Education Commons^™

Writing In The Middle: A Qualitative Study Of Seventh Grade Language Arts Teachers, Cherie Jolene Dockstader

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe what four seventh-grade teachers in four districts in southern Idaho do that helps achievement on both the Direct Writing Assessment (DWA) and Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT). Through analysis of interview, observations, and classroom documents, similarities and differences between the four teachers was documented and reported. The results of this study suggest there are key practices that these teachers have in common that may contribute to student test success, but it also suggests that state standards and assessments influence the teaching practices of these successful teachers in both positive and negative …