“Starting with What Is”: Exploring Response and Responsibility to Student Writing through Collaborative Inquiry
Abstract
This article examines student teachers’ investigations of issues related to writing pedagogy, response, and evaluation in an English methods course, including their use of descriptive review of student writing (Carini, 2001) to analyze adolescents’ work collaboratively. Beginning with an examination of prevailing understandings of writing assessment and common instructional models in schools, the article explores critical inquiry–based approaches. This research documents how collaborative investigations encouraged student teachers to explore meaning and intentionality in student writing and to regard students as authors with intentionality and purpose. Findings substantiate adolescents’ and student teachers’ intellectual and experiential resources, suggesting how these can be a foundation for expanding conceptions and practices related to writing pedagogy, assessment, inquiry-based teaching, and teacher education.
Reference
Simon, R. (2013). " Starting with What Is": Exploring Response and Responsibility to Student Writing through Collaborative Inquiry. English Education, 45(2), 115.
Journal
English Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
yes
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
18
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
Data Analysis Tools
Researcher Positionality
Research Questions
How might teacher educators encourage student teachers to become more interested— and more aware of their interests—as readers of student writing?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
What are the implications of teacher education practices that attempt to encourage student teachers to notice and advance adolescents’ capabilities—rather than their deficiencies—as writers?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
What happens when student teachers shift their responses from fidelity to assessment instruments toward increased attentiveness and responsibility to student writers?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes