How Is Prewriting Being Taught in the Secondary Classroom?

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Literacy Instruction

Abstract

In response to growing concerns about the teaching of writing in the secondary classroom, many school systems are setting standards for the teaching of prewriting. Unfortunately, the standards do not tell teachers how to teach prewriting, only that they are required to teach it. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how secondary English teachers teach prewriting. Data collected via survey, interview, and artifacts suggest that teachers across subjects are teaching prewriting in various ways; however, there is no clear consensus of what does and does not work for students. Teacher participants claimed to start a writing unit with some kind of heuristic, and artifact analysis reveals they frequently use clustering and brainstorming.

Author

• Kelly Rippard, Old Dominion University