Best+Practices

"The expression 'best practice' was originally borrowed from the professions of medicine, law, and architecture, where 'good practice' and 'best practice' are everyday phrases used to describe solid, reputable, state-of-the-art work in a field. If a professional is following best practice standards, he or she is aware of current research and consistently offers clients the full benefits of the latest knowledge, technology, and procedures." --Zemelman, Daniels, Hyde For the last 20 years, researchers and teachers have developed lists of the best practices for the teaching of writing. Below are some of those lists or links to those lists. As you look through them, check for commonalities and for differences. Reflect on what you know based on your life in the classroom. Then keep in mind what Kylene Beers, former president of NCTE, argues: we need to think about best practices and "next" practices, those instructional moves that in the future will have the research behind them to become the new best practices.

[|Learner.org's list]

[|A teacher poses a question about best practices; see what others had to say in response.]

====Chapter 4 in //Best Practice:// Best Practice in Writing (Note: on page 148, you can read about writing in an interdisciplinary high school class called American Studies. My hunch is that you'll see similarities between this course and SIS's humanities courses.)====



Check out the following reports which focus on research for the teaching of writing: