Writer Identities and Secondary Generation 1.5: Helping novice writers meet academic expectations

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Identity Formation

Abstract

Secondary students in Generation 1.5 participated in a research-based curriculum to facilitate persuasive writing. Generation 1.5 are those students who immigrated to the U.S. at an early age, and receive most of their education in U.S. public schools. Participants, enrolled in tenth-grade remedial English, revealed negative writer identities before the study. As the study unfolded, negative writer identities emerged through classroom talk and written work samples. Using strategies such as identifying students’ everyday competencies for mediation, positioning literacies as context specific, and providing direct instruction in academic expectations, positive writer identities took shape. With implications for all novice writers, instructional approaches to support Generation 1.5 students meeting expectations for academic writing, development of writer identities is beneficial.

Author

• Paula M. Carbone, University of Southern California