In this article the author responds to Jonathan Silin's article "At a Loss: Scared and Excited", and in doing so, takes up his ideas around the generative potential of loss. She uses these notions of loss to illuminate how, in one diverse school community in Australia, loss, failure and an "awful reputation" have opened up…

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…

Writing groups for doctoral students are generally agreed to provide valuable learning spaces for Ph.D. candidates. Here an academic developer and the eight members of a writing group formed in a Discipline of Public Health provide an account of their experiences of collaborating in a multicultural, multidisciplinary thesis writing group. We…

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…

Discusses why writers write, and cites caring about the response to writing as the key to development. Urges teachers to be sensitive to the social nature of writing and to the vulnerability of writers, and to demonstrate and encourage writing for fun, enjoyment, and power. (MM)

Reflections by an Australian writer of fiction for young adults about her prize winning novel, its unusual cast of characters, and its reception by the critics. (RBW)

The net effect of the early experiences of writing "compositions" which involved either describing the circumstances of a student's life or recounting the kinds of events encapsulated in that proverbially hack title, "What I Did on My Summer Vacation," has been a tendency for older teachers to devalue nonfiction as an object of…

Describes the debate among Australian English teachers concerning "genre-based" approaches to writing development. Notes that applying lessons learned from the Australian debate without an awareness of the assumptions driving the debate may well lead to educators in other countries needlessly covering unnecessary and largely infertile…

Examines issues of writing instruction and assessment as they relate to an approach to English language education, developed in Australia, which emphasizes the importance of the teacher's use of metalanguage to enhance a shared understanding of language among teachers and students. Reviews genre theory and considers its relevance to teaching,…

Reports on a study of seven experienced secondary school writing teachers in Victoria, Australia. Focuses on how their own writing or lack of writing affects their teaching practices and effectiveness. Finds that the issue of becoming an effective writing teacher is more complex than the seemingly straightforward prescription that writing teachers…

Investigated the relationship between free choice writing in primary classrooms and gender construction. Suggests that girls are rewarded for producing gendered content, form, and structure in their writing, and are not offered opportunities to learn to write in different forms for different audiences. Thus, free choice does not appear to lead to…

Through focusing on the genre of informational reports, two dilemmas of genre teaching are explored: (1) a teaching dilemma about how to help students achieve flexible writing competencies through a combination of immersion in text exemplars and instruction in text features; and (2) a curriculum dilemma about how to combine the goals of…

Experimental narrative forms of writing research can offer empowering representations for adult education and feminist researchers. This article presents a selection of academic storytelling in the form of scanned transcript poems or "Learning stories," produced through interviews with women who participated in a special access program…

Contrasts uses of electronic mail which are contrived by teachers versus uses that are based on real educational needs. Examples based on elementary school projects in Canada, the United States, and Australia are given; and uses in distance education, in school administration, with handicapped children, and to improve writing skills are described.…

This is the fourth paper published by The Centre for Literacy in its Working Papers in Literacy series, which present new perspectives on literacy-related issues relevant to researchers, to practitioners, and to policy-makers. This paper was written in 1998 as an advisory document to the UK Qualifications and Curriculum Agency (QCA) which manages…