A TEACHER GOES TO SCHOOL: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF PEDAGOGICAL INSIGHTS ON SECONDARY WRITING INSTRUCTION

Abstract

High school English teachers are familiar with current masters in the field (Kittle, Burke, Gallagher), but are not familiar with the scholarly literature on the topics of composition. Although helpful, these professional development books offer examples of quality lessons for helping students become stronger and more confident writers, but rarely do these books address the research that supports these findings. This dissertation is a retrospective study and analysis of the pedagogical insights on secondary writing instruction that I learned through my doctoral journey. I examine five areas of interest: peer review, teacher review, service-learning, grammar, and grading. I analyze the history and research already conducted on these topics, as well as conduct my own informal interviews of students and teachers. In each of my chapters, I explore what history and research say about the teaching of secondary English. I wanted to know why veteran teachers like me continue to use practices that have been proven ineffective hundreds of years ago. I argue that the proven instructional strategies for high-quality writing require an understanding of where composition studies have been. Such an approach, I argue, can transform high school English classrooms and reignite the passion for the teaching of composition.