After ten years of public school teaching and countless student teaching observations, the author knows firsthand that English language arts (ELA) teachers are committed to teaching researched argumentative writing and, further, they often frame their assignments as questions. In this article, the author proposes that ELA teachers accelerate…

Revision is arguably the heart of the writing process, but teachers and students may sidestep the complexities in favor of the quick finish. By surfacing the classroom ecologies and practices involved in supporting student writers, the authors discover revision as a site for the development of agency. To more closely examine what happens in the…

Teachers search for ways to make classroom writing relevant and "real world." This article makes a case for using radio as a framework for the teaching of writing. Using this framework enables students to write strong, specific, and effective pieces and draws the real world into the classroom with the use of smartphones and Web-based…

In this article, the author talks about the use of punctuation and describes a study that confirmed her growing sense that all students need exposure to and instruction on the full repertoire of punctuation. In an attempt to assess how much of the eleventh graders know about the way professionals use punctuation, all teachers at Webster Thomas…

Nonfiction writing, as defined by the author, is the mix of art, craft, and information, put together by writers who let readers know they are interested in a topic, and who speculate about what that interest or topic might mean. In this article, the author introduces ten imagined colleagues who provide essential support for the teaching of…

Writing a screenplay was an assignment that was part of Storytelling Through Film, a program sponsored by the Austin Film Festival, a professional film organization. In six weeks, students in creative writing and English classes first learned about the genre of screenwriting and then wrote original screenplays. The curriculum was a collaborative…

Some scholars writing about improving students' reading and integrating reading and writing instruction suggest using think-aloud techniques to teach students reading comprehension skills. Using think-alouds to teach reading comprehension and then the read-aloud protocol technique (which is based on think-alouds) for peer review has two major…

In this article, the author shares how she envisioned and created a writing assignment for a ninth-grade English course. The writing project is a class novel comprised of short stories, one written by each student. In the writing assignment, seniors compile their favorite writings from any class in any year of high school and write reflections…

In this article, the authors offer an approach to teaching that can help students prepare to write for the workplace and in the community: a case study of community-based writing. In this case-study project, students work in groups to study the writing needs and practices of a community-based group or organization, such as a local public library,…

Describes how students can use metaphors to evaluate their writing. Provides several metaphors which can help students make decisions about the use of support, examples, and detail in their writing. (MM)

Addresses the following questions: (1) why some students are reluctant or unwilling to revise while others revise more readily; and (2) what teachers can do to encourage reluctant revisers. (SR)

Describes how studying under Ken Macrorie led one high school English teacher to use freewriting as a prewriting activity in her classroom. (ARH)

Describes the training and operation of the "Write Team," a class of high school junior and senior writing coaches who help students with first- or second-draft writing before a teacher evaluates it. (RS)

Discusses the ways language shapes meaning and knowledge. Considers how writing instruction is vitally linked to the concepts of social constructionism. Outlines a class exercise in which the teacher shares an essay-in-progress with students and discusses the idea of writing and revision as "conversation." (HB)

Reports how the use of microcomputers in a writing class helped change students' writing behaviors, created a writing community, caused the teacher to learn along with the students, and helped marginal writers improve. (SRT)