Fostering agency through dialogue in classroom writing assessment

Student agency is considered an important outcome of formative assessment, yet we know little about how interactional dynamics between teacher and student are implicated in the development of agency. Using Bakhtinian notions of dialogic space and persuasive voice, we analyze how four high school teachers assess and support students' writing processes in conference-like assessment events, tracing whether and to what extent student concerns were addressed. We found that teachers created dialogic space for agency and supported students' knowledge construction by positioning themselves as interested readers, eliciting students' ideas and confusion, and offering customized support for students’ use of sociocultural tools. •We show how agency is co-constructed between teachers and students in writing assessment conferences.•Teachers can create space for agency to emerge by positioning themselves as readers seeking clarity.•Teachers can create space for agency by eliciting students’ difficulties with the writing task.•Teachers can create space for agency by offering interactional scaffolds for academic language use.