Teachers’ Perspectives on the State of Writing in High School English Classrooms (original) (raw)
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The Status of Writing in the District of Columbia Public Schools: 1986-87
1987
To assist in the process of improving writing instruction, a study assessed the status of writing in the District of Columbia Public Schools. The study consisted of four components: a teacher survey; a student survey; principal interviews; and a curriculum assessment. The teacher survey was administered to 897 teachers in 34 schools and the student survey was administered to 2,394 students in 26 schools during December 1986 through March 1987. Principals at 12 schools (four elementary, four junior high/middle school, and four senior high) were interviewed during March and April 1987. Results indicated that students, teachers, and principals were supportive of instructional efforts in writing. However, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and sentence completion items were among the types of in-class activities identified as writing most frequently assigned. Essays, book reports, journals, and creative writing were not reported to be common in-class writing activities. Findings also showed that many teachers lack recent, formal exposure to process writing and writing across the curriculum.
Teaching writing to high school students: A national survey
Journal of Educational Psychology, 2009
A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science high school teachers (N ϭ 361; 53% women) from the United States were surveyed about what their students wrote, their use of evidencebased writing practices, the adaptations they made for weaker writers, how they assessed writing, their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about the importance of writing, and judgments about their students' writing capabilities. The findings from this survey raised some concerns about the quality of high school writing instruction. The writing activities they were assigned most frequently by teachers involved little analysis and interpretation, and almost one half of the participating teachers did not assign at least one multiparagraph writing assignment monthly. Although the majority of high school teachers did apply most of the evidence-based practices and adaptations included in the survey, they used these practices infrequently. Most teachers did not believe their college teacher education program adequately prepared them to teach writing. A sizable minority of language arts and social studies teachers indicated that their in-service preparation was inadequate too. For science teachers this was close to 60%.
A Snapshot of Writing Instruction in Middle Schools and High Schools
English Journal, 2016
Center on English Learning and Achievement. he has published widely on the teaching and learning of English, and he cochaired the planning committee that developed a new, computer-based framework for the 2011 NAEP writing assessment. Applebee is a past recipient of NCTE's david h. Russell Award for distinguished research in the teaching of English. Email him
What we can learn from writing research
Theory Into Practice, 1980
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Teaching Writing in the 21st century BLACKTHORNE.pdf
With the pervasiveness of the Internet, and media screens in every room and pocket, children in the 21 st century are exhibiting resistance to learning with 20 th century pedagogical modalities. Edward M. Hopkins asked the following question in the first issue of English Journal: "Can good composition teaching be done under present conditions?" His terse answer, "No," still resonates." (Gold, et. al., 2012, p. 271). Although this question was posed in 1912, the situation remains the same, over one hundred years later. Has the linear nature of text and direct instruction gone the way of the dodo bird? Teaching writing in the 21 st century requires teachers to overcome the hurdles of the contemporary classroom: poorly funded education, cultural diversity, ADHD, No Child Left Behind, and perhaps most of all -a generation raised on electronic media.
Noting that within the area of literacy, writing is a young area of study, this research report looks at the impact of the national Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy's 10 years of sustained research. The paper first considers how Center research projects and activities have been tied together to address three interlocking sets of questions: (1) What writing demands are made upon students in key educational, family, community, and workplace settings? (2) How do students meet these demands? and (3) How do teachers help students meet these demands, and how can student progress be measured? The paper then states that in Center projects that involve teacher research, a striking role was found for writing in the professional development of teachers, based on reflection and inquiry that grows out of various forms of teacher research. The paper then points out that one of the biggest challenges facing the United States today is finding ways for varied cultural groups to come together ign multicultural classrooms and communities. The paper provides several case studies illustrating this line of research, including one study of immigrant adolescents learning to write in English. The paper then elaborates on research into the changing literacy requirements in the workplace, discusses diverse methods of writing assessment, and considers cultural differences between readers and writers. The paper concludes by stressing the centrality of writing and literacy for an individual's success in school and the workplace and its importance to the effective functioning of the larger community. (NKA)