Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia reading education professor Bob Fecho recently published a book titled Writing in the Dialogical Classroom: Students and Teachers Responding to the Texts of Their Lives with the National Council of Teachers of English.
Fecho, coordinator of the reading education program in the UGA College of Education’s department of language and literacy education, focuses on adolescent learners in the book and argues that teachers need to develop writing experiences that are reflective across time to foster deeper explorations of subject matter. He creates an ongoing conversation between classroom practice, theory and research to show how each informs the others.
“The book is intended to marry the National Council of Teachers of English principles for strong writing instruction with the work of practicing teachers who model those principles,” said Fecho, who has co-directed the Red Clay Writing Project, a UGA-sponsored program for teachers focused on literacy and writing, with faculty colleague JoBeth Allen since 2003.
Dialogical writing combines academic and personal writing; allows writers to bring multiple voices to the work; involves thought, reflection and engagement across time and space; and creates opportunities for substantive and ongoing meaning making, he explained.
The book draws on the NCTE Guidelineon the teaching of writing, and it carries the Principles in Practice imprint, which offers teachers concrete illustrations of effective classroom practices based in NCTE research briefs and policy statements.
The College of Education honored Fecho in 2008 with the Carl Glickman Faculty Fellow Award, which recognizes distinguished accomplishments and potential for future contributions of faculty in fulfilling the mission of the university through teaching, research and service.
Fecho has another book titled Teaching for the Students: Habits of Heart, Mind, and Practice in the Engaged Classroom (Teachers College Press), which is scheduled to be published in August. He also is the author of “Is this English?” Race, language, and culture in the classroom (Teachers College Press), which was published in 2003.
Prior to joining the UGA faculty in 1998, Fecho taught English in the School District of Philadelphia for 24 years. He earned his Ph.D. in reading, writing and literacy from the University of Pennsylvania.