This discussion introduces a heuristic to guide writing instruction with adolescents and young adults. Our framework, called "Open World Writing," consists of six writing territories (vision, material, design, voice, flow, polish) that provide focus and clarity for writing and educators working across academic and creative writing…

This article presents the findings of a study in which college freshman reflected on the process of writing a literacy narrative and considered the impact of such writing on their narrative identities. The author synthesizes existing scholarship on literacy narratives, discusses the methodology of interpretive phenomenological analysis utilized,…

This study aims to understand how bilingual college students constructed literacy spaces across their lives rather than an in-school/out-of-school dichotomy. Drawing on Lefebvre's (1991) spatial triad as a lens to examine the participants' spatial literacy practices, the findings show that some participants repurposed planned spaces into literacy…

This discussion article presents practices for designing more supportive and individualized writing tasks for adolescent and young adult students. The practices emerged from a synthesis of findings from a prior study in which we asked 79 undergraduates to talk about moments from their writing histories that made them feel proud of their writing.

Engaging college students in purposeful academic tasks designed to foster both reading and writing competencies requires calculated decision-making regarding the goals and benefits of the literacy tasks used in college courses. Consequently, we explore text reformulation as a literacy strategy that aims to enrich students' reading and writing…

This study explores the implications of critical affective literacy through digital storytelling projects produced by first-year college writing students. The goal was to examine college students' affective and emotional responses to social justice issues, such as racial profiling, educational inequality, and animal protection, through the lens of…

This article examines African American rhetorical feature use in the secondary literacy classroom. It explores the historical evolution and pedagogical implications of incorporating African American rhetorical features into classroom writing instruction. The article discusses the historical evolution of African American Language and its position…

Focusing on a large study of the implementation of secondary English Language Arts curriculum in California and Washington, we assess how teachers use learning goals to support students developing expert learning practices. Highlighting the value of goal setting to support students' agency in learning to write, we describe teachers' reasons for…

Literacy scholars have called for writing instruction to promote civic engagement, student agency, and multimodal composing. This study addressed this call by describing a research-practice partnership to reimagine writing instruction in a high school English course by incorporating human-centered design challenges. Using case study methods, we…

Foundational skills are often viewed as necessary components for automaticity in reading and writing. In this study, we draw on teacher interviews to explore what secondary English/language arts teachers identify as necessary language for successful school writing. Findings suggest that teachers believe White mainstream English is a necessary…

Students who understand their writing process and see themselves as writers are more likely to successfully tackle unfamiliar genres and writing tasks. In this self-study, a college English professor and two first-year college students make a case for an extended-metaphor assignment that helps students build stronger identities as writers.…

With dialogic writing assessment, teachers can scaffold students' writing processes in ways that are flexible and responsive to students' individual needs. Examples of teachers using this conference-based method of classroom writing assessment illustrate how to practice assessment that is dynamic and relational rather than static and standardized,…

Through the teaching of writing, classrooms are potential sites to address personal power, welcome student ideas, and cultivate a culture of writing for many purposes. Writing that is personal invites students to explore and compose what is possible and to make connections between a subject and the self. Such writing requires a reimagining of…

Many adolescent readers experience difficulties comprehending informational text, which may result from underlying difficulties with foundational skills (e.g., word recognition and fluency), knowledge demands (e.g., background, text structure, and vocabulary), and/or reading motivation. Supplemental interventions for adolescents targeting only…

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,…