-18). San Francicso: Jossey-Bass.
41.
Witte, S. P.
(1987). Pre-text and composing. College Composition and Communication, 38, 397-425.
