Download or read book An Ethnographically Informed Case Study Exploring the Culture of Writing Instruction in One Middle School English Language Arts Class written by Misha Zaidi and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This qualitative, ethnographically informed case-study examines how social, psychological, and organizational factors of a culture impact writing instruction and practice within an English Language Arts middle school class. In order to explore possible reasons for stagnant writing instruction in middle schools, two research questions guided this study: (RQ1) What do the components of writing instruction look like in one middle school class?, and (RQ2) How does one middle school ELA class exhibit identity distinction, writing development, and discourse surrounding writing instruction? I examined how one middle school class exhibits identity distinction among students and teachers within writing, development of writing, and discourse surrounding writing instruction and practice. Data were collected through observations, field notes, interviews, and cultural artifacts (i.e., lesson plans, student data, student work samples, and district curriculum) over a five week period for a total of 18 data collection days (16 of which were observations). Observations were conducted in one seventh grade teacher’s class period and lesson planning meetings. The seventh grade teacher, students, and Testing Coordinator were interviewed for member checking sessions pertaining to observations and student work. Semi-structured interview verbatim transcripts were audio recorded and transcribed, after which the following themes emerged: understanding of writing instruction, understanding of writing workshop, confidence in students’ writing abilities, establishing spaces for student engagement, feedback on student writing, and teacher and student identities. Also included are recommendations for establishing a positive writing culture through improved middle school writing instruction.
Download or read book Funds of Knowledge written by Norma Gonzalez and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-21 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of "funds of knowledge" is based on a simple premise: people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. The claim in this book is that first-hand research experiences with families allow one to document this competence and knowledge, and that such engagement provides many possibilities for positive pedagogical actions. Drawing from both Vygotskian and neo-sociocultural perspectives in designing a methodology that views the everyday practices of language and action as constructing knowledge, the funds of knowledge approach facilitates a systematic and powerful way to represent communities in terms of the resources they possess and how to harness them for classroom teaching. This book accomplishes three objectives: It gives readers the basic methodology and techniques followed in the contributors' funds of knowledge research; it extends the boundaries of what these researchers have done; and it explores the applications to classroom practice that can result from teachers knowing the communities in which they work. In a time when national educational discourses focus on system reform and wholesale replicability across school sites, this book offers a counter-perspective stating that instruction must be linked to students' lives, and that details of effective pedagogy should be linked to local histories and community contexts. This approach should not be confused with parent participation programs, although that is often a fortuitous consequence of the work described. It is also not an attempt to teach parents "how to do school" although that could certainly be an outcome if the parents so desired. Instead, the funds of knowledge approach attempts to accomplish something that may be even more challenging: to alter the perceptions of working-class or poor communities by viewing their households primarily in terms of their strengths and resources, their defining pedagogical characteristics. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms is a critically important volume for all teachers and teachers-to-be, and for researchers and graduate students of language, culture, and education.
Download or read book Resources in Education written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Writing Collaborative written by Allison Huffman Ormond and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Important to issues of writing instruction are the ways in which teachers, specifically those who teach in the discipline of language arts and English, understand and see themselves as writers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how secondary English teachers positioned themselves and were positioned by others as writers through participation in a Writing Collaborative designed to provide authentic opportunities for engaging and examining themselves as writers. This study included seven secondary English teachers, three middle school and four high school, who all taught writing as required by their respective course curriculums. This semester-long research applied case study methods and utilized multiple data sources, including teacher interviews, video recordings of Writing Collaborative sessions, and teachers' written artifacts to inform the analysis. Data was analyzed using the constant-comparative method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) and drawing from discourse analysis (Gee, 2011, Mercer, 2000), focused closely on "episodes of talk" (Mercer, 2004, p.142). A social theory of learning, specifically Wenger's (1998) Communities of Practice framework, sociocultural theories and concepts of language and learning (Bakhtin, 1981, 1986; Mercer, 2000) and theories of identity (Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte, and Cain, 1998; Wenger, 1998) were used to analyze the ways in which teachers' identities as writers shaped and were shaped by the Writing Collaborative. /DISS_para DISS_para Findings included the ways in which the practices of the community, particularly the practice of sharing and teachers' responses to sharing, contributed to the shaping of teachers' identities as writers and the shaping of the Writing Collaborative as a community of practice. These share practices included: (a) interject humor, (b) praise and encourage, (c) support and affirm, (d) ask questions, (e) explore ideas, (e) share knowledge and beliefs, and (f) narrate personal stories. Consequently, these share practices were foundational to the formation of the Writing Collaborative; more importantly, the practices facilitated the meanings teachers negotiated about writers and writing and the ways in which their identities as writers were shaped. The categories of meanings the teachers made encompassed: (a) definitions of writers (b) purposes of writing (c) writing ideas (d) writing as a process, and (e) personal aspects of writing. The case study of the Writing Collaborative provided insights into the ways in which teachers' writer identities were shaped and reshaped through participation in the community's practices and meaning-making about writers and writing. This was particularly true for teachers who did not self-identify as writers or who were skeptical to claim writer identities. This study revealed that regardless of how the teachers saw themselves as writers, all of them enacted multiple writer identities. Thus, the Writing Collaborative served as a space for teachers to reshape existing writer identities and explore possible writer identities for themselves. Implications of the study include ways to assist teachers in understanding the complexities of teaching writing by helping them understand themselves as writers."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.
Download or read book Literacies Lies Silences written by Heather E. Bruce and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2003 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation Bruce (English education, U. of Montana at Missoula) reports on a three-year ethnographic study she conducted in a high school women's studies class. She applied the theoretical concepts of Judith Butler's performance theory to investigate whether female adolescents' writing could help them rethink gendered experience and articulate alternative visions of gender. She identified three major categories of performative utterances in the student's writing, which she refers to as experiential editing, reflective revisions, and transformative performatives. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Download or read book North Star of Texas Writing Project written by Carol Wickstrom and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the greatest challenges facing U.S. middle and high school teachers is the need to improve academic success among English language learner (ELL) students. Both the high school dropout rate and the college-enrollment rate provide compelling evidence of this need. This report documents one attempt to meet this challenge, a National Writing Project advanced institute focused on improving academic writing among adolescent English learners. The institute engaged teacher-consultants in exploring and implementing "culturally mediated writing instruction" (CMWI), a set of research-based principles and practices. The ultimate goal was to improve students' academic writing, but this report also documents the diverse and sometimes-surprising ways that these teachers integrated CMWI into their classrooms. In year 1--studied through a descriptive cross-case analysis--six teacher-researchers from one middle school and two high schools in north Texas participated in the project. Data included pre/post writing samples, classroom observations, teacher interviews, and teachers' written reflections. The teachers each chose a target class, resulting in a study total of approximately 45 middle school and 70 high school students. Although gains were noted in each writing area across all grade levels, the only statistically significant gain was among middle school students' use of vocabulary to express their ideas ("diction") t =2.83, df = 24, p = 0.009. The analysis of qualitative data in year 1 also yielded refinements to CMWI principles and practices, which were integrated into the year 2 professional development institute. In year 2 the research followed a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design. Nine middle and high school teacher-researchers from four Texas Writing Project sites (Central Texas, North Star of Texas, Sabal Palms, and West Texas) participated; seven of the teacher-researchers were new to the project. Student diversity was similar to that in year 1. In year 2 the research followed a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design. Nine middle and high school teacher-researchers from four Texas Writing Project sites (Central Texas, North Star of Texas, Sabal Palms, and West Texas) participated; seven of the teacher-researchers were new to the project. Student diversity was similar to that in year 1. Research questions again focused on CMWI's influence on student writing and also on how teachers integrated the CMWI approach (including how their use of CMWI practices changed over time). To answer questions about the influence of this approach, the design included a comparison of student writing scores from program teachers' classrooms with those from matched cases. Data sources again included pre/post writing samples, classroom observations, teacher interviews, and teachers' written reflections. Qualitative data were analyzed inductively; input from the teacher-researchers helped refine the emerging categories. Findings from a quantitative analysis of year 2 data show that CMWI was indeed effective for middle and high school students, as evidenced by gains in all areas of the Analytic Writing Continuum for 56 middle school students and 22 high school students learning English as a second language. The most salient finding from the year 2 qualitative analysis is that program teachers orchestrated complex and responsive instructional support, or mediation, both for individuals and groups of students. Finally, the findings in this report suggest that there were unique patterns in the ways each teacher appropriated CMWI practices. These patterns were influenced both by external constraints and by teachers' beliefs about what would most benefit their students. Future research could productively focus on the interaction between these constraints/beliefs and teachers' options for decision making. It could also productively focus on the extent to which CMWI helps students appropriate language and literacy practices that will lead to academic success in the ever-changing national and global environment they will be entering after high school. Appended are: (1) Culturally Mediated Writing Instruction Inquiry Cycle; (2) Year 2 Middle and High School Student Demographics and Comparison Schools; (3) Year 2 Middle and High School ESL/Non-ESL Students by Group; (4) Year 2 Middle and High School Mean Differences Between CMWI and Comparison Group; and (5) Year 2 Middle and High School Repeated-Measures ANOVA Results for All Matched Cases on Holistic and Analytic Scores. (Contains 8 tables and 3 figures.) [This paper was written with Jennifer Roberts, Lori Assaf, Angelica Fuentes, and Chieko Hoki.].
Download or read book Writing From the Margins written by Kristine E. Pytash and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is a critical examination of the complex role of writing in court-involved young adults’ lives. The purpose of this book is to provide an in-depth look at how writing might possibly be the best opportunity to give students multiple tools to deal with their circumstances in life: to give them a voice to express themselves; an opportunity to recognize their strengths; a way to document their aspirations; and chance to give them hope. Furthermore, this book will advocate for literacy instruction that is grounded in research, and will advocate for youth to be creative meaning-makers, and finally this book will underscore the power of writing as a way to amplify beliefs and life experiences. This book includes current research that supports a framework for teaching writing, particularly for those youth who are marginalized and disenfranchised, while considering the meaning of equity in education.
Download or read book The Experience of Writing written by Jennifer Smith Lapointe and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This dissertation examined the literacy practices and identity construction of students identified with disabilities in middle school classroom settings. The study was situated in a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) framework in order to deepen understanding of the writing practices and identity construction of middle school students identified with disabilities while privileging their interests and adding their voices to the research literature on disability and literacy. An ethnographic case study design was used during two English Language Arts (ELA) units in a suburban seventh-grade classroom and an urban eighth-grade classroom. Data from focal students came from observational field notes, a reflective research journal, informal conversations, transcripts from semi-structured interviews, document and curricula materials, and student work. Ecocomposition and writer identity theories used with DSE were used to point out and examine discourses and structures, particularly classroom structures in relation to literacy practices that may marginalize students identified with disabilities. The study revealed that the environment where writing takes place, particularly classrooms, shapes the literacy practices and writer identities of middle school students identified with disabilities. The environment, therefore, contributes to constituting how middle school students identified with disabilities conceive of themselves as writers and their understanding of their practices over time and with various experiences of writing in multiple spaces. Examination of the classroom environments also showed medicalized notions of disability in place that continue to marginalize students identified with disabilities."--Page vi.
Download or read book Dissertation Abstracts International written by and published by . This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Two Roads Diverged and I Took Both written by Melanie Mayer and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two Roads Diverged and I Took Both: Meaningful Writing Instruction in an Age of Testing presents theories, research, and practical ideas for classroom writing instruction, specifically in theareas of: the reading-writing connection, the social aspect of writing, grammar instruction, teaching mainstreamed special education or English Language Learners, and assessment. The book's premise is that when research-based best practices are applied, student writing quality is improved and authentic learning takes place, which will also promote success on state-mandated writing assessments; but preparing students to write primarily for assessments does not promote excellent writing for life.
Download or read book I writing written by Karen Surman Paley and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ethnographic study of the teaching of writing, Karen Surman Paley reveals the social significance of first-person writing and the limitations of a popular taxonomy of composition studies. Paley looks critically at the way social constructionists have created an "Other" in the field of composition studies and named it "expressivist." Paley demonstrates the complexity of approaches to teaching writing through an ethnographic study of two composition faculty at Boston College, a programthat some would say is "expressivist." She prompts her colleagues to consider how family experiences shape the way students feel about and treat people of races, religions, genders, and sexual preferences other than their own. Finally, she suggests to the field of composition that practitioners spend less time shoring up taxonomies of the field and more time sharing pedagogies.
Download or read book Making Thinking Visible written by Linda Flower and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveying a project that was conducted through the Center for the Study of Writing at Carnegie Mellon University, this book details the classroom inquiries conducted during the 4-year project (1988-1992) by 33 teacher-researchers from secondary and postsecondary classrooms. The articles and their authors are: (1) "Teachers as Theory Builders" (Linda Flower); (2) "Creating a Context for Collaboration: A Thumbnail History of the Making Thinking Visible Project" (Linda Norris and Linda Flower); (3) "Writers Planning: Snapshots from Research" (Linda Flower); (4) "Teaching Collaborative Planning: Creating A Social Context for Writing" (David L. Wallace); (5) "Interactions of Engaged Supporters" (Rebecca E. Burnett); (6) "Transcripts as a Compass to Discovery" (Leslie Byrd Evans); (7)"Using Information for Rhetorical Purposes: Two Case Studies of Collaborative Planning" (David L. Wallace); (8) "Experiencing the Role of the Supporter for the First Time" (Leonard R. Donaldson); (9) "Collaborative Planning and the Senior Research Paper: Text Conventions and Other Monsters" (Karen W. Gist); (10) "Note Taking: An Important Support for Productive Collaborative Planning" (Andrea S. Martine); (11) "Exploring Planner's Options: A Collaborative Tool for Inexperienced Writers" (Thomas Hajduk); (12) "Rewriting Collaborative Planning" (Linda Flower); (13) "Measuring Students' Attitudes about Collaborative Planning" (David L. Wallace); (14) "Using the Writing Attitude Survey" (James Brozick); (15) "Questioning Strategies and Students Reflecting on Planning Tapes" (Theresa Marshall); (16) "Initial Expectations, Problems, and What Is Success?" (Marlene Bowen); (17) "Transferring Talk to Text" (Jane Zachary Gargaro); (18) "Collaborative Planning and the Classroom Context: Tracking, Banking, and Transformations" (Jean A. Aston); (19) "Supporting Students' Intentions for Writing" (David L. Wallace); (20) "Learning about Reflection" (Lois Rubin); (21) "Do Supporters Make a Difference?" (Linda Flower); (22) "Productive and Unproductive Conflict in Collaboration" (Rebecca E. Burnett); (23) "Representation and Reflection: A Preservice Teacher's Understanding of Collaborative Planning" (Linda Flower); (24) "Collaborative Planning: A Context for Defining Relationships" (Michael A. Benedict); (25) "The Community Literacy Center: Bridging Community- and School-Based Literate Practices" (Wayne C. Peck); (26) "Reflecting on HELP at the Pittsburgh Community Literacy Center" (Philip Flynn); and "Rana's Reflections...and Some of My Own: Writing at the Community Literacy Center" (Elenore Long). (Contains approximately 90 references to works cited and an annotated bibliography of 12 items.) (NKA)
Download or read book Conditions for Teaching Writing written by Laura Elizabeth Slay and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This qualitative two-case study draws from the intersection of three theoretical perspectives: sociocultural theory, transactional theory, and complex systems theory. Guided by two research questions, this qualitative study explored the conditions two seventh grade English language arts teachers set for teaching expository writing and their implications. Deductive coding based on seven a priori patterns of powerful writing instruction (empathy, inquiry, dialogue, authenticity, apprenticeship, re-visioning, and deep content learning) revealed six conditions for teaching expository writing. Inductive pattern analysis of these conditions revealed three emergent themes: reinforcing structures, mediating transactions, and balancing tensions. These findings suggest that teaching expository writing is a complex system filled with dialectical relationships. As interdependent pairs, these relationships encompass the entire system of expository writing instruction, including the structural and transactional aspects of teaching and learning to write. The overlapping conditions and themes demonstrate that expository writing appears ambiguous at times; however, routine, yet responsive instruction, framed by apprenticeship and a balance of reading and writing activities designed to inspire self-discovery are fundamental to the process of teaching expository writing. The final chapter includes instructional implications and a discussion about the significance of setting conditions for generative literacy learning. Recommendations for future research include writing research based on complexity theory, connections between expository writing and empathy, and critical thinking relative to critical action.
Download or read book Resources in Education written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 970 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Literary Practices As Social Acts written by Cynthia Lewis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2001-07-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the social codes and practices that shape the literary culture of a combined fifth/sixth-grade classroom. It considers how the social and cultural contexts of classroom and community affect four classroom practices involving literature--read aloud, peer-led literature discussions, teacher-led literature discussions, and independent reading--with a focus on how these practices are shaped by discourse and rituals within the classroom and by social codes and cultural norms beyond the classroom. This book's emphasis on intermediate students is particularly important, given the dearth of studies in the field of reading education that focus on readers at the edge of adolescence.
Download or read book The Right to Write written by Mary G. Powell and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research studies the effects of a writing community on three novice, middle school, Title I language arts teachers' perceptions of themselves as educators and as writers. The participants wrote on topics of their selection, on a bi-monthly basis, for one semester, to explore their teaching and learning. The teachers are in their first five years of instruction and work in Title I, urban schools with ethnically diverse students. All participants are National Writing Project fellows. The researcher analyzed teachers' journals, narratives, conversations, interviews and pre-surveys to collapse and code the research into themes. Findings suggest that teachers need time and support to write during the school day if they are going to write. They also need a supportive, honest, and friendly audience, the writing community, to feel like writers. Findings generated have implications for teacher preparation programs. The participant, who was not an education major, in her undergraduate program, is the only teacher who feels confident in her writing abilities which she connects to her experience in writing and presenting her work as an English and women's studies major. More teacher education programs should offer more writing courses so that preservice teachers become comfortable with the art of composition. Universities and colleges must foster the identities of both instructor and writer in preservice language arts teachers so that they become more confident in their writing and, in turn, their writing instruction. It may be implausible for novice teachers to be effective writing instructors, and educate their students on effective writing strategies, if they do not feel confident in their writing abilities. Although writing researchers may posit that English teachers act as gatekeepers by withholding writing practices from their students (Early and DeCosta-Smith, 2011), this study suggests that English teachers may not have these writing skills because they do not write and or participate in a writing community. When preservice English teachers are not afforded authentic writing opportunities, they graduate from their teacher education programs without confidence as writers. Once ELA teachers transition into their careers they are, again, not afforded the opportunity to write. In turn, it is difficult for them to teach writing to their students, particularly low-income, minority students who may need additional support from their teachers with composition. K-12 teachers need the time and space to write for themselves, on topics of their selection, during the school day, and then, must be trained on how to use their writing as a model to coach their students.
Download or read book Teaching Autoethnography written by Melissa Tombro and published by Open SUNY Textbooks. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethonographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and performance studies, which encourage self-reflection and narrative composition. Concepts from qualitative inquiry studies, which examine everyday life, are combined with approaches to the creation of character and scene to help writers develop engaging narratives that examine chosen subcultures and the author's position in relation to her research subjects. The book brings together a brief history of first-person qualitative research and writing from the past forty years, examining the evolution of nonfiction and qualitative approaches in relation to the personal essay. A selection of recent student writing in the genre as well as reflective student essays on the experience of conducting research in the classroom is presented in the context of exercises for coursework and beyond. Also explored in detail are guidelines for interviewing and identifying subjects and techniques for creating informed sketches and images that engage the reader. This book provides approaches anyone can use to explore their communities and write about them first-hand. The methods presented can be used for a single assignment in a larger course or to guide an entire semester through many levels and varieties of informed personal writing.
