This article explores the use of digital poetry in a secondary English classroom and its implications for adolescents' multimodal composition and identity development. The authors--an English teacher and a library media specialist--collaborated over the course of three years to design, implement, and reiterate a digital poetry curriculum. Through…

The emergent field of translation studies is still struggling to find a home in American universities in a time of severely strained budgets and overextended departments. Drawn to the issue, by the experience of a successful inaugural introductory course at the University of Alabama, these authors have found that a fruitful place for translation…

Guiding students through a unit of study in any discipline can be a challenging endeavor. Answers to possible questions that may be raised about historical events and literary texts cannot be confined to just one text, one author's point of view, or even one genre. The song-poem, in combination with poetry, novels, nonfiction, and other genres, is…

With a particular focus on the preparation of teaching assistants, this profile details the recent transition to a standardized English 101 curriculum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). More specifically, the profile details theoretical and practical incentives for the move, as well as political and logistical challenges…

A senior secondary English curricular commitment to biblical relationality and narrative through Ricoeur's hermeneutics provides students a learning community where they are invited to awaken to the biblical story, to love each other and creation within their Christ given identity in that story, to think about their own narratives within the…

During the years following the Second World War, members of the English teaching community in London, often within the London Association for the Teaching of English, conducted work which led to a "new" English for the emerging comprehensive school system. Such work was rooted in the belief that English teaching should be responsive to…

This article discusses how to promote oral language development through science. The authors describe how they incorporate academic "talk strategies" into science lessons in a nonintrusive and meaningful manner. These talk strategies are adapted from the "Avenues" (2007) curriculum for English learners (ELs), which gives examples of cooperative…

Those who are involved in the current Common Core Standards should buckle up for a rocky ride. Some of the same issues that churned within the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) during the standards movement of the 1990s (1989-1997) are here once again. The author's buckle is pulled tight, having already had his standards report…

Harnessing insights from Brophy's (1999, 2008, 2010) notion of scaffolding students' appreciation of learning, this article tackles challenges to student engagement, especially among reluctant students, by exploring two classroom settings in which students' valuing of school content and activities supported their engagement and achievement. The…

Virginia's "College and Career Ready English Performance Expectations" grade 12 capstone course contains high-interest contextualized content designed to give certain students an additional boost for competent and successful entry into college and careers. The course will add to students' preparation for critical reading, college and…

Curriculum guidelines, including the emergent Australian curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2009-10), indicate expectations that teachers will support their students' interpretation and creation of multimodal texts. However, English curriculum guidelines are yet to advise on a detailed metalanguage to…

Learning communities are common on two- and four-year college campuses. Estimates suggest that they exist on four to five hundred campuses and can be found in most states. Such numbers signal that interest in learning communities is going strong, and there are indications that on two-year college campuses, interest continues to grow. As…

This article explores various ways of teaching literary theory to high school and middle school students. The authors argue that incorporating a critical literacy approach in English education is important but challenging. Although the authors work to implement a critical literacy practice within their university classes, they don't always know…

"Oedipus Rex" dramatizes a collision of past, present, and future. Once Oedipus recognizes the connection between the past and his horrific present, he stabs out his eyes, ashamed at what he has wrought and unwilling to look upon his future. The 21st-century English language arts classroom is in the midst of a collision as well. Coming into…

English language instruction in New Zealand's Maori-medium schools is controversial, with many schools either excluding it from their curriculum or adopting a tokenistic approach. Yet, how Maori-medium educators can best support their students' academic English language growth is still an under-researched and unresolved question. This paper…