Publication Date
2025
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Caring pedagogy is critical in today’s classrooms, and supporting students’ emotional needs as well as educational needs is an integral part of the teaching profession. This qualitative case study examines how one 9th grade ELA teacher uses reflective practices to enact care for her students. Creating a specially designed 50- minute freewrite class, the participant centers students by welcoming their voices into the classroom. Notes from observations and semi-structured interviews are used to show how the participant’s reflections about her students’ journals and discussions drive instruction. Findings show that care-based instruction-giving students space to write about any topic, removing the potential barriers of correct spelling and grammar, and engaging in caring, collaborative discussion- encourages student investment in writing.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Shoffner, Melanie and Bentley, Helen, ""You write what you want and what you need": Incorporating reflective practice in the ELA classroom through caring pedagogy" (2025). Department of Middle, Secondary and Mathematics Education - Faculty Scholarship. 4.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/msme/4
