As English language arts teachers, we believe young adult literature offers an avenue for voices and experiences that are largely ignored by canonical texts. LGBTQ voices are among those omitted from many English language arts textbooks. In the past, we relied heavily on young adult literature to provide our students LGBTQ texts. However, the mostly … Continue reading Centering LGBTQ People of Color with Young Adult Literature in Secondary ELA by Cody Miller & Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko
Beauty and the Beast Triptych: Re-imagining Stereotypes and Gender Roles by Melanie Magaña
[Ed. Note: At the end of this Introduction, readers are directed by links to the three pieces comprising the triptych.] Introduction I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the story of Beauty and the Beast ever since the Disney movie put it on my radar. On the one hand: dancing teacups! Catchy tunes! Bookworm … Continue reading Beauty and the Beast Triptych: Re-imagining Stereotypes and Gender Roles by Melanie Magaña
Addressing Racial Injustice Through Allyship: Teaching to See by Using Poetry by Sharon Rudnicki
(Note: The editors have chosen to partially redact a form of the n-word that appears when quoting Kendrick Lamar's lyrics.) Introduction In 2016, America was treated to two excellent television series that focus on the life of O.J. Simpson, FX’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and ESPN’s O.J.: Made in … Continue reading Addressing Racial Injustice Through Allyship: Teaching to See by Using Poetry by Sharon Rudnicki
Read Them Together: Paired Book Reading for Global Literature by Jongsun Wee & Barbara A. Lehman
[pdf version here: Wee-Lehman-ReadThemTogether] Abstract: The need for global literature is growing as the society rapidly becomes more diverse. This study documented American children’s responses to global literature when it was paired with a home country book. The data were collected in a third grade classroom in a midwestern state. The results showed that in paired … Continue reading Read Them Together: Paired Book Reading for Global Literature by Jongsun Wee & Barbara A. Lehman
Implementing Tabletop Gaming in the English Classroom: Promoting Literacy through Interactive Gameplay by Mike P. Cook, Ryan Morgan, & Matthew Gremo
[pdf version here: cook-implementing-tabletop-gaming-in-the-english-classroom] Introduction Table-top gaming, at its core, is simply a term used to refer to any social game that is traditionally played in person around a table. Over the years, the term itself has become an umbrella for all forms of board games, but in gaming culture it is most commonly applied … Continue reading Implementing Tabletop Gaming in the English Classroom: Promoting Literacy through Interactive Gameplay by Mike P. Cook, Ryan Morgan, & Matthew Gremo
Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby by Elisa Malinovitz
[pdf version here: Malinovitz-Wolfsheim in Gatsby] Introduction: The Great Gatsby is included in the Common Core exemplars for literature, it’s rare to find a high school or university in the United States that doesn’t teach it, making it one of the most analyzed novels in modern American literature. Students examine and often re-examine the novel … Continue reading Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby by Elisa Malinovitz
Graphic Novels in the Classroom: Suggestions for Appropriate Multimodal Writing Projects in Graphic Novel Units by Michael P. Cook & Jeffrey S. J. Kirchoff
[pdf version here: Cook-Kirchoff-Graphic Novels in the Classroom] Abstract While the NCTE (2008) definition of 21st century literacies is several years old now, the role of the ELA teacher continues to include helping students learn to read and make meaning from a variety of texts and text-types. However, much of the use of multimodal texts … Continue reading Graphic Novels in the Classroom: Suggestions for Appropriate Multimodal Writing Projects in Graphic Novel Units by Michael P. Cook & Jeffrey S. J. Kirchoff
The Kite Runner From A Marxist Perspective by Kristine Putz
[pdf version here: Putz-KiteRunnerMarxistPerspective] The use of Marxist and other literary theories in the classroom helps students to realize that the subject of English is beyond the rudimentary put your comma here or reading for the sake of fulfilling some predetermined standard (a certain number of minutes of reading per night for example). English is … Continue reading The Kite Runner From A Marxist Perspective by Kristine Putz
Theory in Practice in the High School Classroom: Using The Kite Runner to Teach Literary Theory by Taya Sazama
[pdf version here: Sazama-Using The Kite Runner to Teach Literary Theory] Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel, The Kite Runner, is one of the newer modern sensations to hit high school classrooms. In a setting where a majority of the studied texts were written before the start of the twentieth century, this is quite an achievement. Especially … Continue reading Theory in Practice in the High School Classroom: Using The Kite Runner to Teach Literary Theory by Taya Sazama
A Tale of an Introductory Literature Class Gone Well by Heidi Burns
[pdf version here: Burns-LiteratureClass] Teaching introductory-level English courses has many positive and negative aspects for the instructor. The obvious positives include working with students who haven’t yet become disillusioned with the system, the ability to work from the most basic skills and then witness students turn those skills into successful mastery of the learning outcomes, and … Continue reading A Tale of an Introductory Literature Class Gone Well by Heidi Burns
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