This Framework is built upon the foundation of the 2010 "Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy," as well as earlier versions of the "Massachusetts English Language Arts Frameworks" published since 1997. The current Framework incorporates improvements suggested by Massachusetts educators after…

Standards drive critical elements of the American educational system--the curricula that schools follow, the textbooks students read, and the tests they take. Similarly, standards establish the levels of performance that students, teachers and schools are expected to meet. To succeed in the 21st century, all students will need to perform to high…

Cites research that suggests that to promote literacy, teachers should attend to the context in which reading and writing is being demanded; that the forms and patterns of specific discourses should be made explicit; and that the assumptions which shape what teachers do should be examined critically. (RS)

Presents a provisional framework for the STELLA (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia), which identifies broad dimensions of teaching together with groupings of related attributes derived from teachers' narratives. (RS)

Addresses whether English teaching has a literacy project of its own. Discusses a holistic, integrated view of literacy as comprising three interlocking dimensions: operational, cultural, and critical. Suggests English teaching should engage with philosophy, the humanities, and the arts. Proposes that educators need to develop a better…

Examines the notion that much of what is taught in English classes is irrelevant to the challenges faced by today's students. Questions whether literary study serves students needing literacies outside the school. Considers the social context of literacy. Reconceives English instruction to provide relevant literacy skills. (HB)

Discusses implications of the issues of continuity and discontinuity, commonality and difference, congruity and paradox as they engage the research team, the industry partners, and the teachers around Australia who constitute the STELLA (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia) project. (RS)

Explores the issue of generic versus subject-specific standards in terms of their role in teachers' professional development. Suggests generic and subject-specific standards share a symbiotic relationship. Outlines a basis for a "third wave": some teachers may find at a particular stage in their career that generic standards are more…

Delineates what is "the high school viewpoint" for an experienced K-12 educator who has been a teacher, a department chair, an instructional specialist, a staff developer, and a regional school district consultant. Gives her view of "the basics" concerning literacy. (PA)

Explores the professional and intellectual tensions in teaching English in recent times, focusing on Victoria, Australia. Argues that in the past few years all English teachers have been obliged to resist pressures toward reductive versions of literacy. Illustrates some specific literacy practices in secondary English classrooms which seek to…

Describes a collaboration between an innovative high school English course and a college-level course of literacy theory. Describes the collaboration, its goals and outcomes, and benefits. Discusses briefly resisting institutional hierarchies. (SR)

Describes a teacher's use of videotape of a series of lessons to show that setting and negotiating assessment criteria with students was good practice. Discusses guidelines for enhancing standards of good teaching practice. Highlights this visual case model in the hope that colleagues will see its merits as a vehicle for articulating teaching…

Notes that many secondary teachers are actively seeking guidance as the National Literacy Strategy is extended to secondary schools. Suggests a literacy resource model as a way of developing a common language with which they can discuss the role of literacy within their subjects. Applies the model to teaching literacy within the three core…

This book constitutes the first comprehensive overview of service-learning in composition studies and should be of particular interest to educators at the high school through university levels who want to combine writing instruction with community action. In the book college-level case studies are woven into discussions of how service-learning…

Notes that contemporary debates about the place of English in the secondary curriculum are fueled by two concerns: the perceived need for greater vocationalism in school curricula and anxieties about students' literacy levels. Proposes that English teachers are particularly subject to the conflicting demands made upon schools by governments,…