Within and Beyond the Writing Process in the Secondary English Classroom

This text combines an up-to-date, balanced, and integrated approach to writing instruction, focusing on both composition theory and practice. Within and Beyond the Writing Process in the Secondary English Classroom is a comprehensive text that covers teaching methods for all aspects of writing: personal writing, journal writing, responses to literature, essays, research papers, and writing to learn. The text combines the pedagogies of three instructional approaches to composition: an emphasis on the personal connections of writing, a focus on the importance of structure and audience, and the call to use writing for social action. This text fills the void regarding research and theory on grammar, correctness, and language variation, and lists the standards developed by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and National Council of Teachers of English.

Table of Contents:
Each chapter concludes with “Points to Remember” and “For Further Reading.” 1. Introduction: Writing as Holistic Practice. 2. Psycholinguistic and Social Foundations. Basic Assumptions About Literacy. Cultural Differences in Literacy Development. Direct Instruction and Issues of Writing Development. 3. Teaching Writing as a Process. The Traditional Writing Classroom. A New Model Emerges. Teaching Writing as a Process. 4. Grammar, Correctness, and Style. Grammars Defined. The Developmental Nature of Syntactic Complexity. The Pendulum Swings. What Aspects of Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage Should We Teach? How Can We Teach Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage in the Context of Writing? Computers and Correctness. Correctness in the Linguistically Diverse Classroom. Sentence Variety. Wordiness and Other Aspects of Style. 5. The Essay and Other Write-to-Learn Assignments. Write-to-Learn Assignments: A Definition. Invention, or Generating Topics for the Essay. Collecting Data. Writing the Body of the Paper. The Argument Paper. Rhetorical Modes of Discourse. The Research Paper. The I-Search Paper. The Social Issues or Problem-Solving Paper. Assessment of the Essay. Plagiarism. 6. Responses to Literature and Nonprint Media. Instructional Purposes for Reading About Literature. Reader Response Criticism. Viewing Films as Texts. Formalism or New Criticism. The Historical Approach to Literature. Creative Writing as a Response to Literature. Aesthetic and Efferent Readings. Assessment of Writing as a Response to Literature. 7. Assessing, Evaluating, Grading, and Responding to Student Writing. Terminology Defined: Responding, Assessing, Evaluating, Grading. Varieties of Evaluation and Response. Respond More, Grade Less: Guidelines for Evaluating Writing. The Not-So-Simple Act of Putting Grades on Papers. Portfolio Assessment. High-Stakes Assessment and the Politics of Testing. 8. A History of Composition Pedagogy. The Beginnings of Rhetoric. Rhetoric in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Rhetoric and the Current-Traditional Essay. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Expressivist Essay. The Cognitivists, Neo-Rhetorists, and the Socio-Epistemists. Composition Literacy: The Blend of Several Approaches.