On and Off the Page: Adolescents' Collaborative Writing in an After-School Spoken Word Poetry Team

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Ten
  In Roundtable Session: The Literacies of Youth Agency (Table 3)

Abstract

Using case study methodology, this paper theorizes the collaborative writing of three adolescents composing a group poem in an after-school writing team. Drawing from literature on collaboration, distributed cognition, and embodiment, we argue that collaborative writing is ubiquitous in many professional settings, yet remains un-taught and even penalized in k-12 contexts. We argue that the study of collaborative writing is important to better teach and evaluate young people’s writing across in- and out-of-school contexts. In our investigation of how these adolescents collaboratively composed their poetry, we found that they utilized a system of semiotic resources “on the page,” as well as a variety of embodied and social practices “off the page” in their team meetings to collaboratively compose this poem.

Authors

• Andrea Vaughan, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Melina Lesus, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author