Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Publication Date
Fall 2017
Publisher
Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition
Source Publication
Composition Forum
Source ISSN
1522-7502
Abstract
Although compositionists recognize that student talk plays an important role in learning to write, there is limited understanding of how students use conversational moves to collaboratively build knowledge about writing across contexts. This article reports on a study of focus group conversations involving first-year students in a cohort program. Our analysis identified two patterns of group conversation among students: “co-telling” and “co-constructing,” with the latter leading to more complex writing knowledge. We also used Beaufort’s domains of writing knowledge to examine how co-constructing conversations supported students in abstracting knowledge beyond a single classroom context and in negotiating local constraints. Our findings suggest that co-constructing is a valuable process that invites students to do the necessary work of remaking their knowledge for local use. Ultimately, our analysis of the role of student conversation in the construction of writing knowledge contributes to our understanding of the myriad activities that surround transfer of learning.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Winzenried, Misty Anne; Campbell, Lillian; Chao, Roger; and Cardinal, Alison, "Co-Constructing Writing Knowledge: Students’ Collaborative Talk Across Contexts" (2017). English Faculty Research and Publications. 405.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_fac/405
Comments
Published version. Composition Forum (Fall 2017). Permalink. © 2017 Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition. Used with permission.