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The LSU Writing Project site has a new look!

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The LSU Writing Project site has a new look!

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Check out the new website for the LSU Writing Project:

https://www.lsu.edu/chse/education/research_and_outreach/lsu_writing_project/index.php

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The Write Now Teacher Studio is an open, online community of educators hosted by the National Writing Project. There is a Write Out space there, and once you are a member, you can receive Awaken the Senses: Choice Board Badges!

Here’s how:

Join the Write Out space in the The Studio

Click on the “Earn a Badge” tab

Find the Choice Board activity that you completed and share evidence of your work to receive that Choice Board badge.

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Hosted by the National Writing Project, the Write Now Teacher Studio is an open, online community of educators for educators. It's a place to write together, examine our teaching, create and refine curricula, and work toward ever more effective and equitable practices to create confident, creative, and critical thinkers and writers in our classrooms and courses.

The Write Now Teacher Studio welcomes all educators interested in writing, teaching writing, and using writing as a learning tool in all disciplines. Members work with youth K-university, in schools, libraries, and community programs. All you need is an interest in writing.

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The Write Now Teacher Studio, an open online community hosted by the National Writing Project, welcomes all educators interested in writing, the teaching of writing, and joyous learning both in and out of schools.

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I Love to Write Day! A Conversation with Writing Project site directors

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I Love to Write Day! A Conversation with Writing Project site directors

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Teacher Consultant Kyley Pulphus sits down with site directors Dr. Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell (LSU Writing Project) and Dr. Tonya B. Perry (Red Mountain Writing Project) to talk about the state of writing instruction in schools.

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I Love to Write Day  - A Discussion with Writing Project Site Leaders

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Books by Theological Scholars on Racism, Religion, and Responsibility. 

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Books by Theological Scholars on Racism, Religion, and Responsibility. 

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Books by Theological Scholars on Racism, Religion, and Responsibility

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NCTE Position Statement on Writing Instruction in School

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NCTE Position Statement on Writing Instruction in School

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How writing is conceptualized has consequences, especially in educational settings. Yet, despite decades of research and scholarship on writing, writing instruction, and writing assessment, misperceptions about writing and its purpose in schools persist. In 2008, NCTE's James R. Squire Office of Policy Research, then directed by Anne Ruggles Gere, developed a policy research brief entitled Writing Now. This brief defined writing, particularly school-based writing, as it is understood in the 21st century, and offered recommendations for classroom teachers, school administrators, and policymakers to promote effective writing assessment and instruction. Since the publication of the Writing Now policy research brief, two NCTE position statements on writing instruction-Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing (2016) and Understanding and Teaching Writing: Guiding Principles (2018)-have expanded on key aspects of the original brief as they relate to teachers and the teaching of writing. This position statement is directed primarily toward an external audience of school administrators and policymakers. It describes problems with how writing is often perceived and taught in schools, identifies challenges educational leaders and educators face in trying to address these problems, and offers recommendations for educational leaders committed to addressing these misperceptions about writing and improving student learning, using the lenses of culturally relevant pedagogy and antiracist writing assessment.

Writing is an important form of self-expression and communication as well as a tool for thinking, reflecting, and learning. Its use as a process, a practice, and a product is essential in the classroom and beyond. However, in school settings, writing is often perceived and enacted as a gatekeeping device, which contributes to achievement gaps and other inequities. This happens when writing instruction and assessments focus on the writing-the products that are ultimately assessed and evaluated-rather than on the writers themselves. Writing instruction and assessments also serve as gatekeeping devices when they are built around deficit notions surrounding students' languages and literacies. Narrow definitions of and attitudes about writing and language too often perpetuate white, Eurocentric ideologies about what it means to write "well" or "effectively" (Chavez, 2021), upholding racist and linguistic barriers and inequities for students whose writing does not easily assimilate to dominant norms.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, 1974) supports "students' right to their own language-to the dialect that expresses their family and community identity, the idiolect that expresses their unique personal identity." Moreover, NCTE advocates for writing instruction that builds on students' strengths, that values their many ways of using language, that promotes a broad view of what constitutes "text," and that promotes young people's voices and purposes for writing within authentic contexts. The recommendations that follow aim to help administrators and policymakers support quality writing instruction and cultivate authentic and culturally sustaining conceptions of writing in schools and beyond.

Challenges to Authentic and Culturally Sustaining Writing Instruction
The aspects of classroom writing instruction described below can lead students to reject identifying as a writer, possess a limited ability to transfer writing processes and compositional decisions to new situations and contexts beyond those they learn in school, and conceive of writing as an exclusively school-based practice rather than a practice that can be personally meaningful and can transform and liberate individuals and communities.
Test-Driven Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

The ubiquity of standardized assessments, including high-stakes standardized assessments, perpetuate a limited view of composition and continue to heavily influence curricular, instructional, and assessment decisions (Scott, 2008).

Writing instruction often mirrors test preparation, with students filling in templates and following formulas rather than making important and intentional decisions about writing for authentic audiences and purposes. This kind of writing instruction focuses almost exclusively on "the production of first and final drafts with less scope for an elaborated writing process" (Applebee & Langer, 2009, p. 24).

Standardized writing assessments inaccurately delineate between modes of writing listed in state standards-e.g., positioning "narrative" and "informational" writing as mutually exclusive (Newkirk, 2014).

Many K-12 educators feel a lack of efficacy in regard to teaching student writers, which too often leads to the purchase and implementation of prepackaged writing programs, often perpetuating the issues inherent in most standardized assessments of writing and composition (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2006; Stillman, 2011).

Consequences for Student Writers:

Writing instruction focused on standardized tests fails to prepare a culturally diverse population of students for the college and career writing they'll be asked to do and, more broadly, to cultivate diverse communities of capable, engaged writers who write for their own purposes.

When students cannot envision authentic purposes for writing or are not invited to make choices about their own writing, they can become disengaged in school-based writing (Behizadeh, 2014).

Narrow Definitions of and Limited Practices for Writing

Writing instruction in many English language arts classrooms rarely includes opportunities for children and youth to write often (Gallagher & Kittle, 2018), engage in a variety of writing processes exploring a wide range of forms and modes (Coppola, 2017), write for authentic audiences, or make complex decisions about composition.

K-12 schools often promote limited and narrow notions of what "good" writing is. "Good" or "legitimate" writing is equated almost exclusively with so-called "academic" forms of writing (e.g., analytical essays, research papers), which perpetuates harmful ideas about what kinds of writing are useful and valued in the world (Coppola, 2019) and delegitimizes the writing that children and youth engage in outside of school spaces (Haddix, 2018; Skerrett & Bomer, 2013; Weinstein, 2006).

Many professional development opportunities related to teaching writing focus more on the teaching of products and forms-i.e., the writing-than they do on building students' decision-making processes as writers (Wahleithner, 2018).

Consequences for Student Writers:

An overly narrow focus on products-and particular types of products-leaves young people underprepared to understand the rhetorical nature of writing, to make decisions about their own writing, and to transfer their writing knowledge to new contexts, especially contexts beyond the classroom.

When students are offered infrequent opportunities to engage in multimodal composition, they experience a disconnect between school-based writing and the kinds of composition that most children and youth engage in outside of school spaces (Coppola, 2019).

Dominant Ideologies around Writing and Language

So-called Standard American English continues to dominate academic institutions, despite the lack of a formally recognized national language (Baker-Bell, 2020; Davila, 2012; Inoue, 2015; CCCC, 2021).

The dominant language and literacy of school is rooted in an uncritical and almost universal acceptance of white, Eurocentric norms¹ embedded in notions around what makes writing "good" or what constitutes writing "quality" (Chavez, 2021)-what composition scholar Asao B. Inoue (2019) calls "habits of white language." These habits include the privileging of Western logics and a focus on individual production, reason, order and control, and directness of language.

Consequences for Student Writers:

When educators exclusively define "good" or "effective" writing and language use as that which matches white, Eurocentric norms, students are more likely to be perceived as possessing inherent deficits when their writing and language use does not match those norms (Paris, 2012).

Student writers' voices, literacies, and compositional practices may not be valued in school settings, inhibiting their confidence and growth as writers, or, worse, students, families, and communities may be penalized, punished, excluded, and oppressed based on their language use.

Recommendations for Administrators and Policymakers
Despite the aforementioned challenges, there are ways to support writing instruction that can mitigate the potential consequences outlined earlier in this statement and, more important, actively cultivate young writers' efficacy and engagement. This kind of instruction builds on students' racial, cultural, social, and linguistic resources, provides opportunities for students to engage in complex writing processes within communities of other writers, and offers frequent opportunities for students to make decisions about composing for authentic purposes and audiences. This more inclusive, authentic view of writing instruction is outlined in NCTE's Understanding and Teaching Writing: Guiding Principles and in the position statement on Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing.

In attempting to disrupt the ways in which narrow definitions of writing and dominant instructional practices around the teaching of student writers perpetuate harm for both students and educators, this position statement offers educational leaders and policymakers a variety of concrete ways to use policies, practices, and funding to counter these ideologies:
Foster a Culture of Authentic and Culturally Sustaining Writing Instruction

Promote curriculum and instruction that broaden definitions of writing to include visual, aural, and multimodal compositions and to include a wider variety of purposes for writing (e.g., writing to discover, writing for change, writing to learn, writing to reflect).

Advocate for writing instruction that is process- (rather than product-) oriented and that invites students to become writers who (1) write for authentic purposes and (2) make authentic choices about processes and products.

Make writing a collective responsibility and a collaborative activity across faculty and academic departments by fostering writing-across-the-curriculum and writing support programs, such as writing centers, writing groups, and peer coaching, for student writers and writing teachers.

Recognize and value the cultural and linguistic assets that writers bring to their texts by highlighting published writing and student writing that reflect diverse perspectives, voices, experiences, and linguistic practices.

Adopt approaches to writing assessment that provide qualitative data about students' processes and growth as writers, include students in assessment decisions, and create more equitable assessment experiences for developing writers. See NCTE's position statement on writing assessment.

Support Faculty/Instructional Staff

Hire professionalized literacy and writing teachers who will recognize and build on students' strengths and their cultural and linguistic resources.

Support faculty engagement with professional organizations, especially those centered on literacy and writing, such as the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Writing Project.

Provide professional learning opportunities for all instructional staff centered on culturally responsive pedagogy, universal design for learning, and antiracist writing instruction and assessment.

Respect and value teachers' professional expertise and knowledge of student-writers and classroom practice. Invite teachers to contribute their knowledge and expertise to decisions about writing curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Invest in professional learning opportunities that allow teachers to learn together, share practices, and build knowledge collaboratively with one another. While professional development workshops may be useful, teachers benefit from spending time in ongoing inquiry communities.

Note

For example, a hyperfocus on developing independence as writers, notions around developing a "neutral" or "objective" voice/stance, particularly when composing informational texts, etc.

References
Achinstein, B., & Ogawa, R. (2006). (In)fidelity: What the resistance of new teachers reveals about professional principles and prescriptive educational policies. Harvard Educational Review, 76, 30-63.

Applebee, A., & Langer, J. (2009, May). What is happening in the teaching of writing. English Journal, 98(5), 18-28.

Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy. Routledge and NCTE.

Behizadeh, N. (2014). Adolescent perspectives on authentic writing instruction. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 10(1), 27-44.

Chavez, F. R. (2021). The anti-racist writing workshop: How to decolonize the creative classroom. Haymarket Books.

Conference on College Composition and Communication. (2021). CCCC Statement on White Language Supremacy.

Coppola, S. (2019). Writing, redefined: Broadening our ideas of what it means to compose. Stenhouse Publishers.

Coppola, S. (2017). Renew! Become a better-and more authentic-writing teacher. Stenhouse Publishers.

Davila, B. (2012). Indexicality and "standard" Edited American English: Examining the link between conceptions of standardness and perceived authorial identity. Written Communication, 29, 180-207.

Gallagher, K., & Kittle, P. (2018). 180 days: ​​Two teachers and the quest to engage and empower adolescents. Heinemann.

Haddix, M. (2018). "What's radical about youth writing?" Seeing and honoring youth writers and their literacies. Voices from the Middle, 23(3), 8-12.

Inoue, A. B. (2015). Antiracist writing assessment ecologies: Teaching and assessing writing for a socially just future. WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press.

Inoue, A.B. (2019). Labor-based grading contracts: Building equity and inclusion in the compassionate writing classroom. WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado.

National Council of Teachers of English. (1974, November 30). Resolution on the students' right to their own language.

Newkirk, T. (2014). Minds made for stories: How we really read and write informational and persuasive texts. Heinemann.

Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93-97.

Scott, T. (2008). "Happy to comply": Writing assessment, fast-capitalism, and the cultural logic of control. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 30(2), 140-161.

Skerrett, A., & Bomer, R. (2013). Recruiting languages and lifeworlds for border-crossing compositions. Research in the Teaching of English, 47, 313-337.

Stillman, J. (2011). Teacher learning in an era of high-stakes accountability: Productive tension and critical professional practice. Teachers College Record, 113(1), 133-180.

Wahleithner, J. M. (2018). Five portraits of teachers' experiences teaching writing: Negotiating knowledge, student need, and policy. Teachers College Record, 120(1), 1-60.

Weinstein, S. (2006). A love for the thing: The pleasures of rap as a literate practice. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50, 270-281.

Statement Authors
Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt, Chair, Yakima Valley College, WA
Shawna Coppola, The Educator Collaborative
Amber Warrington, Boise State University, ID
Robert P. Yagelski, University at Albany, SUNY

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Position Statement on Writing Instruction in School

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Writing is an important form of self-expression and communication as well as a tool for thinking, reflecting, and learning.

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'Starvation Diet' creates low interest in teaching profession (featuring thoughts from WP Director Dr. Sulentic Dowell)

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'Starvation Diet' creates low interest in teaching profession (featuring thoughts from WP Director Dr. Sulentic Dowell)

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Louisiana, like much of the country, is struggling through what is perhaps the worst teacher shortage in history. The situation is exacerbated by low wages, high inflation and school safety concerns, but also rooted in how society views public education and the teaching profession.

Numbers don't lie. State Education Superintendent Cade Brumley sounded the alarm a year ago and in March saying there were 2,500 certified teacher vacancies across the state, affecting an estimated 50,000 K-12 students.

St. Tammany Parish, where public school teacher salaries rank among the top 10 in the state, filled about 300 openings earlier in the year but went into August with 96 open positions, according to a report from WDSU-TV. Shreveport's KTBS-TV reported the Caddo Parish School District entered the school year with about 90 vacancies after hiring 200 new teachers over the summer.

Low pay is among the most commonly cited factors driving the shortage. Even after the legislature approved a $1,500 pay raise this year, Louisiana's teachers are still some of the lowest paid in the country, ranking 43rd out of 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The average annual salary for a teacher in Louisiana is roughly $52,000 compared with the national average of $65,300, according to National Education Association statistics. Starting salaries for teachers, which researchers say are key to attracting new talent to the field, remain low across the country at an average of about $42,000, which roughly matches Louisiana's figure.

Vicki Jarrell, a retired educator and school administrator who worked here and in Ohio, said Louisiana has neglected teacher pay and public education funding for far too long.

"We're not paying teachers a living wage," Jarrell said. "They're defunding little by little, bit by bit. When you don't feed something, it dies. I think public education has been on a starvation diet for a while."

'How do I barricade my room?'

In terms of a compensation gap, Louisiana teachers earn 28% less than their college educated peers, according to a 2022 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Researchers refer to the gap as a wage penalty, meaning people who become teachers are penalized with wages below what they could earn in another profession with the same level of education.

Put another way, a Louisiana teacher making $52,000 per year could make approximately $72,000 in a different job sector.

Union leaders: Proposed pay raise for Louisiana teachers not enough

"Prior to the pandemic, the long-trending erosion in the relative wages and total compensation of teachers was already a serious concern," the EPI report said. "The financial penalty that teachers face discourages college students from entering the teaching profession and makes it difficult for school districts to keep current teachers in the classroom."

Dr. Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, an education professor and researcher at LSU, said other factors driving the shortage include workplace stress, safety issues stemming from school shootings and public health emergencies, and a lack of support from the community and politicians.

Jarrell pointed to recent school shootings as particularly stressful.

"Teachers are now expected to prevent people from coming in and massacring everyone," Jarrell said. "It used to be I would worry about how to get my students interested in a certain lesson... Now we have to think about, 'OK, how do I barricade my room?'"

'Education is not valued'

Other studies EPI examined show more students come to school unprepared to learn and that parents struggle to be involved - byproducts of rising poverty, segregation and insufficient public investment. Compounding the stress, more than two-thirds of teachers report they have less influence over what they teach in the classroom and what materials they can use, "which suggests low recognition of their knowledge and judgment," researchers said.

These factors, as well as the low wages, have created what EPI calls a "perfect storm in the teacher labor market" and what Dowell said are symptoms of the devaluing of public education within American culture and politics.

"I think the root cause is education is not particularly valued as it is in other countries," Dowell said in a phone interview. "Now people in the U.S. will often tell you to get an education, but teachers are generally relegated to second(-tier) status."

The coronavirus pandemic and high inflation have exacerbated the teacher shortage, but the situation began brewing years ago, said Larry Carter, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers.

"It's the same things we've been talking about for the last 10 years," Carter said. "It's just that the shortage has really expanded in the last two or three years like never before."

Dowell pointed out that Louisiana has for more than a decade neglected or chipped away at teacher compensation and benefits. She pointed to action by state lawmakers in 2010 that took away the $5,000 annual stipend given to teachers who obtained certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The legislation was part of a trend in which the state shifted teacher evaluations toward test scores rather than credentials. Then in 2012, the state revised its teacher tenure standards, rescinding many of the provisions that protected the jobs and retirement benefits of veteran educators.

"That sent a clear message that education is not valued," Dowell said. "We might get lip service, but it's not valued...In Louisiana the two things that seem to be always on the chopping block are education and healthcare."

A 2017 study by Tulane University found that the loss of tenure protections led to the exodus of 1,500 to 1,700 teachers across Louisiana within the first two years of the law taking effect, according to a report in The Advocate.

Public education has recently faced political and cultural attacks such as the recent conservative movement to prohibit history lessons on slavery or institutional racism. School board meetings across the country have become contentious with angry parents echoing unfounded conspiracies about COVID-19 and critical race theory. At any time, a teacher can be publicly blasted on social media by a parent who might have a problem with a particular lesson.

Louisiana teachers could soon have to pay for an additional criminal background check

"There's only so much time you can spend in any profession when you're not treated with respect," Jarrell said. "It gets old."

Jarrell said she considered leaving retirement to help with the teacher shortage, but she doesn't want to put up with that kind of stress.

Earlier this year, the Louisiana Department of Education reported 500 fewer college students graduating with education degrees.

"When you constantly pick up a news story and listen to a politician stumping and you hear this backlash and constant berating and belittling of teachers, who wants to go and do that?" Dowell said, adding that there are few incentives left for people to become teachers.

Gender gap exacerbates declining numbers

The public education system in Louisiana is also operating with a gender gap between its teaching workforce and its administration. The majority of teachers are women yet most of the district superintendents are men.

Women make up about 81% of public school teachers in Louisiana and roughly 68% of all public school principals and assistant principals, according to the most recent data available from the Louisiana Department of Education. Of the 69 members in the Louisiana School Superintendents Association, 20 or about 29% are female, according to a membership list on its website. All five board members of the association are male.

Both Dowell and Jarrell said teachers are often not treated as professionals, a phenomenon that could be related to gender stereotypes.

"We suffer from [notions like], 'Oh, just be a teacher,'" Dowell said, referring to common advice given to people who cannot find work in other fields. "You go to Scandinavian countries and becoming a teacher is exquisite and exclusive."

Education leaders in Louisiana have been aware of gender leadership gap discrepancies. Former superintendent John White mentioned them in his keynote speech at the 2018 annual Teacher Leader Summit in New Orleans.

"A profession that is 75% women cannot be run largely and exclusively by men," White said, as quoted in The Advocate. "We must make that change."

White was succeeded by another man, Cade Brumley, for the state's top education position. No woman has ever been appointed to serve as Louisiana's education superintendent.

Dowell said she has noticed recent efforts to close the gender gap and said she has faith in Brumley who began his career as a teacher and worked his way through the ranks.

"I don't think our public schools are failing," she said. "They've faced and overcome incredibly complex problems while our educators take on so many more things in trying to educate the child."

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'Starvation diet' creates low interest in Louisiana teaching profession - Louisiana Illuminator

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Louisiana, like much of the country, is struggling through what is perhaps the worst teacher shortage in history. The situation is exacerbated by low wages, high inflation and school safety concerns, but also rooted in how society views public education and the teaching profession. Numbers don't lie.

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Student Literary Magazines Take Students from Writers to Authors

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Student Literary Magazines Take Students from Writers to Authors

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I have spent several years as the faculty advisor for our high school creative arts magazine, Element. My main takeaway? As a result of all of the time, energy, and hard work in situating this collective work in the school setting and beyond the school community, our student writers have experienced being real authors with authentic audiences.

As an extra-curricular activity, student publications such as literary magazines become supplemental learning opportunities for students to practice and engage in their writing craft. A student editor and contributor expressed this in an end-of-the-year survey:

"Prior to submitting my work I wasn't very confident in how it looked and how creative it was, but after, I realized I need to give myself more credit. Just because it's not a masterpiece doesn't mean it's not good. The publication gave me more confidence in my work."

Students take the rigorous writing instructions from the classroom curriculum, practice and invest their effort and time into sharpening their writing skills, and intermix the creative process with the writing process. When they submit to Element, they have a heightened awareness that people will read their work, so there is a sense of ownership and pride that goes into the writing process.

Furthermore, the students involved in the production process are also exploring and practicing for college and the work force-life after high school.

A student editor and contributor said this,

"In the publication process I helped in all aspects. I helped with editing the pieces, formatting, and putting them onto the page. It showed me there is so much more work than expected when producing something like this. It helped me with time management and makes me appreciate the product more. Now I know how much dedication it takes."

By collaborating on ideas, working with committees, setting goals/meeting deadlines, problem solving, marketing, advertising, fundraising, keeping records, use of technology, and so on, student publications offer important life skills.

In addition, the production experience gives students exposure to and skills in other fields of study and careers, such as editing, publishing, writing, teaching, graphic design, business/marketing, etc.

For the student contributors and student production members, student publications provide not only a creative outlet for students, but opportunities to build on skills introduced in the classroom. One student editor and contributor reflected on her experience with the student publication this way:

"I've become more aware all of the aspects of my art. Now I notice all the little details and see how they matter more than before. I take more time on my art and don't rush to get it over with. I see now that something can become of it and it's worth the extra time to perfect it."

I intend to continue to encourage students to publish their writing, not just in the school's creative arts magazine but also through digital publication sites, by setting up an approved list of reliable online publication opportunities on my website.

Students can be authors in every sense of the word, and it's important to use student publications as a means of helping student writers see this for themselves, and realize both their place on the publishing spectrum and the wide array of readers they can reach through school, community, and Internet venues.

Among the benefits, it's obvious that student publications help student contributors and editors in their writing and creative processes, and this can only enhance a curriculum's already rigorous academic writing instruction in preparing students for life and careers after high school.

Student publications bridge a gap between creative and academic writing in the curriculum, and given the many venues in which student publications are available to be shared-classrooms, school and local libraries, home coffee tables and business waiting rooms, plus the myriad electronic means-the potential readership is virtually limitless.

Best of all, student-produced creative arts publications lead to young writers who are invested and confident, and ready to write for real audiences outside of the classroom.
Lee Ann van der Kwast is a ninth-grade English and creative writing teacher at Methacton High School in Eagleville, Pennsylvania. She has been a club adviser for the creative arts magazine for four years. "Creative writing," she says, "is more than a skill to teach, so as an educator, it's important to give students a creative space to express themselves."

Do you work with a student literacy magazine? The REALM program publicly recognizes excellent literary magazines produced by students with the support of their teachers. The application is now live for the 2022 program. Entries will be accepted up to July 31. Read more and apply today.

It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.

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Student Literary Magazines Take Students from Writers to Authors - NCTE

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I have spent several years as the faculty advisor for our high school creative arts magazine, Element. My main takeaway? As a result of all of the time, energy, and hard work in situating this collective work in the school setting and beyond the school community, our student writers have ­experienced being real authors with authentic audiences.

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LSU Writing Project Director Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell Named One of Six LSU Rainmakers for Research Excellence and Creative Activity

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LSU Writing Project Director Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell Named One of Six LSU Rainmakers for Research Excellence and Creative Activity

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March 2, 2022

BATON ROUGE-Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, PhD, professor and program coordinator for the Educational Leadership PhD program, is one of six LSU faculty members named a Rainmaker for Research and Creative Activity. Rainmakers are faculty members who balance their teaching and research responsibilities while extending the impact of their work to the world beyond academia.

Sulentic Dowell received the Rainmaker Award for Senior Scholar in the Arts, Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences category. In partnership with Campus Federal Credit Union, the LSU Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) awards six Rainmakers each year to faculty who demonstrate outstanding research, scholarship, and creative activity for their respective rank and discipline. The award recognizes both sustained and continuing work, as well as the impact that work has had on faculty members, their department, and their respective academic community.

"Dr. Sulentic Dowell's research is essential to the very fabric of our communities and society at large," said LSU College of Human Sciences & Education Dean Roland Mitchell. "She is a dedicated teacher and mentor, a consummate professional who believes in the power of partnerships and community programs that benefit LSU's broad and diverse constituency. She is prolific scholar and a true Rainmaker."

"A literacy luminary, Dr. Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell's career is not only marked by her impressive scholarly contributions, but also by her student scholars who are now making real impact as school and education leaders in our state and beyond," said School of Education Director Neil Mathews. "The School of Education is proud to have Dr. Sulentic Dowell recognized for her leadership, innovation, and dedication to her field and her students."

Sulentic Dowell is the Cecil "Pete" Taylor Endowed Professor of Literacy, Leadership, and Urban Education at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Director of the LSU Writing Project and Coordinator of the PhD program in Educational Leadership in the LSU School of Education where she has developed a pathway to literacy leadership. Her research agenda focuses broadly on literacy issues in urban settings including access to opportunity, literacy leadership, and pedagogical literacy practices that empower students as learners.

"I am both humbled and honored to join the ranks of such prestigious colleagues. To be nominated by a peer and to be selected by campus peers is edifying. This is a treasured recognition for me, and I am so grateful," said Sulentic Dowell.

Sulentic Dowell is a career educator, a National Board Certified Teacher, and fierce public education advocate. In her 15 years at LSU-Baton Rouge, Sulentic Dowell has published widely, and she has been nationally recognized for scholarship and teaching; she was awarded the "Light Up for Literacy" Award, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (2019). Her most recent book (2022) is Productivity and Publishing: Writing Processes for New Scholars and Researchers, published by SAGE.

Rainmaker criteria include but are not limited to the following: publication in a high-impact journal(s); a highly cited work; external awards; invited presentations at national and international meetings; high journal publication productivity; critically acclaimed book publication(s), performance(s), exhibit(s) or theatrical production(s); high grant productivity and for more senior candidates, outstanding citation records and high-impact invited presentations at national and international meetings.

Learn more about the LSU ORED Rainmakers.

About SOE
The LSU School of Education (SOE) offers graduate and undergraduate programs in Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Leadership and Research, and Counseling, including two completely online master's programs. SOE offers a range of professional and academic degree programs that focus on preparing students for careers in education, research, policy formation and implementation, as well as program oversight. The School's mission is to prepare P-12 educational professionals to be leaders, practitioners, and scholars knowledgeable in contemporary educational issues. SOE is part of the College of Human Sciences & Education. Visit the School of Education at lsu.edu/education.

About CHSE
The College of Human Sciences & Education (CHSE) is a nationally accredited division of Louisiana State University. The college is comprised of the School of Education, the School of Kinesiology, the School of Leadership & Human Resource Development, the School of Library & Information Science, the School of Social Work, and the University Laboratory School. These combined schools offer 8 undergraduate degree programs, 18 graduate programs, and 7 online graduate degree and/or certificate programs, enrolling more than 1,900 undergraduate and 1,120 graduate students. The College is committed to achieving the highest standards in teaching, research, and service and is committed to improving quality of life across the lifespan. Visit the College of Human Sciences & Education at lsu.edu/chse.

Contact:

Mary P. Woods
Director of Communications
mpwoods@lsu.edu

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Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell Named One of Six LSU Rainmakers for Research Excellence and Creative Activity

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Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, PhD, professor and program coordinator for the Educational Leadership PhD program, is one of six LSU faculty members named a 2022 Rainmaker for Research and Creative Activity. Rainmakers are faculty members who balance their teaching and research responsibilities while extending the impact of their work to the world beyond academia.

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Teacher Consultant Kyley Pulphus answers families' questions about writing with their little ones.

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Writing SOS: Expert Answers to Family Questions About Writing

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Our Writing SOS experts answer your questions about writing motivation, handwriting, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, technology, and more. Reading SOS To learn from the experts on how to help your child with reading, see our Q&A video series Reading SOS. Click to jump ahead to each question and answe…