Developing Simulated Elementary Writing Conferences for Literacy Methods Courses

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Suppoorting Teachers' Instructional Practices and Writer Identity (Table 18)

Abstract

Opportunities for teacher candidates to practice enacting their teaching skills within the context of writing instruction are limited. To address this need in our teacher preparation program, we designed a set of simulation scenarios (using Mursion technology) focused on enacting a writing conference with a student avatar. In this paper, we reflect on the development process, presenting our learnings from over the past two years, along with preliminary findings on the types of instructional moves the teacher candidates made during each iteration of the simulation exercise. Implications from this paper may support teacher educators in the field of literacy instruction as they consider implementing similar practice-based opportunities in their coursework.

Authors

• Murphy Young, University of Iowa

• Amy Gillespie Rouse, University of Queensland

• Diane Baty Gifford, Southern Methodist University