Where is the Writing Teacher? Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives on the Teaching of Writing

Kohnen, Angela M.; Caprino, Kathryn; Crane, Sally; Townsend, J. Scott

doi:10.1558/wap.37278

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Nothing in the Common Core prompt precludes naming authors of color or non-traditional texts, just as nothing in the reader-centered prompts encourages naming such texts. To our minds, teachers' responses to the Common Core prompt support arguments that current exams narrow teachers' pedagogical imaginations (Anagnostopoulos, 2005;Au, 2009;Kohnen et al, 2019). And while there is no doubt that the high-stakes nature of any test can ultimately be constraining (e.g., Koretz, 2017), teachers' responses to alternative prompts also suggest that a different set of standardized tests could motivate teachers to diversify their curricula and explore their creativity.…”

Section: What To Teachmentioning

confidence: 89%

What if it Were Otherwise? Teachers Use Exams from the Past to Imagine Possible Futures in the Teaching of Literature

Levine

Moore

Bene

et al. 2022

Reading Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the United States, standardized tests shape what, how, and why English Language Arts teachers teach. For the last generation, these tests have increasingly taken a narrowly text-centered approach to literature, making it difficult to enact or research alternatives. But what if it were otherwise? In the current study, we asked teachers to imagine alternatives to the current world of standardized testing. Drawing from a hundred years of New York state exams, we selected reader-and text-centered essay prompts that represented a range of alternatives to current standardized exams. Then we interviewed 30 high school English Language Arts teachers from across the U.S., asking them to imagine what, how, and why they might teach with these alternative prompts in mind. Compared to their responses to a current Common Core aligned exam, when teachers responded to the alternative prompts, they were more likely to imagine selecting texts by authors of color, plan a wide variety of discussion-based and writing activities, highlight the ethical dimensions of the teaching of literature, and envision the pleasure of aligning their beliefs with their instructional choices. As testing becomes more uniform, studies that imagine alternatives to the status quo allow for a broad exploration of the possibilities of language arts curriculum and instruction, as well as an understanding of teachers' untapped creativity and skill.

show abstract

Section: What To Teachmentioning

confidence: 89%

What if it Were Otherwise? Teachers Use Exams from the Past to Imagine Possible Futures in the Teaching of Literature

Levine

Moore

Bene

et al. 2022

Reading Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The implications for pedagogy are worth exploring further, as there is a link between assessment and teaching (Clarkson, 2023). The findings suggest that some teachers may feel ill‐equipped to carry out the assessment and may require additional resources to support their understanding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Teacher assessment of writing is a complex process due to the difficulty of defining writing achievement (Clarkson, 2023). Teacher judgement plays a crucial role in teaching and learning (Marshall & Wiliam, 2006), but it faces challenges in writing assessment where there is no clear right or wrong (Department for Education, 2011, p. 60).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘It's missing the heart of what writing is about’: teachers' interpretations of writing assessment criteria

Clarkson

2023

British Educational Res J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Primary school teachers in England are responsible for the statutory assessment of writing, using a set of criteria. The aim of this research was to analyse the responses of teachers to the criteria at the expected standard. An elicitation exercise with 10 primary school teachers was conducted, where teachers talked through their interpretations of the criteria. Qualitative, inductive coding was undertaken to provide a rich and deep understanding of teachers' understandings of the assessment criteria. The perceptions of teachers are shown to be varied and complex. Definitions of the criteria were diverse, and fundamentally different concepts of writing were identified, which points to sources of misunderstanding. Limitations of the assessment criteria themselves are also highlighted, which caused disagreement among the teachers. The findings show evidence of threats to the validity and reliability of the assessment and its use as an accountability measure because of the lack of confidence in inferences drawn from the use of the criteria in the assessment of writing.

show abstract

“…Because the movement to integrate STEM education grows out of a recognition of existing connections between the STEM disciplines (Honey et al, 2014), these challenges may be even more pronounced for cross-curricular approaches that also incorporate the arts and humanities. For example, content-area teachers have little formal preparation in reading (Norris and Phillips, 2003) or writing pedagogy (Kohnen, 2013), and they rarely feel comfortable teaching writing (Kiuhara et al, 2009;Kohnen, 2013).…”

Section: Cross-curricular Collaboration As Central To Integrated Stem...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Science through storytelling or storytelling about science? Identifying cognitive task demands and expert strategies in cross-curricular STEM education

Barchas-Lichtenstein,

Sherman,

Voiklis

et al. 2023

Front. Educ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While recent shifts away from sharply demarcated disciplines to cross-curricular K-12 education show great promise for enhancing students’ interest and the relevance of subject matter, there remain many challenges to implementation as envisioned, not least among them teacher education. Most current teachers are socialized into disciplinary norms and identities through their pre-service education. To advance cross-curricular teaching, then, teachers need support, including more attention to the instructional design of teacher-facing materials. Without attention to teachers as learners, teachers will continue to implement promising educational innovations only through the lens of their discipline. Using a cognitive interview methodology, we asked how teachers with professional formation in different disciplines would approach a project that purported to connect those disciplines. On the one hand, we found that lesson planning and implementation is a broadly similar task for various types of teachers. On the other hand, we also found that, for the most part, both science and journalism educators focused more heavily on the aspects of a science journalism project that fit within their own discipline. Yet all teachers we interviewed were interested in the possibilities a cross-curricular project opens, which suggests the need for further research on implementation and uptake.

show abstract

Where is the Writing Teacher? Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives on the Teaching of Writing

Cited by 11 publications

References 11 publications

What if it Were Otherwise? Teachers Use Exams from the Past to Imagine Possible Futures in the Teaching of Literature

What if it Were Otherwise? Teachers Use Exams from the Past to Imagine Possible Futures in the Teaching of Literature

‘It's missing the heart of what writing is about’: teachers' interpretations of writing assessment criteria

Science through storytelling or storytelling about science? Identifying cognitive task demands and expert strategies in cross-curricular STEM education

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About