Thank you to the attending circle for sitting in community with us last spring. Thanks to MCTE for the welcome and thanks to Burke and Lee for the invitation to write. Special gratitude to Ricardo Levins Morales https://www.rlmartstudio.com/ for how your movement ideas and art hold us up and push us together in thoughtful ways. … Continue reading Sitting in Community: A Circle of Secondary ELA Teachers by Alison Criss and Abigail Rombalski
Shared Context, Divergent Approaches: Examining Two Minnesota Teachers’ Beliefs and Instructional Decisions in Teaching Middle School ELA by Anna McNulty Taylor
As any English Language Arts (ELA) teacher could tell you, teaching our subject is challenging. ELA teachers are called on to equip their students with the diverse literacy skills needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world. For ELA teachers this often means weaving together the teaching of literature, non-fiction reading, poetry, plays, memoirs, diverse … Continue reading Shared Context, Divergent Approaches: Examining Two Minnesota Teachers’ Beliefs and Instructional Decisions in Teaching Middle School ELA by Anna McNulty Taylor
Mirage or Memory: How Writing Prompts May Generate False Memories by Daniel Ruefman
“Our Memory has no guarantees at all, and yet we bow more often than is objectively justified to the compulsion to believe what it says.” — Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams Introduction In September 2023, I began a year-long research project intent on examining the impact that personal traumatic experiences (PTEs) have had on … Continue reading Mirage or Memory: How Writing Prompts May Generate False Memories by Daniel Ruefman
Surveying the Landscape: Minnesota’s English Language Arts Teachers’ Perspectives on Intellectual Freedom by Danielle Kubasko Sullivan and Lisa L. Ortmann
In the fall of 2023, when the Minnesota Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) board met to set priorities for the upcoming academic year, Pen America had released a report, Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights, which detailed its first comprehensive count of banned books. … Continue reading Surveying the Landscape: Minnesota’s English Language Arts Teachers’ Perspectives on Intellectual Freedom by Danielle Kubasko Sullivan and Lisa L. Ortmann
Integrating Social Studies Through the Read-Aloud by Hiawatha Smith and McKenzie Rabenn
Before reading this article, we encourage readers to think and reflect openly and honestly on the two questions presented below. Introduction Knowledge of social studies and the world is crucial for every citizen and thus should be an essential component within schools. In recent years, there has been a notable decline in elementary content area … Continue reading Integrating Social Studies Through the Read-Aloud by Hiawatha Smith and McKenzie Rabenn
Cross-Cultural Competence and Caring For: An Autoethnographic Study on Building Teacher-Student Relationships in an Urban High School by André Borka
Introduction At the end of the day on the last day of school, all the teachers line up outside of the exit doors and clap for students as they leave for summer break. It was my first “last day of school” as a teacher. As I stood, clapped, and cheered for the students, one of … Continue reading Cross-Cultural Competence and Caring For: An Autoethnographic Study on Building Teacher-Student Relationships in an Urban High School by André Borka
Reading Worlds and Words: Building and Sustaining Culturally Diverse Learners’ Vocabularies by Terrance Kwame-Ross
Introduction Helping culturally diverse learners become conscious of the power of building, constructing, and sustaining a personal storehouse of words and vocabularies is the end goal of vocabulary teaching and learning in language arts. When learners become comfortable and competent in recognizing and knowing when, where, why, and how words work and understand how to … Continue reading Reading Worlds and Words: Building and Sustaining Culturally Diverse Learners’ Vocabularies by Terrance Kwame-Ross
Re/Defining Curriculum: Poetry as a Pedagogical Tool by J. Scott Baker, Savanna Alfonso, Brittany R. Brinkman, Daniel Gebur, Mallory Morris, Tyler J. Rummel, and Lidiah K. Zipp
Introduction Over the last seven years, working in two Midwest teacher education programs, I have become concerned with how many preservice teachers (PTs) see “curriculum” as tangible items, not a process. For many PTs, curriculum is exclusively state or federal standards or a textbook they are required to follow; so, my challenge as a teacher … Continue reading Re/Defining Curriculum: Poetry as a Pedagogical Tool by J. Scott Baker, Savanna Alfonso, Brittany R. Brinkman, Daniel Gebur, Mallory Morris, Tyler J. Rummel, and Lidiah K. Zipp
Establishing Contact: The Idea of Writing Center Studies by Jennifer Forsthoefel
In the physical writing center space, we encounter the mass differences that exist across the student and faculty population as well as the disciplines these populations are housed in. As a result, writing centers have made possible in the past, and create new possibility in the future for, teaching and learning across varying disciplines, positions, … Continue reading Establishing Contact: The Idea of Writing Center Studies by Jennifer Forsthoefel
Education in the Time of Pandemic: Projects to Engage Student Inquiry by Joaquin Muñoz and Abigail Eck
The purpose of this article is to describe curricular adjustments made to a course in response to the Covid-19 pandemic which began in the United States in 2020. We intend to approach this paper in a collaborative spirit, as student and teacher, to describe the distinct experiences of implementing the adaptations we describe. While developed … Continue reading Education in the Time of Pandemic: Projects to Engage Student Inquiry by Joaquin Muñoz and Abigail Eck
MEJ 