This case study explored the relationship between levels of content choice in three high school online English language arts courses and evidence of student motivation in student work and students' thoughts about motivation. These courses were designed around the main components of Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and…

This study examined the amount and types of narrative instruction (i.e., story comprehension, oral storytelling, and story writing instruction) that general education English language arts teachers provide to students in Grades 1 through 4. The research team conducted 121, [approximately]30-minute classroom observations. Educators were asked to…

Adolescents' in-school identities, out-of-school identities, and literacy practices are intertwined and connected. This research project aimed to explore the development of adolescent identities and out-of-school literacy practices in students' English Language Arts classes. As a high school teacher and administrator, the researcher adopted a…

In this article, Jorge Arredondo begins by describing an experience he had in his Houston, Texas high school where his teacher and a librarian via a collaborative unit made literature come alive for him. His experience later influenced his English language arts (ELA) career in public education and inspired him to do the same for his students. Now…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school climate and academic achievement in English language arts and mathematics in third through eighth grade students in Illinois. This study employed a complex correlational design utilizing multiple regression analysis. Secondary data came from the Illinois School Report Card…

This mixed methods study aimed to categorize and analyze the frequencies and percentages of complex thinking in the PARCC practices assessments in English Language Arts grade 10 and Geometry. The Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix was used for the first part of the study to code each of the PARCC assessment questions in Language Arts grade 10 and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of cultural responsiveness and Cultural Intelligence (CQ) throughout administrators, English Language Arts (ELA) teachers, and ELA curriculum and instruction in an increasingly demographically diverse middle school. Cultural responsiveness is not a synonym for Critical Race Theory. Critical Race…

As learning standards continue to evolve to reflect the emergent needs of 21st Century learners, teachers are finding themselves in positions where they need to adapt in order to survive. For teachers of complicated disciplines, like the English language arts (ELA), where they are tasked with teaching a variety of areas, this further distorts…

This article describes a teacher's willingness to perform an autobiographical spoken word poem in his classroom, which provided an important model for students as they composed and shared their own slam-style poems.

Purpose: This paper aims to argue for the curricular inclusion of youth-generated young adult literature (YAL) alongside canonical literature and adult-generated YAL. The authors support this argument with the results of a qualitative analysis of youth memoir published in "The Best Teen Writing." They strive to inform the debate between…

This short story illustrates an occasion of culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogical practices in relation to the canonical texts which are often used in urban classrooms. In it, a lesson on Jane Eyre's childhood point of view and mode of introspectiveness delves into a tale of dancing and Otherness. The story shows that in spaces where…

Argumentative writing has long been considered an essential skill for disciplinary learning. For researchers and curriculum developers to develop ecologically valid instructional approaches to argumentative writing, a pivotal prerequisite is the understanding of how teachers use various instructional methods in tandem to teach different…

Overestimation and underestimation of students' own competence result from social comparison in the classroom. There is some evidence that secondary school students compare their results with those of one or two same-sex others who perform slightly better than themselves. The first objective of this study was to replicate these findings among…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have described discipline-specific literacy skills needed to successfully engage with science concepts, and science assessments ask students to use language in many and varied forms to mediate their science thought and actions and prove mastery of content. Yet…

The ambitious goals of standards-based reform call for both technical and adaptive leadership to address problems of practice involving the technical and adaptive alignment of teachers' instruction to the standards. Thus, standards-aligned curriculum implementation necessitates both types of strategies; otherwise, adaptive challenges will persist.…