Scholars such as Diane Kelly-Riley and Patricia Bizzell have argued that the student writing feature most likely to place a student into a basic writing course is the presence of dialect other than standard academic English. This essay examines how assessment practices can foster students' diverse languages rather than inhibit them. I conducted a…

This article recuperates the notion of "strategic value," but to new ends: rather than arguing whether or not basic writing should continue, this case study looks to one institution where it does, asking what value the category "basic writer" holds for teachers at this site. On the one hand, they confirm the existing…

Language and literacy are situated in specific classroom contexts and are acquired as students engage with the subject matter and tasks of these courses. Therefore, all faculty--not just those who teach courses devoted to teaching English to speakers of other languages (ESOL)--are responsible for contributing to multilingual students' acquisition…

The goal of the study reported in this article is to analyze ways students in the first course of a three-quarter college preparatory sequence in reading and writing write about their experiences in their essays. The student participants were three native speakers of English and three native speakers of Punjabi, who had lived and studied in the…

Focuses on the implications of identity in the construction of classroom culture. Finds that teacher/researchers usually center attention on the students in the room, with the teacher being peripheral. Uses an informal survey to help examine participants' institutions for racial, gender, and class differences. (PA)

Surveys educational psychologists' research on student/teacher values and expectations, and adapts a theoretical model to describe interactions in a developmental classroom. Studies two basic writing classrooms to test the model and to discover where a teacher might intervene most effectively to motivate students. (RS)

Examines the basic writing course described in D. Bartholomae and A. Petrosky's "Facts, Artifacts and Counterfacts" from the perspective of four gender-typed categories: "masculinists,""feminists,""androgenous," and "undifferentiated." Suggests that teachers define themselves, give shape to their…

Uses a case study to illustrate the multitude of cultural and idiosyncratic factors which may influence the feelings and behaviors of basic writers at risk of failure. Suggests that rather than continually defining the basic writer, educators should begin to redefine and reexamine their roles and attitudes as teachers of basic writers. (MG)