English Leadership Quarterly - Volume 38, Issue 2, 2015

This article explores questions about how to create meaningful PD experience related to the effective teaching of argumentative writing, providing suggestions that could be adapted and incorporated by literacy leaders hoping to influence instruction and student achievement in academic writing. These insights may also have broader application, as leaders look for ongoing ways to support teacher learning.

In this article, the author argues for the inclusion of creative writing assignments in secondary school disciplines other than English in order to (1) improve the authenticity of students’ written voices, (2) provide new formative evaluation tools for teachers, and (3) create opportunities for meaningful collaboration between secondary English teachers and teachers in other disciplines. The author provides a variety of example assignment ideas, including “time traveler” journals, poetry exercises, scriptwriting, and fictional journalism to further support the argument for creative writing in the disciplines.

The aim of this paper is to contribute a discussion point in the discourse about what argumentative writing is, what elemental skills are involved, and how students develop them. At face value, there seems broad consensus that argumentative writing is vital to academic study, civic engagement, and even the perpetuation of democracy. But as contexts change, so do the things we teach and how we teach them. The authors present a case for what they view as a decomposition of the genre as it is learned and practiced among students. At the very least, they claim it is time to translate argumentative writing in our classes.

In this article, the author uses a case study format to explore the experiences and growth of one language arts teacher during the course of the teacher inquiry group. Through this case study, the author illustrates the power of teacher inquiry groups to inspire teachers to research teaching and learning in their schools in order to make persuasive arguments about student learning, teacher needs, and school culture that position them as formal and informal leaders in their school settings.

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