| Eight years into my secondary school teaching | | | | analyzed the testing environment that shapes writing |
| career, I began my doctoral studies, again under the | | | | instruction (Testing), his earlier work could not |
| mentorship of Hillocks. I realized that I needed to | | | | account for the fact that what emerged as a "best |
| resolve the tension I felt in balancing attention to | | | | practice" in his teaching and research was not widely |
| what people think individually as they work and how | | | | practiced by the majority of teachers, including those |
| that thinking proceeds in relation to the social context | | | | with choice in the matter. |
| in which it takes place. I was spurred in this effort by | | | | Indeed, it's likely that what Hillocks identified as the |
| what struck me as a paradox in Hillocks's claims | | | | "best practice" in teaching writing was, at best, the |
| about effective teaching (Research). In his | | | | third most widely used approach to teaching writing. |
| comprehensive review of writing research conducted | | | | The default means of teaching writing was what he |
| between 1963 and 1983, he used statistical | | | | termed "presentational" teaching: a teacher positioned |
| comparisons of research Tag Heuer Replica and | | | | at the front of the room and taking an authoritative |
| concluded that the approach he had taught me and | | | | role in dispensing knowledge. Such teachers typically |
| many others had greater effects on students' writing | | | | use model essays, often consisting of five |
| than any other method. Based on this finding, he | | | | paragraphs, to reveal to students the end-product of |
| made a "best practice" claim on behalf of the | | | | their efforts, focusing on this final form and attending |
| structured-process or environmental approach to | | | | less to the processes involved in producing it. This |
| teaching I have described. | | | | product-oriented approach was (and remains) |
| And yet many teachers in the field, voting with their | | | | well-established in textbooks, was familiar to teachers |
| wallets, were making Atwell's individualized approach | | | | through their experiences as students, was |
| the clear favorite and, by my informal count, the | | | | entrenched in many high-stakes writing assessments, |
| most widely referenced pedagogy in English Journal | | | | and was otherwise well-woven into the culture of |
| articles. If one approach worked best and another | | | | secondary school English instruction (see Johnson et |
| was more widely practiced (or at least read about), | | | | al. for a review of these issues). |
| something had to give. Interrogating this seeming | | | | As a teacher both in high schools and ultimately in |
| paradox struck me as critically important as I tried to | | | | university teacher education programs, and as one |
| make sense of my field during my doctoral studies | | | | with a great interest in this seemingly illogical situation, |
| and subsequent career. | | | | I faced a conundrum: If a review of 20 years of |
| My reading of Lev S. Vygotsky and his modern | | | | experimental research demonstrated Hillocks's |
| interpreters helped me to understand this conundrum. | | | | (Research) environmental approach to be the most |
| Hillocks's attention to the environment focused on | | | | Tag Heuer Replica Watches effective way of |
| students' work in social activities designed and put | | | | teaching writing, followed by the individualistic, general |
| into motion by teachers. What was missing from his | | | | process approach advocated by Atwell and others, |
| formulation, however, was a consideration of the | | | | followed with a considerable lag by a presentational |
| degree to which any teacher might embrace this | | | | approach that relied on product models, why was |
| pedagogy or have the capacity to design and | | | | their actual usage in classrooms likely practiced in the |
| implement activities in the labor-intensive manner | | | | reverse order? |
| described by Hillocks and his students (e.g., Hillocks, | | | | Within this broader contention, my experiences as a |
| Narrative, Teaching; Hillocks, McCabe, and | | | | teacher from 1976—90 had led me to accept |
| McCampbell; Lee; McCann et al.; Smagorinsky, | | | | Hillocks's approach as what worked best for me, |
| Teaching English by Design). Further, his approach did | | | | even in schools in which the other major approaches |
| not initially take into account the broader context of | | | | were available and widely practiced around me. I thus |
| teaching that might or might not support the sort of | | | | began to search for explanations that were not tied |
| process-oriented, and thus time-consuming, instruction | | | | to a notion that one thing may work best on all |
| he advocated. Ironically, then, while the social | | | | occasions and for all purposes for all the many |
| environment of students' learning was central to his | | | | personalities, goals, histories, and other factors that |
| approach, the social context of teachers' lives and | | | | come together in particular classrooms. |
| work was given less attention. Although Hillocks later | | | | |