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Re -visioning the peer conference: Critical language awareness and writing with eighth graders
Abstract
This dissertation reports findings from a sociolinguistic ethnographic study that examined relationships between a critical language awareness, peer conferencing, and student writing. The purpose of the study was to use critical language study to develop student understanding of the social, cultural and political aspects of language, thereby promoting democratic classrooms. The study involved the revision of the traditional peer conferencing format to include consideration of the social, cultural, and political aspects of language and power. This pedagogical change was embedded in a critical language awareness curriculum and in a Native American unit of study, and involved eighth graders at a suburban middle school who represented a variety of cultures, ethnicities, socio-economic classes, and abilities. They wrote response papers and stories focused on Native American topics and conferred with their partners regarding the social, cultural, and political aspects of language and power in the representation of Native Americans in their stories and response papers. Students recorded their conference responses on the peer conference sheets, and wrote final drafts of their stories and response papers. Analysis of 20 peer conferences involved thematic and critical discourse microanalysis of student talk and critical discourse microanalysis of student final drafts and revisions of their writing. The critical discourse microanalysis, was based on Fairclough's (1992) approach to discourse analysis. The evidence demonstrates that when students became critical language analysts by providing an alternative frame in which to understand seemingly naturalistic ideologies within a text, students were aware of the relationships between language and power. This position was facilitated through discourses and ideologies presented in the revised curriculum, which assisted them in identifying and analyzing the social, cultural, and political aspects of language. This curriculum included the revised peer conference sheet, history curriculum, and personal experiences. In taking up the critical language analyst subject position, students worked toward a critical and complex understanding of language and power not provided by traditional peer conferencing theory and practice. In doing so, students created a more democratic classroom in which students realized their power and authority to promote social change through language.
Subject Area
Language arts|Curricula|Teaching|Secondary education
Recommended Citation
Cheevers, Nancy Anne, "Re -visioning the peer conference: Critical language awareness and writing with eighth graders" (1999). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9950141.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9950141