Writing in school has long been disconnected and inauthentic to multilingual learners due to its monolingual, language-focused, and standardized features. Although more and more researchers have called for and explored newer asset-based writing pedagogies, such as digital multimodal writing, to support diverse learners in response to emerging…

Struggling writers often need more instructional support than is present in commercially available process writing curricula. In this study, we employed a one-group, pretest-posttest design to evaluate whether 41 struggling primary grade writers who attended a university-based summer learning program would increase in writing ability, given a…

As writers are increasingly required to leave their ways of knowing, doing and being at the doors of their classrooms, this article explores what happens when teachers of writers open those doors and mobilize the "Writing Realities" framework's interrelated principles of "writer-identity," "critical literacies,"…

This article is a revised and expanded version of my presidential address delivered during the 74th Annual Conference of the Literacy Research Association. Part biography and autoethnography, I discuss the need to 'trouble five dark spaces' that affect the literacy development of black male children and teenagers: (1) bounded research orientations…

This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study explores how elementary teachers made sense of their experience in the National Writing Project's Summer Institute and how it influenced their teaching of writing. Many elementary teachers have not received writing methods as a stand-alone course during their teacher preparation. Furthermore, the…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insights from educational leaders who had participated in a larger study and received extensive practice-based professional development on an evidence-based practice, self-regulated strategy development for informative writing. The participants also previously implemented the self-regulated…

The unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges including a need for new curricula, pedagogy, and more accessible forms of professional development (PD). A gap in research exists regarding professional development of educators. This qualitative study used data collected from two surveys, a focus group, and a…

This study examines the use of critical community-building--using dialogue as a collective to support, listen to, ask questions, and assist each other in thinking in critical ways--to support resettled youths' writing during a summer writing camp. Through encouraging the youth to use their home languages, by celebrating their cultures, honoring…

In this commentary, a National Writing Project site director and two teachers reflect on the philosophy of ubuntu as it helped them redesign a writing community between teachers and students in Connecticut. With the guidance of writing activity genre research, the authors discuss the creation of Young Adult Literacy Labs, including Ubuntu Academy,…

This paper reports a cross-case analysis of three summer writing programs for youth in the northeast United States, each a longitudinal study in the tradition of design research. Initially, all three programs were most concerned with leveraging cultural and linguistic diversity as a resource for multilingual participants. As the three principal…

With handwriting being limitedly taught in schools; high intensity, summer handwriting camps may resolve the numerous handwriting rehabilitation referrals of school-aged children. To improve handwriting, a 5-day (3-hr/daily session) summer camp was created for children (ages 5-9 years old). Thirty children (ages 5-9) were given manuscript…

Research findings support a relationship between writing self-efficacy and writing production. A multiple-probe across students design was used to evaluate the effects of a writing intervention, which included strategy instruction and cognitive-behavioral components, on the writing production of three middle school students. Visual analysis of…

Colleges and universities have used programs like the summer bridge program (SBP) to improve academic abilities and retention. The research on the effectiveness of SBPs is inconclusive. With a focus those on who required remediation in writing, the purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to evaluate the influence of a SBP on…

This work draws from a larger research project that centres a youth summer writing programme. In this article, the author recounts the multiliteracy experiences of a white student who found creative strategies to document her identity and values in her work, as she learned to navigate a learning environment that decentered whiteness. Two…

In this article, the author introduces the notion of the balloon metaphor, an exercise she created for preservice writing teachers, in which they reflect upon their writing mentors and their writing journey. The author also discusses three very important issues facing the field of literacy today: teachers are not taught to write, teachers of…