In response to the dearth of research on K to 6 teacher preparation for teaching writing, we investigated writing methods course instructors' course assignments. Participants' courses met the following criteria: (a) Courses taken by undergraduate elementary teacher candidates; (b) Writing methods courses; (c) Use of exemplary writing instructional…

Grade 4 represents a critical juncture in the literacy development of young students. This article explores the role of handwriting in unlocking the higher order psycholinguistic and metacognitive resources needed to compose quality text. In particular, we investigate the threshold of control over handwriting needed to unlock vocabulary that…

A critical challenge for computer-based writing instruction is providing appropriate and adaptive practice. The current study examined three modes of computer-based writing practice with the goal of identifying those with the greatest learning and motivational value. High school students learned about writing strategies by studying lessons within…

In this interview Dr. Bruce Ballenger and I discuss his career, his many textbooks on writing, his recent collaboration on an extensive study of the revision processes of advanced writers, and the challenges of balancing a career with a foot in multiple academic fields (i.e. composition and rhetoric and creative writing). Dr. Ballenger retired…

This study examined whether writing skills could be taught to post-secondary students via online learning modules and what student perceptions of such a learning process were like. A pilot study of the modules--called "Scribe Hero"--was conducted in the Fall of 2017. Statistical analysis of quantitative data reveals an improvement in…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a simple contingency contracting intervention on the correct use of punctuation marks in freely produced texts by elementary school children with learning disabilities. This approach can be considered a promising strategy for facilitating the development of academic skills in…

This study attempts to explore the target needs and the learning needs. This research was conducted at the second semester English department students of Palangka Raya State Islamic Institute of 2017/ 2018 academic years. The respondent was 20 EFL paragraph writing learners. The research findings were as follows: (a) in terms of the target…

This study focused on how self-efficacy and self-apprehensiveness affected student perception and success in a first-year composition course at a community college. The purpose of this study was to uncover the factors that led to successful writers with a focus on self-efficacy and collegiate writing, namely introductory college composition.

A growing body of literature on teacher learning highlights that teachers are not likely to change their practices as a result of participating in traditional one-shot conference and workshop professional development activities, and suggests that a more effective approach is a teacher-driven, situated, collaborative, and sustained one (Ball &…

From the 2013 "Position Statement of Principles and Example Effective Practices for Online Writing Instruction (OWI)," OWI Principle 11 suggests, "Online writing teachers and their institutions should develop personalized and interpersonal online communities to foster student success." Previous discussions of synchronous…

This study looks at a student writing culture in a fifth grade English language arts classroom through the lens of Foucauldian power dynamics to examine the power relationships in the classroom and curriculum. The research questions were: (1) What is the nature of a writing culture in a fifth-grade writing classroom?; (2) What are students'…

Theorizing WPA expertise as problem-oriented, stakeholder-inclusive practice, we apply the twenty-first-century paradigm of transdisciplinarity to a campus WID Initiative to read and argue that data-driven research capturing transdisciplinary WPA methods in action will allow us to better understand, represent, and leverage…

When a student in a community-based writing program asked to write science fiction (SF), rather than a personal essay, he prompted the staff to expand the scope of the program's curriculum. This article describes how SF became another avenue for discussing community change. However, instead of just evaluating their worlds and writing about what…

This book problematizes digital divide with critical lens by focusing on education in general and specifically second language education with an emphasis on the context of Turkey based on sound methodologies and robust theories of modernity, postmodernity, post-structuralism and post-method framework. In line with this conceptualization, critical…

Rubrics can be used to give students targeted feedback on their writing and, therefore, teachers should be able to use them as a type of formative assessment to guide writing instruction. This article describes an exploratory study of how three teachers provided instruction for fourth, fifth, and seventh graders with learning disabilities and…