Expanding the dialogue on culture as a critical component when assessing writing

This article reports on the findings of a study that illustrates the value of including the voices of teachers from diverse backgrounds in discussions concerning writing assessment. The inclusion of such voices can help, not only to inform, but to re-shape current assessment practices, research priorities, and policy debates that focus on finding solutions to problems of assessment, particularly as they relate to diverse populations. In Part one of the article, I review the findings of an investigation in which four European-American teachers assess students' written texts. These teachers rated essays written by ethnically diverse fifth- and sixth-grade students using an array of rhetorical and linguistic measures—including overall quality, coherence, sentence-level mechanics, and use of an organizational structure. In Part two, I describe a replication of this investigation in which four African-American teachers assessed the writings of the same students' written essays using the same rhetorical and linguistic measures. Findings suggest that European-American and African-American teachers hold some consistently different views about the assessment of diverse students' written texts. Motivated by these observed differences and a desire to expand the dialogue on culture as a critical component in assessing writing, I present in the third and final section of the article the voices of the African-American teachers who participated in this study. Through candid and reflective comments, these teachers share deep felt concerns and specific suggestions concerning writing assessment. In this section, I also discuss how the voices of teachers from diverse backgrounds can be useful for broadening debates about the reform of writing assessment in general, and the assessment of writing for culturally and linguistically diverse students in particular.     

Teaching Writing to Students With Attention Deficit Disorders and Specific Language Impairment

Abstract

The self-regulated strategy development approach to instruction was used to help 3 middle school students who had learning problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and specific language impairment, learn a strategy for planning and writing expository essays. The composition strategy helped students to consider their topic in advance and to use text structure knowledge to develop 5-paragraph essays. Regular education teachers provided instruction to the target students in inclusive classrooms; special education teachers facilitated the writing program. A multiple-probe design across students (R. D. Horner & D. M. Baer, 1978) was used to assess the effects of the strategy. Instruction had a positive effect on the students' approach to writing and overall writing performance. Four weeks following instruction, students' papers remained improved and were still longer and more complete.     

Tutor feedback on draft essays: developing students’ academic writing and subject knowledge

Providing feedback on draft essays is an accepted means of enacting a social-constructivist approach to assessment, aligning with current views on the value of formative feedback and assessment for learning (AFL). However, the use of this process as a means of improving not only content but also students' academic writing skills has not been widely studied, despite a widespread perception that there is scope for intervention at university level. This article explores the developmental potential of a drafting/tutor feedback/redrafting process on a first-year undergraduate course for trainee English language teachers at a UK university. The aims of this small-scale, largely qualitative study were to ascertain students' perceptions of the process and to determine the extent to which the process could contribute to the development of students' academic writing. Data are derived from first and second draft essay marks and questionnaires administered to 32 students. Findings suggest that feedback on drafts is acted on and can contribute to improved work when it is timely and detailed and when it raises students' metacognitive awareness, as was the case in this project. Also noteworthy, however, are the students' perceptions that redrafting is cognitively challenging and time-consuming. Comments from a less academically confident student with regard to the quantity of feedback and its detrimental impact are of particular concern. Questions are raised regarding the use of tutor reformulation, the sustainability of AFL and the provision of feedback to – and its interpretation by – weaker students. Finally, some key indicators for improved future practice are presented.     

Coming to Voice: Preparing Bilingual-Bicultural Teachers for Social Justice

This study examined the development of bicultural voice in Latina/o preservice teachers. Researchers used survey, interview, and observational data to probe students' knowledge, beliefs, and orientations related to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. The researchers found that the bilingual cohort courses afforded students with opportunities to juxtapose personal narratives with broader social contexts, thereby allowing students to examine and critique the ideology and curricula of schools. The authors assert that cultivating social justice orientations in bilingual-bicultural preservice teachers is crucial to the empowerment of bilingual-bicultural teachers and their students.     

Incorporating formative assessment in Iranian EFL writing: a case study

Undergraduate students' experience of assessment in universities is usually of summative assessment which provides only limited information to help students improve their performance. By contrast, formative assessment is informative and forward-looking, possessing the leverage to inform students of their day-to-day progress and inform teachers of how to better tailor their instruction to students' immediate learning needs. Despite these potentials, studies carried out on the use of formative assessment in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts are somehow rare. The current study reports on incorporating formative assessment in an L2 writing course in Iran. The analysis of data from pre- and post-study writing tasks, pre- and post-study questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews revealed that first-year undergraduate students were offered opportunities to improve various aspects of their writing and to develop positive attitudes toward writing as well as formative assessment. However, the students reported several challenges that could have implications for the further implementation of formative assessment in similar contexts.     

A Case of Generativity in a Culturally and Linguistically Complex English Language Arts Classroom

This article examines an ESL English language arts teacher’s conceptions of linguistic diversity, literacy learning and her role as teacher in a culturally and linguistically complex classroom. It further examines her processes of learning about, and developing curricular and pedagogical innovations to meet, her students’ learning needs. The successes and paradoxes of, as well as constraints to, those efforts are explored. The paper uses Ball’s theory of generativity and recent research on effective English language arts instruction in culturally and linguistically complex classrooms to facilitate analysis. It offers some implications for teachers’ development of generativity for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students.     

Collaboration to teach English language learners: opportunities for shared teacher learning

This study examines collaboration between English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers and content-area elementary school teachers, and makes the case for conceptualising teacher collaboration as an opportunity for shared teacher learning. Using a sociocultural theoretical lens, this study examines how three pairs of elementary teachers and ESOL specialists used and constructed tools for collaboration, which mediated and made visible teachers’ learning processes. Employing interpretive enquiry and cross-case analysis, we examined data from classroom observations, teacher co-planning sessions and interviews with teachers. Findings demonstrated that collaborating teachers used tools to articulate and reconceptualise teaching goals, co-construct knowledge and ultimately transform teaching practices to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study has implications for teacher education and ongoing professional development, by shedding light on the potential affordances of collaborative tools for teacher learning. Findings suggest that teacher education could harness these opportunities for learning by incorporating collaboration between ESOL specialists and content-area teachers as an integral part of preparing more qualified teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students.     

Inviting conversation: meaningful talk about texts for English language learners

In Canada, as in other anglophone countries, classrooms are becoming more diverse as the number of English language learners (ELLs) increases. More and more teachers are faced with the task of meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. In this article, I share excerpts of dialogue between ELL students, native English‐speaking children and their teacher during guided reading events. Excerpts will illustrate how conversations around texts during reading activities can shape and extend the construction of meaning for the benefit of all, but especially for ELL students. Based on Vygotsky's (1986) proposition that learning is socially situated, I suggest four ways for teachers to structure meaningful conversations: through questioning, teaching vocabulary, engaging in collaborative talk and recognising that the culture and identity of the child are important to literacy learning.     

The Culturally Responsive Teacher Educator

Recent research on teacher diversity has highlighted the challenges new teachers of color face when they enter diverse school settings. In this study the pedagogy of three sociopolitically conscious teacher educators is investigated to understand how they tailor preparation for teachers of color. Findings revealed that teacher educators' pedagogy for teacher candidates of color was characterized by three mutually binding mindsets and practices: (a) teacher educators made an intentional choice to work as a change agent for communities of color; (b) teacher educators challenged sociocultural barriers to the academic and professional achievement of teachers of color; and (c) teacher educators implemented constructivist approaches as an instructional bridge to prepare teacher candidates of color to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Based on findings, the conceptual framework of culturally responsive pedagogy is reconstructed to generate suppositions about the culturally responsive teacher educator as a theoretical construct.     

Connecting school and community with science learning: Real world problems and school–community partnerships as contextual scaffolds*

A challenge facing many schools, especially those in urban settings that serve culturally and linguistically diverse populations, is a disconnection between schools and students' home communities, which can have both cognitive and affective implications for students. In this article we explore a form of “connected science,” in which real‐world problems and school‐community partnerships are used as contextual scaffolds for bridging students' community‐based knowledge and school‐based knowledge, as a way to provide all students opportunities for meaningful and intellectually challenging science learning. The potential of these scaffolds for connected science is examined through a case study in which a team of fifth‐grade teachers used the student‐identified problem of pollution along a nearby river as an interdisciplinary anchor for teaching science, math, language arts, and civics. Our analysis makes visible how diverse forms of knowledge were able to support project activities, examines the consequences for student learning, and identifies the features of real‐world problems and school–community partnerships that created these bridging opportunities. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 878–898, 2001     

Guidelines for serving linguistically and culturally diverse young children

Demographic trends indicate that all early childhod educators must anticipate and plan for a more linguistically and culturally diverse student population. This article will serve as a guide for creating more effective early childhood programs serving linguistically and culturally diverse young children. The discussion includes demographic trends, second language acquisition research, historical trends in bilingual education, ESL and bilingual programs, controversies, assessment and ESL students, and program recommendations.     

Culturally Sustaining Practices in Content Area Instruction for CLD Students with Learning Disabilities

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students comprise a substantial population of students with learning disabilities, and are historically disproportionately represented in special education. To effectively teach CLD students with learning disabilities, teachers should integrate evidence‐based practices and culturally sustaining pedagogy in their practice. This article highlights several practical examples of culturally sustaining evidence‐based practices across the content areas of mathematics, reading, and writing. Suggestions for practice and future research are presented in the article.     

What teachers do: facilitating the writing process with feedback from EssayCritic and collaborating peers

The study provides an insight into how technology may affect teachers’ facilitating of the writing process which was examined and compared when Norwegian upper secondary school students wrote essays about English as a global language through multiple drafts with feedback received from the computer-based essay-critiquing system (EssayCritic) (target class) and from collaborating peers (comparison class). Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the teachers’ assistance drew on Galperin’s conceptualisation of learning. Findings reveal patterns in the teachers’ guidance in both conditions and outline the differences arising from the use of EssayCritic: by interacting with EssayCritic the teacher assisted the learners in completing the specific task, although little attention was paid to the development of their assessment for learning (AfL) skills. However, in the comparison class the teacher paid attention to the development of students’ AfL skills by emphasising the general approach to the analysis and the essential requirements of the essays. The study, therefore, raises questions about the need for practitioners’ awareness of whether the technology supports the development of, for example, AfL skills required in English writing classes.     

Impact of Course and Fieldwork on Multicultural Beliefs and Attitudes

This study investigated preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students when progressing through specially designed courses. Data were collected using the Teacher Multicultural Attitude Survey and semi-structured interviews. Analyses indicated that preservice teachers who received more multicultural preparation held more positive attitudes and based their attitudes more on academic preparation than on personal experiences. Preservice teachers who completed the multicultural course and English for speakers of other languages field placement had a more in-depth understanding of how to help culturally and linguistically diverse students.     

Preparing future teachers for diverse schools in an online learning community: Perceptions and practice

This study provides an example of one institution's efforts to design coursework that meets the simultaneous challenges of supporting the aims of increasing access to online courses and simultaneously better preparing teachers to work in diverse classrooms. Based on online pre- and post-surveys and monthly open-ended writing prompts administered to students in an introductory teacher preparation course, the study sought to discover students' motivation to select online or blended courses, student perspectives on the benefits and challenges to taking this course online, characteristics of the learning environment that promoted or interfered with students' learning, instructor's perspective of learners' reaction to topics addressing K-12 classroom diversity, and the impact of an online format on students' discussions of issues related to learner diversity. Findings suggest that online courses should include a classroom placement component in which students experience a diverse classroom in order to best prepare students for diverse teaching assignments. Thus, the best online teacher preparation courses maybe those that blend virtual and face-to-face interaction rather than being strictly online.     

From the Workplace to Academia: Nontraditional Students and the Relevance of Workplace Experience in Technical Writing Pedagogy

In this study, I compared initial drafts of job application cover letters by nontraditional students in an introductory professional writing course with those by traditional students to determine if prior workplace experience improves rhetorical adaptability in students' writing. Although one might expect nontraditional students to display more rhetorical adaptability, this study reveals no difference. These results suggest that minor changes in pedagogy may help nontraditional students use their workplace experience to improve workplace-oriented writing in the classroom.     

Professional development in classroom discussion to improve argumentation: Teacher and student outcomes

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a year-long professional development program in classroom discussion designed to improve students' argumentation skills in language arts classes. Twenty-six fifth-grade teachers and their 471 students at two research sites participated: 14 teachers in the experimental condition, who received the professional development, and 12 teachers in the comparison condition. Results showed that the professional development led to statistically significant improvements in the quality of teachers' facilitation and student argumentation during discussions, and in students' performance on individual argumentative reading and writing tasks following the discussions, at the end of the year. Findings suggest that the professional development for teachers resulted in strengthened student abilities to connect positions with relevant reasons and evidence, and that argumentation skills acquired in the discussions may have transferred to students’ individual argumentation, at least for reading outcomes.     

“Tjaa,I Do Have Ears,But I Do Not Hear”: New Literacy Studies and the Awakening of a Hearing Teacher

To address the low literacy achievement of minority students, the sociocultural movement of the New Literacy Studies (NLS) encourages us to expand on current understandings of literacy. Instead of thinking of literacy as a neutral set of skills transferable from one setting to another, NLS researchers encourage us to contextualize literacy within individuals’ social and cultural realms. In this view, there are multiple literacies. As a literacy teacher of students who are deaf, I have witnessed students struggling with school-based literacy learning. As I began to examine what I was doing within the classroom, I realized that my assumptions about literacy instruction were the main source of students' struggles. In this study I explore how I used the theoretical perspective of the NLS to expand my understanding of literacy. The findings suggest that, in order to base literacy instruction on students' resources, teachers need to learn to negotiate conflicting educational Discourses on reading and writing, to create a space within the classroom for students to bring in their literacy practices, and to recognize and preserve students' agency and identity in their learning. Findings also indicate the vital role of writing in deaf students' learning of Icelandic.     

Making Ends Meet: Bringing Bilingual Education and Mainstream Students Together in Preservice Teacher Education

In some institutions offering certification for bilingual education and ESL teachers, the corresponding mainstream programs do little to ready their students to work effectively with language minority children. Yet today's mainstream classrooms are linguistically and culturally diverse, and all teachers must appreciate the role of language and culture in teaching and learning. This study describes one effort to consciously combine preservice bilingual and mainstream education teachers in a bilingual education methods cohort. Students reported promising gains in cross-cultural understanding and in cross-program appreciation. Some losses took place as well, however, and further innovation and research are needed in order to ensure that such efforts to combine programs strengthen, but not weaken, each program.