In 21st century classrooms, students use a variety of languages to communicate their ideas in both the spoken and written word. These languages vary between standard and nonstandard forms of English, and each speaker may alter their language use based on context or intended audience. One unique language form that appears in many classrooms is…

Using a mixed-methods approach, this article reports survey findings regarding the factors secondary English-language-arts teachers in the United States reported as influential to their text selection and examines how those factors varied by years of teaching experience. Teachers' department was the most cited influence regardless of years'…

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…

The significance of social and emotional learning (SEL) continues to grow in today's schools around the world. More teachers agree that students' social and emotional needs must be addressed in the learning process. This is because how students feel about themselves and think about one another affects the ways they learn in school. Learning…

Literacy learning clubs are highly motivating small-group collaborations that can improve tweens' and teens' academic achievement, support their social-emotional development, and increase their enjoyment of reading and writing. This book explains the research basis for the author's approach and offers practical instructions for implementation in…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by most states by 2010. Yet, many teachers still lack confidence in their ability to integrate these standards into their classroom instruction and this uncertainty undermines their effectiveness. This article presents findings from a study of a fourth grade literacy curriculum informed by the…

The present study examined middle school teachers' perceptions of literacy demands in their disciplines and specific literacy strategies they used to teach their disciplines. The eight participants in this multiple case study included 2 middle school teachers from each of 4 disciplines (i.e., English/language arts, science, social studies, and…

This technical report is one of five publications from the larger study, "Teaching for a Changing World: The Graduates of Bank Street College of Education." This report documents the influence of Bank Street teacher preparation programs based upon surveys of graduates, surveys of comparison teachers, surveys of employers, and an analysis…

This study continues the work that National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) and its partners, Clowder Consulting and Education-Counsel, began with their "Right Trajectory" study (see ED581172), released in 2015, and continued in their "Still the Right Trajectory" study (see ED581173) released in early 2017. In…

This study analyzed the perceptions of five high school English teachers of the efficacy of interactive word walls in high school classrooms. Through data collected during interviews and professional reflective journals, as well as the review of student artifacts, this article presents the themes that emerged from effective classroom teachers.…

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) as one strategy to support teachers' and students' transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts. This report provides an early look at the implementation of LDC in eighth-grade history/social studies and science classes in two…

This experimental study examined how the reading and writing development of sixth-grade L2 students was affected by syntactic enhancement. Visual-syntactic text formatting (VSTF) technology, which visualizes syntactic structures, was used to convert a textbook to the one with syntactic enhancement. The sample (n = 282), which was drawn from a…

In order to systemically improve student achievement in elementary literacy, a large urban school district partnered with a local university to develop a model for high-quality professional development that hopefully would result in long-term changes in teachers' literacy instructional/practices. Schools were selected based on their Adequate…

Validation of assessments intended to improve instruction and learning should include evidence of instructional sensitivity. This study investigated the instructional sensitivity of a standards-based ninth-grade performance assessment that required students to write an essay about conflict in a literary work. Before administering the assessment,…

The implementation of the Houghton-Mifflin K-5 "Invitations to Literacy" language arts program was studied during its first year in California's Moreno Valley Unified School District. A sample teacher survey was developed, pilot tested, and sent to the District. The sample consisted of 658 regular, 20 special day, 19 resource specialist, and 118…