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Writing Workshop Revisited: Confronting Communicative Dilemmas through Spoken Word Poetry in a High School English Classroom

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Title: Writing Workshop Revisited: Confronting Communicative Dilemmas through Spoken Word Poetry in a High School English Classroom
Language: English
Authors: Scarbrough, Burke, Allen, Anna-Ruth
Source: Journal of Literacy Research. Dec 2014 46(4):475-505.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 31
Publication Date: 2014
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools
Secondary Education
Descriptors: Writing Workshops, Writing Instruction, High School Students, Secondary School Teachers, Poetry, Qualitative Research, Case Studies, Alignment (Education), Context Effect, Instructional Design, Communities of Practice, Urban Youth, African American Students, Dialogs (Language), Teaching Methods, Urban Education, Semi Structured Interviews, Grounded Theory
DOI: 10.1177/1086296X15568929
ISSN: 1086-296X
Abstract: Workshop pedagogy is a staple of writing classrooms at all levels. However, little research has explored the pedagogical moves that can address longstanding critiques of writing workshop, nor the sorts of rhetorical challenges that teachers and students in secondary classrooms can tackle through workshops. This article documents and analyzes the work that two high school educators do to organize a writing workshop around the writing and performance of spoken word poetry. Through a qualitative case study of a four-week spoken word poetry unit, we present features of the unit that both align with tenets of traditional workshop pedagogy and focus that pedagogy on the social and cultural situatedness of literacy. We show that the teachers in this case organized the classroom as a strong discursive community (Matusov, 2007) characterized by collective engagement with a genre, anticipation of a real audience, and renegotiation of classroom authority. We then analyze two discussions that arose during the unit in order to explore how students and teachers grappled with key dilemmas at the heart of writing well: how to shape one's text and message for an authentic audience, and what role(s) teachers and peers should play in students' writing. The analysis suggests that engagement with critical literacy practices like spoken word poetry can leverage writing workshop in ways that highlight the cultural and political dimensions of literacy pedagogy. We conclude by discussing how the communicative dilemmas that arose in this classroom relate to common goals of literacy curriculum, teaching, and research more broadly.
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 60
Entry Date: 2015
Accession Number: EJ1058883
Database: ERIC
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  Data: Writing Workshop Revisited: Confronting Communicative Dilemmas through Spoken Word Poetry in a High School English Classroom
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Journal+of+Literacy+Research%22"><i>Journal of Literacy Research</i></searchLink>. Dec 2014 46(4):475-505.
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  Data: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
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  Data: 10.1177/1086296X15568929
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  Data: Workshop pedagogy is a staple of writing classrooms at all levels. However, little research has explored the pedagogical moves that can address longstanding critiques of writing workshop, nor the sorts of rhetorical challenges that teachers and students in secondary classrooms can tackle through workshops. This article documents and analyzes the work that two high school educators do to organize a writing workshop around the writing and performance of spoken word poetry. Through a qualitative case study of a four-week spoken word poetry unit, we present features of the unit that both align with tenets of traditional workshop pedagogy and focus that pedagogy on the social and cultural situatedness of literacy. We show that the teachers in this case organized the classroom as a strong discursive community (Matusov, 2007) characterized by collective engagement with a genre, anticipation of a real audience, and renegotiation of classroom authority. We then analyze two discussions that arose during the unit in order to explore how students and teachers grappled with key dilemmas at the heart of writing well: how to shape one's text and message for an authentic audience, and what role(s) teachers and peers should play in students' writing. The analysis suggests that engagement with critical literacy practices like spoken word poetry can leverage writing workshop in ways that highlight the cultural and political dimensions of literacy pedagogy. We conclude by discussing how the communicative dilemmas that arose in this classroom relate to common goals of literacy curriculum, teaching, and research more broadly.
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      – SubjectFull: High School Students
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      – TitleFull: Writing Workshop Revisited: Confronting Communicative Dilemmas through Spoken Word Poetry in a High School English Classroom
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