B L O G

B L O G
Tips, tools, and strategies for teaching, writing, online learning, career development, and more. Explore our academic articles and infographics. 
Writing Rubrics that Support Linguistically Diverse Students
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone
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Highlights the importance of writing rubrics that help support all students and tips on how to create them.
Why are Many Students Entering College Unprepared for College Writing?
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone
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The purpose of this article was to address the disconnect between the expectations of high school and college instructors regarding student writing.
Teaching Writing in History Classrooms
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone
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The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of problem-solving instruction types (IREAD and EH) on students’ historical writing.
An Effective Argumentative Writing Strategy for Developing Writers
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone
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Evaluates the effects of POW+TREE on the performance of 15-year-old adolescents with writing difficulties
Dialect Density and the Codevelopment of Writing and Reading in African American Children
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone
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Examines three-way longitudinal relations among writing, reading, and spoken dialect density in African American English-speaking children from first through fifth grade.
Eight Tweeters Tweeting: The Writing Processes of Second Graders’ Composing with Social Media
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

An addition to the research on children’s online writing by describing the writing processes of eight second-grade children (“tweeters”) when composing short-form writing online for their class Twitter account.
Disciplinary Literacy Instruction
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

​Highlights the opportunity for disciplinary literacy instruction.
Engaging Early Writers with Interactive Writing Lessons
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone
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Introduces fun and dynamic ways to approach writing instruction.
A Critical Media Literacy Framework for Positive Black Female Identity
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

A conceptual framework for empowerment, equity, and social justice in education. 
Preparing Teacher Candidates to Implement Digital Storytelling
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone

Assesses how integrating digital storytelling into a teacher education course can prepare teacher candidates to use digital tools in their own instruction. 
Storyboarding as a Prewriting Activity for Second Language Learners
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Reviews the literature on effective collaborative pre-writing activities. 
The Role of Meta-Language in Supporting Academic Language Development
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Looks into design-based research in U.S. schools with a majority of English Language Learners. 
Multiple Profiles of High Quality Second Language Writing
By Jiali Wang

Investigates whether multiple profiles of writing would emerge from highly-rated second language learners' written texts. 
Assessing Writing: Using a Levels of Language Framework
​By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Examines an innovative approach to formative writing assessment: Evaluating students' writing skills across three levels of language using automated essay scoring tools. 
Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching in a Digital Classroom: Practices, Challenges, and Needs
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Investigates culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy for multilingual students in digitally mediated elementary classrooms. 
Writing to Advocate
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Examines how Latinx high school students use the act of writing, publishing, and sharing of narratives to lead and advocate for immigrant youth in the US. 
Examining the Accuracy of Peer Reviews 
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Assesses the reliability and validity of peer assessment of writing in high school Advanced Placement English classrooms. 
Use of Technology in Collaborative Writing for Second Language Learning
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

A systematic review on studies examining technology-enhanced collaborative writing for second language learning.
A Sentence-combining Intervention for Developing Writers
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What are effective interventions for struggling writers? 
Children as multifaceted meaning makers
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Evaluates the different ways children show learning and growth
Keypresses and Mouse Clicks
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

This study uses computer-based assessment to better understand students' digital writing skills. 
​Teaching Writing to Students with Different Learning Disabilities (LD)
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone
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What kind of students specifically have difficulties in writing and why? Students with different learning disabilities (LD) often have difficulties in generating plans...
Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Improving expressive writing of students with learning disabilities requires explicit instruction. 
Cognitive and Linguistic Features of Adolescent Argumentative Writing
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

This examined persuasive writing of middle school students including types of argument and use of connectives in writing. 
Disciplinary Literacy in History: A Toolkit for Digital Citizenship
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What disciplinary literacy is not; reading for main idea, predicting word meaning from context, summarizing
The Case for Strategy Instruction and Reciprocal Teaching
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Learn more about instructional strategies that help secondary students improve their reading and writing. 
WRITE Center Leader Steve Graham receives prestigious Barry J. Zimmerman Award
By The WRITE Center

We are thrilled to announce that one of our WRITE Center leaders, Dr. Steve Graham, was awarded the Barry J. Zimmerman Award for 
​Importance of Academic Word Knowledge for Middle School Students
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What is academic English? There are five central components academic language. 
​Teaching Academic English to English Language Learners
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

This infographic is based on literature review examining what is known about the nature of academic English in K-12 schools. 
Will AI Make English Teachers Obsolete?  A Conversation with ChatGPT​
​By Tamara Tate and Mark Warshauer
​What does it mean for educators? To address this question, we asked ChatGPT itself to write a blog...
Contract Grading’s Impact in High School English
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

High-stake assessments breed stress and anxiety in young learners, which can pose a threat to their well-being. Mastery-based contract grading invites students to choose...
Designing Reading Programs to Fully Support Middle School Students with Reading Disabilities
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was more beneficial method to organize instructional reading components...
Pre-Service Teachers’ Apprehension and Attitudes about Writing
​By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

The purpose of this study was to examine elementary and secondary pre service teachers' apprehension towards writing and how the level of apprehension...
Modeling Development of Written Language
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone
 
​The study was made for the purpose of modeling the different ways in which individuals develop their writing skills...
Digital Storytelling to Improve Writing Self-efficacy
​By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Digital storytelling enhances students' higher-order thinking and literacy skills, promotes collaborative learning and communication, and encourages student-centered learning...
​How to Create Technology-enhanced Language Classrooms for Young Learners
By Jiali Wang and Jenell Krishnan

This infographic offers many guidelines to help practitioners integrate technology in language classrooms. This also provides teachers digital tools that support students'...
Building our Classrooms to Facilitate Student-Centered, Teacher-Sustaining, Tech-Supported Education
 By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

This article was written when COVID put challenges on teachers to support middle school students' social, intellectual, and... 
​Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

If writing instruction focused more on content than mechanics, students with learning disabilities' academic strengths are more likely to be elicited...
Learning to Teach Disciplinary Literacy
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Understanding the disciplinary features and writing strategies help teachers to better identify students' needs...
Fostering Critical Reasoning: Developing Argument Skills in Early and Middle Primary Years
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

From a linguistic perspective, argument skills require the ability to apply nuanced language structures when producing arguments...
​The Power of Formative Assessment for Online Collaborative Writing
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Online collaborative writing (OCW) promotes peer interaction, language learning, and improves writing performance...
Strategy-focused Writing Instruction: Is Observation and Reflection Enough?
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What are some basic skills required to communicate clearly in writing? These include topic-related knowledge, planning, and transferring content... 
Explicitly Teaching Strategies, Skills, and Knowledge: Writing Instructionin Middle School Classrooms
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Sone

Since writing is a complex process, strategies to regulate the process are needed. Writing instruction needs to include self-regulatory strategies...
Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs about the Use of African American English
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What knowledge should teachers be equipped with to recognize and hone students' linguistic capital?...
​How Writing Shapes Thinking
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

It's crucial to select writing tasks that are culturally relevant and align with learning goals...
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Teachers and Content Area Reading: A Literature Review
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

It has been agreed upon that reading instruction in content area classes in beneficial...
How to Implement a Disciplinary Literacy Curriculum for U.S. History
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Integrating disciplinary literacy requires teachers to have a deep understanding of the discipline - how knowledge is produced, communicated, and evaluated.
Teaching and Learning Argumentative Reading and Writing
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What are some challenges in teaching argumentative reading and writing?...
​Creating a Classroom Vision forTeaching Writing
By Jazmin Cruz

It is essential that teachers develop a coherent and well-constructed vision for teaching writing. In this infographic, we will review three...
Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6-12
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone
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When planning for active and enjoyable learning choose activities that make students have a sense of competence and control...
Best Practices in Teaching Argumentative Writing
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

The nature of argumentation is dialogic activity between people holding different opinions about an issue...
Does Revising Goals Change Revising Behavior?
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What does revising consist of? There are multiple purposes of revising, including to make the writing adequately organized...
The Effects of Multicomponent Strategy Instruction on Argumentative Writing
By Jiali Wang

What are some challenges of argumentative writing? Writing is a complex and recursive process where writers plan, translate, and revise...
Think Aloud Modeling and Coping Models in Writing Instruction
By Jiali Wang
This study reviews the function of think alouds and modeling of think alouds in the development of cognitive strategies in writing instruction. It also reviews...
Teacher Self-Efficacy and Writing Practices for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students?
By Jiali Wang

This study examines writing beliefs and practices of teachers deal and hard of hearing (DHH) students.... 
Grade 4-6 Teachers’ Adaptations for Developing Writers: A National Study of Chile
​By Jiali Wang

Students with lower writing skills have limited personal, academic, and occupation opportunities. Such students need modified instruction catering to their needs...
Teaching about Language, Power, and Text: A Review of Classroom Practices Supporting Critical Literacy
​By Jiali Wang

By inviting students to examine social relationships through language use, critical literacy fosters social justice. Language is not neutral...
A Linguistic Analysis of Simplified and Authentic Texts
​By Jiali Wang

What is authentic and simplified texts for L2 learners? Authentic text: a text originally created for a specific social purpose...
Adapting Teaching Methods and Approaches for Students with ASD
​By Jiali Wang

What are students with ASD facing? They have difficulties with social interactions and understanding others' emotions...
Using assessments informatively and inclusively to support learning
​By Jiali Wang

A formative assessment is an assessment for the purpose of finding out what students know and do not know. The goal of this assessment is to...
Writing as an Avenue between Home and School
By Jiali Wang

This infographics zooms in on one of the topics of the NCTE statement "Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing." The NCTE statement itself...​
Writing in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder
By Jiali Wang

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) impact individuals' social communication and interaction. Individuals with ASD may also display...
Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities: Research-Based Applications and Examples
​By Jiali Wang​

This infographic presents evidence-based instructional approaches to improve expressive-writing of students with learning disabilities. Three critical steps of writing...
A framework for assessing multimodal comprehension
By Jiali Wang​

Four important resources that an effective reader enacts: 1) Code breaker resource, 2) text user resource, 3) text participant resource, and 4) text critic resource...​
​Meeting the linguistic needs of multilingual writers
By Jiali Wang​

Academic writing is a complex task that requires an in-depth understanding of genre conventions and linguistic principles. Adolescent multilingual writers...
Guest blog: We Need to Talk about Book Bans
By Carol Jago

Powerful forces are gathering to demand control over what is taught, what students read, and what can and cannot be spoken...
Preparing writing teachers to teach the vocabulary and grammar of academic prose
By Jiali Wang

This article is a literature review focused on the vocabulary and grammar of academic writing. A list of web-based resources is also included...
​Assessment for learning in L2 writing
By Jiali Wang

Assessment of students' competence after the learning period; focus on the second score/grade; often takes place at the final stage...
Using L2 creative writing to support autonomous learning and motivation
By Jiali Wang

Autonomous learning is to be able to acquire a new language independently in this context. It is the ability to change one...
Teaching Academic English to English Language Learners

By Jiali Wang

What is Academic English? Academic English (AE) is the language used in school contexts to help students acquire and apply knowledge...
​Giving feedback in second language writing
By Jiali Wang

This study provides an overview of seven papers examining the role of providing corrective feedback in second language acquisition, and empirical studies...
​Strategies Promoting Historical Reasoning and Contextualization
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

Students usually engage in knowledge-telling, which to record a claims and then locate evidence to support it. However, in historical writing...
Using Self-regulated Strategy Development to Teach Writing to Children with ASD
By Jiali Wang and Sasha Stone

What is the writing process? The writing process usually consists of the following: planning, composing, revising, and editing. How do self-regulatory skills support writing?...​
​Learning Disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Writing
By Jiali Wang and Jazmin Cruz

How do learning disabilities (LD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impact writing? Students with LD tend to adopt the knowledge-telling approach in writing...
Guest Bloggers
The Effects of Cognitive Apprenticeship on Students' Scientific Explanations
By Minkyung Cho and Sasha Stone

What is cognitive apprenticeship approach to instruction? Preparing students to learn starts by clearly defining the lesson objectives and building...​
Guest Blog: Making Someone Wrong
By Jennifer Fletcher

Pick a side and prove the other side wrong. In a nutshell, this is what many argument prompts tell students to do. But "making someone wrong"- that is...
​An Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Model
By Jiali Wang and Jazmin Cruz

Can the contextualized word family (CWF) vocabulary instruction model effectively improve students' vocabulary size and writing performance? Vocabulary learning for second language...
What support do students with ASD need to comprehend texts?
​By Jiali Wang and Jazmin Cruz

What is reading comprehension? Comprehension is a process of creating a mental representation from text by using a range of skills like inference-making, comprehension monitoring, and perspective taking...
Guest Blog: Black Linguistic Justice in the Classroom
By Alejandro Granados Vargas

"Ain't is not a word." This is the mantra one of my teachers made us verbally repeat out loud in my early elementary years. Every repetition was supposed to burn it into our memories and turn it from a a sentence...
Working towards proficiency: Supporting high school English learners
By Undraa Maamuujav and Jazmin Cruz

How do we design courses for academic literacy development? Courses should include opportunities for students to build background knowledge on cultural norms...​
Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class
By Jiali Wang and Jazmin Cruz

What are the pros and cons of peer feedback? With peer feedback, students learn to be critical readers and revisers of their writing. Students can also have a higher level of possession of their texts...
Peer instruction in a flipped environment: Examining ESL students' participation in writing argumentative essay
By Jiali Wang and Jazmin Cruz

How do ESL students engage in argumentative essay writing during peer instruction in a flipped learning environment? This case study examines ESL students' participation in a flipped learning environment...
Embracing a Critical Translingual Approach
By Jenell Krishnan and Sasha Stone

To make language learning experiences in the U.S. transformative, a comprehensive approach that is able to address the marginalization of minoritized communities should be adopted...
2021
Learning Environments as Supports for Civic Reasoning, Discourse, and Engagement
By Jacob Steiss and Sasha Stone

What is civic reasoning and discourse? Civic reasoning includes the knowledge and skills needed for democratically healthy thinking, such as inquiry, fact-finding, rationality, critical thinking, discussion, and...
Historical Writing Instruction: A Comparative Case Study
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone

What are the differences in history thinking and writing instructions across teachers? What instruction styles help students develop historical thinking and writing?...
What is Myside Bias?
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone

What is myside bias? Myside bias is when we agree or disagree with an argument in a biased manner towards one's own prior beliefs and opinions. How can we help students avoid myside bias?...
Supporting Students' Civic Reasoning and Discourse Skills
By Tamara Tate and Sasha Stone

What is civic reasoning? Civic reasoning involves thinking through a public issue using rigorous inquiry skills and methods to weigh different points of view and examine available evidence...
Guided vs. Minimal Instruction: How much guidance should we give?
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone
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What is direct instructional guidance? Providing information to students that fully explains concepts being taught as well as learning strategy support...
​Goal Setting for Writing
By Jazmin Cruz

How does a good writer make a plan to achieve their writing goals? Goals are most effective when they are specific, proximal, include a plan, and success is monitored...
How Instruction Affects Students' Belief
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone

Why do students process information differently? Disconfirmation model states that a students' prior belief can influence how much they scrutinize a written argument....
Literacy Development and Second Language Writing
By Minkyung Cho and Sasha Stone

This article gives a summary of the available researches on 1) constraints on L2 writing development and 2) effective practices for teaching...
Teaching How to Integrate Multiple Texts: What Research Says
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone
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Why is text integration important? Text integration is an important ability in the 21st century. Acquiring knowledge from various sources allows for meaningful...
Why Metacognition Matters
By Yucheng Cao, Jacob Steiss, and Sasha Stone

What is metacognition? Metacognition is employed in many writing models such as Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). How does SRSD work? SRSD engages students in scaffolded development...
Kinds of knowledge-Telling: Modeling Early Writing Development
By Alissa Wolters and Sasha Stone

Pedagogical practices that lead to certain text structures have distinct developmental trajectories in students. There are three main recurring text structures in children's expository writing: chain, wheel...
​Literacies and Our Identities: Examining the Metaphors in History and Contemporary Research
By Inez Tan and Sasha Stone

The authors highlighted in this study discuss five metaphors of identity, along with literacy studies that take the perspective of each metaphor: identity as...
Metacognitive Strategies and the Text-Belief Consistency Effect
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone

What is the text-belief consistency effect? Learners often have prior beliefs which bias them toward information that is consistent with said biases. Reducing this effect is important in ensuring learners...
Bringing Research to Practice
By Jacob Steiss and Sasha Stone

Some researchers have examined how social and cultural forces shape writing without attention to the mental processes in writing development. The writer (s)-within-community model (WWC) of writing...
​Cognitive Factors in the Development of Children's Writing
​By Alissa Wolters, Jacob Steiss, and Sasha Stone

Research on the planning, production, and revision phases of writing are connected to the underlying cognitive processes that support them...
Why Different Perspectives Matter: Supporting Students' Argument Writing
By Minkyung Cho and Sasha Stone

What types of arguments do individuals make? Young adolescents frequently utilize avoidant responses, rather than addressing an argument. Attention to other's position does increase...
Supporting Students' Development of Counterarguments
By Youngsun Moon and Sasha Stone

​Why do counter arguments matter? Counterargument (reasons why one's argument might not be true) is a key component of argumentative writing. Texts that include...
A Snapshot of Writing Instruction in Middle Schools
By Jacob Steiss, Undraa Maamuujav, and Sasha Stone

What does writing instruction look like in secondary schools? The actual writing practices of students has not changed much: frequent assignments are formulaic, on-demand, and short response...
Evaluativist Thinking: Helping Students to Write Arguments about Controversial Topics
​By Minkyung Cho and Sasha Stone

An argument is a claim sustained by at least one reason. Argumentative skills include producing arguments, counter arguments, and rebuttals...
The Thinking and Feeling of Writing: A Theoretical Framework
​By Minkyung Cho, Jiali Wang, and Sasha Stone

Models of writing help researchers and educators understand how students engage in the process of writing and identify key components of the writing process to study or teach. The best writing models...
Text reading fluency and reading comprehension
By Jiali Wang

Reading fluency is usually conceptualized as the ability to read texts with accuracy, speed, and expression...
What Do Writing Centers Do, Exactly?
​By Jane Nazzal and Sasha Stone

What are writing center? Writing centers provide support to enhance the quality of students' academic discourse and their understanding of expectations for...
Encouraging More Counterarguments in Argument Writing
By Minkyung Cho and Sasha Stone

Specific goal instruction helps students write counterarguments. Students who were simply asked to write their opinion and supporting reasons did not produce counterarguments...
A Better Way to Workshop
By Jenell Krishnan

The Antiracist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom is one part memoir, one part guidebook. Author Felicia Rose Chavez invites all writing instructors to revise the writing workshop...
Online Fanfiction: A Supportive Space for Literacy Learning
By Inez Tan and Sasha Stone

New literacies are new forms of literacy made possible by digital technology. Examples include instant messaging, blogging, social networking, podcasting...
Enhancing Argumentative Writing Using Strategy Instruction
By WRITE Center

What is strategy instruction? Strategy instruction is a goal-oriented approach to teaching students' literacy skills through scaffolded, explicit instruction. Students are supported towards self-regulating their own...
Writing Improvements for Students in Education: The (WISE) Project
​By Penelope Collins and Jazmin Cruz

Writing is a highly complex task that is impacted by cognitive, affective, and environmental factors. Students may benefit from learning about the writing process for strengthening their writing, and how rubrics and feedback...
Does Perspective Taking Matter in Writing? How? So What?
Guest Blogger: Minkyung Cho

Writing is an interactive social act and a form of communication that involves negotiation between readers and writers. According to Direct and Indirect Effects model of Writing (Kim, 2020), perspective taking, one’s knowledge of their own mental and emotional states and inference about...
No one reads on an Island: How Contexts and Tasks Influence how we Read
​By Jacob Steiss

What is the RESOLV model? The RESOLV model describes REading as problem SOLVing. Reading is contextualized and purposeful. Readers construct both context and task model to achieve their purposes...
A Meta-analysis of Writing Instruction for Students in the Elementary Grades
​By Minkyung Cho and Jenell Krishnan

What improves the quality of writing produced by students in elementary grades? Significant improvement in students' writing was attributed to explicit instruction, scaffolding...
Writing Motivation Research, Measurement and Pedagogy 
Guest Blogger: ​Dr Muhammad M. M. Abdel Latif

Dr Muhammad Abdel Latif's book Writing Motivation Research, Measurement and Pedagogy is an essential reference and a unique resource for writing teachers and researchers. This six-chapter book provides...
#CELEBRATEAAPI: An Educator Guide
Guest Blogger:  Virginia Nguyen

Xin chào các bạn và các thầy cô giáo. It is May and it is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. This is the month in which we celebrate the contributions and achievements of the Asian American Pacific...
Supporting English Learners' Development of Academic Language
By Minkyung Stone and Sasha Stone

Who are English learners? English learners (EL) are students who enter school with a home language other than English and whose English proficiency levels are below set thresholds...
Infographics to Support Writing Development Within Process-Based Writing Pedagogy 
By Undraa Maamuujav, Jenell Krishnan, & Penelope Collins

Infographics are visual representations designed to present information, data, and knowledge quickly and clearly (Krauss, 2012). A writing curriculum that explicitly teaches writers how to develop infographics as an authentic method of planning their ideas and communicating them...​
Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing for Secondary Students
By Jacob Steiss

What specific teaching practices lead to improved writing for secondary students? This report describes eleven evidence-based practices shown to improve student writing from grades 4-12...
Guest Blog: Digital Storytelling and the Writing Process
By Frank Guttler

Why do we tell stories? This is an interesting question to offer at the beginning of a blog on digital storytelling. Storytelling is a way for people to make sense of their worlds. It’s a natural part of humanity, re-living scenes from the past, replaying episodes from time gone by. One method of...
Three Levels of Reasoning Skills in Students' Argumentative Writing

The three developmental levels are absolutist, multiplist, and evaluativist. Only at the evaluativist level are these dimensions balances. 8th graders at their evaluativist level of understanding wrote more...
The Myside Bias in Argument Writing

What is myside bias? This is a tendency to ignore or exclude evidence against one's position. Overcoming myside bias requires a strong argumentation schema...
Guest Blog: Finding Instructional Balance: The Acquire-Connect-Transfer Learning Sequence
By Trevor Aleo

Teaching writing often leaves me feeling like a perpetual Goldilocks. Some methods I try feel too rigid—removing student’s ability to cultivate their voice and hone their craft. Other methods feel too squishy, lacking the...
How do Students Process Multiple Documents?
By Minkyung and Sasha Stone

Knowing hoe students comprehend and process multiple documents can help teachers engage students in inquiry activities with multiple sources, texts, and documents...
Curated Writing Research Resource: 17 Categories and Counting
By Jenell Krishnan and Jiali Wang

In this blog, we highlight the WRITE Center's website research page. This resource was created to support writing researchers, educators, teaching scholars, graduate students, and others who are interested in the study of writing.  The page organizes writing-related research articles into 17...
Muhammad Cultivating Genius

Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy is essential reading for those who want to understand how to teach in culturally and historically responsive ways. In this blog, we will review key insights from... 
Resource in the Spotlight: Visible Learning for Literacy
By Jiali Wang

In this post, we are featuring the book Visible Learning for Literacy: Implementing the Practices that Work Best to Accelerate Student Learning, which addresses this question and can be a source of support for teachers when designing curriculum and instruction. Learning more about...
Building Your Classroom Library
By Jazmin Cruz

In our past blog, Who is [and who is not] in the curriculum?, we highlighted actionable steps we as educators may take to critically examine who is [and is not] represented in our texts and curriculum.  We also offered suggestions on how to conduct a book audit and why diverse perspectives...
2020
Webinar Recap: Kelly Gallagher on Narrative Writing
By Jazmin Cruz

On July 8, 2020, Kelly Gallagher hosted a webinar on narrative writing and how that looks like during online instruction. Although Gallagher's webinar is unavailable for viewing, this blog offers a recap of the resources shared by Gallagher and our learning community of in-service...​
Webinar Recap: Designing Academic Writing, Assignments for All Students, All Environments, All Classrooms
By Jacob Steiss

​On July 22nd, 2020, educator and teacher scholar, Jim Burke, shared timely wisdom as teachers prepared for unknown challenges in the upcoming school year. He framed his presentation within the context of teaching during a global pandemic and in remote settings, highlighting the need...
Notice and Note Signposts: Intro to Upcoming Webinar
​By Jiali Wang

One paramount goal of literacy acquisition is to empower our students. But how can teachers invite students to critically think about what are they reading and what they write? In this blog, Dr. Kylene Beers' strategy of Notice & Note signposts will be introduced as a powerful strategy for...
Flash Presentation: Using Screen Capture Software to Communicate Ideas in the Drafting Process
By Shakil Rabbi
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This semester I have used an assignment in my first-year composition (FYC) classes that asks undergraduate students to digitally record a brief presentation of their essay outlines. I call this assignment a “Flash Presentation.” The activity provides students a way to use digital tools to...
​Webinar Recap: Purposeful Arcs of Writing Instruction
By Jiali Wang

On July 1st, 2020, Dr. Troy Hicks facilitated a webinar on purposeful arcs of writing instruction and what they look like in his classroom. This blog offers a recap of that two-hour event. For those interested in access to a replay of this webinar, click here.​
​Featured Resource: The UC Irvine History Project
By Jiali Wang

The UC Irvine History Project (UCIHP) strives to help teachers integrate primary sources into classroom so that students can engage with texts like historians. Students will not learn by memorization; instead, they acquire historical thinking and strategies to think through and analyze texts....
​How do Writing Workshops Support Doctoral Student Writers?
By Jiali Wang and Jacob Steiss

In this study, Dr. Barbara Sarnecka and colleagues examine the impact of writing workshops on graduate students' writing quality, writing practices, and overall well-being.​..
​Featured Resource: University of California, Irvine's Writing Project

This model of teacher professional learning sparked a movement that is still growing strong today. More than 200 Writing Project sites can be found across the United States, and these sites continue to use a teachers-teaching-teachers model to build community, capacity, and passion...
Guest Blog: Writing Organization as a Concept (Rather than a Formula)
Vicky Chen, Ph.D.

As an undergraduate peer writing tutor, I saw all kinds of students pass through the doors of the writing center at my university. I learned more than I ever thought, both about the challenges that my fellow students faced in college writing, and about my own composing and revising...
​The What and Why of Disciplinary Literacy
By Jacob Steiss and Jiali Wang

Students use varied and complex literacy skills to solve problems and communicate their thinking in science, history, and English Language Arts. To support students’ continued development in these areas, teachers need to build students’ literacy skills toward discipline-specific ways of reading...
Guest Blog: ​Having Choice: Middle School Multigenre Research Projects
By Jeremy Hyler, Michigan Middle School English Teacher

Yes, it is true, I dislike the term “research paper". Since I was an undergrad, it brings nothing but anxiety to me, personally. For my middle school students, it can be downright terrifying, causing negative thoughts about the process of writing a research paper. However, in my experience...
Letters to the President: Fostering Civic Literacy through Authentic Writing Tasks
By Jacob Steiss

In this two-part blog, we will highlight the work of Dr. Antero Garcia and his colleagues, with help from The National Writing Project (@WritingProject) and KQED (@KQEDedspace). The project analyzed letters written by over 11,000 students from over 300 schools and 47 states...
Letters to the President: Guidelines for Promoting Civic Writing
By Jacob Steiss

In our last blog, we highlighted research by Antero Garcia and his colleagues that analyzed thousands of letters written by secondary students to the next president of the United States. The corpus of letters showed the capacity of students to use their literacy skills to advocate for social and...
Guidelines on Using Copyrighted Materials for Teaching
By Jacob Steiss, MEd, and Tamara Tate PhD/JD

Wondering about digital copies and copyright law? Here are guidelines on using copyrighted materials for teaching...
Who is [and who is not] in the curriculum?
By Jacob Steiss

Educators and researchers have increasingly given attention to the lack of diverse literature and the absence of multicultural, BIPOC, and women authors in school curricula. As teachers, our choices about texts matter; Book lists predominantly featuring texts about white, male...
Pens to Pixels: Designing a Digital Magazine
​By Jazmin Cruz

During Carol Jago's webinar "Writing Poetry to Read Poetry in Online Spaces", participants were invited to write a poem that reflects the changes in their daily lives during 2020. Using Quincy Troupe's poem, "Flying Kites" as a mentor text, our community of learners wrote their own poems...
What is a Transformative Justice Approach to Literacy Education?
By Jacob Steiss

In “A Transformative Justice Approach to Literacy Education,” Dr. Masiha T. Winn describes how teachers can use “restorative justice as a lens through which to view their roles and responsibilities to students.” She identifies key questions to guide instruction through...
Disciplinary Literacy in ELA, Science, and History
By Jiali Wang

This study presents a conceptual framework for disciplinary literacy and presents key disciplinary literacy practices to apply to ELA, science, and history instruction...
Supporting Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing in the Secondary Classroom
​By Jacob Steiss

Why Support Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing in the Secondary Classroom?Our students live varied and complex literate lives outside the classroom. Adolescents write in online forums, create fanfiction in digital writing communities, and participate in literacy activities as community...
Guest Blog: Continuing the Conversation on "Designing Purposeful Arcs of Writing Instruction
​By Dr. Troy Hicks
​
On July 1, 2020, I was fortunate enough to be invited to deliver a webinar titled “Designing Purposeful and Engaging Arcs of Writing Instruction in an Era of Remote Learning” through the National WRITE Center, co-sponsored by the National Writing Project, The recording is available below...
Enhance Writing Instruction with Technology
By Jazmin Cruz
​
Integrating technology and writing can be challenging for students and teachers alike. Here are some strategies that may help!...
Essential Reading: Guidance on Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Remote Education
By Jacob Steiss

Through research, advocacy, activism, and teaching, Dr. David E. Kirkland has made immeasurable contributions to improving the learning, literacy, and life outcomes of our nation’s youth. With a particular concern for research that advances education...
Guest Blog: Dialogic Literary Argumentation: A New Framework for Teaching and Learning Literature
By George Newell

Ms. Hill was aware of the literary scholarship on the short story “Indian Camp,” and its emphasis on the theme of loss of innocence. But this secondary ELA teacher decided to focus her students’ explorations on the theme of dominance. She supplanted authorized literary knowledge...
Guest Blog: Writing-to-Learn: What This Type of Assignment Looks Like in an Online Class
By Jim Burke

Friday, March 13, 2020: What better day to close schools down and send us all home to begin our new careers––as online teachers. As I made the long drive home that afternoon from Middle College High School, I had no idea how long we would be teaching from home. Instead of seeing...
​How to Improve Reading Skills by Teaching Writing?
By Jiali Wang

How does writing help with reading? Reading and writing draw on common knowledge...
​Integrating Reading and Writing Instruction
By Jiali Wang

In this article, Steve Graham examines both theoretical and empirical evidence to support that the science of writing is the science of reading and vice versa. Let’s first look at what do theories tell us about why reading and writing should be integrated...
Writing-to-Learn: The Effects of Writing on Learning in Science, Social Studies, and Math
By Jazmin Cruz

A 2020 study conducted by Graham, Kiuhara, and MacKay shows that writing about classroom content can enhance learning for students in grades 1-12. The study revealed that writing about content was equally effective across multiple subjects in supporting students’ comprehension...
​Supporting Students During Online Instruction
By Jazmin Cruz

Students can be supported synchronously or asynchronously during online writing instruction in the following ways...
Use Padlet to Assist Students' Process-Based Writing
By Jiali Wang

​The drafting process can be challenging for students and online instruction may make it even harder for teachers to monitor students’ drafting process. Padlet can help teachers support and monitor students’ process-based writing.
Resource in the Spotlight: National Writing Project
By National Writing Project

The National Writing Project (NWP) is a network of sites anchored at colleges and universities and serves teachers across disciplines, from early childhood through university. They provide professional development, develop resources, generate research, and act on knowledge to improve...
​Supporting Historical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
By Jacob Steiss

Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) offers a number of free resources to help secondary history and literacy teachers improve students’ source-based analytical thinking, writing about sources, and reasoning about online texts. Here are THREE awesome resources for teachers...
​Teaching Arguments Book Review
By Jacob Steiss

Dr. Jennifer Fletcher's recent book is a great resource for those interested in teaching their students essential skills for argument writing. Click on the cover of her book below to read a short review of her work!...
High-Impact Resources for Teaching Interpretation, Critique, and Argument in Social Studies
By Jenell Krishnan

Developed by two members of The WRITE Center's Advisory Board, Chauncey Monte-Sano and Mary Schleppgrell, Read.Inquire.Write helps teachers improve student reading, reasoning, and writing with sources through social studies inquiry. Their free and downloadable curriculum...
Using Assessments to Inform Instruction

Our previous post highlighted several evidence-based strategies for teaching secondary students to write effectively.  In this guide, a panel of experienced writing teachers and writing researchers outline ways to implement high-leverage practices for writing in secondary classrooms...
Why Argument Writing Matters
​By Jacob Steiss
Secondary Writing Instruction: Three Evidence-Based Practices that Work

Check out these three recommendations for teaching secondary students to write effectively. The authors, including WRITE center leaders Carol Booth Olson and Steve Graham, consider two decades of writing research and practice in order to find the three best evidence-based practices...
Explicit Teaching Strategies: Model-Practice-Reflect

Our post from last week highlighted several evidence-based strategies for teaching secondary students to write effectively.  In this guide, a panel of experienced writing teachers and writing researchers outline ways to implement high-leverage practices for writing in secondary classrooms...
Integrate Reading and Writing Instruction

WRITE Center:  Writing Research to Improve Teaching and Evaluation

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C190007 to University of California, Irvine. In 2025 the National Writing Project took over management of this website and project resources. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.
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