After twenty-five years, the authors find that the "natural" writing center-WAC connection has proven its value over time. Pointing to the growth of WAC-writing centers, their scholarship, role in faculty development and community building, the authors end by reflecting on how this program building over the last years supports and can…

In this article, the author reflects on keynotes by Debra Myhill and Wayne Sawyer in a search for ways with grammar. One of the keynote speakers, Debra Myhill, shared her research into teaching grammar that she had conducted in the UK. Myhill had asked a sample of teachers to follow a specified unit plan and had conducted pre- and post-testing to…

The recently released Common Core State Standards increase classroom emphasis on informational texts in high school and recommend a three-part measurement for text complexity when selecting texts for classroom use. In this commentary I argue that fictional narratives can not only meet these stated criteria for complex texts and result in critical…

Although using the five-paragraph formula to teach essay writing is a ubiquitous practice--and many K-12 teachers defend it--Campbell argues that having students write according to this formula does more harm than good. The formula's tight structure stops the very critical thinking students need to do to strengthen their cognition and their…

Michael W. Smith, a professor in Temple University's College of Education, focuses his research on how experienced readers read and talk about texts as well as what motivates adolescents' reading and writing in and out of school. He sees the recent research on adolescents' out-of-school literacies as a challenge to literacy educators to look at…

This article addresses the difference between knowledge-inquiry and wisdom-inquiry in nuclear physics education. In the spirit of an earlier study of 57 senior-level textbooks for first-degree physics students, this work focuses here on a remarkable use of literary quotations in one such book. "Particles and Nuclei: an introduction to the physical…

In 2003, the National Commission on Writing released "The Neglected "R,"" its report on the state of writing instruction in the nation's schools. The report identified an apparent paradox: writing, which the Commission defines as an essential skill for the many that has helped transform the world, is nevertheless increasingly…

2011 marks the Centennial of the National Council of Teachers of English, and to commemorate this milestone, CCC will publish two Symposia, one in this issue of the journal, and a second in June. Here we learn from Erika Lindemann about the founding of both NCTE and CCCC; about how both groups have developed; and, drawing from these histories,…

In 1992, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) held a conference featuring leaders in the field of composition studies, attended by a wish list of luminaries, including Lil Brannon, Ed Corbett, Peter Elbow, Donald Murray, and Ken Macrorie. James Britton and Nancy Martin flew over from England to join the conversation. The prestigious research…

In this frankly utopian essay, Robert Yagelski's theme is the transformative power of writing as an act in and of itself. He makes us reevaluate our motivation and point for teaching writing in schools and asks us to consider an agenda that will quite frankly scare teachers as he explains why we need an ontology of writing. (Contains 6 notes.)

A critical/creative paradigm in contemporary English carries with it an imperative that students should be given opportunities for deep engagement with texts relevant to what matters in their everyday lives. In this paper, I argue that the materiality of everyday life includes the physical and geographic places where we live. When students live in…

How do we become the people we are? Humanist common sense proposes that people are born with a rational "self." But poststructural theory proposes a subjectivity formed in interaction with cultural discourses. Poststructural theory offers teachers fresh ways to teach critical literacy and thinking and provides students with ways to resist ideas…

A school is a tough place to change. Everyone hear of schools being transformed into an exemplary or model learning places. In the report, "The Neglected 'R'': The Need for a Writing Revolution," by the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, a panel organized in September of 2002 by The College Board, it says, "... it…

I present autobiographical writing and photographic imaging, an arts-based research methodology, to understand my personal knowledge as a means to understand my professional knowledge. Using my passions for writing and photography, I explore the conflicts, opportunities, and purposes of using a visual form of arts-based narrative inquiry from a…

The new edition of this classic book describes and provides a myriad of examples of the relationships between problem posing and problem solving, and explores the educational potential of integrating these two activities in classrooms at all levels. "The Art of Problem Posing, Third Edition" encourages readers to shift their thinking…