Many Basic Writing students have stories which are informed by traumas, othering, and marginalization. Finding pedagogies which address students' stories, in addition to meeting academic goals, is crucial. Sometimes, students question how improving their reading and writing skills can help them navigate other areas of their education and…

The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) is recognized as a leader in Basic Writing reform for community colleges due to their Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). The features Adams et al. adapted from various programs to better support CCBC students, particularly the central features of mainstreaming and acceleration, have helped reinvent…

The college open door policy initiated in the 1960s made access to higher education available for more students in the United States. People who were once excluded from enrolling in college now have an opportunity to earn a college degree. Some first-time students, significantly underprepared in writing, have been required to enroll in…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the implementation of a Professional Learning Community (PLC) as a professional development model effective in altering teachers' perceptions of their knowledge and skill in teaching developmental writing in grades K-3. This research is necessary to examine how offering teachers…

English teachers, especially those in the field of basic writing, have long debated how to teach writing to students whose home language differs from the perceived norm. This thesis intervenes in that stalemated debate by re-examining "elaborated codes" and by arguing for a type of correctness in writing that includes being correct…

Personal response devices, "clickers," that allow students to answer questions and see on a projected screen the results of their voting, followed by discussion and reprocessing, is a form of educational technology that has been embraced by instructors of large classes, particularly in the natural sciences. This dissertation describes their use in…

Many composition teachers use the writing conference to provide feedback to their students; however, the existing literature on the subject indicates that teachers may unintentionally harm their weaker students by using this strategy. To better understand the effect of the writing conference on developmental writing students, the researcher…