The Case of the Singing Scientist

Written Communication Jan 1992

ANNE HAAS DYSON

Abstract

This article, based on a year-long project in an urban K/1 classroom offers a case study of a young child who used school writing activities to perform rather than simply to communicate. A performer differs from a mere communicator in both the nature of language produced and in the kind of stance taken toward an audience. Although the child's language resources contributed to his success with written language, they did not always fit comfortably into the “writing workshop” used in his classroom; in fact, his assumptions about written language and texts conflicted in revealing ways with those undergirding a workshop approach. Thus, the study helps make explicit many unexamined assumptions of current written language pedagogies, particularly those involving the nature of literary sense, the relationship between writers' “audience” and their “helpers,” and most important, the links between oral performance, literacy pedagogy, and the use of the explicit, analytic language valued in school.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 1992-01-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088392009001001
Open Access: Closed
Topics: qualitative research

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

Pandya et al. (2020)

Theorizing the Addressive Audience in Children’s Digital Video Production

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Smidt (2002)

Double Histories in Multivocal Classrooms

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FINDERS (1996)

“Just Girls”

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SPERLING (1995)

Uncovering the Role of Role in Writing and Learning to Write

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Cites in this index (2)

Dyson (1991)

Viewpoints: The Word and the World—Reconceptualizing Written Language Developme…

Research in the Teaching of English
Calkins (1980)

Children’s Rewriting Strategies

Research in the Teaching of English

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CrossRef global citation count: 13 View in citation network →