This dissertation is a teacher research study of the ways that young children author themselves by negotiating teacher authority in the context of their dialogue journals. The study detailed herein attempts to discover some of the ways in which young children negotiate teacher authority within the context of a dialogue journal.I collaborated with four second grade students in my multiage classroom who agreed to allow me to analyze the entries in their dialogue journals. We engaged in written dialogue in the context of their journals over two years, from when they were first graders in my multiage class until they left my class at the end of second grade.As a participant observer I used a form of discourse analysis called textual analysis, as mediated by Deborah Tannen's (2005, 2007) work in conversational analysis to unpack the negotiation of teacher authority revealed by the written interactions that took place in the context of the dialogue journals. This study explores the role that the children's personalities, textual competence and relationship with me as their teacher played in shaping their willingness and ability to negotiate teacher authority. It also explores the role my attitudes and actions had in fostering or hindering that negotiation.Implications include the use of ethnographic portraiture to establish context in teacher research, the importance of establishing routines that foster independence in classroom assignments, creating an atmosphere that encourages ownership of the activity in question, the necessity for the teacher to interact with the students in ways that allow them to control the conversation in their dialogue journals, and the importance of periodically reviewing the entire journals to counteract the myopic effect of reading only one journal entry per day. This last is important because when reading only one journal entry at a time it is possible to misinterpret the students' intent, lose sight of context or misinterpret the extent to which the students are engaged in writing in their dialogue journals.

Poor informational reading and writing skills in early grades and the need to provide students more experience with informational text have been identified by research as areas of concern. Wilkinson and Son (2011) support future research in dialogic approaches to investigate the impact dialogic teaching has on comprehension. This study (N = 39) examined the gains in reading comprehension, science achievement, and metacognitive functioning of individual second grade students interacting with instructors using dialogue journals alongside their textbook. The 38 week study consisted of two instructional phases, and three assessment points. After a period of oral metacognitive strategies, one class formed the treatment group (n=17), consisting of two teachers following the co-teaching method, and two classes formed the comparison group (n=22). The dialogue journal intervention for the treatment group embraced the transactional theory of instruction through the use of dialogic interaction between teachers and students. Students took notes on the assigned lesson after an oral discussion. Teachers responded to students’ entries with scaffolding using reading strategies (prior knowledge, skim, slow down, mental integration, and diagrams) modeled after Schraw’s (1998) strategy evaluation matrix, to enhance students’ comprehension. The comparison group utilized text-based, teacher-led whole group discussion. Data were collected using different measures: (a) Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) Broad Diagnostic Inventory; (b) Scott Foresman end of chapter tests; (c) Metacomprehension Strategy Index (Schmitt, 1990); and (d) researcher-made metacognitive scaffolding rubric. Statistical analyses were performed using paired sample t-tests, regression analysis of covariance, and two way analysis of covariance. Findings from the study revealed that experimental participants performed significantly better on the linear combination of reading comprehension, science achievement, and metacognitive function, than their comparison group counterparts while controlling for pretest scores. Overall, results from the study established that teacher scaffolding using metacognitive strategies can potentially develop students’ reading comprehension, science achievement, and metacognitive awareness. This suggests that early childhood students gain from the integration of reading and writing when using authentic materials (science textbooks) in science classrooms. A replication of this study with more students across more schools, and different grade levels would improve the generalizability of these results.

This study was designed to explore written responses of dialogue journals in a fourth-grade social studies classroom to better understand individuals' meaning-making responses during content-based lessons. The Transactional Theory of Literacy acknowledges that readers generate individualized experiences as they transact with literacy. Although Rosenblatt focused explicitly on the transactions readers make with text, this study expands the idea of these transactions to the more current, unbounded definition of text. Writing could be the tool used for students to record these transactions that lead to their continuously changing, individualized understandings. Through journals, students conversed with one another using written dialogue in the continued generation or restructuring of existing understandings in response to exposure of a content-specific text. The following research questions were addressed in the study: How do written responses of fourth-grade students made in dialogue journals express students' understandings of content-based lessons? 2) To what extent do dialogue journals motivate students in content-based lessons? Analysis of dialogue journals showed evidence of varying levels of understanding, the effective use of journals as a communication tool, and differences in statement types depending on journal audience and content materials used. The MUSIC Model Inventory (Jones, 2009) used to assess perceptions of motivational constructs related to use of dialogue journals in social studies lessons yielded positive results for all constructs measured. Therefore, the results of the study including word count findings, qualitative journal analysis, and observational files clearly showed evidence of dialogue journals being a motivating way of having students express their understandings of content-based texts. / Ph. D.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:43:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1282971 bytes, checksum: 21921b86597e00e75693d389b62bd5b9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Situated in the field of Applied Linguistics, the present study aims to investigate a dialogue journal produced by two English as a Foreign Language teachers at a public university in northeastern Brazil. The teachers were simultaneously taking a teacher education extension course, CECPLIN, and a graduate course, Introduction to Applied Linguistics. This investigation focuses on 13 dialogue journal entries produced by the two teachers during four months. According to Freeman (1996, p.90), pinpointing the need to redefine the relationship between academic research and what teachers know, there is an intimate divorce between research and teaching . Along these lines, that is, focusing on the reflective teacher and the teacher-researcher perspective (ROMERO, 1998; LÜDKE, 2001; REICHMANN, 2001; ZEICHNER 1990, 1998, 2003, amongst others), this piece of research underscores the importance of an insider‟s view in order to understand some aspects of teachers‟ actions, challenges, and difficulties in relation to the students, school and professional identity construction. Considering language as social practice (FAIRCLOUGH, 1992), and from the perspective of Systemic-Functional Grammar, in special, the Transitivity system (Halliday, 1994), my aim is to map and analyze the Processes, Participants and mental projections that occur in primary clauses in the dialogue journal, in order to understand in which ways the lexicogramatical choices (re)construe teaching practice. Results indicate that relational Processes occur more frequently, followed by material and mental Processes. In relation to mental projections, one of the teachers, in her texts, is mostly concerned with students, whereas the other one is mostly concerned with her own teaching practice. In sum, as a contribution to the Applied Linguistics field, this study highlights the relevance of teachers investigating their own language practices, thus making sense of social problems in which language has a central role (MOITA LOPES, [2006], 2009). / Situado no campo da Lingüística Aplicada, o presente estudo tem como objetivo investigar um diário dialogado reflexivo produzido por duas professoras de língua inglesa em uma universidade pública na região nordeste do país, simultaneamente integrantes de um curso de extensão, o Curso de Educação Continuada para Professores de Língua Inglesa (CECPLIN) e de uma disciplina na pós-graduação, Fundamentos de Lingüistica Aplicada. Foram analisados treze textos do diário reflexivo, produzido ao longo de quatro meses. Para Freeman (1996), que aborda a necessidade de redefinir a relação entre a pesquisa acadêmica e os saberes docentes, há um abismo entre o que os professores sabem sobre a prática através da experiência e o que os pesquisadores dizem sobre o ensino e aprendizagem. Alinhando-se a essa necessidade, ou seja, à perspectiva de professor reflexivo e professor-pesquisador (ROMERO, 1998; LÜDKE, 2001; REICHMANN, 2001; ZEICHNER 1990, 1998, 2003, entre outros), este trabalho se justifica pela importância de uma visão de dentro‟ para se entender alguns aspectos das vivências dos professores, seus desafios e percalços em relação aos alunos, à escola e às suas próprias identidades profissionais. Considerando a linguagem como prática social, objetivamos, mais precisamente, mapear e analisar sob a ótica da Gramática Sistêmico Funcional, em especial o sistema de Transitividade (HALLIDAY,1994), os Processos, Participantes e Projeções Mentais que ocorrem em orações selecionadas do diário dialogado, para assim entender de que maneira as escolhas léxico-gramaticais das professoras (re)constituem a experiência docente. Os resultados indicam que os Processos relacionais são os mais recorrentes, seguidos dos materiais e mentais. Em relação às projeções mentais, nos textos de uma professora há uma preocupação mais focada nos alunos, enquanto que nos textos da outra professora há reflexões sobre a prática docente. Concluindo, como contribuição à área, através deste estudo é sublinhada a relevância dos próprios professores investigarem sua prática, criando "inteligibilidade sobre problemas sociais em que a linguagem tem um papel central" (MOITA LOPES [2006], 2009).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1665.pdf: 1717359 bytes, checksum: 4e0efcfa35dfef30b0f5ca181966adcf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-12-14 / English language teaching demands preparation of critical and reflective professionals capable of developing a teaching practice that could enhance the language learning process. For this reason, it is necessary that Teacher Education Courses provide them opportunities for building competences to improve the quality of their work in many different educational contexts. This research aims at presenting an English Teacher Preparation Course of a Public University in which recent changes in the curriculum were made based on new demands from the Brazilian Ministry of Education for Teacher Education Programs. Focusing on developing prospective teacher s linguistic competence through theoretical and professional competences, reflections about language learning process were included since the first semesters of the course. To favor both building and development of these competences in future English teachers, dialogue journals were used in order to provide reflections about English language learning and teaching and also to offer theory and practice in a coherent manner as hold by Reflective Teaching. Benefits of the use of dialogue journals described in this study reveal that these personal logs can cater to continuous learning that many other resources might not provide, since teacher candidates can use their previous language learning experiences as language learners to understand their own process, as well as that of their future students. Results indicate that dialogue journals are meaningful tools to make future teachers integrate new information from theory in the course content to their background knowledge, enabling the development of linguistic, theoretical and professional competences. It is possible to suggest that keeping this ongoing written dialogue with future teachers is relevant because it is by means of reflection and introspection required in this task that they can be stimulated to engage in critical thinking to foster continuous professional growth. / O cenário atual para o ensino de línguas estrangeiras tem exigido a formação de um profissional crítico e reflexivo, capaz de desenvolver uma prática pedagógica com foco na otimização do processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Para tanto, é imprescindível que a formação desse profissional ofereça oportunidades para a construção de competências de forma a aprimorar a qualidade e a potencialidade do seu trabalho nos mais diversos contextos educacionais. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo discutir a formação inicial de professores de língua inglesa em um Curso de Letras de uma universidade pública, no qual alterações na estrutura curricular foram realizadas a partir dos novos referenciais da Educação para a Formação de Docentes. Tomando-se por base essas alterações, e para proporcionar aos alunos, o desenvolvimento da competência lingüístico-comunicativa por intermédio das competências profissional, teórica e aplicada, reflexões sobre os processos de ensino e aprendizagem de línguas foram incorporadas desde os primeiros semestres do curso. A fim de propiciar a construção dessas competências, diários dialogados de aprendizagem foram utilizados em uma das recém alteradas disciplinas nos estágios iniciais do processo formativo para estimular a reflexão sobre o processo de ensino e aprendizagem de língua inglesa e para oferecer uma relação coerente entre teoria e prática condizente com a Formação Reflexiva. Sob tal perspectiva, buscou-se analisar como essa ferramenta poderia atuar na formação de professores de LE, de modo a estimular a prática reflexiva sobre as teorias de ensino e aprendizagem e favorecer a autonomia dos alunos-professores com relação à aprendizagem. Por meio deste estudo, pode-se indicar que o diário dialogado é uma forma significativa e relevante para que os alunos deixem de tratar isoladamente o conteúdo do curso e passem a relacionar informações advindas da teoria ao seu conhecimento prévio, uma vez que os resultados obtidos apontam que os diários auxiliaram na integração da teoria à prática pela retomada de experiências pessoais dos alunos, enquanto aprendizes de línguas, possibilitandolhes maior compreensão das teorias de ensino e aprendizagem. É possível apontar a relevância em manter esse diálogo escrito com os alunos-professores, pois é por meio da reflexão e da introspecção exigidas na tarefa dos diários, que alunos-professores podem ser estimulados a se engajarem no pensamento crítico desejável para a busca do crescimento profissional contínuo.