This article explores the connections between creating an equitable classroom and antiracist assessment. The article attempts to explain the impact of the equitable classroom on student apathy. Additionally, rigid concepts of "failing" under this equitable classroom model are interrogated. Finally, the article provides some insights into…

As writing instructors, the authors spend hours "talking back" to their students through written comments on their drafts. But how do student writers receive their comments, and what do they "do" with this feedback? Teachers invest so much time and energy in their responses to papers. How do they know what gets through, what makes sense to their…

There has been a great deal of groundbreaking research done on motivation during the last twenty-five years, and all of it points to the importance of intrinsic motivation. This research has very significant ramifications for teachers of English. In this essay, the author engages the issue of "aversion" that Linda Brodkey raises in her essay…

Composition teachers have generally embraced collaborative learning in the years since Kenneth Bruffee published his first article promoting its advantages in "College English" in 1972. But assigning collaboratively written papers in an introductory college writing course is still rare. This study assesses the benefits and drawbacks of assigning a…

Introducing Web-based literary hypertexts in an introductory writing course motivates students to ponder both the changing techniques of writing and reading and their own attitudes toward these two interrelated activities in a wholly new way. Evaluating a novice literature launches novice readers and writers on a journey to becoming "experts" at…

Considers how helping one to imagine himself or herself a writer is much more complex than nurturing a more stable grasp of sentence clarity or spelling. Notes that it involves the ability to nurture the personal introspection and cultural scrutiny that makes writing a source for reflection and transformation. (SG)

Describes an eight-step writing assignment that is a novel way to test students' writing skills in a way that is intriguing, interactive, and team-oriented, with built-in multiple deadlines requiring quick creativity and cognitive knowledge. Presents a poetry writing exercise in which the student is asked to write a short poem in the voice of…

Considers how students and teachers use Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) to respond to writing anxieties. Notes that experiences with TO have encouraged the continuation of experimentation with the theories and practices in and out of the classroom. Discusses how TO places instructors in creatively vulnerable and edifying positions.…

Relates composition to the philosophy of Taoism as performing an activity instinctively and with ease. Illustrates the relationship with examples of students' reactions to particular writing situations. (HTH)

Notes that while active learning strategies enable students to grasp important concepts, they also help students become enthusiastic and confident writers and interpreters of literature. Suggests that the more active students are in the lesson, the more engaged they will be in the subject matter and the better opportunity they will have to learn…

This article examines the ideological assumptions and practical consequences of recent state and federal attempts to standardize writing instruction at the secondary level, and it suggests alternative forms of assessment and classroom research available to teachers of composition in high school and college.

Describes how to use pragmatic and logical arguments to change students' negative attitudes toward basic writing courses. (MM)

Discusses how the author and a colleague made a short videotape of students talking about their writing experiences. Describes first steps, arrangements and questions, the shoot itself, and crafting the video. Discusses uses of this video, noting the impact this infusion of student voices can have in the composition classroom, influencing the way…

Argues that composition teachers, rather than dismiss their students' consumption of popular culture, should juxtapose popular culture with scholarly interpretations of popular culture and with traditional texts to draw students in and encourage analysis, interpretation and reevaluation of their assumptions. (SR)

A survey of recent texts affirms there is no single, correct way to respond to student writing. The latest discussion reveals variations in what students want, systems instructors use to respond, and types of comments instructors may write.