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Traditional writing instruction is disappearing increasingly and digital aids are taking over writing instruction. Research highlights the benefits of having students write by hand because it promotes learning. Unlike having students write with digital tools that are not as favorable. Research has shown that there are many benefits to students 'writing development when they write by hand, the study therefore aims to examine how teachers motivate the use of digital writing tools to promote students' writing development. The study has undergone a qualitative research method where teachers active in year F-3 have been interviewed. The teachers in the study have been interviewed about how they use digital tools in the classroom when it comes to writing lessons and teachers' attitude towards using digital writing tools. The study showed that teachers are positive about using digital tools when teaching writing because the tools contribute to students' motivation to write. Digital aids benefit students' writing development where they develop writing skills. Teachers see digital writing tools as a complement to traditional writing instruction. Based on the study, the authors also conclude that digital tools in teaching are directly decisive for students who for various reasons are in need of support for their continued development in writing teaching. Keywords: writing development analog writing tools, digital tools, traditional writing instruction.

Drawing on literature about place-based education and service-learning, as well as three groups* perspectives about their service-learning experiences, this research describes how place (understood simultaneously as a material agent, a setting for human activity, and a factor in an individual*s situatedness) and identity (understood in terms of one*s social position) are socially- constructed concepts that impact students* writing and learning experiences. More specifically, this project presents place-based education as a teaching method that can focus and reinvigorate service-learning in a writing course. Including place-based content and service-learning projects in a writing course requires careful design and reflection. However, course design should not be an activity limited to just teachers. In alignment with feminist research methods and standpoint theory, this research values and privileges the perspectives of stakeholders who are not normally included in the course design process: students and community partners. To present a rich account of these stakeholders* experiences designing, implementing, and participating in a place-based service- learning project, a combination of qualitative data methods (interviews, classroom observations, and textual analyses) is used. This information serves as the basis for the design of a place-based writing course with a local service-learning component. The proposed course asks students to work with community partners to identify a place-based need that can be addressed—at least in part—by writing-related service. By collaborating with community partners, creating writing products that address community needs, and reflecting on how their identities and learning experiences have been impacted by the places they*ve worked and the communities they*ve worked with, students can apply their knowledge in meaningful contexts, write for real audiences, and develop more thorough understandings of the places where they study, work, and live.

This case study sought to examine constructs of two fourth-grade elementary writing programs in Volusia County, Florida. With only the Sunshine State Standards as a guide, each district, school, or teacher must design a writing curriculum that addresses those standards, develops writers, and provides accountability. Fourth-grade classrooms were selected because students at that grade level are required to participate in the FCAT Writing +, a two-day state assessemnt that requires students to compose an essay on a designated topic within a 45-minute period. A second part of the assessment consists of multiple-choice items covering editing and revising, graphic organizers, and letter writing. Both sections of this assessment measure student progress relative to the Sunshine State Standards' benchmarks for writing. Data was collected through multiple sources. An observation instrument, based in part on Karen Bromley's Key Components of Sound Writing Instruction, was constructed. Survey, focus group, and interview questions were derived in part from a survey Dr. Roger Brindley and Dr. Jenifer Jasinski Schneider created to study fourth-grade teachers' perspectives on teaching writing. Writing artifacts were also collected. Karen Bromley suggested five elements to address both process and product that are necessary for a balanced approach to writing. They are; Standards and Assessment, Large Blocks of Time, Direct Instruction, Choice and Authenticity, and Writing Across the Curriculum. Findings revealed that although both schools subscribed to different methods and materials for writing instruction, similarities were revealed with consideration to these components. Current test scores validated these practices. Implications for further study and investigation based on these findings ensures the advancement of the body of knowledge about writing instruction.

Second language (L2) writing is a subfield within the field of applied linguistics concerned with applying knowledge and insights from linguistics, psychology, and education to develop teaching approaches for those who need to acquire L2 writing skills for academic or work purposes (Belcher, 2012). Much research on L2 writers over the past five decades has been focused on students in university contexts (Ferris, 2018) in part because universities are often not equipped to meet students’ needs for academic writing support in writing courses (Cimasko & Reichelt, 2011; Kubota & Abels, 2006). One student need pertains to the learning of discourse organization to create coherent text. This issue is of particular concern to EFL undergraduates who often experience difficulty with organizational patterns when writing in English (Tang, 2012).In response to this student need, the current study investigated the effectiveness of the explicit teaching of coherence in EFL undergraduates’ research writing in English with a pre- and post-intervention embedded mixed-methods design of three study groups of Japanese undergraduate students. More specifically, the study involved two experimental groups—a process-genre group and process-writing group—and a comparison group. The teaching program for these three groups differed in the combination of classroom instruction (i.e., coherence-focused process-genre approach or process writing) and written teacher feedback (i.e., coherence-focused or meaning-focused) they received. A total of 36 third-year female undergraduate English majors participated in this study. Writing samples were collected at three points throughout one semester and analyzed based on three measures of writing coherence: reader-based logical development, reader-based cohesion, and text-based coherence. The reader-based measures of an analytic rubric were used by human raters in evaluating reader-based coherence in the writing samples. Rasch measurement was used to assess the rubric’s functioning via a Rasch principal components analysis (Linacre, 2019). In addition, the Rasch model was used to identify raters who were too lenient or too severe and calculate fair average measures of the ratings using Many-Facets Rasch analysis (Linacre, 2014). These ratings were then analyzed and investigated for changes across time and between groups. The text-based coherence measure for each writing sample was obtained via a form of textual analysis called topical structure analysis. Mixed-design ANOVAs were used to analyze the three measures to investigate statistical differences within-group and between-groups differences. In addition, a Pearson’s correlation analysis was conducted to investigate if raters’ assessment of logicality correlates with their assessment of cohesion usage in student samples of research writing. Results from the statistical analyses revealed that the process-genre group was the only group out of all three groups in this study to have made statistically significant improvements on coherence in their research writing during the course of study. To help explain the results of the statistical analyses, qualitative data collected from background questionnaires, rater’s questionnaires, reflective journals, and student interviews were coded and analyzed. The findings indicated that the process-genre group was able to develop coherence at the sentence, paragraph, and discourse levels. Further, a comparison of the results from both the reader-based and text-based perspectives of coherence suggested that coherence development achieved by the process-genre group (i.e., improvement in both logical development and cohesion) was due to the treatment they received as observations from their background questionnaire reflective journal responses and interview data suggested that they appeared to be unaware of the concept of coherence prior to the study. However, as the treatment started, they gradually acquired knowledge and skills for creating coherence, first at the sentence level, then at the paragraph level, and toward the end of the study, at the discourse level. The improvements made by the process-genre group appeared to be related to the changes observed in their perception of coherence throughout the treatment period. The qualitative findings indicated that their perceptions changed from a focus on the relevance of information included in their writing in the beginning of the treatment period to an expanded understanding of coherence as a genre-specific concept that is important in making their writing reader-friendly by using both local and global cohesion and coherence devices. As to the other two groups in this study, the qualitative findings from the background questionnaire responses and interview data suggested that unlike the process-genre group, the process writing group’s coherence development was limited to the sentence and paragraph levels, and that of the comparison group only at the sentence level. The fact that these two groups failed to develop their knowledge and skills in writing coherently at the discourse level might explain the non-significant statistical results for the within-group and between-group analyses conducted with those groups. In sum, the findings showed that the development of coherence in EFL undergraduate research writing is influenced by writing program design. Particularly, the program needs to explicitly teach coherence through a systematically designed curriculum that includes the teaching of both useful genre knowledge and skills for writing coherently. In addition to teaching the textual construction of coherence, because coherence is a reader-based concept, its crucial role in producing research writing that is logical in the eyes of readers also needs to be reinforced in the teacher feedback given to learners. Such a program where both the instruction and the teacher feedback are focused on form (i.e., coherence in research writing) enables learners to improve coherence in their writing as they progress through the drafting cycle of writing and revising in the program. / Teaching & Learning

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