The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts and mathematics seek to better prepare students across the nation for college and careers, raising both expectations and achievement in every state that chooses to adopt them. Created through an initiative led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School…

This paper describes how adolescent students responded to a poetry workshop in an English classroom where the content was derived from their knowledge from their various life experiences and understanding of world events. Informed by theories of New Literacy Studies, ethnographic methods of participant-observation were used to document an eighth…

Standards drive critical elements of the American educational system--the curricula that schools follow, the textbooks students read, and the tests they take. Similarly, standards establish the levels of performance that students, teachers and schools are expected to meet. To succeed in the 21st century, all students will need to perform to high…

This in-depth case study explores a modern approach to education: the benefits of using film, technology and other creative, non-conventional pedagogical methods in the classroom to enhance students' understanding of literature. The study explores the positive effects of introducing a variety of visual-based (and auditory-based) teaching methods…

Given the efforts of comprehensive school reform to improve the quality of educational opportunities for students by providing a standards based curriculum, this analysis examines the issue of tracking and its implications regarding curriculum differentiation. Using data from middle schools involved with the comprehensive school reform model,…

A study of 31 high-performing teachers in low-performing urban schools found that these teachers had certain traits in common. They were strict; they taught in traditional, explicit ways; there was little time in their classrooms when instruction was not occurring; and they moved around the room helping their students. They used very few…

Literacy is intricately linked to social justice, and it can shape the learning that occurs in our English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Challenging the notion of the traditional secondary ELA classroom--as centered on literature and old literacies--I advocate utilizing a critical pedagogy with a new literacy approach that employs texts to teach…

As classrooms across the U.S. are becoming increasingly more multilingual and multicultural, there is a need for research that provides insight into literacy instruction that builds on students' linguistic knowledge. The qualitative study of a fourth-grade dual-language classroom examined the ways that peer mediation in Spanish and English…

When thinking about teaching vocabulary, what typically first comes to mind is having students learn new words or learn strategies for inferring the meanings of unfamiliar words, such as analyzing context clues or studying affixes and roots. Another aspect of teaching vocabulary is enriching students' understanding of words or concepts for which…

This paper reports the findings of a study of the literacy perceptions and practices of general primary teachers (Key Stage 2) and post-primary science teachers (Key Stage 3) within two clusters of schools. The study also explores the possible impact on pupils of any difference in the language climate which may accompany them on their journey…

In this article, the author describes how she used integrated course design to design a course that would help special education teachers satisfy the "Highly Qualified Teacher" (HQT) requirement established by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in the area of English/language arts. The approach she chose was based on principles advanced by Fink…

David E. Kirkland argues that our understanding of literate practice in relation to space needs to be radically reworked to account for new digital dimensions that are dispersed, discontinuous, and yet deeply woven into everyday and institutional worlds. His account highlights the way these digital spaces pepper the official landscape of…

The idea for a professional development book group emerged from the authors ongoing conversations with colleagues about how teachers can gain the understanding necessary not only to foster and support gender variant and transgender students, but also incorporate these experiences into their curriculum in a meaningful way. In this article, the…

Whether in the business center of Sydney and its suburbs to the east, in the mining and agricultural communities of the remote Kimberley region in the northwest, or elsewhere, most of Australia's 3.3 million K-12 students share the customary features of schooling--from physical structures to academic schedules. The content also has a common…

In this investigation, 55 of the 72 Suffolk County public schools were analyzed using archival data gleaned from the New York State Education Department's BEDS report for the years 2000 to 2005. Three primary research questions were used to determine if the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 had an impact on four ethnic groups, wealth of different…