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I n exploring the role of research in the secondary school subject traditionally known as "English," we address a host of issues crowded with problems and potentials. Surely the perennially debated contours of the field have never been more in question, as new technologies and transforming patterns of civic, workplace, and global communication challenge us to enlarge our notions of what is truly basic in concert with the myriad opportunities, dangers, and complexities of today's world (Luke, 2004a(Luke, , 2004b. As those who teach the secondary subject and who provide teachers' professional preparation, English educators are positioned to serve as critical mediators of these new challenges. This is admittedly no easy undertaking, as academics' ongoing efforts to build ever-richer conceptions of literacy remain markedly at odds with the determined emphasis on basic skills both reflected in and reified by the No Child Left Behind initiative in the United States (U.S. Department of Education [USDOE], 2007). English educators therefore face the formidable task of negotiating between the complex vision of contemporary research and the modernist take on literate competency embedded in recent education policies (Yagelski, 2006), with their concomitant conception of research as "market commodity qua objective product testing and market research" (Luke, 2004a(Luke, , p. 1427.As U.S. states and districts respond to federal pressure to adopt practices based on "scientific" studies (USDOE, 2007), English educators are endeavoring to foster appreciation of the broader intellectual traditions that have shaped understandings of the high school subject through the years-including not only the social sciences but also literary studies, philosophy, and the arts (

The peer response group in which students respond to one another's writing is commonly used in the writing classroom, from kindergarten through college. Al though enthusiastically advocated by practitioners and supported by current theories of the teaching and learning of writing, response groups are difficult to organize effectively. This review examines the pedagogical literature on response groups, places that literature in the context of current theories of the teaching and learning of writing, and then examines the small number of studies of peer response groups. Key issues include (a) the degree of teacher control over the groups and the effects of control structures, and (b) the kinds of social interactions within groups, with attention to how those interactions relate to the larger instructional context and toteaching and learning in the groups. Suggestions are made for reconceptualizing peer response to writing, with an emphasis on moving away from the teacherinitiated and controlled response group toward encouraging spontaneous peer talk during the writing process.The past 20 years have been for writing teachers a time of intense fermentation, reflection, and innovation. The reasons are many, resting partly in social and demographic change and partly in a professional paradigm shift generated by research into how writers write (Hairston, 1982). Practice has suggested research and research has suggested practice, but not always has there been a perfect synergy between the two. Peer response groups, warmly advocated by a number of theorists and teachers (a complete catalog of the work on peer response groups), present an interesting case in point. Although practitioner endorsements commonly share the assumption that the writing process is somehow supported by having students gather together for the purposes of providing one another with feedback on writing, response groups have been seldom studied to illuminate just what processes are thereby supported, or how. Thus, although writing groups have assumed an important place in educational practice,The project presented or reported herein was performed pursuant to a grant from the Office

S This study explores informants' experiences in a reading/writing program that paired eighth‐grade language arts students with elderly volunteers. Twenty‐three pairs were followed over an academic year as they read books in common, corresponded in response journals, and met in person at program social events. Through analysis of interviews, their collaborative journals, and end‐of‐year questionnaires, we explored informants' preexisting conceptions of literate participation and the dynamics and perceived meanings of their participation in the partnership program. Drawing on neo‐Vygotskian theory, we argue that emotion played an integral role in participants' coconstructions of meaning and that as they established trust and rapport, these correspondents set the stage for increasingly searching and often challenging conversations. Their participation illustrates the interweaving of emotion and cognition in engaged literacy and underscores the need to create opportunities for literacy learning that are at once interpersonally warm and critically astute. ESTE ESTUDIO explora las experiencias de los participantes en un programa de lectoescritura que vinculó a estudiantes de lengua de 8º grado con voluntarios mayores. Se evaluó a veintitrés pares de estudiantes durante un año académico, en situaciones de lectura de libros, intercambios escritos en periódicos y encuentros en eventos sociales. A través del análisis de entrevistas, periódicos en colaboración y cuestionarios administrados a fin de año exploramos las concepciones preexistentes de los participantes acerca de la alfabetización, así como la dinámica y los significados percibidos de la participación en el programa. Desde la teoría neo‐Vygotskiana, argumentamos que la emoción jugó un papel importante en las construcciones compartidas de significados y que, en la medida en que se establecía confianza en la relación, se afianzaba el marco para conversaciones más ricas y estimulantes. La participación de los estudiantes ilustra el entretejido de emoción y cognición en las prácticas alfabetizadoras y resalta la necesidad de crear oportunidades para el aprendizaje de la lectoescritura, que sean a la vez cálidas e ingeniosas. DIESE STUDIE untersucht Erfahrungen von Einsendern in einem Lese‐/Schreibprogramm, daß Schüler der 8ten Klassen im Sprachunterricht mit älteren freiwilligen Helfern paarweise zusammenbrachte. 23 Paare wurden während eines Schuljahres beobachtet, wie sie gemeinsam Bücher lasen, in Journal‐Erwiderungen korrespondierten, und sich bei Programmzusammenkünften persönlich trafen. Durch Analysieren von Interviews, ihrer kollaborativ erstellten Journale, und der Fragebögen zum Jahresende untersuchten wir bereits vorhandene Konzeptionen der Einsender bei der literaten Mitarbeit und deren Dynamik, und vermerkten Aussagen über ihre Beteiligung in dem Partnerschafts‐Programm. Unter Hinweis auf die Neo‐Vygotskian‐Theorie argumentieren wir, daß Emotionen eine integrale Rolle bei den Teilnehmern in deren Co‐Konstruktion von Sinnerfassung und Deutung spi...

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