The authors examined how high school seniors conceptualized the task of writing college admissions essays, the audience for that writing, and themselves as potentially college-worthy writers. In a survey and related interviews, students revealed more emphasis on generic good writing than on the narrative argument genre that college admissions…

Revisions in writing aim at text improvement. Literature has shown that revision activity differs between novice and experienced writers. Our ultimate goal is to understand how children and adolescents develop the capacity to shift perspectives from language producer to language recipient -- a prerequisite ability to successful revision. In this…

This multicase study explores students' understandings about revision in the light of successive findings that they typically revise their texts little and at superficial levels. Students' limited revising has been variously explained, both in terms of cognitive-metacognitive factors and restrictive school models. Few studies, however, have…

In this article, the authors reflect on their experiences of integrating visual arts, specifically painting, into an English language arts curriculum. Although each of them had previously used art as a response to literature with our students, neither of them had before collaborated with professional artists or been as intentional about…

Perspective taking, one's knowledge of their own mental and emotional states and inferences about others' mental and emotional states, is an important skill for writing development. In the present study, we examined how perspective taking is expressed in writing and how it is related to overall writing quality. We analyzed seventh graders'…

Teaching digital literacies as social practices is challenging for many English as an Additional Language (EAL) practitioners. There is not much research that offers effective approaches and specific examples. Drawing on the '3D' model (Green [2002]. "A Literacy Project of Our Own." "English in Australia" 134: 25-32), this…

Perspective taking, one's knowledge of their own mental and emotional states and inferences about others' mental and emotional states, is an important skill for writing development. In the present study, we examined how perspective taking is expressed in writing and how it is related to overall writing quality. We analyzed seventh graders'…

This essay draws from the experience of observing writing practices in English lessons from 2010-2019, to suggest that the influence of education policy during this phase prioritises preparation for examination questions above the imperatives of learner creativity or volition. Through discussion of ways in which the 'high stakes' examination…

The recently adopted TEKS for English I-IV that will be implemented in 2020-2021 require students to write for a variety of purposes and audiences, to practice the writing process, and to engage in reflective writing. These standards can be difficult to meet when literacy instruction is confined to classroom borders, where students often write…

Research about adolescents sharing creative writing in interest-driven online communities has suggested that teachers can play important roles in helping young writers realize the potential of online spaces. Framed by sociocultural notions of new literacies and a conceptual framework theorizing the rhetorical situation when sharing writing in…

Views about what writing is and how it should be taught have varied over the years as well as across contexts. Studies of curricula, teaching materials, and teaching practices have shown a strong focus on skills, genres, and processes, but few have asked teachers about their perspectives on writing. In this article we explore what views, or…

The present study examined how writing tasks in high school English textbooks under the revised national curriculum reflected the key writing elements (process, genre, and context) of process-genre based approach. Concerning the latter, the focus was narrowed to audience since it was relatively neglected in writing instruction compared with other…

The purpose of this article is to isolate and detail various literacies deployed by youth when they composed multimodal texts that culminated in the production of student films. In particular, we focus on manifestations of young people's thinking in the forms of fast and slow literacies. Using data from a series of research studies in which we…

This article examines a series of plays created by Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout Theatre in Education Company in the first years of the twenty-first century that aimed to respond to rising concerns about the impact of increasing numbers of refugees in the East Midlands. My discussion focuses on two of these: Mohammed, performed to Year 6…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide, "Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively," offers educators three specific, evidence-based recommendations that address the challenges of teaching students in grades 6-12 to write effectively. This summary focuses on the first of the three recommendations: Explicitly teach…