Write or wrong? A sociocultural approach to schooled writing

Abstract

In order to develop an understanding of the interaction that takes place between teacher and learner in the literacy classroom, this article draws on perspectives from sociocultural theory and the writings of L.S Vygotsky, M . M Bakhtin, and J. Habermas. Through discussion of a learner's written text, a descriptive framework of 'communicative action' is developed to assist dialogues of development and dynamic assessment between teachers and learners. Specific attention is paid to the problem of developing ongoing pedagogic relationships in the normal circumstance of one teacher attempting to meet the literacy needs of many learners.

Analysing argumentative writing

“…Not only does their writing have to be assessed, but once this is done, means must be found to develop it linguistically and cognitively. In other words, it is a question of how teachers can enter Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development with their adolescent writers and assist them as they metamorphosise into adult writers or as Reed (2004) states:…”

A perplexed story

“…I can sense you wanting an answer, yet I want also to direct you away to other reading (Reed, 2004(Reed, , 2005. Before I assessed Paul's writing, I cherished it.…”

Free Cs and an I‐B‐L: Criticism and critique from the Congo, Iran, Belgium and London

“…Three ideas come to mind, at varying degrees of localisation. First, Malcolm Reed’s account of a story written by a student at a London school with similar ‘grassroots literacies’ issues (Reed, 2004). This book offers new methods for considering, and placing, such problematically mixed‐up writing.…”