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Richmond School District successfully implemented in 1978-1984 an innovative approach to the teaching of writing--the writing process. This study sought to determine why teachers participated in developing a new writing curriculum in their schools, what characteristics of the setting promoted these curriculum development practices, and what curriculum leaders did to promote teacher participation in curriculum decision making. Historical evidence for this thes is included interviews with eleven participants in reform, including the curriculum leader with greatest responsibility for its implementation. In addition, various print and manuscript documents provided a basis for interpretation of pertinent events. As policy study this thesis described and analyzed the practices and experiences of the school district that embodied the implementers' values. A single teacher-leader in the district accounted for much of the change in teacher practice. A district-wide emphasis on writing process praxis was further supported by the school board and the district's senior staff. Specific social characteristics of the curriculum development setting, Richmond School District, help account for the adoption of the reform. The study argues for the importance of; (a) selecting the most appropriate innovation for implementation, (b) empowering participants in educational reform, and (c) an effective change agent to inspire participants. Implications for educators and recommendations for further research came from these insights. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This research addressed two major questions: (1) what effect does instruction in writing heuristics have on the expository writing of E.S.L. students? (2) is one writing heuristic better than another? In an experiment involving 116 twelfth-graders in eight classes, the subjects were randomly assigned within classes to one of three groups. Each of the three groups received ten hours of instruction: two groups in writing heuristics, and a third group which served as an experimental control received instruction in grammar. The study was a pretest/posttest design where essays were administered as the tests. The students' essays were scored for quantity (number of words) and quality. Scores were analyzed in a repeated measures design. The results revealed that there were no significant differences between the three groups on either the quantitative or qualitative measures. Although a review of the literature indicated support for the use of writing heuristics with E.S.L. students, the experimental evidence in this study does not substantiate this view. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to show possible relationships between certain environmental, personality, and scholastic factors and difficulties in written language.

The purpose of this qualitative teacher research study is to explore the ways in which the use of performance in the college composition classroom can impact under-represented writers and their engagement in the writing process. Through the lens of performance theory, this study identifies how students present their sociocultural knowledge through writing and explores how this presentation, as a performance of the self, informs pedagogical practice. One of the major problems typically troubling developmental or basic freshman composition classrooms is that too many of the students seem detached from their own writing and indifferently engaged in their own writing process. This study focuses on examining how the students’ presentation of their knowledge and their own lived experiences through writing and performing their writing in collaboration with classmates influences the quality of their engagement with their own writing and their attitudes toward the academic work of a freshman English class. To this end, data were collected in the form of observation field notes of student writing conferences and performances, student responses to reflective questions, and student writing. The study used discourse analysis to examine, compare, and analyze the data collected. My interpretations of data were framed by my own performance experiences and the discourse of performance theory, which allowed me to analyze my students’ conferences and group work as rehearsals and preparation for the final performance of their writing and their writing as a performance of the self.

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No description available.

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No description available.