Real World Writing for Secondary Students: Teaching the College Admission Essay and Other Gate-Openers for Higher Education

One of the most important ways to scaffold a successful transition from high school to college is to teach real world, gate-opening writing genres, such as college admission essays. This book describes a writing workshop for ethnically and linguistically diverse high school students, where students receive instruction on specific genre features of the college admission essay. The authors present both the theoretical grounding and the concrete strategies teachers crave, including an outline of specific workshop lessons, teaching calendars, and curricular suggestions. This text encourages secondary teachers to think of writing as a vital tool for all students to succeed academically and professionally.

Appropriate for courses and teacher professional development, this accessible book:

• Reconceptualizes the ways in which writing can best serve marginalized students.
• Examines research-based curricular and teaching approaches for the secondary school classroom.
• Provides a writing workshop framework for creating a college admissions essay complete with lesson-planning materials, activities, handouts, bibliographic resources, and more.
• Includes student perspectives and work samples, offering insight into the lives and struggles of diverse adolescents.

Jessica Singer Early is an assistant professor of English education in the Department of English at Arizona State University and the director of the Central Arizona Writing Project. Meredith DeCosta is a teaching fellow of the Louisville Writing Project who also teaches writing courses at Arizona State University.