Purpose: This study aims to explore the implications of a recent case in spring 2022 where the novel "Dracula" went "viral" as tens of thousands of Tumblr users participated in a serialized re-reading and discussion of the text through the hashtags #dracula and #dracula daily. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a…

Numerous scholars have called for young adult literature (YAL) to be a pedagogical avenue for educating secondary and postsecondary students about sexual violence, who are often socialized into harmful beliefs about victims. In this study, we draw on Manne's theorizing of "himpathy" and "herasure" to explore the ways in which…

Background: The most recent Norwegian educational reform, in force from 2020, was the first to include games alongside more traditional language learning resources (e.g., novels, films, music) in the English curriculum for secondary school. This educational emphasis on games provided a unique opportunity to examine how games are actually used in…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is an exploration of stories told by multilingual students participating in a literacy project in a secondary English course as part of a larger three year practitioner inquiry study, in which the author analyzed students' literacy project to create a culturally responsive English curriculum. In this paper, the…

Lack of motivation to read is the culprit of many students' struggles in literacy achievement, resulting in wider gaps in reading achievement and resulting inequities in schools across America. When students are provided with the ability to choose the text they read for English class, they have an increase in interest and commitment to read, which…

This article presents the results of five open-ended surveys administered to two Advanced Placement classes in a primarily White high school in upstate New York. Surveys sought to explore how students make sense of the course diversity selection, Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," which was inserted into a primarily White textual…

In this classroom study, the authors examine the use of popular psychology myths as a frame for literary analysis in high school English. The study reflects a cultural studies approach to teaching that attends to students' cultural awareness in interpreting what they read. Previous research has demonstrated that students' cultural awareness, in…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of word-related factors (i.e. frequency, range, dispersion and cognateness) on first-language English (L1E) readers' (n = 20) and second-language English (L2E) readers' (n = 20) incidental acquisition of vocabulary through the reading of an authentic novel.…

This paper reports on the text selections of two English teachers from different schools in New South Wales, Australia who participated in a larger research study that explored the decision-making of teachers planning for and teaching Stage 5 (Years 9 and 10) English. The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon these teachers' reasons for…

The present study examined how 20 sixth-grade students made meaning while reading graphic novels. Participants completed multiple tasks during a 6-week period. Data sources comprised 1 reading survey, 2 teacher-student conferences, 5 small-group discussions, 1 visual stopping points assignment, and multiple journal entries. Grounded theory methods…

This paper presents an analysis of the gender of the authors and the main characters of the set texts for English examinations taken at age 16 in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It presents an argument for why representation within the canon is important and places this within the context of recent educational reform in England and…

This paper details the visual responses created by a group of preservice teachers reading a series of contemporary graphic novels about adolescence. Visual response is here understood as an interpretive methodology of transmediation, informed by theorists of multimodal literacies as well as particular forms of psychoanalytic inquiry related to…

In this article, the authors explore the generative possibilities of risk-taking in the Catholic school English classroom. They associate pedagogical risk with what Deborah Britzman (1998) has called "difficult knowledge"--content that causes students to consider social trauma. Incorporating difficult knowledge meaningfully requires…

This article describes a recent implementation of digital literacies in which high school literature students engaged in literary analysis of a novel using the video game Minecraft. Students who had previously expressed reluctance with reading and dissatisfaction with school experiences used their gaming skills to re-create scenes, respond to…

The authors present research findings from a collective case study (n=5) conducted in a multimodal composition course for pre-service English teachers. Researchers studied how a course focused on how multimodal composition influenced pre-service teachers' identities as writers and their stances on literacy instruction. Data consisted of students'…