INNOVATIVE WRITING PRACTICES AS LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES IN A VULNERABLE SCHOOL CONTEXT. A SOCIAL DESIGN INQUIRY TITLE

The contribution presents an innovative social design research (Gutiérrez and Jurow, 2016) carried out in a vulnerable school context, to contrast students’ school exclusion and underachievement. The project unfolded in a 10-hour group activity, consisting in the working out a collaborative written text (Thompson, 2014) about the social consequences of hostile communication among peers and the value of friendship, a sensitive topic of students’ lives. This was considered a step to connect the students’ repertoires of writing practices, developed in their everyday lives, to the academic register (Gee, 2004). The aim of the contribution is to present the learning opportunities that emerged in the collaborative writing processes in promoting relational and cognitive competences in students, in particular cohesive conversation, and reflective skills.