Resource Topics

Research - Teaching Writing

Three New Books Aim to Provide Comprehensive Reviews of Research in Writing

December 2007
Liz Simons
Three new books on research in the teaching of writing have appeared in the last two years. Collectively the books review the writing research of the last thirty years and offer a bonanza of knowledge about writing for both researchers and practitioners. More ›

Book Review: Literacies, Lies, and Silences: Girls Writing Lives, by Heather E. Bruce

The Quarterly, 2004
Shirley Brown
Shirley Brown reviews Bruce's book, which demonstrates how the inclusion of intensive writing in a women's studies course enables girls to reexamine their lives and gain courage to know and be themselves. More ›

Because Writing Matters: A Book That Shares What We Know

The Quarterly, Winter 2003
Art Peterson
Because Writing Matters, created by NWP, pulls together the concepts that have generated the successful practice of NWP teachers and makes the case for what needs to be done to advance the teaching of writing. More ›

Book Review: School's Out! by Glynda Hull and Katherine Schultz

The Quarterly, Spring 2003
Monie Hayes
Monie Hayes reviews School's Out! Bridging Out-of-School Literacies with Classroom Practice by Glynda Hull and Katherine Schultz. More ›

Talking Education with James Harvey

The Voice, May-June 2003
Amy Bauman
The keynote speaker at the 2003 NWP Spring Meeting provoked an interesting discussion using a clip from 28 Up—a British film series that follows a group of 14 children—to look at issues that affect children outside the classroom. Harvey proposed that although everyone wants high achievement for all students, no matter their background, what goes on outside school has as much to do with academic success as what goes on in school. More ›

Theory, Politics, Hope, and Action

The Quarterly, 2003
Carole Edelsky
In this article Edelsky employs the arguments of theory and the techniques of case study to make a plea for rationality in the education of English language learners. More ›

TR 24. Exploring the Cognition of Reading-to-Write

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 2003
Victoria Stein
This report describes how a comparison of the think-aloud protocols of 36 students showed differences in ways students monitored their comprehension, elaborated, structured the reading, and planned their texts. More ›

Brief Reviews of Major Works of James Moffett

The Voice, January-February 2001
John Warnock
John Warnock briefly sketches the works of James Moffett, emphasizing ideas for classroom practice found in his work. More ›

Book Review: John Dewey and the Challenge of Classroom Practice, by Fishman & McCarthy

The Quarterly, Spring 1998
Dixie Dellinger
More ›

Book Review: The Book of Learning and Forgetting, by Frank Smith

The Quarterly, Summer 1998
Bob Sizoo
More ›

Jim Moffett: 1929-1996: An Appreciation

The Quarterly, Winter 1997
James Gray
More ›

The More Things Change...Or Do They?

The Quarterly, Spring 1996
John C. Brereton
Excerpts from Brereton's collection of documents, The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875–1925: A Documentary History, demonstrate that hotly debated issues surrounding compositions instruction 100 years ago are still with us. More ›

OP 40. Revealing the Teacher-as-Reader: A Framework for Discussion and Learning

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1995
Melanie Sperling
Sperling offers a framework for thinking about the perspective teachers bring to reading students' writing, identifying five ways that one teacher reader oriented herself to her student writers and their writing. More ›

OP 35. Confronting the Split between "The Child" and Children: Toward New Curricular Visions of the Child Writer

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1994
Anne Haas Dyson
Dyson uses everyday school experiences to reconstruct our image of "the child." She suggests that rethinking dominant images might help teachers better meet curricular challenges to reflect the diversity of the children they teach. More ›

OP 36. Moving Writing Research into the 21st Century

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1994
Sarah Warshauer Freedman
Freedman argues that writing research benefits by inclusiveness. Using her research on learning to write in inner-city schools, Freedman shows how research on the learning of diverse populations pushes educators to elaborate existing theories. More ›

TR 68. Crossing the Bridge to Practice: Rethinking the Theories of Vygotsky and Bakhtin

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1994
Sarah Warshauer Freedman
The author's study of secondary school classrooms in the US and Britain reveals that when teachers apply the theories of Vygotsky and Bakhtin, these theories are not always useful guides for classroom practice. More ›

TR 69. Implications of Cognitive Psychology for Authentic Assessment and Instruction

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1994
Robert C. Calfee
Calfee offers a brief historical sketch of developments in the psychology of learning as the basis for presenting an assessment model that relies on teacher judgments for both internal and external accountability. More ›

TR 70. The Ninjas, the X-Men, and the Ladies: Playing with Power and Identity in an Urban Primary School

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1994
Anne Haas Dyson
Dyson analyzes children's symbolic and social use of superhero stories—popular media stories that vividly reveal societal beliefs about power and gender which are themselves interwoven in complex ways with race, class, and physical demeanor. More ›

TR 65. Student Portfolios and Teacher Logs: Blueprint for a Revolution in Assessment

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1993
Robert C. Calfee, Pam Perfumo
The authors present a new concept of alternative assessment: the teacher logbook, designed to support and effectuate the portfolio approach and to connect portfolios to other facets of teacher professionalization. More ›

TR 66. Linking Classroom Discourse and Classroom Content: Following the Trail of Intellectual Work in a Writing Lesson

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1993
Sarah Warshauer Freedman, Cynthia Greenleaf
The authors analyze a whole-class interaction in a ninth grade English classroom, revealing its underlying intellectual structure, the cognitive skills required for successful student participation in the activity, and the strategies students apply to the task. More ›

TR 67. From Invention to Social Action in Early Childhood Literacy: A Reconceptualization through Dialogue about Difference

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1993
Anne Haas Dyson
Dyson contrasts dominant assumptions about appropriate developmental practices (i.e., invented spelling, process writing) with children's interpretations of those practices, interpretations grounded in children's social and cultural worlds. More ›

OP 31. Writing Matters

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1992
Sarah Warshauer Freedman, Fred Hechinger
This paper, written for a general audience, outlines and synthesizes research findings of the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy and discusses the implications of these findings for teachers, parents, students, and policymakers. More ›

OP 32. From Prop to Mediator: The Changing Role of Written Language in Children's Symbolic Repertoires

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1992
Anne Haas Dyson
Dyson argues there is no linear progression in written language development in early childhood; rather, written language emerges most strongly when embedded within a child's total symbolic repertoire such as drawing and playing. More ›

TR 57. Technological Indeterminacy: The Role of Classroom Writing Practices in Shaping Computer Use

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Cynthia Greenleaf
This study examines the integration of computers into a remedial high school English class, concluding that the teacher's writing instruction had the greatest impact on student writing and the ways computers entered into writing. More ›

TR 58. Composition in the Context of CAP: A Case Study of the Interplay Between Assessment and School Life

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Peggy Trump Loofbourrow
This study examines the impact of a large-scale writing assessment on the life of one junior high school, analyzing how teachers and administrators at the school prepared students for this assessment. More ›

TR 59. Constructing a Research Paper: A Study of Students' Goals and Approaches

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Jennie Nelson
This study of twenty-one college freshmen considers the processes involved in writing an academic research paper in order to determine whether "high-investment" reading and writing processes such as note-taking led to higher-quality papers. More ›

TR 60.Collaboration Between Children Learning to Write: Can Novices Be Masters?

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Colette Daiute, Bridget Dalton
The authors analyze individual and collaborative stories produced by low-achieving urban third-graders to illustrate that children can learn and use complex story elements by working with their peers. More ›

TR 62. Nested Contexts: A Basic Writing Adjunct Program and the Challenge of "Educational Equity,"

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Anne DiPardo
This study examines one university's efforts to promote the academic success of underrepresented minority students through a basic writing adjunct program. More ›

TR 63. "Whistle for Willie," Lost Puppies, and Cartoon Dogs: The Sociocultural Dimensions of Young Children's Composing, or Toward Unmelting Pedagogical Pots

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Anne Haas Dyson
Drawing on data from an urban elementary school, Dyson suggests that the "process" approach to teaching writing may be too rigidly implemented to allow for the needs of young writers in multicultural classrooms. More ›

TR 64. Ideological Divergences in a Teacher Research Group

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1992
Shawn Parkhurst, Sandra R. Schecter
The authors focus on differing ideologies of research, teaching/learning, and writing held by members of a teacher research group, providing evidence that divisions exist within the teacher research movement that are intellectually and socially important. More ›

An Interview with Linda Flower

The Quarterly, Winter 1991
Caroline Heller
More ›

Interview with James Britton: "It Needs to be From Within..."

The Quarterly, Fall 1991
James E. Lobdell
More ›

TR 44. Remediation as Social Construct: Perspectives from an Analysis of Classroom Discourse

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, February 1991
Marisa Castellano, Kay Losey Fraser, Glynda Hull, Mike Rose
The authors examine ways in which notions of learners as remedial can be played out in the classroom. They look at one college student and detail the processes by which she is defined as remedial. More ›

TR 48. Dialogues of Deliberation: Conversation in the Teacher-Student Writing Conference

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1991
Melanie Sperling
Sperling focuses on three students in a ninth grade English class as they converse individually with their teacher about their ongoing writing. She examines how such conversations contribute to the process of learning to write. More ›

TR 50. A Teacher-Research Group in Action

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1991
Rafael Ramirez, Sandra R. Schecter
Based on a two-year study of a university-affiliated teacher-research group, this article addresses the support teachers need to conduct classroom research, the effects of becoming researchers, and the knowledge teacher research can provide. More ›

TR 52. Planning Text Together: The Role of Critical Reflection in Student Collaboration

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1991
Linda Flower, Lorraine Higgins, Joseph Petraglia
The authors argue that student collaboration does not necessarily foster critical reflection in writing tasks; however, those who engage in reflective thinking as a result of collaboration are more likely to produce high-quality plans. More ›

Vygotsky and the Teaching of Writing

The Quarterly, Summer 1991
Barbara Everson
More ›

OP 15. A Whole Language Approach to the Teaching of Bilingual Learners

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1990
Alex Moore
Two London teachers and a fifteen–year–old immigrant Bangladeshi student work together on drafts of the student's autobiography, illustrating how sensitive teaching can contribute to the development of writing skills for nonnative speakers. More ›

OP 19. Weaving Possibilities: Rethinking Metaphors for Early Literacy Development

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1990
Anne Haas Dyson
Dyson argues that we must attend not only to the vertical "scaffolding" of young children's efforts but also to the horizontal "weaving" of their diverse intentions and resources. More ›

OP 20. On Teaching Writing: A Review of the Literature

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1990
Anne Haas Dyson, Sarah Warshauer Freedman
The authors review research about writing that may help focus teachers' observations, deepen their insights, and inform their crucial decisions about classroom practice. More ›

OP 22. "This Wooden Shack Place": The Logic of an Unconventional Reading

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1990
Glynda Hull, Mike Rose
The authors analyze an interaction between Rose and a student in a remedial college composition class, illustrating the role of conversation as a way of making meaning when discussing literature. More ›

OP 23. Changing Views of Language in Education and the Implications for Literacy Research: An Interactional Sociological Perspective

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1990
Jenny Cook-Gumperz, John J. Gumperz
In examining classroom language, the authors suggest a perspective which sees this language as a process of verbal communication that includes culture-bound and contextual knowledge. More ›

TR 43. "This Was an Easy Assignment": Examining How Students Interpret Academic Writing Tasks

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1990
Jennie Nelson
This study examines how thirteen college freshmen interpreted writing assignments in a variety of courses and how these interpretations differed from the intentions of the instructors making the assignments. More ›

TR 17. Written Rhetorical Syntheses: Processes and Products

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, January 1989
Margaret Kantz
Kantz analyzes the composing processes and written products of three undergraduates and gives quantitative analyses of a group of seventeen undergraduate research papers. More ›

TR 18. Readers as Writers Composing from Sources

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, February 1989
James R. King, Nancy Nelson Spivey
This study examines the report-writing of sixth-, eighth-, and tenth-graders, showing how accomplished and less accomplished readers work with source texts and compose their own new texts. More ›

TR 19. Rethinking Remediation: Toward a Social-Cognitive Understanding of Problematic Reading and Writing

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 1989
Glynda Hull, Mike Rose
The authors reveal what writing strategies, habits, rules, and assumptions characterize the writing skills of underprepared community college students and suggest a pedagogy to move such students toward more conventional discourse. More ›

TR 21. Studying Cognition in Context: Introduction to the Study

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 1989
Linda Flower
This report introduces the Reading-to-Write project, which examined the cognitive processes of reading-to-write as they were embedded in the social context of a college course. More ›

TR 22. Promises of Coherence, Weak Content, and Strong Organization: An Analysis of the Student Text

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 1989
Margaret Kantz
This report describes the ways that readers saw the structures in a set of freshman essays and discusses the problems the judges had in agreeing on how some students had interpreted the writing assignment. More ›

TR 25. Elaboration: Using What You Know

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 1989
Victoria Stein
This report provides a look at the process of elaboration that allows students to use prior knowledge, not only for comprehension and critical thinking, but also for structuring and planning their papers. More ›

TR 26. The Effects of Prompts upon Revision: A Glimpse of the Gap Between Planning and Performance

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 1989
Wayne C. Peck
This report analyzes the think-aloud protocols and finished texts of students asked to revise a written assignment. More ›