Analyzing Student Language on Writing to Inform Instruction: A Discourse Analysis

To better understand those students who are taught each day, it is necessary to hold conversation with them to better understand their frames of mind. This case study of 19 students at a rural, innovative high school in the southeastern United States sought to understand through discourse analysis the perspectives, positioning, and situated meanings at play in the participants‘ language. Findings suggest that students at the research site had trouble denoting their own writing growth, the value of writing, and ownership of writing produced at school. Implications of this speak toward how teachers can motivate and re-value writing for students. While the results are unique to this research site, the hope of this study is to generate conversation about the nature of writing instruction in public schools

Shifts in Teacher Talk in a Participatory Action Research Professional Learning Community

Most teachers take part in professional development of some kind at some point in their careers. However, many teachers report that professional development neither supports their practice nor improves results. Thus, more work needs to be done on how professional development can meet those needs and what helps to support effective professional learning. A key factor in teacher professional learning is talk. In this study, a group of educators created a professional learning community using concepts from participatory action research to support their interactions and focus their work on achieving their goals. The purpose of this learning community was to discuss and improve writing instruction practices. This study focused on the language used by teachers and the ways in which that language changed over the course of time. The use of case study methods provided a vehicle to tell the story of this learning community through the teacher talk that took place. Findings indicated that teacher talk changed in this learning community in positive ways as a result of the collaboration and orientations of the teachers involved

“Your Writing, Not My Writing”: Discourse Analysis of Student Talk About Writing

Student voice is a difficult concept to capture in research. This study attempts to provide a vehicle for understanding student perceptions about writing and writing instruction through a case study supported by discourse analysis of student talk. The high school students in this study participated in interviews and focus groups about their experiences with writing. The findings reveal deep seeded notions about writing enculturated through their schooling. Students were not likely to take ownership of their writing, rather considering it a teacher construct, and could not typically describe the application of writing skills. Students were optimistic and provided multiple suggestions for improvements to writing instruction with an emphasis on making writing relevant. The implications of this study, while highly contextual, do reveal the significance of systemic conceptualizations born in students through the process of schooling and how language can unpack those schemas

Analyzing Student Language on Writing to Inform Instruction: A Discourse Analysis

o better understand those students who are taught each day, it is necessary to hold conversation with them to better understand their frames of mind. This case study of 19 students at a rural, innovative high school in the southeastern United States sought to understand through discourse analysis the perspectives, positioning, and situated meanings at play in the participants‘ language. Findings suggest that students at the research site had trouble denoting their own writing growth, the value of writing, and ownership of writing produced at school. Implications of this speak toward how teachers can motivate and re-value writing for students. While the results are unique to this research site, the hope of this study is to generate conversation about the nature of writing instruction in public schools

Secondary Teacher Education Program Redesign as a Community of Practice

A recurring problem in university teacher education programs is the lack of connection between what teacher candidates do in coursework and what they practice in classroom field placements. This article describes the efforts of the secondary teacher education program (STEP) faculty in the College of Education and Human Sciences at South Dakota State University to redesign their coursework and field experiences into a residency program to better address the development of teacher candidates and needs of school districts. The authors reflect upon their efforts using a Communities of Practice framework. There are implications in the redesign process for teacher education programs hoping to address similar situations for the benefit of the teacher candidate, the universities, and the school districts

Structurally Conserved Interaction of Lgl Family with SNAREs Is Critical to Their Cellular Function

The Lethal giant larvae (Lgl) tumor suppressor family is conserved from yeast to mammals and plays a critical yet controversial role in cell polarity. Studies on Drosophila Lgl suggest that its function in polarity is through regulation of the acto-myosin cytoskeleton. In contrast, studies on the yeast Lgl homologs, Sro7/Sro77, suggest a function in exocytosis through interaction with the t-SNARE Sec9. Using yeast/mammalian Lgl chimeras, we demonstrate that the overall architecture of Lgl proteins is highly conserved and that the C-terminal domain is the major site of SNARE interaction within both yeast and mammalian homologs. Importantly, we find that the ability of Lgl chimeras to function as the only source of Lgl in yeast correlates precisely with the ability to interact with the yeast t-SNARE. We report a novel interaction between Sro7 and the yeast myosin V, Myo2. However, we find that interactions with either Myo2 or Myo1 (myosin II) cannot account for the dramatic functional differences observed for these chimeras in yeast. These results provide the first demonstration that the interaction of an Lgl family member with a specific effector is critical to its function in vivo. These data support the model that the Lgl family functions in cell polarity, at least in part, by regulating SNARE-mediated membrane delivery events at the cell surface

Using participatory action research to approach teacher professional development: an analysis of teacher talk in a writing professional learning community

Most teachers take part in professional development of some kind at some point in their careers. As a result, that professional development should support the development of instruction. Many teachers report that professional development neither supports their practice nor improves results. Thus, more work needs to be done on how professional development can meet those needs and what helps to support effective professional learning. In this study, a group of educators created a professional learning community using concepts from participatory action research to support their interactions and focus their work on achieving their goals. The purpose of this learning community was to discuss and improve writing instruction practices as teachers had noted that as a particular need within the school. Toward a better understanding of the functions of a professional learning community, this study focused on the language used by teachers in order to construct knowledge about writing instruction. To this end, the use of case study methods and discourse analysis provided a vehicle to tell the story of this learning community through the teacher talk that took place. The data analysis developed across three phases. In the first phase, general themes from the talk and how it helped or hindered participants from constructing knowledge emerged. These themes were called modes of intercommunication. The second phase deepened the understanding of the language as the modes were subdivided into certain features based upon the purposes of teacher talk and how they aided or did not aid in constructing knowledge about writing instruction. The last phase included an analysis of survey data as it revealed educator perspectives of professional learning and changes in the learning community across all the meeting. This was held against changes that occurred in the teacher talk to better understand how the language use in the learning community changed. Findings from these three phases indicate that teacher professional learning can be supported through frameworks that promote teacher talk that is consistent, challenging, and action-oriented