Mid-adolescence has been identified as a period of considerable potential growth in the language skills and practices that support reading and writing at school, but little research has examined mid-adolescents' use of connectives in school-relevant persuasive writing. In this study, we define connectives as cohesive devices that signal to a…

This article examines teaching strategies to empower metacognition through dance writing and collaborative dance making based on a project for middle school dance students at a Title I middle school during the Fall of 2020. This project draws on theoretical frameworks of critical pedagogy, intersectionality, and educational constructivism. Based…

In this article, the authors share an account of an eighth-grade personal narrative unit designed to support students in composing accounts of life during the 2020-21 pandemic school year. The article provides an overview of the four phases that comprised this nine-lesson unit and the materials and resources used. Students' voices, perspectives,…

This study aims to determine the cognitive structures of students at different educational levels (8th grade and 12th grade) related to acid-base chemistry. The research was designed as a case study and structured in two stages. The first stage analyzed concepts related to acid-base chemistry and their direction and strength in students' knowledge…

One aim of this article is to shift mindsets from the traditional identification of written language abilities that are "missing" in students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) to writing assessment as the discovery of more complex language strengths foundational to success across disciplines. The multiple language-levels (MLL)…

In this article, we examine the fraught task of doing drama-based work on the climate crisis with youth in schools at a time of increasing climate fatalism. We focus on what a virtual, speculative fiction writing and performance workshop achieved with students in Coventry, Kaohsiung and Bogotá by inviting them to rewrite the futures of local…

Writing in science can be challenging for all learners, and it is especially so for students with cognitive or language-based learning difficulties. We examined the effects of a cognitive apprenticeship on student disciplinary writing skills as well as near and far transfer of learning outcomes. This instructional approach included a gradual…

This paper focuses on exploring the transition South African learners make from Grade 7 to Grade 8, with an emphasis on the experiences of all the role players in two school cultures during this transition phase. This qualitative exploratory research project was placed in a constructivist research paradigm. The data were analysed in an exploratory…

Middle school social studies teachers are increasingly working on argument writing in their classrooms so that students can successfully write counterarguments that acknowledge competing perspectives about historical and social issues by the end of eighth grade. The authors' prior research indicates that eighth-grade students "can" grow…

Background: South Africa's "Language-in-Education Policy" (LiEP) provides for bi/multilingual education, but schools are only supported to choose monolingual English language policies from Grade 4 and ignore the learners' home language or languages as resources for learning. Many teachers translanguage orally, using the learners' home…

Many students struggle with decoding and implementing feedback given to them on writing assignments. Researchers and instructors have used various technologies and strategies to improve students' uptake of feedback given on written assignments, one of which is a form of video feedback called screencasting. Research has been conducted on students'…