Conceptualizing Online Writing Feedback: Teacher Candidates' Digital Responses to High School Student Writers

• In Event: 63.085 - MTCC Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 63.085-3 - Preservice and In-Service Teacher Efficacy and Student Learning

Abstract

Young writers benefit from targeted responses to their drafts. However, teacher candidates in English get little exposure to methods for teaching writing compared to what they receive for teaching literature. We employed cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to conceptualize online platforms such as Google Docs as “mediating tools,” that shape teacher candidates’ understanding of feedback as they respond to student drafts. We used thematic analysis to examine 10 semi-structured ethnographic interviews with teacher candidates and cooperating teachers. Findings suggest that creating digital spaces for extended dialogue between writers (secondary students) and their reviewers (teacher candidates), along with a space for teacher candidates to deconstruct feedback with peers, can support how beginning teachers conceptualize feedback and how they respond to student writing.

Authors

• Alison Heron Hruby, Morehead State University

• James S. Chisholm, University of Louisville

• Andrea Olinger, University of Louisville