Secondary Education Commons^™

"We Can't Shut The Classroom Door": Crossing Borderlands Of Practice In The Writing Methods Course, Vanessa C. Sullivan

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article shares the findings of a qualitative study that engaged ten writing teacher educators from across the United States in interviews, curriculum submission, and a mapping practice to explore the ways that they perceive and enact the teaching of the writing methods course within dynamic and complex settings. Using a conceptual framework of borderlands of practice to gain insight into the discourses and value systems that surround the course, findings revealed the overlapping domains that impact the preparation of teachers in the field of writing, the key values that guide the way that participants approach their teaching, and the …

Teaching (In) Community: Reflection And Relationship In The Writing Methods Course, Kristie Jolley, Emily Stephens Kasper, Meridith Reed

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, three writing teachers, one a writing teacher educator, reflect on how the writing methods course has shaped their work as teachers and helped them build community and identify resources to adapt to new teaching contexts and challenges.

Our Journeys As Teachers Of Writing: Learning From Our Mentor, Tracey T. Flores, Cecilia Espinosa

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Written in two voices, we reflect on our journeys as teachers of writing and teacher educators shaped by transformative mentoring in literacy methods courses at Arizona State University and community embedded learning at William T. Machan School. Weaving together sociocultural and translanguaging theories, we explore how being invited to write from our lives reshaped our identities as writers and educators. In our work, we draw on strength-based approaches to teaching writers that centers voice, meaning making, multilingualism, and funds of knowledge. In the midst of an increase in the use of a scripted curriculum, we argue for reclaiming writing as …

Writing Workshop Methods Course As Catalysts For Long-Term Pedagogical Identity: A Co-Authored Narrative Of Resonance, Resilience, And Effects, Elsie L. Olan Dr., M.Priscilla Develder

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Writing workshop methods courses introduce teachers to foundational practices for teaching writing, yet their long-term influence on teacher identity and instructional decision-making often remains underexamined. This co-authored narrative explores how experiences within a graduate-level writing workshop shaped the pedagogical development of two educators: a professor who designed and facilitated the course and a former graduate student who went on to teach English Language Arts (ELA) in both elementary and higher education settings. Drawing on a 60-hour shadowing experience, the narrative analyzes classroom observations, reflective writing, and dialogic exchanges to illuminate three central themes: resonance, resilience, and effects that demonstrate how …

Strengthening Our Pedagogy Together: A Methods Instructor And Her Former Student Partner To Promote Agency In The Secondary Writing Classroom [Special Issue], Michael Rojas, Kate Sjostrom

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In many English classrooms today, writing instruction is reduced to templates and formulas, robbing students of agency, voice, and transferable skills. This article describes a collaboration between a writing methods course instructor and one of her former students bent on proving that what they believe makes for solid writing instruction—a sometimes messy process involving choice and authentic purpose and audience—works. Documenting development of a new secondary writing course and a project to introduce the course’s methods to pre-service teachers, the authors recount barriers they encountered, strategies they developed for overcoming them, and issues they are still grappling with. In the …

“Ummm I Don’T Know If I Took A Writing Methods Course”: Learning From In-Service Teachers Revisiting The Methods Course, Christina Saidy, Isabelle Alize Meza, Talia Baca

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article two teachers and their writing methods professor explore the challenges of the traditional methods course. In sharing the teachers’ experiences of retaking the methods course, they argue for the need to consider ways that practicing teachers can revisit the methods course to develop sustainable practices for the teaching of writing in secondary schools.

The Good Ghosts Of Process And Models: What Endures From The Composition Methods Course [Special Issue], Rebecca Powell, Jonathan Rivera, Heather Serpas

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article examines how secondary English teachers understand and implement writing pedagogy in their classrooms years after completing a writing methods course. Through reflective interviews and written responses from teachers in their fifth through seventh years of practice, we explore the tensions between pedagogical ideals learned in teacher preparation and the institutional pressures of contemporary schooling. Key themes include the influence of standardized testing on writing instruction, the challenge of maintaining process-oriented approaches amid curriculum standardization, and the ways teachers adapt their methods course learning to their specific school contexts.

What Are You Writing? The Hopes And Hurdles Of Transitioning From Writing Methods To Teaching Writing, Rebekah Buchanan, Darrin G. Ross

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This co-authored piece examines how the writing methods course impacts teaching and thinking about writing through the lenses of a writing methods professor and a former student/current teacher. In writing and thinking together we found that a mutual grounding in liberatory education, using writing as a tool for social action and critical thinking, and teaching writing as a political act we see how the writing methods course and the relationships built through writing create a basis for future decision making and inspiration in the high school classroom.

Everyone Is A Writer: Building Writer Identities And Writing Communities In Preservice And English Language Arts Classrooms, Amber Warrington, Hanna Burns, Allie Zimmerly

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, a teacher educator and two early-career teachers reflect on a Teaching Writers methods course the teachers took as part of their teacher education program. In the course, the two teachers developed their own writer identities and took part in a writing community. The teachers discuss ways they have brought those experiences into their classrooms and adapted the experiences for their students and contexts.

“I Want To Teach That Way”: What We Learn In A Writing Methods Class [Special Issue], Brad Jacobson, Ana S. Muñoz, Paola Vianney Trevizo

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this dialogic essay, a teacher educator and two early career teachers discuss the influence of a writing methods course on their pedagogy in practice. The conversation focuses on a digital testimonio task that instilled values the early career teachers continue to bring to their teaching, including an expanded conception of what counts as writing and a critical, humanizing approach to literacy education. Moreover, the challenges they experienced as preservice teachers when composing a digital text helped them to see the value of a scaffolded writing process, demonstrating the value of experiential learning. While the digital testimonio project itself was …

Writing From Our Lives: From Reading Like Writers To Personal Narrative Writing, Julianna Kershen, Sarah Relja, David Mackowski, Grace Rhodes

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article describes the design and use of writing opportunities for preservice teacher candidates enrolled in English Language Arts education coursework. Based in the practice-based teacher education principle that preparatory coursework include implementation activities, we describe how preservice candidates engaged in the study of writer’s craft through immersion in mentor texts through close reading, annotation, and free response writing. This article highlights the benefits of such opportunities for preservice teacher-writers, as they (re)see themselves as active writers and reflect on their personal writing histories. Three preservice candidates share their writing as a means of celebrating their own beliefs and experiences …

From Corrector To Reader: Pre-Service Teachers’ Writing Values And Feedback, Amanda Brewer

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study investigates the written feedback practices of secondary English Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) to understand how their values regarding "good" writing influence their comments on student work. Through analysis of feedback on 10th-grade writing samples and value-sorting surveys, the study examines their feedback tendencies and the links with their values. Findings indicate a significant shift over the semester from a directive, deficit-based "corrector" stance to a facilitative, asset-based "reader" stance. The data suggests that when PSTs lack specific metalinguistic language, they default to generic advice or mechanical correction. However, when instructed to align their feedback with their core writing values, …

Building A Foundation: Preservice Teachers' Exploration Of Writing Studies - Special Issue, Ellen Shelton

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article examines the Concept Exploration Essay assignment in a writing studies course that encourages PSTs to explore and question writing theories as they connect to their own experiences and understandings. The focus of the course is to develop an understanding of the self as a writer and as a future writing teacher through practical application of composition theory. Students are invited into the Burkean Parlor and enter the conversation as scholars. The students explore, question, and trouble complex writing theories in a dialogic classroom. PSTs leave the course empowered with the knowledge they can allow their future students the …

Introduction: Echoes, Effects, And Resonance: Examining The Writing Methods Course, Elizabeth Thackeray Nelson, Erinn Bentley, Jonathan E. Bush

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Improving Student Engagement In Mastery Learning Through Improvement Science: A Study In A Stem Laboratory School, Jason C. Mcgregor

Education Theses and Dissertations

This improvement science dissertation seeks to address challenges in the effective implementation of a mastery-based instructional model in an open-enrollment K-12 charter school. Many students have demonstrated low motivation for completing formative learning activities, which are essential for personalized feedback and intervention. When students do not complete these activities, content mastery is hindered. This study utilizes improvement science to explore the root causes of the problem, evaluate the effects of previously used interventions, and test an intervention to improve student engagement. Preliminary analyses identified several contributing factors, including students’ feelings of incompetence with the content, frustration with grading policy, untimely …

Secondary English Teacher Experiences Implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching With Black Students In Maryland, Angela James

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite state mandates requiring culturally responsive teaching (CRT) implementation, the problem addressed by this study was that urban high school teachers are not consistently integrating CRT practices with Black students in Reading/English language arts (RELA) courses. Guided by the CRT framework, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of urban high school teachers with incorporating CRT practices with Black high school students in RELA courses in Maryland. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 10 RELA teachers. Through open coding, the following three themes emerged: the need for increased and targeted professional development, structured opportunities …

Best Practices For Classroom Seating Arrangements: A Narrative Literature Review, Sophia M. Williams

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Every K-12 classroom has a unique dynamic produced by students and managed by its teachers. The relationships between peers, as well as the relationships between students and their teacher play an integral role in how students work and behave each day. An important aspect of the classroom dynamic that teachers’ control is seating arrangements. Indeed, extant research has debated on the best practice for seating arrangements in classrooms to create optimal learning environments that benefit both pupil and teacher. Some studies suggest that students work better when they are working with people that they have positive relationships with. Contrarily, others …

Street-Level Mentors And Counselors’ Educational Support To Adolescents In Urban Kenya, Benta A. Abuya Dr., Nelson Muhia

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This article seeks to establish the experiences of mentors and counselors as “street-level bureaucrats” who worked with students and parents to deliver an after-school support program in urban Kenya. Data were collected from interviews with six mentors and four counselors at the endline evaluation of the Advancing Learning Outcomes for Transformational Change (ALOT Change III). The interviews were conducted in November and December 2021 with parents/guardians, mentors, counselors, and community leaders. We employed the analytical approach by Miles and Huberman to answer the research questions. Our findings showed that mentors and counselors were pillars of the intervention, respectively, with after-school …

Preparing Teachers To Read The Data: Strengthening Data Literacy For Early Literacy Decision-Making, Tevia Q. Strand

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Teachers are increasingly expected to use literacy screening and benchmark data to guide instruction, identify student needs, and participate in multi-tiered systems of support. However, pre-service and early-career teachers may enter the profession without sufficient preparation to interpret assessment data or connect benchmark patterns to instructional action. This white paper examines the gap between teacher preparation and the realities of K-12 data use, with particular attention to early literacy decision-making. Drawing from Bradbury’s discussion of teacher preparation and the changing realities of education, this paper argues that data literacy is an essential part of preparing teachers for equitable classroom practice. …

How Does An Advanced Educator Utilize Digital Language Teaching And Learning By Integrating Linguistic, Cultural, And Business Life Perspectives?, Hely Westerholm, Pirjo Takanen-Körperich, Ph.D.

International Journal for Business Education

This paper explores advanced educators’ digital working capabilities in online language teaching, with a particular focus on sharing Finnish language and culture in a foreign context. Cultural and linguistic knowledge play a significant role in enhancing students’ motivation to study foreign languages. In today’s educational environment, digitalisation and globalisation exert an increasing influence on foreign language teaching and learning.

The digital learning environment has brought about a paradigm shift in foreign language didactics. Digital language learning is both challenging and holistic in nature. Continued foreign language learning is simultaneously an individual and a social process, as digital learning cultures impose …