Adolescent Interview: Student Response to Writing

Inquiry II is an opportunity to study the writing, preferably argumentative, of one or

more adolescents in your site and to learn from that adolescent what he/she understood
and gained from that assignment and learned about argumentative writing and what
he/she might have changed about the assignment, the stages of the writing processes,
the specific instructional strategies. It is a chance to help an adolescent reflect on where
he/she is as a writer and what goals he/she has for improving as a writer, in particular
an argumentative writer. It is a chance to learn from the adolescent what kind of
grammar instruction and writing instruction he/she finds most beneficial. It is a chance
to learn what kinds of feedback on his/her writing the adolescent prefers and why. It is a
chance to learn the range of literacy frameworks the adolescent has encountered in
school and how they have been positioned by these frameworks. It is a chance to come
up with a plan to support the adolescent in using grammar more effectively in their
writing to accomplish their goals.

Once you have completed this interview, you will then reflect on the literacy
frameworks that informed the design of the writing assignment and how the
adolescent was positioned as a writer and a language learner in response.
You will reflect on the connections between the writing assignment and the
assumptions about learning to write that the adolescent is forming.
You will reflect on what kinds of similarities and changes you would make to the
writing assignment to support adolescents through various stages of writing and
grammar instruction/editing/feedback to support adolescents as writers.
You will determine the kinds of patterns in needs regarding sentence structure,
variety, modifiers, parallel structure, overwriting, underwriting, coordination,
subordination, breath units, rhythm, emphasis, subject-verb agreement,
apostrophes, consistent verb tenses, pronoun and antecedent agreement,
punctuation, run-ons or fragments, etc.
You will come up with several grammar exercises that will best support them in
their grammar learning needs.
You will reflect on what kinds of literacy frameworks and language acquisition
frameworks will inform your design of your own argumentative writing
assignment.
You will then compare the adolescents literacy experiences and assumptions
about literacy with your own assumptions about literacy as an adolescent.
Finally, you will expand upon your emerging theories for what kinds of literacy,
language acquisition, and writing frameworks foster productive inquiry and
learning.

Suggested Interview Questions:

a.
b.
c.
d.

What was the exact assignment?

How was he/she making sense of the assignment?
What work was he/she trying to do?
Who was his/her audience?

e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.

What is his/her favorite part of the paper?

What challenges did he/she face?
What was his/her writing process?
Where does he/she want to improve?
What kind of feedback does he/she prefer?
What kind of grammar instruction helped with this piece?
How did the student apply that grammar instruction?
What kind of vocabulary was he/she exploring in this piece?