Enacting Trans-Semiotizing Dialogic Teaching Strategies: Interactions From a First-Grade Science Lesson

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Advancing Educational Equity for Multilingual Learners: From Community Programs to Formative Writing Assessments (Table 6)

Abstract

This study demonstrates teaching strategies for equitable classroom interactions that promote meaningful and critical dialogues among the teacher and the students, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. From sociocultural theoretical and trans-semiotizing perspectives, we examined how a teacher utilized semiotic repertories (e.g., embodied actions, instructional materials) to enact dialogic teaching to support four first-grade students in a science lesson. The strategies identified include (1) making questions comprehensible through embodied actions and semiotic resources, (2) progressively adjusting question complexity, and (3) facilitating cumulative knowledge co-construction. Our analysis demonstrates how these strategies transformed teacher-centered interactions and created a dialogic environment that enables students to understand and express ideas through various semiotic resources, highlighting trans-semiotizing moves in the praxis of dialogic teaching.

Authors

• Di Liang, Pennsylvania State University

• Mari A. Haneda, Pennsylvania State University