In the United States, standardized tests shape what, how, and why English Language Arts teachers teach. For the last generation, these tests have increasingly taken a narrowly text-centered approach to literature, making it difficult to enact or research alternatives. But what if it were otherwise? In the current study, we asked teachers to…

In addition to being one of the authors of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), David Coleman has become the Standards' "most visible advocate" (Smith, Appleman, & Wilhelm, 2014, p. 10) and one of their "most prominent and articulate promoters" (Rabinowitz & Bancroft, 2014, p. 4). In a talk titled "Bringing the…

A dream literature class grew into an artistic and critical garden in which students' and instructor's thinking flowered.

This study examined some of the factors that shaped how 18 experienced English teachers in New York and Georgia high schools assessed their instructional effectiveness and how they used their assessments to make instructional decisions for the teaching of literature. The research focused on three issues: how these teachers gauged their…

Using instructional system design, a unit of instruction for teaching problem solving through literature to at-risk students was developed to reduce frustrations, increase productive time on task, and show low-achieving students that they can have fun in an English classroom. The target population was a 7th-grade multi-ethnic English class of 28…

In this description of two antithetical opinions concerning freshman English program objectives, cases are presented for the language skills improvement and literature appreciation points of view. Such factors as (1) class size, (2) instructor work load and research potential, and (3) student and teacher interests are considered. A discussion of…