Classroom Writing Community as Authentic Audience: The Development of Ninth-Graders’ Analytical Writing and Academic Writing Identities

Abstract

Purpose

To describe the role one classroom writing community played in shaping students’ understandings of the analytical writing genre; and to discuss the impact the community had on students’ developing academic writing identities.

Design/methodology/approach

While research has demonstrated the impact of classroom writing communities on student writing practices and identities at the elementary level (Dyson, 1997) and for secondary students engaged in fiction writing (Halverson, 2005), less is known about the role classroom writing communities may play for secondary students who are learning to write in academic discourses. This chapter explores the practices of one such classroom community and discusses the ways the community facilitated students’ introduction to the discourse of analytical writing.

Findings

The teacher turned the classroom writing community into an authentic audience, and in so doing, he developed students’ understandings of the analytical writing genre and their growing identities as academic writers. First, he used the concept of immediate audience (i.e., writing to persuade real readers) as the primary rationale for students to follow the outlined expectations for analytical writing. Second, he used inquiry discussions around student work (i.e., interacting with other members of the writing community) to prepare students for a future audience of prospective independent school English classrooms.

Practical implications

By turning the classroom writing community into an authentic audience through inquiry discussions, teachers can develop students’ deep and flexible understandings of a potentially unfamiliar writing genre. Furthermore, by employing the classroom writing community as a support for moving students through moments of struggle, teachers implicate students’ expertise as academic writers, thereby facilitating their willingness to take on academic writing identities.

Citation

Fields, S.S. (2016), "Classroom Writing Community as Authentic Audience: The Development of Ninth-Graders’ Analytical Writing and Academic Writing Identities", Writing Instruction to Support Literacy Success (Literacy Research, Practice and Evaluation, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 157-181. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2048-045820160000007011