Abstract
In many English classrooms today, writing instruction is reduced to templates and formulas, robbing students of agency, voice, and transferable skills. This article describes a collaboration between a writing methods course instructor and one of her former students bent on proving that what they believe makes for solid writing instruction—a sometimes messy process involving choice and authentic purpose and audience—works. Documenting development of a new secondary writing course and a project to introduce the course’s methods to pre-service teachers, the authors recount barriers they encountered, strategies they developed for overcoming them, and issues they are still grappling with. In the process, they describe persuasive experiential learning activities for future writing teachers, as well as practical applications of this pedagogy for secondary classrooms. They also make a case for teaching and reflecting in community to support writing teachers in refining and acting on their pedagogical commitments.
Recommended Citation
Rojas, Michael and Sjostrom, Kate
(2026)
"Strengthening Our Pedagogy Together: A Methods Instructor and Her Former Student Partner to Promote Agency in the Secondary Writing Classroom [Special Issue],"
Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education: Vol. 14:
Iss.
1, Article 12.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte/vol14/iss1/12
Included in
Educational Methods Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Secondary Education Commons, Secondary Education and Teaching Commons