Contemporary curriculum guidelines, such as those provided in the incoming Australian curriculum, call for English to attend to multimodal forms of text and literacy as well as more traditional forms. Students are expected to become capable and critical readers, users and creators of texts and forms of literacy that span everything from newspapers…

Since coming to office, the Obama Administration has been intent on standardizing what is taught at each grade level in all of the nation's schools. It has used its flagship "Race to the Top" competitive grant program to entice states to adopt the K-12 standards developed by a joint project of the National Governors Association (NGA) and…

A major criterion for the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome is an impairment of the imagination. This article focuses on the specific difficulties that students with Asperger syndrome have with the imaginative content of the English curriculum. It examines the problems with reading and writing imaginatively of a group of students with AS in a…

This article identifies instructional strategies that capitalize on the cognitive strengths of students with ASD by exploring the executive dysfunction theory of ASD. The authors focus on the middle/secondary English classroom where students are often in inclusive settings with a general education teacher. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The place of grammar in an English or literacy curriculum has long been a source of debate, one in which professionals, politicians and the public have often engaged with unbridled enthusiasm. As such, the debate has sometimes been characterised more by ideology or polemic, than by intellectual engagement with the core ideas. In part, this is…

It is clear from several government reports and research papers published recently that the curriculum for English in primary and secondary schools is about to change yet again. After years of bureaucratic stranglehold that has left even Ofsted report writers criticising the teaching of English, it seems as if the conditions are right for further…

The purpose of this issue brief is to provide a comprehensive overview of the policies behind the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and to outline some of the initiatives now in place to address the needs of English language learners (ELLs) in relation to the CCSS. This issue brief contains the appendices: (1) Assessment Consortia Time Lines; and…

Contrary to what has usually been asserted, the "New English" that became a near-orthodoxy in the later 1960s and '70s had its essential origins in the apparently less promising setting of the later 1950s. Current research into English teaching in three postwar London secondary schools is revealing that in at least one working-class…

As states and school districts grapple with how to teach the skills outlined in the new common standards, two foundations have announced a partnership aimed at crafting complete, online curricula for those standards in mathematics and English/language arts that span nearly every year of a child's precollegiate education. The announcement last…

Based on her experiences with the transformation of 8th-grade reading in one school, Ivey advocates for a substantial shift in what students read in English class and what is available to them in school. Middle school classrooms are in dire need of a book makeover, and this should be the first order of business when considering what to do for…

We are at a particularly difficult historical juncture marked by uncertainty, contingency and change. Zygmunt Bauman characterises the present time as "liquid modernity" (2000, 2008, 2011b) because of the fluidity and instability that we live with. Our identities and our relations to the world are changing radically. There is an urgent need for…

The first public draft of grade-by-grade common standards was released last week to a mix of praise and skepticism, illustrating both the mounting consensus that the country needs to set higher expectations for all students and the many problems that complicate their adoption. An earlier standards document, released last fall, outlined a set of…

The young adult novels of Alex Sanchez belong in every high school English classroom and media center. With compelling plots and significant themes, Sanchez's six novels create numerous rich learning opportunities for students. In this article, the author describes how Sanchez's novels on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender themes can be…

Dramaturgy, a tradition in European theater since the late 18th century, has in the last 30 years become firmly established in the United States. The dramaturg functions in the theatrical production process as a kind of literary and historical consultant to the director, designers, and actors. Although dramaturgs provide information to audiences…

Implementing service-learning is challenging in light of issues such as changes in student demographics and pressure from existing curricula goals. However, closer community engagement is increasingly important in the long-term goals of our universities. Members of a faculty learning community at an open-access college reflect on the process of…