Gg. Pattheychavez et L. Clare, TASK, TALK, AND TEXT - THE INFLUENCE OF INSTRUCTIONAL CONVERSATION ONTRANSITIONAL BILINGUAL WRITERS, Written communication, 13(4), 1996, pp. 515-563
In this study, we trace the development of ideas explored during readi
ng lessons in children's writings from one transitional bilingual four
th-grade classroom. Using transcripts from audio- and videotaped lesso
ns, we describe the ways in which the reading lessons, designed to fac
ilitate discussions to enhance student reading comprehension, turned i
nto an anchoring activity for the negotiation of joint meaning. They s
erved as a springboard for joint exploration and the generation of int
ersubjective and co-constructued ideas that bridged the worlds of home
and school. We trace the development of these ideas in representative
pieces from five student portfolios. Discussions served to display a
number of important literacy processes, and ideas and interpretations
from these discussions reappeared in the students' writings. This stud
y is of particular interest to educators concerned both with understan
ding better the influence of classroom discourse on student writing an
d with finding ways to incorporate students' cultural backgrounds info
classroom practices.