Education Commons^™

Feedback In Online Writing Forums: Effects On Adolescent Writers, Heather J. S. Birch

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Adolescents are writing online. A cursory look at the web reveals that teenagers are well-represented; in blog posts, social media updates, profile pages, comments on YouTube videos, responses to news articles, and websites about their interests, teenagers are writing (Williams 2009). In the current research study, the specific kind of adolescent writing under consideration is writing posted in a social media context designed specifically for writers. This case study focuses on six young writers who are active members of an online writing community, and who post their writing in order to receive feedback. Descriptive data collected through interviews, as well …

“It’S A Two-Way Street”: Giving Feedback In A Teacher Writing Group, Lochran C. Fallon, Anne Elrod Whitney

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Abstract: A consistent feature of teacher writing groups is the giving and receiving of feedback on writing. While there have been several studies that have explored the effects of receiving feedback on one's own writing, there have only been a few that explored the effects of providing feedback to others can have on a teacher’s own work. Drawing on interviews with teacher-writers who work together in a writing group, we conclude that giving feedback transforms the writing lives of all participants involved in the feedback process through experiences of reciprocity, involving claiming authority within a community of writers, developing …

Developing Preservice Writing Teachers’ Professional Judgment: Design Conjectures For Supporting Equitable And Rigorous Writing Instruction, Britnie Delinger Kane

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

To meet the composition demands of the future, secondary students in the United States will need more rigorous and more equitable writing instruction. They will need opportunities to inquire into and frame authentic problems. They will need to communicate for a variety of audiences and purposes, and they will need access to a variety of linguistic and literary forms. In turn, secondary teachers will need improved preparation for teaching writing. This conceptual review outlines what intellectually rigorous and equitable writing instruction looks like, arguing that teaching writing in these ways requires that teachers deploy substantial professional judgment. I then rely …

“A Course No One Wants To Teach”: A Brief History Of The Undergraduate Writing Methods Course, Christine E. Tulley

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this essay, I untangle two historically embedded challenges within the undergraduate writing methods course that continually reestablish divisions between theory and pedagogy (and often English and education departments by association) for preservice teachers. The two issues are:

1. The lack of status of the undergraduate writing methods course within English departments, entrenched by the historically marginalized reputations of both rhetoric and composition and English education programs; and

2. Internal disputes within the field of rhetoric and composition over a theoretical versus pedagogical emphasis for the undergraduate writing methods course, and external debates between the fields of rhetoric and composition …

Reimagining Instructional Practices: Exploring The Identity Work Of Teachers Of Writing, Melody Zoch, Joy Myers, Claire Lambert, Amy Vetter, Colleen Fairbanks

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article provides a cross-case analysis of three teachers who participated in a two-week professional development (PD) on the teaching of writing that addressed their own identities as writers. This is an area that is commonly overlooked and how teachers view themselves as writers may play an important role in how they help their students to think of themselves as writers, may shape the conversations they have about writing, and may influence the kinds of writing opportunities they provide. Drawing on an identity perspective, the findings illustrate how the opportunity to construct and enact writing identities shaped how the teachers …

It’S A Matter Of Practice: Influences Of A Writing Methods Course On Inservice Teachers’ Dispositions And Self-Efficacy, Sherry Dismuke

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This mixed-methods study examined the influences of a graduate writing methods course on the dispositions and instructional practice of twelve elementary classroom teachers, six who participated in the course and six who did not, during their post-graduate education. Data from interviews, classroom observation notes, and protocols have been analyzed, compared, and integrated. Outcomes of this study link participation in this course with increased confidence and readiness to teach the complexities of writing, as well as enhanced instructional practice and student learning opportunities. Findings suggest implications for teacher professional development, literacy teacher educators, and teacher education researchers.

The Negotiation And Development Of Writing Teacher Identities In Elementary Education, Shartriya M. Collier, Suzanne Scheld, Ian Barnard, Jackie Stallcup

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Identity development in writing is a unique process. While many studies have explored the process of developing a professional identity among future teachers, few studies have investigated how teacher candidates develop a writing teacher’s identity. This study explores the development and negotiation of writing teacher identity among 21 pre-service multiple-subject teacher candidates at a large public institution in California. More specifically, the study examines the students’ journeys as they transformed from students of writing in a university methods course to student teachers of writing in a local school district. Our findings indicate that the use of a sociocultural-based approach to …

Moving Writing Out Of The Margins In Edtpa: “Academic Language” In Writing Teacher Education, Sarah Hochstetler, Melinda J. Mcbee Orzulak

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The edTPA, a standardized teacher performance assessment developed by Stanford University and launched by the Pearson corporation, is quickly becoming a national measure of preservice teacher effectiveness. As more states adopt this assessment as a required component of successful completion of teacher education programs and licensure, we are compelled to critique the design, implementation, and evaluation of this high-stakes testing instrument. Our goal is to articulate the effects of this assessment on writing teacher education and the teaching of writing more broadly. Specifically, we argue that programmatic or individual interpretation of the edTPA can marginalize writing instruction (and writing teacher …

Inquiry, Experience, And Exploration: Rebooting The Research Project And Making Connections Beyond The English Classroom, Trevor Thomas Stewart, Jeff Goodman

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article describes our efforts to revitalize the research project in the English Language Arts classroom, engage students in the exploration of topics of organic interest, and create opportunities for them to share their findings with authentic audiences.

Performing Pedagogy: Negotiating The “Appropriate” And The Possible In The Writing Classroom, Lesley Erin Bartlett

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

While the field of Composition and Rhetoric has long held that “good writing” is a construct, we haven’t thoroughly examined how “good teaching” is also a construct. Drawing from work in composition studies, rhetorical theory, and feminist theory, this essay builds on questions of identity, embodiment, and privilege to enrich conversations about writing pedagogy and teacher development and to offer writing teachers an interpretive lens through which to critically examine their pedagogical performances. I begin with the assumption that all acts of writing and teaching are performances, whether they are marked as such or not. Featuring two key rhetorical concepts, …

“It Sounds Wrong” Vs. “I Would Be Curious”: Challenges In Seeing Students As Writers In A School-University Partnership, Anne Elrod Whitney, Nicole Olcese, Virginia Squier

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article presents qualitative data and a pedagogical reflection from two teacher educators as they consider a writing partnership between preservice teachers in their methods course and a class of middle school writers. The purpose of the partnership was to help preservice teachers think about students not just for the purposes of evaluation and grading, but as writers, and, more importantly, as human beings. Authors present their inquiry and the challenges that arose as a result of the project, including reflections on the partnership from preservice teachers.

What Does College Writing Really Entail? The Ccss Connection To University Writing, Marcy Taylor, Elizabeth Marie Brockman

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article responds to the question: What Does College Writing Really Entail? The authors showcase four university-level writing assignments and demonstrate how they collectively reflect both assessment results of study of college writing at a Midwestern University and the Common Core State Standards, especially the writing and reading anchor standards.

Writing The World: Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of 21st Century Writing Instruction, Kristine E. Pytash, Elizabeth Testa, Jennifer Nigh

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore preservice teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology into writing instruction before and after a methods course and the experiences in a methods course that, according to the preservice teachers, influenced these perceptions. Participants were enrolled in two sections of a Teaching Language and Composition course. Data collected included an adapted Likert-scale pre and posttest survey, and focus group interviews. Preservice teachers self-reported salient course experiences, and also discussed the affordances and tensions they felt in thinking about how to use technology to teach writing. This study has implications for teacher education and …

"I Second That Emotion": Minding How Plagiarism Feels, Ann E. Biswas

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

It stands to reason that when writing teachers believe their students have plagiarized, they will experience strong emotions that impact their relationships with students, their pedagogy, and their sense of professional identity. Far from being a threat to reason, understanding and acknowledging writing teachers’ emotional responses to plagiarism can lead to a deeper wisdom of its true impact. By examining the literature on emotion from psychology, sociology, education, and writing studies as well as findings from a pilot study of writing teachers’ emotional responses to plagiarism, this article argues that the work involved in managing the emotions of plagiarism reflects …

We Learned What?: Pre-Service Teachers As Developmental Writers In The Writing Methods Class, Christina Saidy

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article employs a pedagogical reflection of a pre-service teacher and her out-of-context grammar lesson. The author uses this pedagogical reflection to argue for enhancing the writing methods class by inviting pre-service teachers to see themselves as developing writers and see the teaching and learning of writing as an ecological practice.

Teaching Reflective Writing: Thoughts On Developing A Reflective Writing Framework To Support Teacher Candidates, Donna L. Pasternak, Karen K. Rigoni

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

To achieve licensure in the United States, many teacher candidates must demonstrate competency as reflective practitioners. This requires many of them to describe their experiences through reflective writing, a mode of writing that is far from the academic writing that is taught throughout their baccalaureate education. Much reflective writing is being assigned to teacher candidates without it being taught. In an effort to intervene in that pattern, the authors examined multiple sources and developed a framework to teach to their teacher candidates to support them to communicate their practices as effective, reflective practitioners. This paper documents the evolution of creating …

Entering The Conversations, Practices And Opportunities Of Multimodality Texts, Theresa Dark, W. Douglas Baker

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Structure Speaks: User-Centered Design And Professional Development, Nikki Holland, Christian Z. Goering

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This reflective essay situates a yearlong professional development endeavor led by a site of the National Writing Project within the language of technical communication. Developing rural writing teachers through four distinct design features—needs assessment, frequent contact, website redesign, collaborative planning through Google Docs—this work sought to put participants and providers on equal levels, sharing control of programming when possible. Professional development providers and teacher educators ultimately must model practices they desire to impacting students in the classroom.

Collaborative Power: Graduate Students Creating And Implementing Faculty Development Workshops On Multilingual Writing Pedagogy, Dorothy Worden, Brooke R. Schreiber, Lindsey Kurtz, Michelle Kaczmarek, Eunjeong Lee

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The increasing numbers multilingual students in US universities, whether international students or multilingual citizens and permanent residents, have made it clear that students’ language needs can no longer be relegated to the ‘experts’ in specialized courses or tutoring centers. All faculty will teach multilingual students, yet few faculty have received specialized training to prepare them to work effectively with the multilingual writers in their classrooms. While there is a need for professional development efforts designed to help faculty more effectively teach multilingual writing, institutional divisions between first language (L1) and second language (L2) writing instruction pose challenges for the organization …

Learning To Teach Writing In The Age Of Standardization And Accountability; Toward An Equity Writing Pedagogy, Shannon M. Pella

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Qualitative data from over three years of a lesson study project were analyzed through a situated learning theory lens in order to describe the connections between teacher learning and the variety of situations, or contexts that shaped the learning. The lesson study professional development model included planning, observation, and student data analysis protocols. The lesson study was situated in various middle school classroom settings, which provided multiple learning contexts. Additionally, teacher learning was shaped by the larger socio-political context often comprised of accountability rhetoric, standardization, and testing pressure. This study described how two teachers negotiated balance, or theoretical equilibrium, across …

"You Can't Be Creative Anymore": Students Reflect On The Lingering Effects Of The Five-Paragraph Essay, Jennifer P. Gray

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The five-paragraph essay continues to make headlines in composition and pedagogy journals and on teacher listservs. This long-cherished genre has been touted for teaching the basics to writers in college, and teachers often claim that it is the best foundation for solid essay writing. In contrast, there are numerous five-paragraph essay critics who claim that the essay is a “school-created thing” that has no real-world value and persists due to an enshrinement in textbooks as preparation for objective standardized testing. Regardless of the debate, one thing remains: there is little research on the essay from the students’ perspective. This essay …

Three Heuristics For Writing And Revising Qualitative Research Articles In English Education, Ann M. Lawrence

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this essay, I present three heuristics for writing and revising qualitative research articles in English education: “PAGE” (Purpose, Audience, Genre, Engagement), “Problem Posing, Problem Addressing, Problem Posing,” and “The Three INs” (INtroduction, INsertion, INterpretation). In so doing, I describe the rhetorical functions and conventional structure of all of the major sections of qualitative research articles, and show how the problem for study brings the rhetorical “jobs” of each section into purposive relationship with those of the other sections. Together, the three curricular resources that I offer in this essay prompt writers to connect general rhetorical concerns with specific writing …

A “Great Balancing Act:” Becoming Dexterous And Deft With New Literacies Pedagogy, Jill Mcclay, Shelley Stagg Peterson, Christine Portier

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In response to recent mandates in literacy curricula, literacy teachers must integrate Web 2.0 and new literacies perspectives into their writing instruction. Such transitions in their pedagogy, however, are often accomplished without adequate support or opportunities for professional development. How do teachers approach the difficult task of changing their perspectives to take new literacies practices into account? This article traces the learning and pedagogical practices of five teachers who worked with the authors in a dual-sited action research study (one in a large urban district, one in a small rural district) for more than two years. We present two themes …

Learning To Develop A Culturally Relevant Approach To 21st Century Writing Instruction, Detra Price-Dennis, Molly Trinh Wiebe, Michelle Fowler-Amato

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In a position statement, Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing (2004), NCTE outlines eleven broad principles to serve as a guide for teaching language arts. Among the key ideas in this document is the call for language arts teacher educators to consider how literacy courses can create opportunities for pre-service teachers to account for the multifaceted and multimodal world of literacy with students in K-12 settings. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to learn from the experience of one pre-service teacher during his language arts methods course. Drawing on a subset of data from two, our research team …

Asking And Understanding Questions: An Inquiry-Based Framework For Writing Teacher Development, Jessica Rivera-Mueller

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Teachers develop when they critically examine the questions they ask about their work because questions make pedagogical beliefs visible and available for critical reflection and revision. In a standards-based educational climate—a time when writing becomes a set of measurable skills rather than a complex social practice—teachers may feel that a critical examination of their questions is (at best) a luxury or (at worst) a distraction to work they need to accomplish. Therefore, writing teacher educators may find it increasingly challenging to help teachers engage in reflexive inquiry. This essay describes a Deweyian-informed framework that shows how addressing inquiries and critically …

Co-Planning And Co-Teaching In A Summer Writing Institute: A Formative Experiment, Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Janine Nieroda, Bryan Ripley Crandall

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This paper reports findings from a two-year formative experiment (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) investigating a summer writing institute for students entering ninth grade at an urban high school. The three-week program was staffed by both university researchers and teachers. In contrast to traditional summer school, it was intended as enrichment, not remediation, for a heterogeneous group of students, and a learning experience, not just a teaching opportunity, for practitioners. The pedagogical goals of the intervention were two-fold: 1) increase students’ writing engagement and skill, and 2) improve teachers’ capacity to teach writing to diverse student populations. Findings focused on co-teaching …

Navigating Collaborative Teaching Waters: Professors Go Back And Pre-Service Teachers Move Forward To Embody The Promise Of Story, Jill Adams, Kathleen Deakin, Gloria Eastman, Jay Arellano, Andrea Nieto, Eliza Spencer, Brianne Barber

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

A group of English education professors and secondary English education collaboratively planned a 3-week class for future high school freshmen in an academic summer camp held on our campus. Reflections of lessons learned from a variety of perspectives are shared.

Introduction: Building Bridges In Writing Teacher Education, Jonathan Bush, Erinn Bentley

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This introduction discusses the editors' decision to support publications in both APA and MLA formats and also provides contextual introductions for all articles.

Call For Submissions

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Of Thresholds And Springboards: Teaching Them, Teaching Each Other, Erin Williams, Frank Farmer

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In the fall of 2010, the authors were given the task of co-teaching the practicum for new graduate teaching assistants at the University of Kansas. One of the authors was, at the time, a doctoral student in rhetoric and composition. The other author was a senior faculty member in the same field. While such pairings are not uncommon, they are rarely addressed in the vast literature on the writing practicum.

In this article—written as a dialogue focusing on the themes of locations and tensions—the authors conclude that such teaching arrangements as theirs offered valuable insights into student resistance, and encouraged …