About the Turabian Teacher Collaborative
A unique collaboration between high school classroom teachers, university professors, and a university press began in 2013 as a pilot project to test the effectiveness of Kate L. Turabian’s Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers at helping high schools meet the ELA Common Core State Standards.
Press staff members first approached Bonnie Stone Sunstein and Amy K. E. Shoultz of the University of Iowa's College of Education for help in assembling a team of high school teachers to test the fourth edition with their students and offer feedback for creating the fifth. Under advisors Sunstein and Shoultz, twenty-six teachers and nearly a thousand students from urban, suburban, and rural schools across four states participated in the Turabian Teacher Collaborative during the 2013-14 school year. Sixteen of these teachers continued to teach from the book the following year. Members of the Turabian Teacher Advisory Board, and their affiliations at the time of their participation in the program, were as follows:
- Deb Aldrich, Kennedy High School Cedar Rapids, IA
- Kara Asmussen, Kennedy High School, Cedar Rapids, IA
- Deidra Baker, Keota High School, Keota, IA
- Shelly Chandler, Marshalltown High School, Marshalltown, IA
- Angela Conrad, Keota High School, Keota, IA
- Michael Di Iacova III, Edwin G. Foreman High School, Chicago, IL
- Beth Fettweis, Iowa City High School, Iowa City, IA
- Nate Frese, Iowa City West High School, Iowa City, IA
- Christina Frum, University of Chicago Woodlawn Charter School, Chicago, IL
- Nathan Fulcher, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA
- Michael Goldberg, Marshalltown High School, Marshalltown, IA
- Arthur Hunsicker, Revere High School, Revere, MA
- Mackenzie O’Connor, Clear Creek Amana High School, Cedar Rapids, IA
- Tisha Reichle, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA
- Marybeth Reilly, Naperville Central High School, Naperville, IL
- Steve Riley, Columbus High School, Columbus Junction, IA
- Joanne Sapadin, Naperville Central High School, Naperville, IL
- Amy Shoultz, Iowa City West High School, Iowa City, IA
- Margaret Shullaw, Iowa City West High School, Iowa City, IA
- Laura Starke, Naperville Central High School, Naperville, IL
- Bonnie Sunstein, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
- Wendy Watson, Columbus High School, Columbus Junction, IA
- Brad Weidenaar, Marshalltown High School, Marshalltown, IA
- Nicole Weiss, Naperville Central High School, Naperville, IL
- Susan Yates, Edwin G. Foreman High School, Chicago, IL
Several members of this group also led a workshop following the 2014 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) convention based on their experiences teaching the principles in this book. Workshop participants included teachers from a variety of states, including Texas, Florida, California, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, and Maryland, as well as an American teaching at an international school in the United Kingdom.
Insights from the two-year Turabian Teacher Collaborative and the NCTE workshop are relected throughout the fifth edition, from revised examples of research topics and clarified terminology to new illustrations and more practical advice on source citations.
Project leads:
Bonnie Stone Sunstein is professor of English and education at the University of Iowa. She taught English in public schools for over twenty years. She is the author of FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research, What Works: Designs for Teacher Inquiry, and Composing a Culture. Amy K. E. Shoultz is clinical professor at the University of Iowa College of Education. She is a teacher educator who works with pre-service students in the English education program. She is also a practicing classroom teacher at Iowa City West High School.