Writing Research & Methods

I have given a lot of thought to my MA thesis project. Especially since my reasons for continuing my graduate study was to become a better writer. Truthfully, I wish I could just get an MA in creative writing. But since that is not an option for me, I have to reconsider what I care enough about to research.  I'm a middle school teacher. A reading and writing teacher. This year I was afforded the opportunity to step out of that role and into the role of history/slash writing teacher. Making the move out a tested subject gives me a little more freedom to teach things I'm passionate about. This is a gift and a curse. Since I am not in a tested subject I do not get all of the resources as the ELA or Math teachers so I can't stay on trend and get the resources that I need.  So, after much consideration I think I've found something that I want to research. Given the political climate of our country I have been obsessed with all things politics. The things that are takin...

This week we read an excerpt from “Grounded Theory: A Critical Research Methodology” by Joyce Magnotto Neff in  Under Construction: Working at the Intersection of Composition Theory, Research, and Practice. It made me think that reflect on why we do the work that we do. What makes us take the theories into practice. The main takeaway from me was the grounded theory methodology. The data driven principals that the methodology is founded on lends itself to the opportunity to test this theory out. Data is important when looking at the trends in writing and trying to find a way to improve both the teaching and the actual doing of writing.  There is so much guesswork in the teaching of writing instruction because of the complexity of human activity. As a result, I think it is important to have a structured lens in which to look at the data. "Grounded theory methodology insists that no matter how general-- how broad in scope or abstract -- the theory, it should be developed in...

Joanne Addison and James Sharon McGee really picked apart and dissected everything I had been studying researching and learning in my writing instruction professional development classes. Over the past few years the Common Core Standards have taken over the world of education. And now, a little more than five years later there is talk of doing away with it all together. What the CCS ushered in was a new way in which we taught and thought about student writing in terns of their preparedness for college. In a nutshell I learned that our students, especially those coming from an urban school district are not prepared for college writing.  This information is neither surprising nor shocking. I did find it however, troubling that everyone knows this to be a a fact. " The most highly satisfied faculty are those at the private high school, and the least satisfied those at the urban high school."  Why is this? Why is it that we can recognize the disparity but we still even wit...