The tension between teachers' desires to instill independence in students, and students' desires for teachers to provide answers, is a complex one. This article explores a lesson that, with virtually no guidance from the teacher, enhances student independence, engagement, and insight.

This article uses Daniel José Older's Shadowshaper as the core of a unit challenging students and teachers to confront and dismantle systems of oppression.

Writing and writing clearly is a highly complex activity that requires the coordination of several processes and subprocesses for it to be effective and purposeful. Across those demands, syntax and the ability to express ideas with clarity can significantly affect a writer's ability to communicate (Berninger, Nagy, & Beers, 2011) and the…

To challenge resistance to required literature courses, instructors quiz students regularly on the readings; they also require examinations that ask students to define key terms, to answer background questions focused on authors and dates, to identify key passages by author/title/speaker, and to explain the thematic significance of each quotation.…

In this article, the authors reflect on their experiences of integrating visual arts, specifically painting, into an English language arts curriculum. Although each of them had previously used art as a response to literature with our students, neither of them had before collaborated with professional artists or been as intentional about…

This document describes the model used to measure student growth for institutional accountability in New York State for the 2018/19 school year and how three years of student growth results were combined to generate a three-year growth measure called the Growth Index. The Growth Index was first used in 2017/18 to make accountability…

The unique challenges (and promises) teachers encounter today can be informed by the past. What literacy and language education mean for Mary Stewart, assistant professor of bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) education at Texas Woman's University, is a product of what it has meant for educators like her grandmother and mother. In…

Composition researchers have become increasingly concerned with the issue of knowledge transfer: the use of knowledge and skills learned in one setting to complete tasks in a different setting. In terms of writing-related knowledge transfer, research suggests that rigid rules and formulas for writing do not transfer as successfully as flexible…

This essay expresses a profoundly ambivalent response to the legacy of Dartmouth, particularly Dixon's "Growth" Model of English. English educators owe a debt to Dixon in terms of innovative pedagogical methods that are part of the daily shapes of tertiary and high school English classes, including the way drama and performance invoke…

Breman Vance's paper, in keeping with the theme of the College English Association's 2017 conference, Islands, is focused on how teachers need to build bridges, explore new territory, and avoid professional isolation--especially in regard to modern, multimodal literacies, a source of unending questions and frustrations.

The author details how new literacies create spaces for student voices to be heard and how, by valuing video as a medium for expression, students are able to critically engage with their world and the world outside of the classroom.

The author shows how using art helped a blind student in an AP class and students in Creative and Practical Writing classes improve writing proficiency and critical thinking.

The space between the two epigraphs presented at the beginning of this article marks the difference between an insider and an outsider. Ms Barbieri, from "Voices from the Middle," made the first comments as an expression of what reflective practice -- observing and critiquing video tapes of hers and others' teaching -- could mean to her…

Having students read news articles or novels, watch television snippets, engage in class discussions, essay-writing, emailing, and drafting letters are excellent ways to broach any number of society's systemic and oppressive social maladies. Engaging in these activities in the English language arts classroom can serve as a catalyst to encourage…

This short response to the theme of 'Love in English' reflects on the importance of teaching queer and Indigenous literatures within English classes. I share personal perspectives on seeking literature that reflected who I was as a young person developing queer and Indigenous identities. I also share professional experiences from my past English…