bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be
Authors: Blodgett Barbara J.
Published: March 2024

Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be unapologetically urges clergy readers to develop practices that will help them become more excellent ministers. A long-time field educator, now serving as a denominational staff person responsible for ministerial formation, Barbara Blodgett believes excellence is a matter of doing simple things with care and consistency. Ministers who commit themselves to excellence will grow and flourish, and even become happier in ministry. Blodgett urges ministers to resist praise and instead to ask for feedback, to seek the company of mentors who are better than the reader is at what he or she does, to be vulnerable before their peers in order to learn from them, and to define themselves as a leader who does not merely take activist stances but risks entering into deep, transformative relationships. Improvement in ministry, Blodgett argues, comes about not through extraordinary leaps and bounds but rather through adoptingsimple habits and carrying through on small but thoughtfully made choices. Addressed to ministers, ecoming the Pastor You Hope to Be is also a valuable resource for discernment committees, Christian educators, leaders of continuing education and lay education programs, and all those who partner with theological schools to help form ministers, both lay and ordained.
Beyond the Worship Wars
Authors: Long Thomas G.
Published: March 2024

Almost every congregation is experiencing tension over worship. Many congregations have been participating in a renaissance of worship known as the "liturgical movement" and have reclaimed worship forms that have served the church for centuries. Yet because the church today is operating in a radically changed cultural environment, many people in our society do not understand liturgical worship and thus we must find language, music, themes, and images that speak to the unchurched, spiritually seeking person. In Beyond the Worship Wars, Thomas G. Long discusses the nine characteristics of vital and faithful worship practiced by a wide range of "third-way" congregations—all characteristics that make for vital and faithful worshi
Clergy Self-Care
Authors: Oswald Roy M.
Published: March 2024

Nationally known for his work and teaching on clergy development, Oswald integrates research and experience into a liberating perspective on the pastoral calling. Discover how imbalances in your physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual lives can destroy the very ministry you seek to carry out. Learn what you can do to restore that balance. Packed with self-assessment tools, real-life experiences, and specific self-care strategies.
Congregational Megatrends
Authors: Woods Charles Jeffrey
Published: March 2024

This book is written as a resource to help pastors and laity (1) talk about the changes transpiring in congregations and (2) shape a new congregation for the future.
Discover Your Spiritual Type
Authors: Ware Corinne
Published: March 2024

From Urban T. Holmes's spiritual typology and her own experience as a spiritual director and pastoral counselor, Ware provides a framework for people to name and understand their spiritual experience-in much the same way the Myers-Briggs typology provides a framework for understanding personality types. Readers explore four spiritual types--head, heart, mystic, and Kingdom--and exercises allow individuals and groups to assess their type. Additional information for clergy to use this tool with congregations is included, which will help them gain greater understanding of how members learn about, worship, and celebrate God--and why there may be tension about such issues as the form or content of the worship service.
Evaluating Ministry
Authors: Hudson Jill M.
Published: March 2024

Grounding evaluation in the theological and organizational context of mission (everyone a minister), Hudson describes case studies of four successful evaluation models that include the whole church. She suggests how "whole church" reviews might result in stronger pastoral ministry and new directions for mission. An important resource that will help clergy and laity explore mutual ministry, judicatory executives strengthen congregations, and new pastors get through their first congregational evaluation.
Find a Niche and Scratch It
Authors: Perry Robert L.
Published: March 2024

Jesus was uniquely adept in the art of "reading" people. He fit his approach to the precise needs and interests of the person with whom he was dealing, and he spoke the cultural language of that individual. In this book, Robert Perry takes what Jesus and others have done intuitively-niche marketing-and provides a framework for applying those principles in everyday practice. Convinced that congregations can learn from the wisdom of secular disciplines and apply that wisdom to congregational life without damaging the integrity of the Christian faith, Perry offers a detailed process for using sound marketing principles to identify a congregation's strengths and the needs of its community, and to develop strategies for effective ministry.
Gifts of an Uncommon Life
Authors: Friend, Howard E.
Published: March 2024

This book of ten essays is a breath of fresh air, a source of inspiration, a wake-up call, and a bold challenge for pastors, congregational leaders, and church members--both active and lapsed--who long for a new perspective, even a touch of creative irreverence. With an invitation to quietness and stillness, inner strength and resilience, audacious hope and insistent confidence, it welcomes those among the people of God who do not belong to a church or even name themselves as Christian. Yet it does not shy away from raising difficult questions. Howard Friend offers forthright, at times disarming, candor as he shares his personal pilgrimage of activism rooted in contemplation. Convinced that God still seeks to work in and through the church, Friend shows us where God is present--at times despite the church itself. In his opinion, the church needs to stir the pot, upset the applecart, and dare to welcome the new and refreshing. Yet Friend remains hopeful for and committed to the church, calling and equipping it to become its highest and best. Drawing on a range of stories from the Bible and his own lived experiences, Friend invites us to meet real people--pastors, leaders, everyday folks--who dare to dream a new dream, journey toward a far horizon, walk with tireless determination, and press on with awesome hope.
God's Tapestry
Authors: Kondrath William M.
Published: March 2024

Our differences are our greatest blessings and our greatest challenges, maintains William Kondrath, Episcopal priest and seminary professor. Theologically and ecologically, differences foster life and growth, but discord within denominations and congregations frequently have to do with the inability of individuals and groups to deeply understand and value differences. In God's Tapestry, Kondrath shows us how to embrace our multiculturalism--our differences of race, culture, gender, age, theology, language, sexual identity, and so forth. He does this by exploring differences on four levels--personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural. He also demonstrates a threefold process for becoming multicultural: recognizing our differences, understanding those differences and their significance and consequences, and valuing or celebrating those differences. While ministry is the work of the faith community, not only ordained or professional staff, it is critical that leaders learn the art and skill of recognizing, understanding, and valuing differences. Then the congregations and agencies they serve, having learned and practiced the art and skill of celebrating differences, can be the yeast that brings this awareness of God's diverse blessings to the wider world.
Growing Up Generous
Authors: Roehlkepartain Eugene C. , Naftali Elanah Dalyah , Musegades Laura
Published: March 2024

This groundbreaking addition to Alban's acclaimed Money, Faith, and Lifestyle Series creates a mosaic of what is happening - and could happen - in American Jewish and Christian congregations to cultivate in young people a deep and lasting commitment to giving and serving.
If This Is the Way the World Works
Authors: Avery William O. , Gaede Beth Ann
Published: March 2024

In If This Is the Way the World Works William O. Avery and Beth Ann Gaede ask two primary questions: First, what principles from science are so broadly accepted that scientists themselves are willing to say, "This is the way the world works"? Second, how do congregations and their leaders behave when they operate in concert with these seemingly universal principles? Avery and Gaede explore five principles form the philosophy of science that suggest an alternative way to view congregational mission and leadership: openness to new information, complexity, diversity, interrelatedness, and process. Their premise is that when faith communities align themselves with the way the world--God's world--works, they more faithfully carry out their vocations as witnesses to God's reconciling work and as servants to one another. By following these basic scientific principles, Avery and Gaede argue, we arrive at a different view of leadership in the church. If this is truly the way the world works, leaders will find strength through relationships, hope in diversity, and above all trust in the love of God.
In Dying We Are Born
Authors: Bush Peter
Published: March 2024

Deeply ingrained in Western culture, and in the minds of most church leaders, is the belief that there is a solution to every problem. Peter bush offers a powerful challenge to this approach, arguing that for new life, energy, and passion to arise in congregations, they must die--die to one way of being the church in order that a new way may rise. Bush identifies two types of dying congregations. Some congregations need to close their doors, bringing to an end years of ministry. Other congregations need to dramatically change their culture and ways of doing ministry. Such change may not entail literally closing the congregation's doors, but it will require people giving up deeply held understandings of the life and purpose of the congregation. All congregations, Bush contends, even ones that see themselves as healthy, need to be prepared to die, to take up their cross, so God can make them alive. A skillful storyteller, Bush shows readers why churches must confront their mortality. He examines the role of the prophetic leader, who proclaims both the congregation's death and its resurrection. He explores spiritual practices and the habits of wonder, remember, and risk taking for congregations that know they are dying--or need to die. Only by dying, Bush says, will a congregation find resurrection life, given by God who raises the dead to life
Personality Type and Religious Leadership
Authors: Oswald Roy M. , Kroeger Otto
Published: March 2024

Combining pastoral and behavioral science expertise, the authors spell out ways type and temperament theory illuminate the clergy role. Learn how to use the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types to recognize and affirm your gifts, work with your liabilities, and understand and accept those with whom you minister. "Being a parish pastor is a very complex role. Our mission in this book is to make that task a little less complex and a little more fun by looking at our congregations through the lens of the MBTI." -- The authors
Running Through the Thistles
Authors: Oswald Roy M.
Published: March 2024

Can how you leave a church affect your feelings about leaving or create baggage you take to your new congregation? Gain insight into termination styles and how they affect both you and your parishioners.
Spiritual Family Trees
Authors: Wendland Barbara , Easterling Larry W.
Published: March 2024

Wendland and Easterling show you how you can use genograms in your congregation as a tool for promoting spiritual growth, building community, and enhancing communication. Spiritual Family Trees gives congregations a powerful instrument for building more intimate spiritual communities.
Strategic Leadership for a Change
Authors: McFayden Kenneth J.
Published: March 2024

Many congregations are experiencing significant change both within and beyond their walls, and both members and leaders feel a sense of loss in the midst of these changes. In the midst of change, loss, and grief, congregations yearn for leadership--typically with differing expectations of what constitutes effective leadership in response to their needs, hopes, and priorities. At the same time, congregations resist leadership. After all, leadership assumes those who follow will be open to more change. Strategic Leadership for a Change provides congregational leaders with new insights and tools for understanding the relationships among change, attachment, loss, and grief. It also helps to facilitate the process of grieving, comprehend the centrality of vision, and demonstrate theological reflection in the midst of change, loss, grief, and attaching anew. All this occurs as the congregation aligns its vision with God's and understands processes of change as processes of fulfillment.
Körper, Geist und Literatur im 18. Jahrhundert
Authors: Klaus Philipp
Published: March 2024

Sowohl die Diskussion darüber, was der „Mensch“ eigentlich ist, als auch die Debatte zur „Medialität“ erfahren im 18. Jahrhundert einen interessanten Innovationsschub, der nicht zuletzt zur Epochenzuschreibung der „Aufklärung“ beiträgt. Im Versuch einer Isolation der Diskursereignisse stünde der Anthropologie als Wissenschaft vom Menschen – die sich in Auseinandersetzung mit dem cartesischen Erbe des Substanzdualismus etabliert – die Konstitution des „modernen Romans“ in der Literatur gegenüber. Doch gilt es genau diese Isolation aufzubrechen, um nach der Wechselbeziehung zu fragen, die sich zwischen den Diskursen „Mensch“ und „Medium“ entspinnt. Analysiert werden dabei die Romane „Insel Felsenburg“ (Schnabel), „Leben der schwedischen Gräfin von G***“ (Gellert), „Tobias Knaut“ (Wezel) und „Anton Reiser“ (Moritz).

 

Reihe

Philologie und Kulturgeschichte - Band 13
Fluchtpunkt Florenz.
Authors: Fischer Rotraut
Published: March 2024

Wer kennt heute noch die Namen der einst berühmten Deutsch-Florentiner oder Florentiner Deutschen, Namen wie Karl Hillebrand, Alfred von Reumont, Adolph von Hildebrand, Conrad Fiedler, Herman Grimm, Ludmilla Assing, Moritz und Hugo Schiff, Heinrich Homberger oder Isolde Kurz? Politisch wie weltanschaulich waren sie sich keineswegs einig. Historisch standen sie in gleich mehreren Epochenumbrüchen und schlugen Brücken zwischen Romantik und Vor- und Nachmärz, zwischen Risorgimento, Postrisorgimento und Gründerzeit. Und sie bezogen Stellung in den Kontroversen ihrer Zeit, irgendwo zwischen Revolution und „Realpolitik“, Nationalismus und Kosmopolitismus, Epigonalität und Utopie. Zwischen 1860 und dem Ende der 1880er Jahre bildeten sie zusammen mit ihren italienischen Freunden und Kollegen ein dynamisches Netz von Beziehungen in der Stadt am Arno, an deren freiheitliche Traditionen sie anknüpften und deren liberales und künstlerisch-intellektuelles Klima sie schätzten. In diesem Buch kommen sie noch einmal zu Wort mit ihren Themen und Theorien, ihren klarsichtigen, zukunftsweisenden Analysen und ihren Irrtümern.
Risk Factors of Pulmonary Complications in Patients with COVID-19: A Case-Control Study
Authors: Eslamian Mohammad , Zefreh Hamidreza , Sheikhbahaei Erfan , Ghasemi Maryam , Fasahat Amirhossein , Talebzade Hamid , Parchami Koorosh , Nazemroaya Behzad , Tarrahi Mohammad Javad , Firoozfar Alireza , Esfahanian Fatemeh
Published: March 2024

Background: Pneumothorax (PTX), pneumomediastinum (PM), and subcutaneous emphysema (SE) are complications associated with COVID-19. It is crucial to study these risk factors, complications, and their prognosis for early diagnosis amidst the rising number of cases today. Methods: We conducted a case-control study involving 81 pairs of patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia complicated by Pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum, comparing them with patients who did not have these complications to assess the risk factors for and prognosis of pulmonary complications in COVID-19. Results: The demographic data and medical history of comorbid diseases did not show an association with PTX, PM, and SE in COVID-19 pneumonia (all P-values > 0.05). However, laboratory data such as white blood cell count, lymphocyte count, C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, troponin, and D-dimer levels were significantly higher in the group with complications (P < 0.05). Additionally, the length of hospital stay was significantly longer in the group with complications, and intubation further extended this duration. The mortality rate was significantly higher in the case group (70% vs. 14%, P < 0.0001), with a significant odds ratio in comparison to patients without complications in the regression model (B = 2.61, Exp(B) = 13.65 with a 95% CI of 6.28 - 29.69). Conclusions: Pulmonary complications worsen the prognosis of COVID-19. The pathophysiology of COVID-19 pneumonia can lead to mechanical barotrauma, regardless of intubation status. Ventilator settings should be adjusted below the confidence level. Acute phase reactants and certain inflammatory markers, except for the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), are elevated in patients with complications, though they do not significantly predict outcomes.
Neonatal Outcomes of Severe Preeclampsia in Neonates Under 34 Weeks of Gestation
Authors: Sharami Seyedeh Hajar , Kabodmehri Roya , Rafiei Sorouri Zahra , Kazemi Aski Soudabeh , Alizadeh Chamani Nadia , Sabetghadam Shadi
Published: March 2024

Background: Preterm birth is one of the common complications of preeclampsia. Neonatal outcomes seem to be more severe in the presence of preeclampsia in women with preterm birth. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of preeclampsia on morbidity and mortality of neonates under 34 weeks of gestation at discharge. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted on 311 neonates admitted to the Alzahra Tertiary Care Hospital from 2019 to 2021. Data were collected using a data extraction checklist from the medical registry. The data analysis included descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and Fisher's exact test. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify the neonatal outcomes of preeclampsia. Results: Logistic regression analysis showed that risk of cesarean section (P = 0.002, OR = 2.81), low birth weight (P = 0.018, OR = 4.04), fetal growth restriction (< 0.001, OR = 3.73), fetal distress (P = 0.005, OR = 2.60), and mortality (P = 0.019, OR = 2.89) was higher in women with severe preeclampsia after adjusting for maternal age, history of In vitro fertilization, neonate sex, and gestational age. Conclusions: Based on the results, preeclampsia increased the risk of neonatal morbidity and mortality in preterm neonates under 34 weeks. Therefore, early identification of pregnant women at risk of preeclampsia is crucial. Future studies are recommended to investigate the long-term neonatal outcomes of preeclampsia.
Are Industry Returns Informative about Other Industries and Fundamentals?
Authors: Laopodis Nikiforos T.
Published: March 2024

This paper examines the information content of selected US industries focusing on the dynamic linkages among these industries, the stock market and a number of fundamental variables. The period of investigation spans from January 1960 to December 2021. The empirical strategy includes several methodologies such as regressions, vector autoregressions and volatility models. The idea is to investigate the dynamic linkages among these series at both the mean and the volatility levels. The results point to significant industry returns’ explanatory power for many predictors of economic activity including the stock market. Further, time-varying analysis of the linkages among the industries and the stock market’s returns reveal that certain industries such as Oil and Financials provide consistent information leadership over other industries and across decades. Further, upon assessing the industry–market return volatility spillovers, it was found that a market risk–return profile may not always be economically significant and timely for investors. Finally, crises, financial or otherwise, affect industries but to differing degrees.
Circulating Nucleated Red Blood Cells: An Updated Reference Interval
Authors: Meredith Amy A. , Meredith Neil R. , Smith Lynelle , Rosser Julie
Published: March 2024

Context.—

Nucleated red blood cells (nRBCs) are not identified in the peripheral blood in healthy individuals beyond the neonatal period. Their presence in children and adults is traditionally considered pathologic. Contemporary hematology analyzers measure nRBCs at very low levels compared to traditional manual morphometric methods. The original launch of the Sysmex XN analyzer in this study’s clinical laboratory verified the previously used nRBC reference interval of 0.00 to 0.01 × 106/μL. However, nRBC results from apparently healthy patients were flagged as abnormal (high), subsequently causing patient anxiety and increased subspecialty referrals.

Objective.—

To determine whether current reference intervals (RIs) for nRBCs were clinically relevant.

Design.—

We performed a prospective analysis of 405 300 specimens from nonhospitalized individuals who received a complete blood count. Applying inclusion/exclusion criteria produced a total specimen pool of 66 498.

Results.—

Of the 66 498 samples with otherwise normal complete blood count results from healthy, nonhospitalized individuals, 338 showed results outside the previously established RI; 336 of 66 498 (0.5%) had nRBC results greater than 0.01 × 106/μL. Two samples had nRBC values greater than 0.10 ×106/μL.

Conclusions.—

Based on statistical analysis of our results, we concluded that the upper limit of the RI could be updated from 0.01 × 106/μL to 0.10 × 106/μL. Increasing the upper limit of normal for the nRBC RI should decrease patient consternation from an abnormal laboratory value and significantly decrease costs through reducing unnecessary follow-up care, and without causing patient harm.
Rhetoric and Bullshit
Authors: Fredal James
Published: March 2024

The theory of bullshit put forth by philosopher Harry Frankfurt needs to be critiqued from the perspective of rhetorical theory, which can take into account how the identification of bullshit involves analyzing speaker, content, and audience as well as the interactions of these elements. More specifically, bullshit can be seen as an indifferent tampering with conventions of politeness, which makes it the antithesis of the kind of rhetoric we should teach.
Extending the Conversation: Writing Wounded: Trauma, Testimony, and Critical Witness in Literacy Classrooms
Authors: Dutro Elizabeth
Published: March 2024

Elizabeth Dutro emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the “hard stuff” of life in our classrooms.
“Why Do You Think That?” A Supervisor’s Mediation of a Preservice English Teacher’s Understanding of Instructional Scaffolding
Authors: George E. Newell , Sean P. Connors
Published: March 2024

This article reports a study of a university supervisor and a preservice English language arts teacher as they worked collaboratively within two different field experience sites to develop a conceptual understanding of instructional scaffolding. An analysis of classroom observations and mentoring conversations was conducted to examine how the supervisor supported the preservice teacher’s transfer of tools for instruction from a university program to the high school classroom. Findings indicate the significant role of the teacher education program’s conceptual base in fostering this transfer.
Teaching Grammar and Writing: A Beginning Teacher’s Dilemma
Authors: Peter Smagorinsky , Amy Alexandra Wilson , Cynthia Moore
Published: March 2024

This longitudinal case study follows one high school English teacher’s path of concept development over a two-year period encompassing her student teaching and first year of full-time teaching, both at the same rural school in the southeastern United States. The authors use a sociocultural theoretical framework emerging from the work of Vygotsky to focus on the construction of activity settings and the ways in which settings help to shape concept development. In particular, the analysis finds the teacher drawing on apparently inconsistent pedagogical traditions and their associated mediational tools: one centered on a teacher’s authoritarian control of the curriculum and adherence to formal properties of texts and one centered on students’ interests and their agency in learning.
What Do Professors Really Say about College Writing?
Authors: Brockman Elizabeth , Taylor Marcy , Kreth Melinda , Crawford MaryAnn K.
Published: March 2024

Listen in as college teachers discuss their expectations for student writing and what that might mean for your students’ futures.
Mentoring Matters: Taking an Empathic Stance
Authors: McCann Thomas M.
Published: March 2024

Mentoring Matters focuses on effective ways to support new English teachers and student teachers.
Off the Shelves: “What Is This Thing Called a Vook?”: Using Skeleton Creek to Transform Students’ Reading Experiences In (and Out of) School
Authors: Groenke Susan , Bell Robin , Allen Erin , Maples Joellen
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 in Focus: Shifting Perspectives about Grammar: Changing What and How We Teach
Authors: Dean Deborah
Published: March 2024

A highly regarded author and former junior high school English teacher considers the past, present, and future of English language teaching.
From the Secondary Section: Community in the Classroom
Authors: Greene Katie , Mitcham Karen Conn
Published: March 2024

Members of the Secondary Section Steering Committee comment on topics of importance to English language arts educators.
Speaking My Mind: Waving the Yellow Flag on Data-Driven Assessment of Writing
Authors: O’Connor Patricia
Published: March 2024

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.
The Grammar Workshop: Systematic Language Study in Reading and Writing Contexts
Authors: A. Zuidema Leah
Published: March 2024

Do you find traditional, out-of-context grammar instruction too limiting? Try Zuidema’s suggestions of field notebooks, mentor text analysis, and more.
With a Little Help from Their Friends: Making the Transition from Student to Teacher
Authors: Spangler Susan
Published: March 2024

A university’s seminar model suggests the design of a collaborative structure that promotes team sharing and problem solving.
Creating a Breathing Space: An Online Teachers’ Writing Group
Authors: Dawson Christine M. , Robinson Eleanor Liu , Hanson Kelly , VanRiper Jillian , Ponzio Christina
Published: March 2024

A mentoring relationship that began as part of teacher preparation can evolve into a professional community that stays connected through several means of communication.
Why Do New Teachers Leave? How Could They Stay?
Authors: Simos Elaine
Published: March 2024

An effective mentor program matters a great deal. Such a program must focus consistently on professional development, extend the work begun at the university, andconnect newcomers to a professional learning community.
Incarceration, Identity Formation, and Race in Young Adult Literature: The Case of Monster versus Hole in My Life
Authors: Engles Tim , Kory Fern
Published: March 2024

Contrastive readings of YA novels can help students understand the role of race in culture and contribute to students’ process of identity formation.
An Online Writing Partnership: Transforming Classroom Writing Instruction
Authors: Townsend Jane S. , Nail Allan , Cheveallier Jennifer , Browning Angela
Published: March 2024

Witness the evolution of a successful, innovative program in which preservice English teachers serve as writing consultants for eleventh-grade English students.
Old-Time Broadcasts for New-Time Podcast
Authors: Owens Roxanne Farwick
Published: March 2024

Eighth-graders strengthen their listening, writing, and creative skills by exploring mid-20th-century detective and mystery radio shows and then producing their own podcasts.
Using the Rhetorical Situation to Inform Literacy Instruction and Assessment across the Disciplines
Authors: Hackney Sean , Newman Brian
Published: March 2024

The authors describe a framework for approaching how teachers across the disciplines discuss what students are expected to know and how students are assessed.
A Formative Assessment System for Writing Improvement
Authors: Frey Nancy , Fisher Douglas
Published: March 2024

The authors assert that the time that teachers spend providing feedback could better be used to focus on formative assessment systems.
Assessment Challenges in the Common Core Era
Authors: Murphy Sandra , Smith Mary Ann
Published: March 2024

The authors consider how portfolios can meet the challenges of assessing various aspects of literacy and student learning.
Reading for Teaching: What We Notice When We Look at Literature
Authors: Alston Chandra L. , Barker Lisa M.
Published: March 2024

Two teacher educators design a tool to support new teachers in “reading for teaching,” or reading literature with an eye toward the skills and strategies one might teach.
Criteria for the Selection of Young Adult Queer Literature
Authors: Logan Stephanie R. , Lasswell Terri A. , Hood Yolanda , Watson Dwight C.
Published: March 2024

The authors of this article advocate for the inclusion of YA queer literature and seek to provide educational professionals with a set of criteria for selecting appropriate YA queer literature and incorporating it into the curriculum.
A Thousand Writers: Voices of the NWP: Your Summer of Making and Connecting
Authors: Sansing Chad
Published: March 2024

This column seeks to explore the experiences of National Writing Project teachers as writers, teachers of writing, and educational leaders.
Disabling Assumptions: Developing Further as Readers with Our Students
Authors: Dunn Patricia A.
Published: March 2024

This column explores how paying attention to disability—both to the rich contributions made by people with disabilities and to the sometimes negative attitudes in society that can interfere with those contributions—can foster classroom interactions that are more democratic, more inclusive, and more equitable.
Speaking My Mind: Sports Lit
Authors: Crutcher Chris
Published: March 2024

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.
How Have We Been Standardized? Let Me Count the Ways
Authors: Jolley Susan Arpajian
Published: March 2024

This article examines, both personally and historically, the deleterious effects of the decades-old movement toward standardization of both students and teachers.
Children’s Literature Reviews: The Right to Not Defend our Tastes
Authors: Cappiello Mary Ann , Dawes Erika Thulin , Enriquez Grace , Roach Julie
Published: March 2024

Daniel Pennac urges us to let children read what they choose to read, suspending adult evaluations of quality and appropriateness. There are time-honored topics that children and teens return to again and again, year after year, including: subject matter that may frighten or threaten some grown-ups; goofy, gross, or slapstick humor; series fiction or nonfiction that prolongs a personal connection to characters or plot devices or information; multimedia connections or tie-ins; and perpetually popular interests, from trucks to mysteries to vampires. In addition, there are the 21st-century expectations children have for books with high visual interest and authentic representations of the experience of the modern day child in our diverse world. The books reviewed in this article, were selected because, based on our experiences working with children and their teachers, the authors believe they have genuine “kid appeal.”
Conversation Currents: Image, Identity, and Insights into Language
Authors: Harste Jerome C. , Kress Gunther
Published: March 2024

This enlightening conversation between Harste and Kress includes various topics, such as visual literacy, semiotics, and critical literacy. The two also provide helpful tips for language arts teachers.
Thirdspace: A Perspective on Professional Development
Authors: Bostock Susi
Published: March 2024

This article follows one teacher’s quest for integrating technology in the classroom. It also investigates the shift of classroom pedagogy due to personal experiences.
Professional Book Reviews: Under the Influence of Technology: Rethinking Professional Development
Authors: Donnelly Amy , Jewett Pamela C. , Laman Tasha Tropp , Wilson Jennifer L.
Published: March 2024

This article provides effective resources to help literacy teachers to shift gears from traditional to digital literacies.
Reading and Writing the World Using Beautiful Books: Language Experience Re-envisioned
Authors: Hoffman James V. , Roser Nancy
Published: March 2024

Through this article, we describe an instructional strategy termed “Beautiful Books.” This strategy involves the creation of images and texts to be used in the development of oral and literacy skills. We explore the historical roots of the strategy in Language Experience Approach (LEA) and Whole language and consider how dictation and early writing can be used together to support development. We discuss the inherent tensions in emergent writing, dictation, and sharing the pen, and describe some of our recent research using Beautiful Books in preservice teacher education.
Conversation Currents: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times?
Authors: Goodman Yetta , Goodman Ken , Altwerger Bess
Published: March 2024

In light of NCTE’s 100th birthday, three prominent scholars in the field of literacy discuss important issues ranging from the history of reading theory to the increase of public interest. They also shed light on the evolution of reading, the importance of constructivism, progressive education, and Whole Language.
Exploring Literary Devices in Graphic Novels
Authors: Dallacqua Ashley K.
Published: March 2024

This article explores the possibilities of graphic novels with young readers.  During the 2009â€“2010 school year, while working with four fifth-grade students, the author examined the question In what ways do readers engage while reading a graphic novel? The fifth graders took part in book discussions and one-on-one interviews after reading two pre-selected graphic novels.  Through data analysis, Dallacqua noticed a prominence of data focused around literary devices.  The devices are not only present, but recognizable to students with no prompting.  The author uses the voices of students to discuss the wide range of literary devices and their effect on students’ reading engagement with graphic novels.  She also discusses the possibilities that graphic novels offer in introducing literary devices and scaffolding student learning into traditional, print-based literature.  Ultimately, she concludes that graphic novels are a powerful medium that offers language arts teachers unlimited possibilities.
Research and Policy: Information Texts and the Common Core Standards: What Are We Talking about, Anyway?
Authors: Maloch Beth , Bomer Randy
Published: March 2024

This column responds to a recent push in education policy toward a curriculum that requires students to read and write more informational texts. Most evident in the now well-known Common Core State Standards, these policy moves echo, in some ways, a call by researchers for more informational texts, particularly in primary classrooms. In this column, the authors work to sort out the various ways that researchers and policy documents have defined terms like “informational texts” and “nonfiction.” In doing so, they hope to move toward more clarity and consistency in the use of such terms. The discussion in this column lays the groundwork for, and continues in, a future column (July, 2013) in which they review the research on instruction relevant to informational texts.
“Lunch Is Gross”: Gaining Access to Powerful Literacies
Authors: Gatto Lynn
Published: March 2024

This ethnographic study documents how a space for critical literacy practices emerged as one teacher attempted to make literacy learning authentic. The school lunch program in an urban elementary district provided the theme for an authentic and focused literacy unit. Throughout this focus unit, the students not only met state standards but also engaged in unpacking the relationship between power and language by asking complex questions about race relations, resource inequities, and institutional politics. The description and analysis reveal and characterize three conceptual categories of critical literacy practices: 1) attentive, 2) connective, and 3) disruptive. In attentive practices, students become aware of voice in consuming and producing texts, while in connective practices, texts become a vehicle for agency. Disruptive practices bring voice and agency together to afford production of text for transformation of our world. It was through these critical literacy practices that students made meaning and communicated those meanings for real audiences and real purposes.
Growing Language Awareness in the Classroom Garden
Authors: Paugh Patricia , Moran Mary
Published: March 2024

For four years, Pat Paugh, a university teacher educator, and Mary Moran, a teacher researcher, collaborated on action research by systematically studying literacy development connected to the latter’s third-grade community gardening and urban farming curriculum. Their goal was to support an existing classroom culture that valued students’ development of literacy as a social practice for contributing to community and society, while also finding pathways for academic language instruction. Two social theoretical frameworks, Critical Pedagogy of Place (Gruenewald, 2003), and Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1978) helped them bridge what was often dichotomized in the urban district as explicit language instruction vs. student-centered and relevant curriculum. This article illustrates how two aspects of the theory of functional grammar, genre and register, provided linguistic tools that supported Mary’s professional knowledge and her students’ linguistic growth. Together, Mary and her students connected their literacy learning to their involvement in their community.
Children’s Literature Reviews: Our Favorite Picturebook Apps
Authors: McNair Jonda C. , Bailey Alan R. , Day Deanna , Möller Karla J.
Published: March 2024

Katie Bircher (2012) believes that “the most successful picture book apps will remain the ones that keep story front and center” (p. 78) while taking advantage of the interactive and multimodal features of the virtual world. This column features reviews of some of our favorite children’s book apps along with a list of additional recommendations.
The Family Backpack Project: Responding to Dual-Language Texts through Family Journals
Authors: Rowe Deborah , Fain Jeanne Gilliam
Published: March 2024

The Family Backpack Project provided 249 low-income, prekindergarten children and their families with opportunities to read and listen to audio recordings of 3 sets of books in their homes. Families received English or dual-language texts (English plus Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish, or Somali) matched to their home languages. Children and their families responded to an open-ended invitation to draw and write about the books in a family response journal. Children, 45% of whom were English learners, were enrolled in 13 public school, prekindergarten classrooms located in urban, Title I schools. They and their teachers received support and professional development for language and literacy instruction through an Early Reading First grant. In their journals, families focused on drawing story characters and scenes, summarizing key story elements, making connections to family life, completing school-like comprehension tasks, practicing conventional writing routines, and creating multimodal responses. Analyses showed that children were co-participants in reading/writing activities where families demonstrated and engaged the child in comprehending and interpreting books. Parents of second-language learners indicated that dual language books supported family book reading and encouraged connections across languages. The open-ended invitation to read and respond encouraged families to connect books to literacy practices and funds of knowledge based in family, community, and school experiences.
Conversation Currents: Learning from Families and Communities
Authors: Compton-Lilly Catherine , Gregory Eve
Published: March 2024

This column features two prominent literacy scholars, Catherine Compton-Lilly and Eve Gregory. They discuss their recent research studies in various contexts and describe the reciprocal relationships between school, home, and community literacy practices.
Professional Book Reviews: Transformational Talk
Authors: Williams Toni , Johnson Scott , Whitecotton Emily , Alvardo Priscila , Mills Heidi
Published: March 2024

The Professional Book Reviews department contributes reflections on compelling books that enhance our understanding of the transformative nature of discourse in schools, homes and communities of practice. To open the column entitled Transformative Talk, Heidi Mills offers an overview of each book in the text set and a synthesis across all three books reviewed. Toni Williams offers a thoughtful review of Practicing What We Teach: How Culturally Responsive Literacy Classrooms Make a Difference edited by Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt and Althier M. Lazar (2011). Williams inspires readers to access this text for insights and strategies around culturally responsive teaching grounded in meaningful discourse and literacy engagements. Scott Johnson’s thorough review of Talk about Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension by Ellin Oliver Keene (2012) compels readers to take up this book to foster deeper understandings during literacy instruction through principles and practices that promote healthy teacher talk and substantive student learning. Emily Whitecotton and Priscila Alvardo review Beyond Communities of Practice: Language, Power, and Social Context edited by David Barton and Karen Tusting (2005). They articulate the ways this book offers theoretical frames for noticing, naming, challenging and/or revising communities of practice. As Mills suggests in the overview, “Individually and collectively, these books push us to imagine how our words might change ours and others’ worlds” (p. 49).
Children’s Literature Reviews: Quality Children’s Literature to Stimulate Discussion during Interactive Read-Alouds
Authors: McNair Jonda C. , Bailey Alan R. , Day Deanna , Möller Karla J.
Published: March 2024

The children’s literature review column focuses on titles that are likely to stimulate interaction and dialogue among children in grades K–8.
Innovation, Research, and Policy: Evolutions in Classroom Teaching
Authors: Goatley Virginia J. , Johnston Peter
Published: March 2024

This article offers a vision of innovation within the complex nature of teaching. Innovation is the process through which new ideas are generated and put into productive practice—“new” meaning new to this situation or this location or this community. In this article, the authors describe a) how innovation occurs through small-scale “tinkering”; b) the conditions for innovation; c) methods for distributing and developing innovation; d) the complex relationship between policy and innovation; e) the need to evaluate fully the consequences of innovation; and f) how to develop capacity for innovation. Building capacity for innovation also requires examining our goals—what we think we are doing – because, when innovation occurs, it occurs in the direction of people’s goals.
Children’s Literature Reviews: Celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Book Award
Authors: McNair Jonda C. , Bailey Alan R. , Bloom Sam , Day Deanna , Foote Diane , Horning Kathleen T. , McLinn Claudette S. , Möller Karla J. , Zapata Angie
Published: March 2024

This column offers a tribute to the Coretta Scott King Book award by showcasing a number of titles. Some of the books were published recently while others were published several decades ago.
Conversation Currents: Teacher Performance Assessments in Chicago and Beyond
Authors: Barker John , Conley Mark
Published: March 2024

This issue’s Conversation Currents is about teacher performance assessments. In the past few years, almost every state in the nation has implemented some form of performance assessment to evaluate teachers. This caused us to wonder, What can we learn from these early evaluative models? How are they taking shape? What can we do to improve them? What can teachers learn with them? The Chief of Accountability addresses these questions for Chicago Public Schools and a professor working with beginning teachers at a university. Both discuss the performance assessment systems that are emerging, as well as the related challenges and opportunities in the long historical context of teacher evaluation.
Advocacy at the Core: Inquiry and Empowerment in the Time of Common Core State Standards
Authors: Grindon Katherine
Published: March 2024

Many educators have reservations about the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This article describes one 7th-grade teacher’s experience as she reconciles the Standards with the critical literacy theories of Patrick Finn (2009) and Paulo Freire (1970). The author discusses her experience deconstructing the Standards, and how she sees these Standards fit with the “powerful literacy” Finn promoted (2009, p. ix). Beginning with a look at child labor, the author creates an “Advocacy Project” that empowers students to identify opportunities for agency in their own lives. Students read and write personal essays proclaiming their passions, investigate the facts surrounding their chosen issue, and present their findings to their peers in presentations and research papers. The student-driven “Advocacy Project” creates authentic opportunities for reading, research, and writing, while simultaneously meeting the rigorous Common Core State Standards. After a year of implementation and accountability, the author finds that the Standards do not stifle instruction, and students can become advocates as well as proficient readers, writers, and speakers.
“Mama, sign this note”: Young Refugee Children’s Brokering of Literacy Practices
Authors: Perry Kristen
Published: March 2024

In this article, Perry provides a case study of a Sudanese refugee family and the language and literacy brokering provided by their kindergarten daughter. In addition to helping with letter-sound correspondence and vocabulary in English, she provided valuable knowledge about genres, the purposes they serve in the world, and how they are used. The parents valued their young daughter’s brokering and viewed her as an important teacher, particularly with respect to the many texts that came home from school each week. The girl’s experience of brokering in school was different, however. This case study offers important implications for supporting young children’s literacy development, family literacy, and parent participation in education.