Features of an Interactive Writing Discourse: Conversational Involvement, Conventional Knowledge, and Internalization in "Morning Message"

Abstract

This study describes how meaning potentials were constructed in the literacy event known as Morning Message. Morning Message provided teachers and students with opportunities to construct a written text around the experiences of one student. This discourse of writing allowed for the examination of how meaning was orchestrated and scaffolded between the teacher and her students. Three findings are discussed, including the function of a series of conversational involvement moves utilized by the teacher, the specific writing conventions and metamessages afforded in the Morning Message dialogue, and an examination of how the social dialogues of Morning Message may have come to guide independent action as internalized processes on several transfer measures.