In the belief that effective writing instruction can be a critical component in successful learning, and to better understand the role that writing plays in content area learning, this book presents an extensive study of writing assignments in the secondary school curriculum. Following an introduction, the book provides an overview of the project, chapters 1 and 2 highlighting the data gathered and analytical methods used. The third chapter of the book provides a detailed introduction to the observations of teachers and their students, with some general findings about ways in which they used writing in the teaching of academic subjects. The fourth chapter describes the types of writing activities that worked in aa variety of content-area classrooms. Chapter 5 shifts focus away from the activities provided and toward the redefinition of teaching and learning that occurred in the classrooms where writing worked best to foster learning. Chapters 6 through 8 examine the kinds of thinking promoted by different types of writing in the classroom. The final chapter brings together concerns about the roles of teacher and learner in the instructional interaction, providing a theoretical framework, practical suggestions for an alternative model of instruction, and a discussion of the constraints that must be addressed if wide-scale use of writing to support learning is to become a reality. A five-page reference list and two appendices are included. (HTH)

This book connects practice to research, and vice versa, through the use of deeply personal stories in the form of autoethnographic memoirs on teaching students with dis/abilities in K-12 settings across the USA.

In Hearing Ourselves Think, cognitive process research moves from the laboratory to the college classroom, where its rich research tradition continues and an important new set of instructional approaches emerges. Each chapter moves from research results to classroom action, providing a direct and important link between research, theory, and practice. The book develops the concept of the research-based classroom in which students actively examine the processes and contexts of reading and writing and then turn their observations into principles for practice. Hearing Ourselves Think contributes to a lively new tradition of socio-cognitive research in writing and reading, exploring the dynamics of cognitive processes as they interact with dimensions of the academic context.

Best-selling authors Carolyn Chapman and Rita King provide specific strategies for differentiating writing instruction to help students learn content and develop as writers.

This is an essential book for everyone who wants to write clearly about any subject and use writing as a means of learning.