A Cross-Case Analysis of Two Teachers' Use of Writing Conferences to Support the Development of Second Grade Writers.

Despite widespread acknowledgement that the ability to write is integral to full participation in schools, workplaces, and society, there is overwhelming evidence that students are in need of more effective writing instruction. This dissertation study responds to scholars’ urgent calls to revise the ways in which writing is taught to better prepare students in the U.S. for the writing demands they will encounter in the future. One form of writing instruction that has received significant attention is “the writing conference,” in which teachers and students confer about a piece of the student’s writing. Despite its popularity, we actually know little about the conduct of these conferences and how students experience them. This case study investigated two second-grade teachers’ use of writing conferences and explored these interactions from the perspective of the children. The study was conducted in the classrooms of two teachers identified by district leaders and teacher educators as committed, skillful teachers of writing who used a workshop approach, which includes writing conferences, in daily writing instruction. The teachers’ backgrounds, curricula, and resources varied across contexts. The multiple data sources included: video of conferences, field notes, interviews with teachers and children, and artifacts. These data were collected daily across two writing units in each site. Data analysis consisted of three parts: the application of grounded theory to identify broad patterns and trends; the use of an analytical tool representing a popular framework for conferring; and the use of comparative analysis to identify confirming and disconfirming evidence across data sources. A cross-case analysis was conducted to identify themes from the individual case studies. Findings speak to four factors that interact to yield high-quality conferences; including: the curricula and materials teachers used influenced their practices in distinct ways; the participation structures inherent in the workshop approach supported and interfered with the enactment of writing conferences; establishing a shared problem space – in the limited time available in conferences – was challenging; and the explicitness and precision of teachers’ language influenced what sense children made of the exchange with the teacher.PhDEducational StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95969/1/kschutz_1.pd