ERIC ED357365: Dynamics of the Writing Conference: Social and Cognitive Interaction.

131 Pages·1993·2.3 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 357 365
CS 213 819
AUTHOR
Flynn, Thomas, Ed.; King, Mary, Ed.
TITLE
Dynamics of the Writing Conference: Social and
Cognitive Interaction.
INSTITUTION
National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Ill.
REPORT NO
ISBN-0-8141-1281-1
PUB DATE
93
NOTE
131p.
AVAILABLE FROM
National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W.
Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No.
12811-3050; $12.95 members, $16.95 nonmembers).
PUB TYPE
Guides
Classroom Use
Teaching Guides (For
Teacher) (052)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC06 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Blacks; *Cognitive Processes; Counseling; Higher
Education; Learning Disabilities; Theory Practice
Relationship; *Writing Instruction; Writing
Processes
IDENTIFIERS
Composition Theory; East Central Writing Centers
Association; *Writing Conferences
ABSTRACT
Presenting highlights from the past decade of
East
Central Writing Centers Association conferences,
this book addresses
the questions of how writing conferences foster the
development of
writing ability and how teachers
can give students control of their
own writing and of the writing conference and thus promote
higher-order thinking. By providing insight into
nontraditional
writing settings, this book illustrates how college
composition
teachers can promote an exchange of ideas with their
students and
help those students achieve independence in their
writing. Essays in
the book include the following: (1) "Promoting
Higher-Order Thinking
Skills in Writing Conferences" (Thomas Flynn);
(2) "A Counseling
Approach to Writing Conferences" (David Taylor); (3)
"Reevaluation of
the Question as a Teaching Tool" (JoAnn B. Johnson);
(4) "On the
Issue of Authority" (David C. Fletcher);
(5) "Looking for Clues"
(Thomas C. Schmitzer); (6) "Experts with
Life, Novices with Writing"
(Marcia L. Hurlow); (7) "What Can Students
Say about Poems? Reader
Response in a Conference Setting" (Mary King);
(8) "Using Conferences
to Help Students Write Multiple Source Papers" (Patrick
J. Slattery);
(9) "Conferencing for the 'Learning-Disabled':
How We Might Really
Help" (Cornelius Cosgrove); (10) "Fostering
Spontaneous Dialect Shift
in the Writing of African-American Students"
(Susanna Horn); and (11)
"Writing Problems beyond the Classroom:
The Confidence Problem"
(Paula M. Oye). (SAM)
***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS
are the best that can be made
from the original document.
***********************************************************************
THIS
U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION
"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE
Mc* of Educational Research and Improvement
BY
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
MS document hits been reproclu0.,c1 as
received from the person or organatOon
ongmating it
O Minor changes have been made to improve
reproduction quality
Points of clew or opinions stateo .5 tills docu-
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
ment do not necessarily represent offic.ai
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
OERI posthon or policy
mks
R
ence
ognitive
ocial and
Interaction
cr-
Thomas Flynn and Mary King
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
Dynamics of the Writing Conference
Dynamics of the Writing
Conference
Social and
Cognitive Interaction
Edited by
Thomas Flynn
Ohio University FAstern
Mary King
University of Akron
National Council of Teachers of English
1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096
College Level Editorial Board: Joyce Kinkead, chair, Rafael Castillo, Gail E.
Hawisher, Charles Moran, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Charles Suitor, ex officio,
Michael Spooner, ex officio
Manuscript Editor: Jane M. Curran
Production Editor: Rona S. Smith
Cover Design: Doug Burnett
Interior Book Design: Tom Kovacs for TGK Graphics
NCTE Stock Number: 12811-3050
©1993 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed
in the United States of America.
It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum
for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of En-
glish and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view
does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors,
or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such en-
dorsement is clearly specified.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dynamics of the Writing Conference; social and cognitive interaction / edited by
Thomas Flynn, Mary King.
cm.
p.
Includes bibliographical reference s and index.
1. English languageRhetoric Stuay and Teaching.
2. Tutors and
tutoring.
I. Flynn, Thomas 1947-.
II. King, Mary, 1941-.
PE1404.D9
1993
808'.024'07dc20
93-12735
CIP
Content
Preface
vii
I. Background and Theory
1. Promoting Higher-Order 'Illinking Skills in Writing
Conferences
3
Thomas Flynn
II. Social Strategies: Building a Collaborative
Relationship
Introduction to Section II
17
Mary King
2. A Counseling Approach to Writing Conferences
24
David Taylor
3. Reevaluation of the Question as a Teaching Tool
34
JoAnn B. Johnson
4. On 'he Issue of Authority
41
David C. Fletcher
III. Cognitive Strategies: Engaging Students in the
Activities of Expert Writers
Introduction to Section III
53
Thomas Flynn
5. Looking for Clues
59
Thomas C. Schmitzer
6. Experts with Life, Novices with Writing
62
Marc'a L. Hurlow
vi
Contents
7. What Can Students Say about Poew:i? Reader Response in a
Conference Setting
69
Mary King
8. Using Conferences to Help Students Write Multiple-Source
Papers
80
Patrick J. Slattery
IV. Students Emerge as Independent Writers
Introduction to Section W
91
Mary King
9. Conferencing for the "teaming- Disabled ": How We Might
Really Help
95
Cornelius Cosgrove
10. Fostering Spontaneous Dialect Shift in the Writing of
African-American Students
103
Susanna Horn
11. Writing Problems beyond the Classroom: The Confidence
Problem
111
Paula M. Oye
Index
121
Editors
125
Contributors
126
.y
Preface
A hunter can see a buffalo, smell, taste, and touch a buffalo when the
buffalo is completly inert, even dead, but if he hears a buffalo he had
better watch out: something is going on. In this sense, all sound, and
especially oral utterance, which comes from inside living organisms,
is "dynamic."
Walter J. Ong, Ora lity and Literacy:
The Technologizing of the Word
The purpose of this collection of essays is to show how the social and cogni-
tive interaction between students and teachers in writing conferences can
promote the engagement of the higher-order thinking skills that students
need to fulfill college writing requirements.
The idea for this book began rather simply: we decided to collect the best
of the presentations made at East Central Writing Centers Association
(ECWCA) conferences during its first ten years. Earlier versions of all ten
essays in this collection have appeared previously in ECWCA conference
proceedings, but we felt that a single volume would make these essays ac-
cessible to classroom teachers who face particular problems with students,
such as those which inspired the investigations gathered here.
We determined to select those essays which address two fertile questions
that underlie productive discussions of the conference approach to the teach-
ing of writing: First, how do conferences between students and teachers
actually work to foster growth in writing skills? Our review of the literature
indicated that this topic has not yet received the attention that it deserves,
and we feel that we have selected essays that do make a contribution to this
field. And then a companion question arises: How can the teacher give con-
trol of the writing and of the conference itself to the writer in such a way that
higher-order thinking is activated? These essays offer strategies that teach-
ers can use to restrict their own exercise of power and to give students a
greater share of responsibility in writing conferences.
vii
(-N
Preface
viii
"Promoting Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Writing Conferences," the
general introduction to the book, provides background on research in indi-
vidualized instruction, higher-order thinking, interaction between novices
and experts, and characteristics of productive dialogue during writing con-
ferences. The essays are grouped in three sections, which correspond to three
primary features of instruction in higher-order thinking skills as they apply
to the writing conference. The essays in section two, "Social Strategies:
Building a Collaborative Relationship," focus on the powerful role that so-
cial interaction plays in human learning. In section three, "Cognitive Strate.-
gies: Engaging Students in the Activities of Expert Writers," the chapters
demonstrate how teachers can use conferences to assist novice writers in
mastering the expert habits of thought and practice that they will need in
order to move from simply reporting or telling to transforming or creating
knowledge. In section four, "Students Emerge as Independent Writers," the
essays assert that direct instruction or attention to lower-order concerns may
impede students and that higher-order thinking is the appropriate activity in
writing conferences because it speeds writers' progress toward independent
growth.
We wish to express heartfelt thanks to the East Central Writing Centers
Association, which generously provided funds for copying and assembling
the papers at the beginning of this endeavor, and to the members of its ex-
ecutive board, who made helpful comments and suggestions of the sort that
are essential to writers.
In preparing a collection from a resource as rich as ten years of confer-
ence proceedings, one encounters many wonderful essays which deserve
wider recognition; in the interests of preparing a concise, coherent text we
have had to omit some excellent work. We must take full responsibility for
such omissions, knowing the impossibility that we can fully appreciate ev-
ery work or that one book can hold everything.
I Background and Theory