Deeper Learning through Socially Responsible Writing: A Register-informed Exploration of a Genocide Awareness Unit (Poster 3)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 11:45 am
  In Invited Poster Session: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work Poster Session

Abstract

This sub-study of the American Institutes for Research (AIR) Study of Deeper Learning takes a systemic functional linguistic approach, considering how a “socially responsible register” emerges through a curricular writing unit in high school English Language Arts where students learned about world genocides. Discursive analysis attends to the multimodal and experiential resources supporting writers’ deeper learning and the lexico-grammatical features characterizing their writing as socially responsible. Social responsibility is understood as thinking ethically and outwardly–beyond one’s own immediate environment to the greater community about a social issue—while taking others’ perspectives on the issue into account. Findings showcase the range of resources supporting students’ idea formulation and highlight the unique empathetic qualities of student texts. Implications for writing instruction are discussed.

Author

• Emma R. Britton, University of Missouri - St. Louis