In this article, I share some of the findings from a community-engaged research project based at Autores Fuertes, a community literacy center, located in urban Philadelphia. Using an engaged, ethnographic case study approach, I conducted observations and interviews at the center, as well as taught translanguaging writing workshops. The findings…

Literary criticism of children's literature asserts a one-directional view of power with the adult writer constructing the child reader. Using "aetonormativity"-- adult perceptions of normality -- this paper explores what happens when children co-construct publishable fiction. Our analysis of drama and creative writing workshops shows…

The purpose of this article is to describe, examine, and make a case for the value of a Continuing Professional Development week-long summer institute offered to teachers from across the education continuum -- from early childhood, through primary, secondary, further and higher education. At the institute participants could meet, learn and share…

In order to explore ways to integrate new pedagogical practices, five faculty members created an informal faculty learning community focused on writing-to-learn practices, an inquiry and process-based writing pedagogy. The faculty members learned the writing-to-learn practices together, periodically met to discuss how they implemented the…

The Faculty Writing Fellows Seminar was designed to develop university instructors' skill in writing instruction: The 2015-16 professional development project offered faculty at Southern Oregon University a chance to read writing-pedagogy research, collaboratively develop their teaching practices, and--most importantly--put themselves in the shoes…

The teaching and learning of writing in the elementary classroom setting is a complex process. As students participate in the classroom community and write, they engage not only in the cognitive task of academic writing, but in various social practices as well-negotiating positionality, developing identities, cultivating understandings of genre,…

Workshop pedagogy is a staple of writing classrooms at all levels. However, little research has explored the pedagogical moves that can address longstanding critiques of writing workshop, nor the sorts of rhetorical challenges that teachers and students in secondary classrooms can tackle through workshops. This article documents and analyzes the…

This study examines two experienced teachers' transformations and sense of agency as they implemented a writer's workshop curriculum with multi-lingual third grade students. Multiple lines of inquiry guide the study including "communities of practice" (Lave & Wenger, 1991), "teacher identities in figured worlds" (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, &…

Debate regarding appropriate instructional practices for linguistically and culturally diverse students led to a study of a bilingual Latina teacher's third-grade writing workshop. Qualitative research methods were used to provide a rich description of context, instruction, and participation. This was combined with the teacher's personal narrative…

This article describes an effort to create a teacher learning community in which university and local school teachers worked together to improve the teaching of writing at elementary and secondary levels. I describe how a university's National Writing Project (NWP) engaged in developing a cadre of selected teachers to share understandings about…