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Putting The Heart Back Into Writing: Nurturing Voice In Middle School Students, Barbara Ruben, Leanne Moll

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

To gain a deeper understanding of young adolescent motivation and developmental needs as the nation plunges ahead with the national Common Core Standards and their implications for writing instruction, the authors of this article pondered five questions as they studied their own middle school writing team: (1) What intrinsic motivators drive these young students to write? (2) What components create a nurturing writing environment? (3) How can we understand student motivation so that we can nurture student interest in writing within the constraints of large classes and mandates to address Common Core Standards? (4) For students who are already intrinsically …