Scaffolding Literacy Learning Through Talk: Stance as a Pedagogical Tool

Abstract

Scaffolding serves as an important instructional tool for supporting students’ literacy development. To be effective, however, teachers must continually adapt the scaffolding offered to students to provide appropriate levels of both support and challenge. In this article, the sociolinguistic concept of stance is used to conceptualize how elementary teachers interactionally scaffolded their students’ literacy development. Highlighting the findings from a discourse analysis of 48 reading and writing conferences between six teacher–student pairs, the author identifies four stances taken by teachers and students in their interactions—feedback, instruction, collaboration, and management—and describes the different kinds of scaffolding made possible by each stance. Through two vignettes of teacher–student literacy conferences, the author also illustrates how teachers strove to avoid overscaffolding by shifting stance within these interactions. These findings situate stance as a useful instructional tool, illustrating how different stances allow not only different levels of scaffolding but also qualitatively different kinds of support and challenge.

“Fitting It In”: Elementary Teachers Talk About Social Studies Instruction in Public School Classrooms

“…They identified four stances (identification, rationalistic, exhibition, moral response), which were collectively defined as “combinations of purpose and practice” (Barton & Levstik, 2004, p. 8). Similarly, Taylor (2021b) discussed stance as a pedagogical tool, noting that “the concept of stance directs attention to how teachers use different stances to offer different types of scaffolding” during reading instruction (p. 381). In both cases, teachers’ stances depicted their intentions and actions for teaching specific subject matter to students.…”

Chapter 6. Confronting Failure by Facilitating Transfer: Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Literary Studies with an Understanding-by-Design Framework

“…Practicing this language with the students' peers facilitates their ability to use it in their own formative assessments and in their conferences with the mentor. When they are versed in this discourse, one-on-one conferences can cover more ground more quickly (Kittle 2008), and the mentor is able to discern more incisively the areas where students need support and adjust the approach accordingly (Taylor 2021). Students who use the language of EUs can readily express, for instance, that although they are using two sources to frame their critical conversation, they are unsure where to place that conversation in the paper.…”

“…Students who use the language of EUs can readily express, for instance, that although they are using two sources to frame their critical conversation, they are unsure where to place that conversation in the paper. This comment can set the stage for the mentor and student to assume a collaborative stance (Taylor 2021) and problem solve together, and such students are likely to apply their knowledge beyond the course. Students also versed in the discourse who arrive with a draft that employs sources only three times in the body of the paper to handle fairly minor points-rather than truly engaging with sources to construct a critical conversation and develop their ideas-can better follow the mentor's logic when the mentor assumes an instructor stance (Taylor 2021).…”

“…This comment can set the stage for the mentor and student to assume a collaborative stance (Taylor 2021) and problem solve together, and such students are likely to apply their knowledge beyond the course. Students also versed in the discourse who arrive with a draft that employs sources only three times in the body of the paper to handle fairly minor points-rather than truly engaging with sources to construct a critical conversation and develop their ideas-can better follow the mentor's logic when the mentor assumes an instructor stance (Taylor 2021). In that case, the mentor can convey that what they have is sound, but they need to set up the intervention they are making into the extant scholarship.…”

Writing Play‐Books With Linguistically Diverse Young Learners

“…Teacher‐talk during book‐making included general and differentiated scaffolding types. Table 2 presents an overview of these, including the primary pedagogical stance each served: management, feedback, collaboration, and/or instruction (Taylor, 2020). The table reveals the scope of responsive teaching possible within play‐book making; and the play‐book artifacts help demonstrate the need for this differentiation.…”