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Full-Text Articles in Education

Blogging In Elementary Classrooms: Mentoring Teacher Candidates’ To Use Formative Writing Assessment And Connect Theory To Practice, Diane R. Collier, Tiffany L. Gallagher Oct 2020

Blogging In Elementary Classrooms: Mentoring Teacher Candidates’ To Use Formative Writing Assessment And Connect Theory To Practice, Diane R. Collier, Tiffany L. Gallagher

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This paper presents a collaborative approach to professional learning in which classroom teachers mentored teacher candidates to connect theory and practice through formative assessment to improve students’ writing. Professional learning sessions pairing the teachers and teacher candidates occurred in each of the fall and winter semesters in two years of this project. Data were collected at these sessions and during focus group debriefings. The findings are themes related to: lines of communication and levels of collaboration; teachers’ pedagogical decisions about blogging and writing in their classrooms; classroom teachers and teacher candidates enacting formative writing assessment in the blogging platform; the …


Examining Elementary Teachers’ Feelings Of Self-Efficacy As Writers: Do The Writing Samples Tell More Compelling Stories?, Elizabeth Bifuh-Ambe Oct 2020

Examining Elementary Teachers’ Feelings Of Self-Efficacy As Writers: Do The Writing Samples Tell More Compelling Stories?, Elizabeth Bifuh-Ambe

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Teaching writing to elementary students can be a difficult instructional task for many teachers, due to the complexity of the writing process and the variety of skills that students must demonstrate to be considered proficient writers. Because quality instruction is highly predictive of students’ achievements, teachers need to feel competent in various subject-specific disciplines. This mixed-methods study examines the role of professional development in fostering elementary teachers’ writing proficiency, and improving their feelings of self-efficacy as writers. Results indicate that it is difficult for teachers whose students struggle with writing to feel confident in their own writing abilities.


Preservice English Teachers’ Evolving Conceptions Of 21st-Century Writing, Amber Jensen Oct 2020

Preservice English Teachers’ Evolving Conceptions Of 21st-Century Writing, Amber Jensen

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study used stimulated-recall interviews throughout four secondary English preservice teachers’ (PSTs) semester-long student teaching internships to examine how critical teaching moments shaped their evolving conceptions of 21st-century writing. The article first describes the participants’ collective definitions of features and experiences of 21st-century writing in the ELA classroom, focusing specifically on how they understood digital and multimodal composition. It then examines two case studies that demonstrate how PSTs’ teaching experiences destabilized, challenged, and contradicted their emerging definitions. Findings suggest that English educators may engage PSTs in conceptualizing nuanced and flexible 21st-century writing pedagogies as they construct field experiences as reflective …


The Dimensions Of Teachers Who Write And The Essence Of A Writing Life, Shari L. Daniels, Pamela Beck Oct 2020

The Dimensions Of Teachers Who Write And The Essence Of A Writing Life, Shari L. Daniels, Pamela Beck

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The purpose of this grounded theory case study was to explore the perceptions among ten K-12 teachers who teach writing and also write themselves. What are the key essentials for teachers to sustain a writing life? What habits of mind or attitudes are necessary for teachers to sustain a writing life? Interviews served as the primary data source along with writing artifacts from the participants’ own writing life. Findings indicate that teacher-writers committed to a writing life do so for the purpose of 1) discovering meaning, 2) connections to others 3) commitment to learning and 4) well-being, with an overall …


Growing And Learning As A Student, Teacher, And Artist, Lauren Johnson Jul 2020

Growing And Learning As A Student, Teacher, And Artist, Lauren Johnson

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Notes on the process of creating the unique cover designs for the special issue of Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education, 'Writing Teacher Education in Extraordinary Times'


Bringing Out The Best Of Leaders, Teachers, And Students In The Midst Of Covid-19: Lessons Learned From Russell County, Alabama, Adam Kilcrease Phd Jul 2020

Bringing Out The Best Of Leaders, Teachers, And Students In The Midst Of Covid-19: Lessons Learned From Russell County, Alabama, Adam Kilcrease Phd

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 caused negative effects related to the economy, families, and the public education sector; however, one system in Russell County emerged from the pandemic with stories to share. The purpose of this article was to describe an effective School Closure Plan related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russell County, Alabama. Guided by the system's superintendent, leaders, teachers, students, and guardians joined forces to navigate the unfamiliar roads of the health crisis while providing continued opportunities for students to learn in virtual and blended formats. With a focus on critical standards outlined by the Alabama State Department …


Critical Thinking During A Pandemic, Cheryl Comeau-Kirschner Jul 2020

Critical Thinking During A Pandemic, Cheryl Comeau-Kirschner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article explores how a sudden shift to distance learning created unique challenges in a co-requisite course for English language learners. Focusing on critical thinking and advanced ESL composition during the COVID-19 Pandemic required course adjustments and a new way of thinking about how to teach and learn in unprecedented times.


Teaching Reading-Writing Connections Online To Pre-Service Teachers In A Children’S Literature Course, Treavor Bogard Jul 2020

Teaching Reading-Writing Connections Online To Pre-Service Teachers In A Children’S Literature Course, Treavor Bogard

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This account of transitioning a children’s literature course to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic describes the use of digital service learning and instructional scenarios to develop pre-service teachers’ knowledge of teaching writing craft across literary genres.


Keeping Things Going: Reflections On Teaching “Teaching Writing” Online, Emily S. Meixner Jul 2020

Keeping Things Going: Reflections On Teaching “Teaching Writing” Online, Emily S. Meixner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

What does it mean to “keep things going online” in an undergraduate teacher education course on teaching writing? In this article, a teacher educator describes how, in consultation with her students, she adapted a secondary English methods course on teaching writing to teach it online. While highlighting and celebrating what worked, she also reflects on lessons learned and teaching questions that continue to persist.


Building Community In A Virtual Course, Kristen Hawley Turner Jul 2020

Building Community In A Virtual Course, Kristen Hawley Turner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.


Online Language Arts Instruction In An Elementary Methods Course: Successes And Challenges, Charlotte A. Mundy-Henderson, Callie Martin Jul 2020

Online Language Arts Instruction In An Elementary Methods Course: Successes And Challenges, Charlotte A. Mundy-Henderson, Callie Martin

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This paper describes the successes and challenges of an assistant professor and her students as they were forced to pivot mid-semester from a traditional face-to-face Elementary Language Arts Methods course to a completely online course due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Increased communication, identifying and sharing valuable resources, and adopting a more flexible attitude when it comes to writing instruction were among the successes of this now online course. While ensuring that online field experiences were meaningful was one of the biggest challenges. Takeaways were that increased communication and flexibility are vital parts of online learning, especially when in an unexpected …


Voice And New Literacies: Student Perceptions Of Writing Instruction In A Secondary English Classroom, Jenny M. Martin Jan 2020

Voice And New Literacies: Student Perceptions Of Writing Instruction In A Secondary English Classroom, Jenny M. Martin

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Voice is an integral part of writing instruction, and over half of state writing assessments include voice on scoring rubrics; yet, there is a dearth of research on voice and writing instruction with adolescents. Increasingly new literacies and digital tools are being used in the high school English classroom but with relatively little known about how these tools can teach voice during writing instruction. This qualitative single-case study examined how a public school, ninth-grade English teacher used new literacies to develop voice in students’ writing and participants’ perception of these instructional choices. The sample included the teacher and 14 students, …


Influential Fellows: A Professor And Writing Fellows Reflect On Identities, Feedback, And Communities, Sharlene Gilman, Paxton Beck, Nancy Zola Jan 2020

Influential Fellows: A Professor And Writing Fellows Reflect On Identities, Feedback, And Communities, Sharlene Gilman, Paxton Beck, Nancy Zola

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Insufficient attention has been directed to first year and first generation developmental writing students whose courses involve embedded peer and near-peer tutors. This article explores the learning communities and learning and teaching identities mutually constructed by one professor of developmental composition and two Writing Fellows who are secondary English education majors through working together with our population, and how relationship dynamics impacted identities and curricular choices.


Exploring The Impact Of Teacher Collaboration On Student Learning: A Focus On Writing, Shannon M. Pella Jan 2020

Exploring The Impact Of Teacher Collaboration On Student Learning: A Focus On Writing, Shannon M. Pella

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this yearlong case study, six English teachers in an urban high school in Northern California engaged in sustained collaboration focused on developing and enacting strategies to improve the writing skills of their culturally and linguistically diverse freshmen. The study was conducted between August 2018 and June 2019, to determine the connections, if any, between teacher collaboration and student learning. Qualitative data were analyzed from teacher collaboration and observation of classroom practices, focus groups and teacher-created artifacts. Students’ on-demand writing assessments in fall and spring were compared with instructionally supported writing. Student surveys were analyzed in a mixed methods approach. …


Preservice Teacher Writer Identities: Tensions And Implications, David Premont, Shea Kerkhoff, Janet Alsup Jan 2020

Preservice Teacher Writer Identities: Tensions And Implications, David Premont, Shea Kerkhoff, Janet Alsup

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Because of recent attention underscoring the lack of preservice teachers’ (PSTs) writer identities , the purpose of this manuscript is to learn more about the writer identities of two PSTs, how to uncover the tensions that exist therein, and how they intend to enact that writer identity in the secondary classroom. This multiple case study examines the writer identity of two PSTs from a midwestern university in the United States. Data collection included a visual metaphorical representation, participant generated reflections in class, and participate generated reflections in practicum. The data suggest that contrasting writer identities exist among preservice ELA teachers …