“Anything Could Happen”: Managing Uncertainty in an Academic Writing Partnership

Abstract

This article describes a writing partnership that involved university preservice teachers and ninthgradestudents enrolled in an integrated social studies/language arts class. While the high schoolstudents found the experience exciting and satisfying, the preservice teachers expressed anxietiesand concerns as they endeavored to foster academic literacies. We conclude with reflections onthe challenges of preparing a new generation of English educators to teach writing in rich andmeaningful ways where they have not themselves benefited from such experiences in their own “apprenticeships of observation.”