Sample Out of Class Texts

Students consistently told us that "really good" or "the best" writing is writing that is performative, that makes something happen in the world; for more information about this aspect of our findings, please see our article "Performing Writing, Performing Literacy"

Throughout the five years, students reported being deeply engaged with writing out of class: for these students, extracurricular writing is very important, often more important than any of the writing they are doing for classes. Of the thousands of out-of-class texts students contributed, here is a representative sample:

CD Project

Poster

Brochure

Poster

Newsletter

Website

Performances

Across the five years of the Study, participants' understanding of the scope and function of writing changed considerably, from fairly instrumentalist definitions of writing to writing as a way of managing and making sense of enormous amounts of information and as a way of creating new knowledge.