Towards a model of professional development for L1 ‘literary conversation pedagogies’
Submitted by:
John Gordon
Abstract:
This paper describes research investigating professional development in L1 literature pedagogy, where teachers make audio recordings of literary conversations (Carl, in preparation) in their classrooms. The research team explores these questions:
1. What does this process help us notice about L1 literary conversations?
2. How can we link what we notice to students’ learning with and about texts?
3. What do we learn about the practicalities of the process and its potential as a model of professional development for literary conversation pedagogies?
The research is a collaborative and continuing project between teacher-researchers and a university-based researcher. It considers how a conceptual framework for understanding literary conversations (‘Pedagogic Literary Narration’: Gordon, 2020) is interpreted and adapted by teachers as they seek efficient and impactful means to implement related methods for their continuing professional development. The project has extended from a pilot involving an academy trust’s L1/English ‘lead practitioner’ and three teachers (each in a different school) to expansion across the academy trust.
The professional development methods comprise a simple triad of activities, Read-Record-Reflect, where teachers identify a whole-class reading activity in their lessons, make a short recording of class discussion or their exposition in the activity, and reflect upon the recording individually and then with colleagues who also share their recordings.
The paper proposes that this form of professional development may be viewed as a distinctive L1 inflection of learning study. It discusses how these activities contribute to our developing understanding of classroom architectures of talk (Seedhouse, 2004), allowing for differing ‘cultural scripts’ of teaching according to the culture in which L1 teaching occurs.
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Carl, M.O. (Ed.) (in preparation) Special Issue: modelling processes of comprehension, aesthetic experience, and interpretation in literary conversations, L1 - Educational Studies in Language and Literature.
Elliott, J. (2014), Lesson study, learning theory, and the cultural script of teaching, International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 3(3).
Gordon, J. (2020). Researching interpretive talk around literary narrative texts: Shared novel reading. London and New York: Routledge.
Seedhouse, P. (2004). The interactional architecture of the language classroom: A conversation analysis perspective. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.