Learning to teach writing by apprenticing within a community of practice

Authors

  • Tom Meyer SUNY New Paltz Author
  • Mary Sawyer SUNY New Paltz Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.24361

Keywords:

teacher education, learning about teaching, writing pedagogy, clinical fieldwork, community of practice, experiential learning, COVID

Abstract

This paper describes a fieldwork program and companion tool, The Teaching of Writing Framework, that college-based teacher educators and teachers from the Hudson Valley Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, developed over a three-year period. Central to the fieldwork program is an apprenticeship that allows future teachers to assist mentor teachers in a summer enrichment program for adolescent writers. The apprenticeship, coupled with reflective writing and mediated by the framework, allows future teachers to practice, identify, and reflect on writing instruction in which writing functions as a tool for learning and humanization.

Author Biographies

  • Tom Meyer, SUNY New Paltz

    Tom Meyer is Director of the Hudson Valley Writing Project and Professor of Adolescent Education at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He studies and writes about how future, early career, and veteran teachers learn to teach writing; he also studies the curricular intersection of nature, art, place, and writing.

  • Mary Sawyer, SUNY New Paltz

    Mary Sawyer is a founding director of the Hudson Valley Writing Project. She served as an Associate Professor and coordinated the English education programs at the State University of New York at New Paltz for 28 years. Now retired, she continues to write as well as study and support writing teachers.

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Published

2023-08-16

Issue

Section

Writing with Youth, Families, and Early-Career Educators in 2020: Part 1

How to Cite

Meyer, T., & Sawyer, M. (2023). Learning to teach writing by apprenticing within a community of practice. Writing and Pedagogy, 15(1-2), 13-32. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.24361