DOCUMENT RESUME ED 334 602 CS 212 983 AUTHOR Freedman, Sarah Warshauer; McLeod, Alex TITLE Comparing the Teaching and Learning of Writing in the United States and the United Kingdom: Audience Exchanges. Final Report. INSTITUTION Center for the Study of Writing, Berkeley, CA.; Center for the Study of Writing, Pittsburgh, PA. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 90 NOTE 313p. PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Case Studies; Classroom Research; Comparative Analysis; Cross Cultural Studies; Foreign Countries; *International Educational Exchange; Junior High Schools; Learning Strategies; *Teaching Methods; *Writing Instruction; Writing Research IDENTIFIERS *United Kingdom; *United StateE ABSTRACT This report is the final report of a comparative study of the teaching and learning of writing in the United Kingdom and the United States, consisting of observational studies of 4 pairs of classrooms which exchanged writing between the 2 countries over a 2-year period. Following an overview in chapter 1, chapter 2 describes the study's methods. Chapters 3-6 contain case studies of the 4 pairs of classes engaged in the study, with each of these chapters devoted to one pair, and with each case pointing to contrasts in the teaching and learning of writing in the 2 countries. Chapter 7 provides the synthesis across cases and the overall conclusions. Seventy-eight references and 6 appendixes (containing a discussion of the examination system in the United Kingdom, protocols for interviews with teachers and students, examples of responses to writing, guidelines for response letters, a newspaper article, and a journal article) conclude the report. (SR) ******************t**************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * **********************************************************************ft COMPARING THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF WRITING IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE UNITED KINGDOM: AUDIENCE EXCHANGES FINAL REPORT Sarah Warshauer Freedman, Principal Investigator Alex McLeod, Co.Researcher U.K. Teacher Research Collaborator: Ellie O'Sullivan Teacher Participants and Collaborators: 1987.88 U.S. U.K. Joan Cone Sue Llewellyn Robin Davis John Hickman Judy Logan Kase Chapman Susan Reed Irene Robertson Nanette Koelsch Hans Sjdatroin 1986.87 U.S. U.K. Keith Caldwell Sue Llewellyn Robin Davis Jean Dunning Charlene De Wino Alex Moon Judy Logan Kate :10 II I Helen Yin John Research Assistants: Kay LoseliZelieaserr Christian Marcia Largent Claht Ramsey Dennis Shannon BEST COPY AVAILABLE Other Assistants: Gary Lichtenstein U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION Limberly Mitchell Offrce of Educe.,crnal Research and Improvement EDUCAT.3filAL RESOURCES INFORMATION Regina Rodriguez CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproducec as received from the person or organization Originating it r Minor changes have been made to lin,..ove reproduction quality Points otvs.woopinuonsataIedinthusdOcu ment do not necessarily rePresent official 2 OERI position or policy Table of Contents Foreword ii Acknowledgments iii Chapter1--Overview 1 Chapter 2--Methods 7 Chapter 3--Judy Logan mid Kate Chapman 18 Chapter 4--Robin Davis and John Hickman 83 Chapter 5--Susan Reed and Irene Robertson 141 Chapter 6--Joan Cone and Sue Llewellyn 191 Chapter 7Looking across the Exchanges 250 i 3 FOREWORD Ellie O'Sullivan and her students provided much of the inspiration for this project. In 1985 Ellie was involved in an exchange between her class at Fullham Cross School in London and a class taught by Hans SjOstrom in Goteborg, Sweden. At that time Firedman was on sabbatical in London and McLeod arranged some school visits for her; Ellie O'Sullivan's classroom was one of several she visited. When Freedman entered O'Sullivan's class she observed students who were highly engaged as they tackled challenging and serious intellectual projects. Their level of commitment and achievement was indeed inspiring, with O'Sullivan's mixed-ability group of students showing exciting possibilities of what writing in school could be, as they wrote about such topics as their perceptions of differences in the kinds of books they read and the kinds of books the Swedish students read or as they made important discoveries about their own school curriculum when they wrote a book on their school for the Swedish students. When Freedman first initiated the idea of doing this comparative study, she immediately gravitated toward a writing exchange as a context for providing relatively parallel cross-cultural data about the teaching and learning of writing from varied perspectives (teachers', students', and outside observers') and for providing that data in an instructional context that O'Sullivan had shown had the potential to inspire students to do outstanding work. McLeod was enthusiastic about joining in because of his own past experience with cross-cultural writing exchanges (see McLeod, 1971) and his feelings about their unitalized potentials. i i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would first of all like to thank the teacher and student participants in the 1986-87 and 1987-88 exchanges; the teachers are listed on the title page. Without their ongoing collaboration and their taking the full responsibility of implementing the exchanges in their classrooms, this project would not have been possible. We thank them for teaching us what is involved in implementing an exchange, for varied kindii of students in varied kinds of settings.In both 'ountries the teachers met every few months to share ideas and to support one another in solving problems. We also thank them for providing many of the ideas that are found in this mport. Their intelligence and commitment are behind much of what you read here. We would next like to thank Nanette Koelsch and Hans Sjöström, who participated fully in the second year exchange project, but whose story remains untold since that exchange was between Sweden and the United States; Hans was part of the exchange with Ellie &Sullivan (see Foreword), and so his work with Nanette was organized to provide further inspiration of the possibilities of exchange work. We have not written about their exchange, since the project compares the United States and the United Kingdom. However, Nanette and Hans's work influenced much of what happened across all the exchanges. After the exchange year and after working for a summer helping compile data, Nanette Koelsch entered graduate school and became in the later years of the project the primary research assistant, lending her expertise from her dual perspectives, as a teacher participant and as an observer of the other exchange classes. She has provided many important ideas that have found their way into this report and has also assumed the responsibility of reading and commenting on the final drafts of all chapters and helping with the difficult task of synthesizing the data. Her contributions have enriched this study in ways that cannot be measured. Many otheis have lent their expertise as well. The U.S. research assistants are listed on the cover page but their more specific contributions must be noted. In particular,Claire Ramsey and Marcia Largent Corcoran helped collect much of the U.S. classroom data. Marcia worked in Judy Logan's and Robin Davis's classrooms (Chapters 3 and 4); Claire worked in Susan Reed's and Joan Cone's (Chapters 5 and 6). Claire and Marcia also conducted many of the student interviews in the classes they observed. Throughout the data collection period, they contributed important insights about the events occurring in the classroom, many of their ideas forming the foundation for later writing. Dennis Shannon helped compile and synthesize data for Susan Reed and Irene Robertson's exchange (Chapter 5). He also wrote excellcnt draft descriptions of Susan's school and its surroundings that remain in Chapter 5 in much the same form as he wrote them. Dennis also provided important comments on the evolving texts, especially of Chapters 5 and 6. In addition, he helped catalog the data, and as an expert editor, he has made many important suggestions about the writing of the manuscript. Christi= Knoeller helped compile and synthesize data for Judy Logan and Kate Chapman's exchange (Chapter 3) and for JoanCone and Sue Llewellyn's exchange (Chapter 6). He also contributed to early drafts of the background descriptions of Cone's and Logan's schools and provided a number of insights and suggestions for the evolving manuscript of Chapter 6. Christian also assisted Alex McLeodwith his work on the British data when McLeod visited Berkeley from January through May,1990. Finally, he catalogued the transcriptions of interviews and student writing on the computer. Kay LoseyFraser helped compile data for Judy Logan and Kate Chapman's exchange (Chapter 3), andprovided many helpful comments about the otherexchanges as well. A number of rerearch assistants joined the project to provide summer assistance.We are particularly grateful for the contributions of Kimberly Mitchell in Summer, 1988 onChapter 6, and Regina Rodriguez on Chapter 4. In addition, we want to thank Ruth Forman for herhelp during Summer, 1989 on Chapter 6, especially for her insights into the role of rapmusic in the students' writing. Gary Lichtenstein, a graduate student at Stanford University, volunteered his time during Summer, 1989, contributing his efforts to Chapter 3. In London, Ellie O'Sullivan assisted Alex McLeod throughout the process of the exchange, taking responsibility for much of the data collection and the interviewing. In the planning stages her experience of having conducted a highly successful exchange with Hans Sjöström was very valuable for the teams in both countries. Beyond her successful experience running an exchange, her general resourcefulness and enthusiasm made her contribution special. In addition to helping with the planning, she attended all meetings of the U.K. teachers; her ideas and suggestions provided msights which welt discussed in depth. She visited all the classes three or four times, discussing the exchange with the students as well as the teachers.