This course provides an overview of the key theories and methods that have informed writing instruction, assessment, and curricular design since the emergence of the process movement in the late-1960s. The “process” approach shifted focus from the formal features of a finished writing product to the process writers undergo to produce effective writing. The movement opened space, furthermore, for conversations about student voice, self-expression, political resistance, and exclusion.
We will explore and challenge composition theories that have evolved out of and in response to the process movement. The breadth of such work, among other things, pays greater attention to the challenges of teaching within “diverse” classrooms, to the social dimension of writing in various genres and contexts; and to the possibilities of service learning and community-based writing initiatives.

Please note that this is a service learning course associated with the Phoenix Project, and you will be expected to work three to four hours each week in a Seattle area classroom, for which you will receive two hours of course credit by enrolling in Education 401. This work will culminate in a curricular design project. (There will be an alternative research option available for students who are unable to participate in the service learning component.) The service learning in this course will fulfill 30-40 of the observation hours that you are required to complete prior to applying to the UW Masters in Teaching program.
In practical terms, students will be expected to, among other things, write weekly position papers in response to course readings, write a teaching-related course paper, and complete a curricular design project.

This course has a service-learning option. We will be working with two local high schools—Shorecrest and Garfield High School. Those who opt to do service learning will register for 3 credit hours of ED 401 and spend 4 hours per week in a classroom starting week 2. Please e-mail your instructor for more information.


This course encourages lively dialogue about the teaching of writing with the hope of collectively clarifying and enriching our teaching practices (or aspiring practices) in relation to the history of composition theory and practice, within the constraints of our various institutions, within the political climate of classrooms, schools and communities, and with respect to our personal convictions about what it means to teach writing to real students in a specific time and place.