The author asks, "Where can we, as English language arts teachers, create room in our classrooms for curiosity--for students and for ourselves?" She outlines ways to use Genius Hour to help create an equitable, level classroom with access and ownership for all.

The feeling of voicelessness creates a sense of internalized powerlessness for students in their schooling and preparation for learning and success. The San Joaquin Valley is surrounded by farms as well as correctional institutions and service industries. Each of these industries is interconnected with students' lives, with some having family…

By the late 70s the "growth through English" slogan, derived from John Dixon's account of the Dartmouth conference, had become popular around Australia. In 1980 the Sydney IFTE conference featured several Dartmouth veterans; but during that conference, Dartmouth-linked ideas from overseas mingled with lines of local influence, especially…

The author argues for and provides examples of nonfiction as a way of bringing truth and beauty into English classrooms.

This essay asserts the importance for English/Language Arts educators to become conversant with the features of Black Language and the cultural and historical foundations of this speech genre as a rule-bound, grammatically consistent pattern of speech. These features go beyond grammar to include such conventions as a reliance on storytelling as a…

In this article, the authors explore multimodal literacies and how they use literacy contracts and quadrants to help students to examine their identities via writing and the creative arts. A notable outcome of their joint efforts is that when teachers and students transacted with multimodal literacies, they showed value for their personal and…

This essay explores the role of talk within the English classroom. Classroom talk (in its various forms) is not simply a method for sharing fixed systems of knowledge or information; it is the most useful mechanism for giving learners the space to develop new meanings and new ways of thinking about their surroundings. As soon as learners are…

This report describes ACT test results for Austin Independent School District (AISD) seniors in the 2018-2019 school year. In 2018-2019, the district's average ACT composite score of 23.0 exceeded the state (20.5) and national (20.7) average composite scores.

Nearly three-quarters of public schools in the United States enroll English language learners (ELLs). That means teachers at all grade levels need to know how to help these students achieve full academic English language proficiency. In "Dispelling Misconceptions About English Language Learners," Barbara Gottschalk dispels 10 common…

On June 19, 2015, the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) of NCTE posted a statement sending love to the families and the people of Charleston in response to the racist murders at the historic Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The statement also expressed belief that early childhood educators have a clear responsibility and…

Using daily experiences and existing identities as the subject matter, a hip-hop-centered class encourages students to develop a critical lens so that they can "envision a social order which supports their full humanity" (Shor, 1987, p. 48) and embraces the idea that hip-hop culture provides context for students to develop critical…

This article investigates the professional memories of English teachers who began their careers between 1965 and 1975. The teachers began their careers in circumstances that offered opportunities to work in collectivist ways. Their memories reveal a strong collective identity, a powerful sense of agency and a critical engagement with the aims of…

This article employs the use of black textualities to reimagine an English classroom designed to cultivate critically conscious students. The author argues that a critically conscious classroom engages students in self-determination, citizenship formation, and strategic activism, and further argues that black textualities are perfect for…

How are teachers who identify as "digital literacy trailblazers' exploring and experimenting with digital tools in their English classrooms? Based on a study of English teaching with digital tools, this paper draws on the case of one secondary school teacher and her year 9 class as they read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) and engage with…

Research demonstrates that intrinsic motivation "drives students' amount of reading" and that students who read for pleasure, to explore topics they care about, and for interest "read a lot and achieve greatly" (Guthrie 2). As teachers incline their pedagogy to student interests, ownership, self- efficacy, social interaction,…