Growing Writers: Principles for High School Writers and Their Teachers

When principles guide our teaching, we can better understand our teaching purposes, make decisions about approaches and content, vet ideas supplied by others, and grow as teachers of writing. In Growing Writers, veteran teacher educator Anne Elrod Whitney explores how the principles defined in NCTE’s Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing position statement can support high school writers and teachers of writing because they undergird our practice through knowledge and a conscious search for meaning in our writing activities.

As part of the Writing in Today’s Classrooms strand of the Principles in Practice imprint, the book includes snapshots from high school teachers working in a variety of settings who illustrate how their own principled classroom practices have helped both them and their students to grow, whether they are writing for advocacy, learning the importance of revision, experimenting with new audiences, or embracing the vulnerability and the power of writing.

The principles come alive through the author’s analysis and friendly discussion and the contributing teachers’ everyday practices. Whitney’s compassionate support and encouragement of active, ongoing learning is supplemented by further-reading lists and an annotated bibliography of both print and digital texts to accompany us on our journeys to ever-greater effectiveness as writers and teachers of writing.