This article describes a student-led assessment of a writing showcase event sponsored by a composition learning community at an urban R1 university. Participants conducted student-to-student interviews at the semi-annual writing showcase event to help assess whether and how the learning community event supported learning outcomes. The interviews,…

How to prepare teachers to be effective in our nations' classrooms seems to get increasingly complex, yet the links between teacher education and teachers' eventual practices are little understood. Using complexity theory as a theoretical framework, this mixed-methods study investigated writing teacher practices of 23 elementary teachers. Twelve…

This qualitative study examined how National Board certified teachers (NBCTs) perceive the meaning of reflective teaching and how their perceptions compare to the literature on reflective thinking and teaching. The study included five participants who had completed the National Board certification process. Data collection included three…

Scholars have at various points discussed the needs of second language (L2) writers enrolled in "mainstream" composition courses where they are mixed with native (L1) English speakers. Other researchers have investigated the experiences of L2 writers in mainstream classes and the perceptions of their instructors about their abilities and…

This article describes the findings of a qualitative phenomenographic study that explored students' engagement from the perspective of the students. It describes how the participants perceived their engagement when they learned social studies using GIS Story Maps. Qualitative data collection involved classroom observations, student-written…

This study is an examination of the outcomes of practicing autoethnography, specifically in the context of first-year undergraduate, writing-intensive courses. The researcher recounts his initial, inspiring encounter with autoethnography and explores the possibility of its pedagogical application in composition instruction. Autoethnography is a…

This article shares a study of an interview/writing project for adolescent girls, which was a component of the Girls Writing Science Project at a diverse urban high school in the Southwestern United States. The group of high school girls planned, initiated, conducted, and wrote interview profiles of women scientists from their local community.…

The present study investigates the effects of two subsequent learning contexts, formal instruction (FI) at home and a 3-month stay abroad (SA), on vocabulary acquisition in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing and speaking. Data were collected from 30 Catalan/Spanish learners of English before and after each learning period using a written…

The research on which this case account is based was motivated by my interest to understand what counts as literacy in schools. I started my career as a primary school teacher, teaching English language to children. The children were avid readers. Although they were good readers and communicators, what baffled me were the dismal language scores…

Adversity has always been a part of life, however, today's hurricanes and earthquakes in increasingly populated areas, violent unrest creating a global refugee crisis, battlefield stress and work-place harassment, and the challenges of aging populations are demanding a better understanding of how individuals cope with adversity regardless of the…

Hosting guest speakers is a common practice among instructors because it can yield new insights for students. However, the experience is often disappointing. This article refers to guest experts to signal a break from the conventional approach, in which guest speakers deliver information primarily in a one-directional manner without any engagement…

Over the last decade celebrations of student writing (CSWs) have been instituted at universities across the nation as a public way to celebrate students' voices, identities, and literacies. Often touted as a way to gain campus-wide recognition and support for first-year composition courses, this event also purportedly fosters agency and authority…

Several studies have been conducted to investigate the grammatical errors of Iraqi postgraduates and undergraduates in their academic writing. However, few studies have focused on the writing challenges that Iraqi pre-university students face. This research aims at examining the written discourse of Iraqi high school students and the common…

The case study investigates what impact extensive reading of authentic picture books/illustrated books had on the learners' writing skills in a Norwegian EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom of 11-year-olds. Furthermore, the study also looks into the importance the pictures/illustrations had for the learners and what type of picture-text…

This paper explores the effects participation as writers has on the identities teachers take on when they are both writers who teach and teachers who write. This paper focuses on three interview participants and explores their encounters as writers as they engaged in the "risky" business of being writers, within and beyond school. A…