Many developmental writing courses in colleges focus on teaching students isolated skills, with little emphasis on how such skills are applicable to the actual process of writing. This article focuses on capturing the perspectives of students enrolled in a developmental writing course designed around an explicit process-oriented pedagogy. The…

This article examines two course redesigns undertaken to improve student support, learning, and retention in the basic writing program at Oakland University, a doctoral research university in southeast Michigan, where support for developmental writers has fluctuated dramatically between nurture and neglect over the past fifty years. However,…

While a thematic approach to teaching is not a novel idea, the specific needs of the developmental writer and a diverse student body can find the continuity of a theme especially beneficial, and the theme of fear has proven particularly successful. The typical developmental composition course at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University includes a…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the implementation of a Professional Learning Community (PLC) as a professional development model effective in altering teachers' perceptions of their knowledge and skill in teaching developmental writing in grades K-3. This research is necessary to examine how offering teachers…

This article examines some of the tensions and contradictions between the process-oriented, learning-centered pedagogy commonly associated with basic writing and the product-based, performance-centered moment mandated by writing-for-the-community varieties of service learning. Because end-of-term "writing-for" projects cannot provide students with…

Analysis of the use of the skills model to teach basic writing to nontraditional English language learners in community college points out barriers to this approach, including wide variation in linguistic, cultural, and educational background and inability to help students transition to academic discourse. An academic socialization model using…

In this description of a learning community for "at-risk" and basic writing students at the University of Wyoming, I outline the reasons our students resist academic writing prior to their entry into college--reasons largely unrelated to typical perceptions of at-risk students as "lazy" or intellectually less capable. For…

Asserts that taking Introduction to College Writing, a fundamental writing course at Central Missouri State University, improves student academic achievement by developing their basic writing skills and preparing them for more advanced, general education writing courses. (VWC)