Australian Literacy Educators Association

I have recently made two presentations at the annual literacy conference in Canberra. As a recent of these presentations I have been invited to give a keynote address at the 2016 annual ALEA conference to be held in Adelaide (in July).

The first was a paper that was drawn from my book "Classroom Talk: Understanding dialogue, pedagogy and practice" (co-authored with Dr Michele Anstey and Dr Geoff Bull).

Title: Enacting dialogic pedagogies: Understanding the repertoire of “talk moves” to improve classroom discussions

Abstract:

Participating in classroom discussions is an everyday schooling practice. Understanding the efficacy of these discussions as forums for reflecting and improving student learning remains a primary matter of concern for teachers, and is the focus of this workshop. Through the use of practical classroom examples, participants will be assisted to understand the dimensions of a discourse-intensive classroom that support students to develop ideas and knowledge through deepening reasoning, engaging in active listening and critical thinking. Examining transcripts of classroom discussions will assist participants to identify particular “talk moves” which serve as strategic approaches for building a dialogic learning environment specifically aimed at supporting the development of language ‘for effective interaction and expression’ (ACARA 2013). The workshop will support teachers understandings of enacting dialogic pedagogies which encompass a range of productive interactional (relating), socialising (communicating and participating), and intellectual (knowing) functions in teacher-student interactions. 

The second paper I presented on behalf of my Honours student Emma McLennan (who was awarded First Class Honours for her study)

Title: Socially accomplishing group work in a Stage 3 classroom: conversation resources for co-production, collaboration and situated action.

Abstract:

This research paper reports on a study investigating how students socially accomplish group work to complete a classroom poetry writing task. The study drew on conversation analysis (CA) as a method to examine the interaction resources a group of five Stage 3 students used in their moment-by-moment interactions to successfully produce their poem. The study involved analysing a transcript (using Jefferson Notation) developed from a video recording of the interactions among the group. 

CA showed with a fine-grained level of detail, that the particular students implicitly drew upon their knowledgeability of both their situation and common-sense conversation resources to produce, analyse and make sense of their social, literate and educational worlds. For instance, interaction practices such as turn-taking, managing interactive trouble, showing agreement and alignment emerged as contributing talk patterns enabling the students, in ‘co-production’, to ‘become a group’ at the same time ‘talk their poem into being’ (a poem).