Blurb:

This chapter describes changes to fourth and fifth grade teachers’ writing instruction over three years in an urban elementary school. A catalyst for this pedagogical change was a school-university partnership that embraced SFL theory. The partnership provided teachers ongoing professional development focused on fostering teachers’ understanding of SFL theory and the taught genres: recount, procedure, narrative, report, explanation, and exposition. Teachers’ lessons evolved regarding metalanguage and aspects of genre: purpose, staging, language, and tenor. Teachers’ writing instruction with students became more precise and reviewed more content associated with the genres. Significant changes regarding the teaching of genre began to occur in the second year of the partnership. However, changes to the teaching of language did not emerge until the third year and remained limited. These identified changes demonstrate how teachers operationalize SFL theory in practice to educate students about genre. Moreover, teachers’ use of the theory as a lens to understand texts appeared to support made changes to writing instruction, which became more explicit than previous teachings. Overall, findings suggest that improvements in writing instruction take multiple years and can emerge using SFL theory in the context of a genre-based approach to the teaching of writing.