In this article we introduce a heuristic for orientating to the language content of the Australian Curriculum: English. Our pedagogical heuristic, called "Playing with Grammar", moves through three separate but interwoven stages: (i) an introduction to the learning experience, (ii) a focus on learning, and (iii) an application of new…

While "arts-based" has received increased attention in recent years as a research methodology rooted in an aesthetic framework, less attention has been paid to conceptualizing what arts-based means in the context of particular disciplines of K-12 teaching and learning. This qualitative study recognizes a need to examine sustained and…

English is an already crowded curriculum and the incursion of multimodal literature puts it under increased pressure. How do teachers and students learn to understand and deploy tools of analysis that shed light on verbiage and images without becoming entangled in a complex and crowded analytical language? Is it possible to develop a metalanguage…

Since its publication in 1921, "The Teaching of English in England," otherwise known as the Newbolt Report, has informed both the shape of English as a school subject and the discourse about the teaching of English in England. The 1960s saw the report as promoting a cultural heritage rooted in outdated social values; the 1970s explored…

In "Finding a Language", Peter Medway addresses questions of central importance to English teaching--questions of curriculum and of pedagogy. How he addresses these questions provides a sharp contrast to the current orthodoxies of a rigidly prescriptive national curriculum and a closely monitored regime of objective-led, skills-based…

In this article, the authors argue that the racial violence that unfolds against Black youth in various communities seeps into English language arts (ELA) classrooms. They offer a theoretical framework that centers on Black literacies that secondary ELA teachers can use to disrupt the violence and curricula and pedagogical inequities against Black…

This article investigates the perceptions and lived experience of practising middle years' and pre-service teachers of English in their efforts to make sense of, and use metacognition. The investigation focuses on metacognition as a means to enhance student learning by fostering self-awareness of their students' thinking as they engage in reading,…

This paper examines the relationships between global education policies at global and local levels that have driven the outcomes-based curriculum reform into Papua New Guinea (PNG). It reports on evidence from a qualitative case study that investigated the implementation of the outcomes-based English curriculum into two lower secondary schools in…

Multimodal texts are now part of the curriculum for school English, but they are by their nature inherently complex, and pose many challenges for the classroom. Not least is finding a way to manage the technical complexity of accounting for these texts, as well as finding a way to move students beyond simple observation and description to critical…

Various instructional approaches have been laid out for conceptualizing argumentation talk and writing in English classrooms. One prominent, and historically durable, approach is formalist--teachers slot the teaching of argument into a form-based approach, usually using the 5-paragraph theme. This model too often fails to persuade students of the…

In recent years, teacher preparation programs have revised their curriculum to reflect the changes in K-12 education, especially in terms of technology integration. As more schools implement technology initiatives to align to Common Core State Standards and improve student achievement, teachers find themselves struggling to effectively use…

The author argues that, by revolutionizing the literary canon, we are revolutionizing the English classroom, and urges us to shift from focusing exclusively on required texts to equally acknowledging the urgent need for consciousness and activism from our students.

This research investigates learners' responses to the use of literature as a means of literacy learning in level 2 Functional Skills in English. Data were gathered by way of observation, questionnaire and informal dialogue with learners. Teaching and learning was underpinned by the philosophy of critical pedagogy and was therefore learner-centric.…

Engaging preservice English language arts interns in the analysis of mashups accomplishes two objectives: (a) it brings interns to a deeper understanding of action research and (b) provides a critical media literacy (CML) foundation on which they might build with their own students. In this paper CML is defined and recent literature is…

In this article Deidre Faughey shares an experimental classroom project that she developed with a diverse group of students in three ninth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) classes. Podcasts provide a unique opportunity for students to embrace experimentation and to take risks with their own voices, explore the school building and community, and…