The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was alarming, and compounding this traumatic shift in the world's cultural awareness of safety was the social and political unrest that unfolded during this time, which students were acutely aware of through the news and social media. After experiencing that unprecedented trauma, rich novel studies in the English…

In this article, classroom researcher Harrison Campbell recounts his research into the literacy experiences of eight junior high (grades 8 and 9) students over the course of a school semester in Western Canada. Using phenomenological inquiry, Campbell invited students into a process of making meaning through experience. These experiences, brought…

Many students experience that the prepackaged secondary English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum used in many classrooms does not effectively engage them or further their English acquisition. This article shares the story of creating a curriculum the authors believe other teachers can emulate to successfully teach adolescents who are new to…

Throughout a unit of study about survival, students and their teacher engaged in individualized learning. Discussions of teacher-dictated curriculum versus student-driven learning, design of the unit, and students' and teacher's experiences and takeaways from the unit are included.

Through engagement with critical literacies and multiliteracies, an urban classroom becomes a space of agency and resistance for students and teacher alike.

In this article, the authors discuss how teachers can help students to grieve through the power of writing. Six years ago, a student named Miranda, experienced a great loss. To make sense of the tragedy, Miranda did what came naturally to her; she picked up her pen to write in her journal. Now a college sophomore, Miranda has grown through the…

How can labels serve as unrealistic sources of pride and embarrassment? This article examines one teacher's personal experiences with labels and the lasting implications for her students.

The article describes how one student in a summer enrichment English class used fictional elements and images in comic form to represent her identity and the emotional truth of difficult experiences. The course was taught at an annual summer academy that encouraged academically minded 15-year-old and 16-year-old students to spend three weeks…

This article will share a postcolonial analysis of three widely taught texts that the author has used to introduce both secondary English language arts classes and college students in multicultural young adult literature courses to postcolonial criticism: Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," Gene Luen…

According to the authors, teachers often read about inspiring lessons in which historically marginalized students find their voices through assignments and projects that centralize issues of importance to the student. This article describes the authors' revision of a persuasive writing unit to scaffold not only writing skills but also students'…

While equity of opportunity is increasing in the enrollment of students in advanced classes, an equity of outcome is not shown in the exam results (College Board). There are distinct difficulties that lie in the paths of traditionally underrepresented students; for them, the long hallway, essentially all advanced courses where minority students…

Proponents of programs such as dual enrollment that allow high school students to enroll in college-level courses often point to the reduction in time required to obtain college degrees, the increased likelihood of graduating from college, and the decrease in the number of students taking so-called remedial courses in college. But what do students…

It is imperative that in conversations about literacy instruction teachers incorporate curriculum dedicated to youth empowerment, especially for emergent bilingual and LGBTQ youth, as recognizing and honoring students' linguistic and epistemic privileges entails taking their claims about the world seriously. In this article, the author discusses…

In this article the authors illustrate an instructional unit based on a Common Core grades 9-10 illustrative text--Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" from "The Joy Luck Club." They demonstrate how teachers can meet the new standards "and" respond to students' 21st-century needs by using this modern classic along with other traditional and new media resources.…