bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Speaking My Mind: So Far from the Bamboo Grove: Multiculturalism, Historical Context, and Close Reading
Authors: Walach Stephen
Published: March 2024

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.
My New Teaching Partner? Using the Grammar Checker in Writing Instruction
Authors: Potter Reva , Fuller Dorothy
Published: March 2024

Seventh-grade English teacher Reva Potter and education professor Dorothy Fuller collaborate on a study that shows that using computer grammar checkers may improve students’ confidence and their understanding of key grammatical concepts.
Off the Shelves
Authors: Letcher Mark
Published: March 2024

“Off the Shelves” discusses new young adult literature and explores ways of teaching YA texts in middle and high school English classes.
EJ Extra: The Five-Paragraph Essay and the Deficit Model of Education
Authors: Brannon Lil , Courtney Jennifer Pooler , Urbanski Cynthia P. , Woodward Shana V. , Reynolds Jeanie Marklin , Iannone Anthony E. , Haag Karen D. , Mach Karen , Manship Lacy Arnold , Kendrick Mary
Published: March 2024

“Speaking My Mind” essays, Writing Project colleagues explain why using the five-paragraph essay for teaching writing is ill-advised.
What English Can Contribute to Understanding Sexual Identities
Authors: Ellis Viv
Published: March 2024

A British educator explains how specific reading practices can assist students with issues of sexuality and sexual identity.
Hooked on Sardonics: A Queer Success Story
Authors: Suhor Charles
Published: March 2024

In a moving tribute to his son, the author Stephan Sure, Suhor celebrates the power of the written word.
“Wasn’t She a Lesbian?” Teaching Homoerotic Themes in Dickinson and Whitman
Authors: Comment Kristin M.
Published: March 2024

This author explains how works by Dickinson and Whitman can be used to integrate GLBT themes into English classes.
Mentoring Matters: Mentoring New Teachers: What Teacher Education Programs Can Do to Help
Authors: Fiene Judy , Wehman Therese , Brannon Diana , Jares Dan , Burke Lisa , Young Jo Mary
Published: March 2024

“Mentoring Matters” focuses on effective ways to support new English teachers and student teachers. Pp. 92-94
From the Secondary Section: Using the “Smallest Parts” to Build a National Community of Professionals
Authors: Lucas Amy Magnafichi
Published: March 2024

Members of the Secondary Section Steering Committee comment on topics of importance to English language arts educators.
Not Reading: The 800-Pound Mockingbird in the Classroom
Authors: Broz William J.
Published: March 2024

Do your students accept your invitations to read, or do they decide to not read instead?
Survivor: Satis House: Creating Classroom Community while Teaching Dickens in a Reality-TV World
Authors: Bucolo Joe
Published: March 2024

Engaging students in contemporary reality-show parodies based on Great Expectations, Bucolo helps students explore the intricacies of Dickens’s novel.
Using Online Role-Play to Promote Collaborative Argument and Collective Action
Authors: Doerr-Stevens Candance , Beach Richard , Boeser Elizabeth
Published: March 2024

Students use online role-play to collaborate and change real school policy.
Seriously Popular: Rethinking 19th-Century American Literature through the Teaching of Popular Fiction
Authors: Gatti Lauren
Published: March 2024

Gatti’s students analyze differences between their own reading tastes and those of 19th-century readers, and in the process they breathe new life into several canonical texts.
Multimodal Literacies in the Secondary English Classroom
Authors: Sewell William C. , Denton Shawn
Published: March 2024

Technology-infused assignments “such as public service announcements, creating fictitious holidays, and writing music hall-of-fame induction speeches” can engagestudents’ creativity and critical thinking.
Reviewing Student Papers Electronically
Authors: Dunford Spencer
Published: March 2024

Dunford offers a primer on using Microsoft Word’s reviewing software to respond to student writing.
A Relationship with Literature
Authors: Romano Tom
Published: March 2024

A well-known teacher and writer narrates his lifelong relationship with a major American poet.
Mentoring Matters: Valuing Inexperience: Using Collegial Language to Support Novices
Authors: McCann Thomas M. , Bieler Deborah
Published: March 2024

Mentoring Matters focuses on effective ways to support new English teachers and student teachers.
Success with ELLs: Supporting ELLs Before, During, and After Reading
Authors: DelliCarpini Margo
Published: March 2024

Success with ELLs suggests effective approaches to teaching English language learners in ways that can be of benefit to all students in mainstream middle and high school English classes.
EJ in Focus: A Literacy Education for Our Times
Authors: VanDeWeghe Richard
Published: March 2024

A veteran teacher educator reflects on the ethical dimensions of teaching English in the context of the Common Core Standards.
Reading the Literature of War: A Global Perspective on Ethics
Authors: Vaughn Kyle
Published: March 2024

A high school teacher describes a new course on literature about the ethical dimensions of international conflicts. Many contemporary works are discussed and suggested.
Lives beyond Suffering: The Child Soldiers of African Wars
Authors: Glasgow Jacqueline N. , Baer Allison L.
Published: March 2024

Drawing on the transformative effects of literature, the authors ask students to confront ugly realities of war and seek ways to make positive change.
Professional Writing in the English Classroom: Good Writing: The Problem of Ethics
Authors: Zuidema Leah A. , Bush Jonathan
Published: March 2024

Professional Writing in the English Classroom publishes articles about teaching students to write effectively in the genres, conventions, and visual designs required for professional contexts and related rhetorical situations.
From the Secondary Section: Making the NCTE Centennial Celebration a Personal Event
Authors: Haas Kay Parks
Published: March 2024

The author previews the Secondary Section events at the upcoming 100th Annual Convention of NCTE.
Celebration and Conversation, Consensus and Dissent: What NCTE Means to Me
Authors: Nelms Ben F.
Published: March 2024

The author details the work of NCTE in his lifetime and forecasts needs for the second century.
Contentious Conversations
Authors: Zuidema Leah A.
Published: March 2024

The author explores the place of professional debate within NCTE and in the pages of English Journal.
Never More Crucial: Support for the Learning and Teaching of English
Authors: Jago Carol
Published: March 2024

SLATE is a vital part of NCTE, serving as the “action wing” for members.
An Extraordinary Century for Women
Authors: Gerlach Jeanne Marcum
Published: March 2024

As part of a graduate course, the writer became interested in women in English teaching and in NCTE, and it led to a lifetime of research, scholarship, and service.
Creating a Safe Zone: LGBTQ Work in NCTE
Authors: Henkin Roxanne
Published: March 2024

The writer offers a brief history of the NCTE Gay-Straight Educators’ Alliance.
A Reconsideration of College English, November 1974: Separatists Unite! (But Has the Assimilation Begun?)
Authors: Pruitt John
Published: March 2024

The writer looks back at an important LGBT-focused issue of College English.
Reflecting on Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color [FREE ACCESS]
Authors: Kinloch Valerie
Published: March 2024

A member of the first cohort of CNV and now its director, the author details the importance of fostering the work of scholars of color.
Cultural Memory in the Classroom Public Space
Authors: Ching Stuart
Published: March 2024

How does NCTE help teachers and students foster cultural memory?
From Queen Mab to Big Boy: A Century of “New” Literacies
Authors: Kist William
Published: March 2024

The debate over the place of new literacies extends throughout the history of English teaching and NCTE.
Revisiting LaBrant’s “Writing Is More than Structure” (English Journal, May 1957)
Authors: Thomas P. L.
Published: March 2024

The author details the remarkable insight offered in an EJ article written decades ago.
Doing vs. Being: Working Hard for NCTE/CCCC
Authors: Hewett Beth L.
Published: March 2024

What does committee work entail? The author outlines the effort and the satisfactions.
Finding a Professional Home through CEE Commissions
Authors: Hayn Judith A.
Published: March 2024

CEE commissions address a variety of areas; the author describes her work in two of them.
Joining TYCA at the NCTE Table: Our Roles as Guests, Speakers, Writers, and Advocates
Authors: Valentino Marilyn J.
Published: March 2024

Those who teach in the two-year college find in TYCA a professional home.
CommuniCAT(E)ing with NCTE
Authors: Younglove Bill
Published: March 2024

An important and influential state affiliate, CATE serves California teachers and students as well as NCTE.
Then and Now: The Thoughts of NCTE Members in 1960 and in 2010 [FREE ACCESS]
Authors: Christenbury Leila , Editor Guest
Published: March 2024

The NCTE Historian revisits member concerns and predictions from 1960 and compares them with responses from today.
EJ Extra: 2010 Honor List: A Small, Small World
Authors: Blasingame James , Nilsen Alleen Pace , Nilsen Don L. F.
Published: March 2024

The authors review their list of most outstanding YA books of 2010.
Making the Classics Matter to Students through Digital Literacies and Essential Questions
Authors: Ostenson Jonathan , Gleason-Sutton Elizabeth
Published: March 2024

Students read The Scarlet Letter with enthusiasm when the teachers tie it to questions about risky behavior and a multimedia project.
They Can Get There from Here: Teaching for Transfer through a “Writing about Writing” Course
Authors: Wells Jennifer
Published: March 2024

Students select writing genres to investigate based on their future college major/field interests.
When I Stopped Writing on Their Papers: Accommodating the Needs of Student Writers with Audio Comments [FREE ACCESS]
Authors: Bauer Sara
Published: March 2024

A teacher finds using software to make audio comments on students’ writing improves students’ understanding of her responses and increases their willingness to take her suggestions for revision more seriously.
Mindcrime and Doublethink: Using Music to Teach Dystopian Literature
Authors: Rubin Daniel Ian
Published: March 2024

This high school teacher uses a 1988 concept album from the heavy metal band Queensrÿche to broaden students’ connections to Orwell’s classic, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Asking and Arguing with Fact and Fiction: Using Inquiry and Critical Literacy to Make Sense of Literature in the World
Authors: Sawch Deb
Published: March 2024

Asking students to examine the dynamic between fiction and nonfiction can lead to a culture of critical inquiry and help students develop critical literacy.
From the Secondary Section: Paying Attention to Ourselves: Modeling Anti-Bullying Behavior for Students
Authors: Lucas Amy Magnafichi
Published: March 2024

Members of the Secondary Section Steering Committee comment on topics of importance to English language arts educators.
Speaking My Mind: Mythology of the Norm: Disrupting the Culture of Bullying in Schools
Authors: Miller sj
Published: March 2024

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.
Exploring Character through Narrative, Drama, and Argument
Authors: McCann Thomas M. , D’Angelo Rebecca , Hillocks Marjorie , Galas Nancy , Ryan Laura
Published: March 2024

Can students author their own solutions and reparations for bullying?
Call It What It Is: Confronting the Teacher-on-Teacher Bully Down the Hall
Authors: H Mr.
Published: March 2024

What steps can a teacher take when bullied by colleagues?
Cyberbullying: Taking Control through Research-Based Letter Writing
Authors: Connolly Maureen , Giouroukakis Vicky
Published: March 2024

Students inform preservice teachers about cyberbullying.
“Everything … Affects Everything”: Promoting Critical Perspectives toward Bullying with Thirteen Reasons Why
Authors: Chisholm James S. , Trent Brandie
Published: March 2024

A YAL character’s experiences with bullying compel students to take action.
High School Matters: What Happens in Vegas … Ends Up in Your Classroom
Authors: Parks Haas Kay
Published: March 2024

Members of the Secondary Section Steering Committee comment on topics of importance to English language arts educators.
Speaking My Mind: Breaking Down Literature Boxes While Traveling with the Little Prince
Authors: Steadman Sharilyn C.
Published: March 2024

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.
Speaking My Mind: A Billable Services List: Paying Teachers More Like Doctors
Authors: Aviv Beth
Published: March 2024

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.
Minds and Hearts: Using Jeannette Walls’s Memoir, The Glass Castle, to Teach Emotional Intelligence
Authors: Irvin Andrea
Published: March 2024

A memoir of a dysfunctional childhood inspires students in a high-poverty district to develop strength, empathy, and hope.
Putting Characters First in a Middle School Classroom
Authors: Sass-Henke Amanda
Published: March 2024

Technology-rich activities help this middle school teacher’s students develop the kinds of personal connections with Percy Jackson, White Fang, and others that she had withNancy Drew and Scarlett O’Hara.
Research for the Classroom: The Blue Glow from the Back Row: Live Theater and the Wireless Teen
Authors: Richardson John M.
Published: March 2024

Research for the Classroom publishes mini-studies of ELA classroom practices and suggests ways in which high school and middle school English teachers may study the effectiveness of their pedagogy.
Teaching Young Adult Literature: Why Should We Have All the Fun? Encouraging Colleagues to Read YA Novels across the Curriculum
Authors: Roberts Mike
Published: March 2024

Teaching Young Adult Literature describes innovative methods for engaging students in reading, writing, and discussing contemporary and classic literary texts written for adolescents.
Math in the Margins: Writing across Curricula into Community Heritage
Authors: Sunstein Bonnie S. , Liu Rossina Zamora , Hunsicker Arthur W. , Baker Deidra F.
Published: March 2024

Two schools, two states, two cultures, and two disciplines: a recipe for excellent learning experiences.
Love That Poem! Using Imitation to Teach Poetry
Authors: Brannon April
Published: March 2024

Want your students to write like Mary Oliver, Ellen Bass, or Margaret Atwood? Let Brannon show you how to make it happen.
Exploring the Connection between Graphic Novel and Film
Authors: Dallacqua Ashley Kaye
Published: March 2024

Putting graphic novels and film together is a great way to get students engaged in critical literary analysis.
Zines in the Classroom: Reading Culture
Authors: Buchanan Rebekah
Published: March 2024

Buchanan explores the enduring, informal genre of zines and shows how they can be used to teach to the new Common Core State Standards.
Code-Switching and Language Ideologies: Exploring Identity, Power, and Society in Dialectally Diverse Literature
Authors: Devereaux Michelle D. , Wheeler Rebecca
Published: March 2024

Contrastive analysis and code-switching help students engage language differences in texts by Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Harper Lee, and others.
Adventures with Text and Beyond: Popular Culture: The New Literacy Challenge for English Teachers
Authors: Page Melissa A.
Published: March 2024

Adventures with Text and Beyond explores various ways of teaching literary theory to high school and middle school students.
Professional Writing in the English Classroom: Let’s Get Real: Using Usability to Connect Writers, Readers, and Texts
Authors: Bush Jonathan , Zuidema Leah
Published: March 2024

Professional Writing in the English Classroom publishes articles about teaching students to write effectively in the genres, conventions, and visual designs required for professional contexts and related rhetorical situations.
Playing the Play: What the Children Want
Authors: Kraus Jo Anne
Published: March 2024

Playing the Play describes the experiences of a storyteller and teacher of literature who created a literature-based literacy program at Concourse House, a homeless shelter in Bronx, New York, for women and their young children. This program is based on the belief that pleasure is the primary reason children want to learn to read, and that where children have seldom listened to the rhymes and stories that are the ground base for literate children, they need to hear the “call of literature for themselves. The author describes the way stories are chosen, the active engagements with literature and drama, and the negotiation between her desire for a shared literary experience and the children's desire for play. Playing the play is about giving children the choice to engage imaginatively in stories, and helping them extend that engagement through a performance practice that deepens their knowledge of stories and feeds their sense of themselves as competent, literate people.
The Mermaid’s Purse: Looking Closely at Young Children’s Art and Poetry
Authors: Wolf Shelby A.
Published: March 2024

Young children create poems, digital photographs, and other artistic creations that reveal the cognitive work, imaginative play, and problem solving that comes as they learn to see themselves as artists.
An Intersection of Theory and Practice: Accepting the Language a Child Brings into the Classroom
Authors: Isenbarger Lynn , Willis Arlette Ingram
Published: March 2024

This article draws from the experiences of a European American classroom teacher, her African American teacher educator, the classroom teacher’s interactions with an African American family, and her conversations with her African American aide. It answers the call to speak to the everyday experiences of teachers who seek to acknowledge and address the linguistic and cultural understandings that students bring with them to our classrooms and explores the tension a teacher experiences as she navigates between theories she is reading and discussing in her university coursework and the expectations and understandings of the parents and aide of an African American male who is a student in her classroom. In addition, the teacher educator makes recommendations for applying theory and research in multilingual and multicultural classrooms.
Finding Memorable Moments: Images and Identities in Autobiographical Writing
Authors: Espinosa Cecilia M.
Published: March 2024

This article focuses on a collaborative project between two fifth-grade dual language teachers (English-Spanish) and a university researcher as they engaged children in a study of memoir. The bilingual children in these classes cultivated their genre knowledge by participating in the ways of writers of memoir through the careful adaptations the teachers and the university researcher made in order to provide the best possible experiences for the bilingual children in these classes. By attending to what the children were doing, they helped the bilingual children find not only where their stories hide, but to tell them in crafted ways.
Professional Book Reviews: Exploring the Role of Children’s Literature in the 21st Century Classroom
Authors: Kersten Jodene , Apol Laura , Pataray-Ching Jann
Published: March 2024

The overwhelming use of commercially produced reading programs in elementary classrooms suggests that literature, beyond abridged versions in anthologies, is not necessarily valued. The reviewers have sought out professional resources that successfully argue the contrary by making compelling arguments for: (1) integrating an arts-based approach to literature as part of a comprehensive literacy program, (2) using literature to prompt and support children’s inquiries of the world in a classroom guided by critical literacy; and (3) maximizing the connection between literature and literacy by developing students’ passion for reading.
Children’s Literature Reviews: 2006 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts
Authors: Martinez Miriam , Austin Pat , Carpenter Mailyn , Edinger Monica R. , Johnson Vivian G. , Pritchard T. Gail
Published: March 2024

The Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts committee is charged each year with selecting 30 notable titles that teachers can use in teaching the language arts—writing, reading, speaking, listening, visually representing, or viewing. Books the committee considers for this annual list are written for children, grades K–8, and include works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, picture storybooks, and books featuring word play. Even wordless books are eligible. The books must have been published within the previous copyright year (2005 for the current list).
Review of Research
Authors: Newkirk Thomas
Published: March 2024

This essay examines the early formulations of writing process pedagogy and notes early criticisms of this model—specifically the assumption that young writers are fundamentally similar to more experienced, even published, writers. The developmental issue remains controversial today as Anne Dyson and others make the case for the media-saturated “hybrid” texts that young writers often create. Her position on development complicates current orthodox notions of topic choice and genre in children’s writing.
Paying Attention to Procedural Texts: Critically Reading School Routines as Embodied Achievement
Authors: Vander Zanden Sarah , Wohlwend Karen E.
Published: March 2024

In this article, we look closely at the way power circulates through school routines with ordinary texts in everyday moments. We address texts that support different types of achievement and how critical literacy helps us redefine achievement and examine what we’re doing with texts and students in classrooms. We interrogate the notion of achievement outside the realm of traditional markers of school success (i.e. tests, academic content knowledge, etc.). We argue that more inclusive interpretations of achievement requires critical reading of texts all around us, in the language that constructs our worlds, from the products we buy to the most mundane routines. Using three elementary teaching vignettes: a teacher shopping for pencil boxes and back-to-school supplies, a first grader posting a complaint to call a class meeting, and a fifth grade class responding to a memo about a new school policy, we examine power relations in texts and routines that highlight achievement. The article includes critical routines with potential for empowering and diversifying opportunities for success.
Trampling Over or Traveling With? Reconsidering the Culture of Achievement
Authors: Herr Kathryn , Naiditch Fernando
Published: March 2024

Low-income male students of color are among the populations experiencing the least amount of success in the current arrangements of school, described by some as part of the “the boy crisis” in education. This article draws on a year long ethnographic study of a single-sex, all-male classroom in a public middle school. It explores their experiences in a Humanities class (Language Arts and Social Studies) where, with their teacher, the boys gradually constructed a collective sense of collaboration and achievement. Â The paper responds to Gutierrez”s (2008) call for a new vision of educating youth that includes redesigning what counts as the teaching and learning of literacy. The authors, using Gutierrez”s conception of “a third space” as well as work by Freire (1970, 1994), describe how this class recreated their classroom space in the midst of school wide practices and curricula driven by high-stakes assessment.
Research Directions: When Achievement Data Meet Drama and Arts Integration
Authors: Walker Elaine , Tabone Carmine , Weltsek Gustave
Published: March 2024

In this research, two questions related to arts integration are studied: First, the extent to which sixth and seventh grade students’ language arts and mathematics performance, as well as their engagement with school are positively impacted by classroom settings in which theater strategies are integrated into language arts instruction; and second, the extent to which students are able to sustain their learning gains in language arts once they return to a traditional language arts learning environment. The research is based on a study in which four schools in an urban school district that has a high poverty level, were randomly selected to participate in a federally funded arts integration project; and four schools were randomly assigned to the control group. A total of 28 classrooms and 1020 students were in the study sample. The findings indicate that being in an arts-integrated classroom increased the odds of students passing the state assessment in language arts by 77 percent and by 42% in mathematics. Students who exited the arts integrated project were able to sustain their learning gains once they returned to a traditional instructional setting. For example, seventy-eight% of eighth graders whose language arts instruction as seventh graders included the use of theater strategies were proficient in language arts on the eighth-grade assessment, compared to 69% of students who were instructed using traditional pedagogy.
Professional Book Reviews: Counterstories of Achievement
Authors: Haddix Marcelle M. , Chandler-Olcott Kelly , Eatman Timothy K. , Cullen Kathleen
Published: March 2024

This column features professional resources for literacy educators seeking to look beyond traditional assessments of academic achievement to explore alternative stories of success and achievement measured in many forms. Â The texts reviewed spotlight academic success in unexpected spaces (How It’s Being Done: Â Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools by Karin Chenoweth), highlight courageous leadership (The School Leaders Our Children Deserve: Seven Keys to Equity, Social Justice, and School Reform by George Theoharis), examine the role of race and culture in addressing the achievement gap (Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms by Tyrone C. Howard), and further complicate questions about whether charter school networks can improve educational outcomes for all children (Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America by Paul Tough). Collectively these texts illuminate counternarratives of achievement and call for literacy educators to examine measures of successfully preparing young people to live productive and meaningful lives in this 21st century global society.
Children’s Literature Reviews: Tales of Achievement
Authors: Davila Denise , Anggraini Theresia , Barger Bettie Parsons , Bowcutt Allyson , Brewster Hilary , Vocal Patricia
Published: March 2024

Achievement takes on several different forms, and it mirrors a varying range of perspectives. Many of the books reviewed here present tales of achievement that highlight qualities such as ingenuity, perseverance, integrity, agency, bravery, and creativity. This set of reviews features a mixture of recently published titles that will provide children and adolescents an array of viewpoints, each of which uniquely defines achievement.
Teachers’ Texts in Culturally Responsive Teaching
Authors: Kesler Ted
Published: March 2024

In this paper, the author shares three teaching stories that demonstrate the social, cultural, political, and historical factors of all texts in specific interpretive communities. The author shows how the texts that comprised his curriculum constructed particular subject positions that inevitably included some students but marginalized and excluded others. Coupling critical literacy theory with culturally responsive teaching practices enabled the author to open up the curriculum to students who might otherwise have been shut out by challenging and reformulating these texts. Thus, culturally responsive teaching becomes stronger when coupled with a critical literacy lens. The author concludes with two implications for teachers. One implication is for teachers to recognize and embrace the critical literacy dimensions in the texts that constitute our curricula and, based in culturally responsive pedagogy, anticipate the many ways these texts might situate students and their families. A second implication is for teachers to become responsive to the unanticipated ways that students will respond to texts during curriculum enactment to enable more inclusive teaching practices.
By the Book and Behind-the-Glass: Teacher Self-Regulation in One Reading Intervention
Authors: Compton-Lilly Catherine
Published: March 2024

This paper presents the voices of Reading Recovery teachers in order to examine their self-regulation in that context. Foucault’s constructs of hierarchical observation, normalization of judgment, and technologies of self are used to explore how self-regulated stances are created and sustained and to explore the way self-regulation operates within a community in which particular ways of acting, interacting, believing, and teaching are valued. Sixteen Reading Recovery teachers were interviewed about their teaching and learning experiences. Findings suggest that while teacher self-regulation in Reading Recovery imposes particular limits, these limits provide both opportunities for professional growth and collective learning while contributing to the sustainability of the Reading Recovery Program.
Research Directions: Having Words: Contrasting Perspectives on Children’s Writing through the History of Language Arts
Authors: Boldt Gail , Gilman Sharlene , Kang Suyoung , Olan Elsie , Olcese Nicole
Published: March 2024

This article is an historical study of the understanding of children’s writing through Language Arts. The author and her research team did a content analysis of articles about writing that appeared in Language Arts beginning in 1924 through January, 2010. Analysis shows that a major area of tension throughout the history of the journal has been between conceptualizations of writing as a form of language use for children’s thinking and expression and writing as a standardized set of skills and processes. The authors propose that these positions can be traced, through the pages of Language Arts, to contrasting perspectives on the value of diversity in experience, interest, and language use, and on standardization versus teacher control of curriculum.
Children’s Literature Reviews: Tasting Seasoned Words of Joy: Notable Poetry Published in 2010
Authors: Ward Barbara A. , Young Terrell A. , Napoli Mary P. , Magliaro Elaine , Dotlich Rebecca Kai
Published: March 2024

The great variety and forms of poetry for children and young adults is explored in this annual review column. Members of the NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Awards Committee celebrate their favorite poetry offerings from 2010. Sixteen titles for children and four novels in verse are described enthusiastically, providing teachers and librarians with a taste of what the poetry world has to offer. Readers will find poems to share, reread, and reflect upon as they use these poetry reviews as a starting place to build a poetry library. The list of Notable Poetry titles contains poems by long-time favorite writers as well as some surprising and appealing offerings from novice poets. There is a poem or a poetry book for every taste here.
Research and Policy: Relating Policy to Research and Practice: The Common Core Standards [FREE ACCESS]
Authors: Bomer Randy , Maloch Beth
Published: March 2024

Randy Bomer and Beth Maloch take a look at the Common Core Standards and the ways they are presently shaping the curriculum offered to young children in school. They suggest that the Common Core Standards in early literacy and early childhood classrooms represents a restricted image of college or academic literacy. Mainly, the standards’ authors expect students in college to be asked to write about texts—to give analytic reasoning about texts, arguing something with textual evidence to support their claims. This, as you will see, is a form of literacy that receives attention in early childhood as well.
Children’s Literature Reviews: Play-Themed Children’s Literature for Early Childhood Classrooms
Authors: McNair Jonda C. , Bailey Alan R. , Colabucci Lesley , Day Deanna
Published: March 2024

To offer a counter perspective of early literacy development and policy than is currently being promoted through the Common Core Standards and the push for nationalizing the curriculum, the authors focus on play-themed literature. This column features 12 picturebooks with protagonists who engage in pretend or imaginative play. It is hoped that these books will inspire young children and remind teachers of the importance of play in early childhood education.
Empowering Fourth-Grade Researchers: Reaping the Rewards of Web 2.0 Student-Centered Learning
Authors: Atkinson Terry S. , Swaggerty Elizabeth A.
Published: March 2024

NCTE’s Framework for 21st Century Literacies (2008) prompted collaboration between a university professor and classroom teacher resulting in a professional inquiry project utilizing a Web 2.0 tool, Scrapblog, with fourth-grade students. This article describes implementation of this project, including both challenges and positive outcomes. The authors found that the effort paid dividends in terms of student engagement (“Please, can I work on my Scrapblog?”), student empowerment (shift the responsibility for learning to the student), and collaboration (among university professor, classroom teacher, and students). Specific recommendations for moving beyond traditional literacy instruction practices and delving into 21st Century Web 2.0 learning experiences are included.
Children’s Literature Reviews: Global Children’s Literature
Authors: McNair Jonda C. , Bailey Alan R. , Colabucci Lesley , Day Deanna
Published: March 2024

Featured is a selection of books that were first published outside of the United States, as well as titles published in this country that have global settings. Titles first published within the United States but featuring global themes are also included.
Conversation Currents: Learning Local and Global Literacies from Students and Families
Authors: Nieto Sonia , Turner K. C. Nat
Published: March 2024

Two prominent scholars, Sonia Nieto and K. C. Nat Turner discuss the importance of collaboration between schools and families. They highlight the concept of transformation, which fosters a two-way process. They also offer authentic ways for teachers to become part of the community and embrace home literacy practices.
A Call to Action: JoBeth Allen, NCTE’s 2012 Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts
Authors: Tisdale Carmen
Published: March 2024

This article is a tribute to JoBeth Allen, recipient of the Elementary Section’s 2012 award for Outstanding Educator in the English Language Arts. Each year, this award recognizes a distinguished educator who has made major contributions to the field of language arts in elementary education. This article was written by second-grade teacher and former member of the Elementary Section Steering Committee, Carmen Tisdale, in tribute to Professor Allen’s lifelong dedication to children, families, teachers, and the transformation of schools to address the strengths and needs of students most marginalized. The article is organized around major aspects of JoBeth’s call to action as she urges us to teach for social justice, helping us understand the power of critical pedagogies in the lives of students.
Children’s Literature Reviews: 2012 Orbis Pictus Award Winners
Authors: Wilson Fran , Chatton Barbara , Kristo Jan , Thompson Deborah , Morris-Wilkey Lisa , Giorgis Cyndi , Parsons Sue
Published: March 2024

This children’s literature review column features the 2012 Orbis Pictus award winner, five honor books, and a list of eight recommended titles. The Elementary Section of the National Council of Teachers of English established the Orbis Pictus Award in 1989—the first award to acknowledge outstanding nonfiction books for children. This year’s award-winning titles explore a variety of topics, including history, art, nature, biography, and science.
Conversation Currents: Aligning Instruction to Developmental Needs in Critical and Digital Literacies
Authors: Marsh Jackie , Vasquez Vivian
Published: March 2024

Prominent scholars Jackie Marsh and Vivian Vasquez provide information about young literacy learners and problematize the notion of developmental models. Instead, they posit that children will demonstrate achievement at their own pace. The scholars also discuss the value of kid-watching as well as critical and digital literacies both in and out of school.
Conversation Currents: Final Thoughts
Authors: Albers Peggy , Flint Amy Seely , Holbrook Teri , May Laura
Published: March 2024

For our last issue as editors of Language Arts, we decided to take the opportunity to reflect on our process and journey as Language Arts editors from 2011 to 2016. We share our surprises, favorites, insights, and processes, and along the way, we recall important moves we made as an editorial team. Participating in this conversation are Peggy Albers, Amy Seely Flint, Teri Holbrook, and Laura May. Unfortunately, Caitlin Dooley was not able to participate in the conversation, but she has been an integral member of the team.
Starting with Self: Teaching Autoethnography to Foster Critically Caring Literacies
Authors: Camangian Patrick
Published: March 2024

This article illustrates the application of critical literacy (Freire & Macedo, 1987; Gutierrez, 2008; Morrell, 2007) pedagogies that draw from young people’s funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992) to actively nurture personally, authentically, and culturally caring relationships (Howard, 2002; Noddings, 1992; Valenzuela, 1999) that reflect a concern for students’ lives. Specifically, it discusses the impact of students performing autoethnographies (Alexander, 2005; Carey-Webb, 2001) “cultural narratives that build toward critical social analysis” as a means toward increasing critical self-reflection and building compassionaterelationships between youth of color with fractured collective identities. Such approaches, as I argue, can tap into youth confusion and anger in order to engage them as critical readers, writers, and oral communicators. The findings suggest that autoethnographies increased students’ knowledge of self and, upon recognizing one another’s all-too-familiar struggles, the classroom climate became more conducive to constructing a critical common identity among youth of color. In this way, the article has implications for building classroom relationships that make for more effective pedagogies engaging dispossessed, working-class children of color with culturally relevant critical literacy teaching practices.
Making Grammar Instruction More Empowering: An Exploratory Case Study of Corpus Use in the Learning/Teaching of Grammar
Authors: Liu Dilin
Published: March 2024

Despite a long debate and the accompanying call for changes in the past few decades, grammarinstruction in college English classes, according to some scholars, has remained largely “disempowering,” “decontextualized,” and “remedial” (Micciche, 2004, p. 718). To search for more effectiveand empowering grammar teaching, this study explores the use of corpora for problem-basedlearning/teaching of lexicogrammar in a college English grammar course. This pedagogy wasmotivated by research findings that (1) corpora are a very useful source and tool for languageresearch and for active discovery learning of second/foreign languages, and (2) problem-basedlearning (PBL) is an effective and motivating instructional approach. The data collected andanalyzed include students’ individual and group corpus research projects, reflection papers oncorpus use, and responses to a post-study survey consisting of both open-ended and Likert questions.The analysis of the data found the following four themes in students’ use of, and reflectionsabout, corpus study: (1) critical understanding about lexicogrammatical and broader languageuse issues, (2) awareness of the dynamic nature of language, (3) appreciation for the context/register-appropriate use of lexicogrammar, and (4) grasping of the nuances of lexicogrammaticalusages. The paper also discusses the challenges involved in incorporating corpus use into Englishclasses and offers suggestions for further research.
Children’s Text Development: Drawing, Pictures, and Writing
Authors: Christianakis Mary
Published: March 2024

Using a sociohistoric developmental lens, this paper traces the construction of texts composed by fifth graders in an urban classroom in order to answer the following questions: How do children develop as writers in school? How do writing and drawing function in children’s texts? How do teaching practices shape children’s writing development? Ethnographic data collected in a fifthgrade classroom reveal how children used drawing to create classroom texts. Data show that drawing is not simply a developmental preface to writing. Rather, when given guided intellectual freedom, children integrate writing, drawing, and pictures in sophisticated and creative ways. The author traces children’s text development to show how schooling as an institution bounds and limits their use of their authorial prerogatives, their textual possibilities, and ultimately their developmental potential. She concludes by asserting that we must reconsider development in writing to include not only orthographic symbols, but also the wide array of communicative tools that children bring to writing. Any analysis of development that fails to include an analysis of the corresponding institutional practices and ideologies is liable to be no more than a contribution to the efficacy of that developmental model.
Constructing Difference Differently in Language and Literacy Professional Development
Authors: Crumpler Thomas P. , Handsfield Lara J. , Dean Tami R.
Published: March 2024

In this study we take up challenges regarding researcher positionality, representation, and the construction of difference as a launching point to reflexively analyze our own practices within aresearch project exploring multilingualism, multiliteracies, and teacher development. Our data were drawn from a teacher study group we facilitated during the first phase of a two-year study.We draw on poststructuralist understandings of discourse, power, and performativity and use elements of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to conduct a close thematic reading of two moments of discomfort in one study group meeting, and we critique our own complicity in the discursive production of difference. Further, we engage tools of process drama to theorize how we might have structured and responded to interactions differently during one of these same moments in order to address these challenges more successfully. We conclude by arguing for approaches and interpretive tools for researchers that could help to reimagine as well as respond both ethically and analytically to issues of representation in language and literacy research.
A Journey through Nine Decades of NCTE-Published Research in Elementary Literacy
Authors: Dutro Elizabeth , Collins Kathleen
Published: March 2024

In this article, we share findings from our process of “reading the past, writing the future” of elementary research in NCTE’s journals. Our analysis focused on major domains of the field, including literature, writing, reading, language, and multimodal literacies, and spanned Elementary English Review, which first appeared in 1924, was renamed Elementary English in 1947, and became Language Arts in 1975; Primary Voices, which ran from 1993 to 2002; and Research in the Teaching of English (RTE), which began in 1967. Findings revealed both surprising continuities across decades as well as clear and important social and cultural shifts that influenced theory, methods, and practice in the field, emphasizing the importance of 1) recognizing the level of historical and political influences in elementary literacy research, 2) paying explicit attention to how the cultural-historical zeitgeist shapes our work as scholars, and 3) interrogating how our representations of research problems may contribute to the continuance of social and cultural inequities.
Research in Secondary English, 1912–2011: Historical Continuities and Discontinuities in the NCTE Imprint
Authors: Brass Jory , Burns Leslie David
Published: March 2024

This study identified historical continuities and discontinuities across a century of secondary research published in English Journal (1912–1966) and Research in the Teaching of English (1967–2011). It highlights considerable methodological continuity across six decades of English Journal and some shifts in research emphases that tended to echo changing emphases in psychological research, curriculum reforms, and critiques of traditional linguistics. The analysis of secondary research published in Research in the Teaching of English explores how RTE emerged in 1967 with a definition of empirical social science that both expanded and contracted practices of positivist research and also excluded traditions of practitioner research and humanities-based research that had been published for decades in EJ. Next, the study tracks patterns of continuity and change across RTE from the late 1960s to the present, including shifts in secondary research that seemed to echo shifts in behavioral science (1960s–1980s), cognitive psychology (1980s), and the onset of “sociocultural” research (early 1990s to present). The article concludes with a brief discussion of overarching impressions of continuity and change in secondary research, the place of “science” within the NCTE imprint, and a call for more historical research in English education.
The Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English
Authors: Beach R. , Bigelow M. , Braaksma M. , Brendler B. , Dillon D. , Frederick A. , Gabrielli M. , Helman L. , Janssen T. , Kapoor R. , Liang L. , Ngo B. , O’Brien D. , Rambow A. , Scharber C. , Sethi J.
Published: March 2024

This November issue of RTE once again contains the Annual Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English, available only here, on the NCTE website.
Voice Construction, Assessment, and Extra-Textual Identity
Authors: Tardy Christine M.
Published: March 2024

The concept of voice has long attracted the attention of teachers, but more recently has also been the focus of a growing body of research aiming to understand voice as self-representation in writing. Adopting a socio-cultural orientation to voice, studies have revealed much about how textual choices are used by readers to build images of text-authors; however, such research has been limited to contexts in which the author’s actual identity is unknown by the reader. Research has offered limited insight into how an author’s embodied self figures into readers’ voice construction, or how voice construction is connected to readers’ assessments of text—with or without knowledge of the author’s identity apart from the text. This article takes up these issues by exploring how readers’ exposure to videos of two second language (L2) student-authors influenced voice construction and evaluation of the students’ papers. Through primarily qualitative and intertextual analysis, the study concludes that voice construction, extra-textual identity, and assessment are related and interacting constructs, though these relationships are neither straightforward nor predictable. Methodological, pedagogical, and theoretical implications of this conclusion are discussed