Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Talk and Writing Judy Parr, Rebecca Jesson & Stuart McNaughton Presentation to ‘Writing development: Multiple perspectives’, Institute of Education, London, July 2009

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Presentation in four parts 1.Theoretical approaches 2.Talk and agency 3.Talk as platform 4.Deliberately creating connections: inter-textual talk

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Theoretical approaches  General position –Learning and development through participation in literacy activities  Functions of child talk 1.Planning and self regulation 2.Appropriation of language 3.Performance and feedback

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Approaches continued  Functions of classroom / teacher talk 1.Guidance in shared communication 2.Instructional dialogue (bridging worlds)  Two ideas behind instructional emphases 1.Child as agent 2.Creating textual platforms

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland 1Children’s agency 1.Active in learning 2.Purposeful writing and speaking 3.Developing authorial voice 4.Audience integral to process

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Implications for instruction 1.Self selection and control of process and product 2.Seeking response and feedback 3.Writing shapes and reflects authorial identity 4.Presentation and publication

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Example: Language experience 1.Ubiquitous in NZ classrooms 2.Based on learners’ language 3.Sylvia Ashton Warner (1963) ‘reach into the mind of the child’ 4.Planned, common format: doing, talking, recording, writing

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Conditions for language experience 1.Participation in a collective experience 2.Joint negotiation of meaning - students and teacher 3.Authentic contexts (planned immersion) 4.Participation in creation of reification – the wall story 5.Drawings, captions, description and interpretation, the negotiated meaning becomes part of the class’ shared history

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland 2Textual platforms: 1.Specific tutorial events 2.Ideally provide graduated assistance to learners 3.Teacher fine-tunes the problem presented and the help interactions around child’s text 5.Teachers help promotes emerging skill, allows the child to work with familiar, introduces the unfamiliar in a measured way, deals constructively with errors (Clay and Cazden, 1990)

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Implications for instruction 1.Writing conferences established routine and structure 2.Personalisation of dialogue 3.Flexible in-flight decisions 4.Teacher knowledge (and awareness of) writers, writing, and instructional talk

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Conditions for writing conferences  Goal directed  Match between goals and instructional properties  Opportunities for productive interaction with reader/ audience  Meta-cognitive awareness and self regulatory strategies (reflecting on texts)

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Example one: Charlie (turns 1-16)  Notice in the example (see handout) –Teacher supports child’s self evaluation –Teacher’s goal of self regulation; child given responsibility for those things he can do independently

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Example two: Charlie (turns 16-25)  Notice in the example (see handout): –Teacher goal of promoting self monitoring for meaning –Shifting gears (responsive) –Re-voicing –Re-presenting the problem –Rehearsal of solution

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Talk Extending the Platform  We argue that educators need to create inter-contextuality for prior knowledge to transfer into current learning  Prior knowledge about, and experience of, “texts”, are resources garnered in the service of writing through talk  Talk to deliberately create connections between and among texts- inter-textual talk

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Talk as Extending the Platform  Notion of explicit guidance through talk enabling control and awareness of writing  Build meta-linguistic knowledge  Knowledge of how to achieve communicative purpose  Build understanding of notion of “linguistically contextualised”

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Inter-textual Talk in Practice  We analysed transcripts of teachers to identify how, through talk, they “connect” with what developing writers know  Connections of four types

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Content/ Context Connection  Connection focuses on comparing or contrasting content - e.g. themes, ideas, concepts, arguments, moral/message, setting, characters or commonalities in terms of author.

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Classroom Example: Content/ Context  Transcript example text to text: Is Rags the dog or the snake? –Here child has skipped ahead and looked at pictures and asks this question. The teacher takes opportunity to make point that books have some of the same characters (as early readers do) but in different stories, different characters are fore-grounded and tell it from their perspective.

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Structural Connection  Connections concern identifying how texts work structurally to achieve their purpose- the features of text –e.g. elements of structure at text or local level (main point, complication or topic sentence)

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Classroom Example: Structural Connection  Transcript example text to visual text: ‘No Safe Harbour’ and ‘Titanic’ –Here teacher makes link in terms of the structure of narrative and the notion of build up to a climax

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Process/ Strategy Connection  Similar cognitive processes and strategies (plan around a purpose and activate prior knowledge; readers reread and change meaning they have made & as one writes develop ideas)

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Classroom Example: Process/ Strategy Connection  Transcript example of knowledge of a strategy (text- Greedy Cat- to writing) –asking questions of text to aid comprehension and also to generate appropriate content for writing

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Cultural or Linguistic Resources Connection  This involves the activation of prior knowledge to aid retrieval of relevant content in writing –Knowledge may be prior social- cultural experience, (including another language) or prior knowledge

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Classroom Example: Cultural or Linguistic Knowledge Connection  Transcript example of flower and dye related to mangroves and their absorbing of pollution. –Here teacher aims to assist understanding of a text on mangroves (they are reading prior to writing a report on a field trip) and how they work through an analogy to something the children have already experienced.

Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland Conclusion  We describe theoretical rationales for the role of talk and these have been applied to and elaborated with descriptions of instructional practices  These assumed functions seen in terms of agency and platform (underutilised in latter is making inter-textual links)  Conclude need to investigate effects of various approaches & properties that enable them to be maximally effective