Alaska's last literacy blueprint was written in 2011. A lot has changed in 12 years. Since then, Alaska adopted new English Language Arts standards to reflect the advanced literacy students need to be ready for college and careers. The Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED) adopted the Alaska Native Cultural Standards for…

VR is not a space-age novelty for intense video gamers. It is a legitimate digital tool that can enhance the English language arts (ELA) curriculum and enrich--but not replace--traditional pedagogy. And it is surprisingly easy to implement, even for introductory-level technology users. In this article, the authors discuss the strategies and tools…

The purpose of this article is to present the findings of a qualitative content analysis of historical documents related to the teaching of literature. Through a social semiotics framework, we analyzed 10 national standards documents in the field of secondary English. Our analysis details the evolution of the standards paradigm for teaching…

Critical thinkers and proficient readers use a composite of similar cognitive skills that are challenging to assess and difficult to cultivate. Therefore, students and teachers require an instructional model that demonstrates the acuity involved in these proficiencies. This quasiexperimental study aimed to investigate the impact of Equalities as…

Within the current policy and legislative context of educating students with and without special educational needs (SEN) together in one classroom, the question that is frequently raised by educators relates to how best to implement inclusion and meet the different needs of their students in class. It is also important to understand…

The aim of this research is to determine the strategies used by the 8th grade Turkish teachers in the teaching-learning process of the Turkish lesson for teaching comprehension (reading). The model of the research is the case study model, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The participants of the research are five Turkish teachers…

Integrated Reading-Writing Instruction (IRWI) is an approach for English Language Arts (ELA) instruction that has gained much attention since the adoption of college and career standards. Previous studies have shown that connecting reading and writing during instruction positively affects students' literacy outcomes as related cognitive processes…

In this article, the authors introduce ways to use disciplinary literacy (DL) instructional strategies to foster civic engagement and reasoning for middle-grade multilingual students. Four phases of DL strategies--"framing," "reading," "discussion," and "writing"--are illustrated with examples from an…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers' constructions of youth inform their text selections, particularly as they relate to a problematic author. Design/methodology/approach: As part of a larger, national study, the authors use interview data from 18 participants -- 9 who still teach and 9 who no longer teach Alexie -- to…

The rapid growth of the English Language Learner (ELL) population in Indiana has raised challenges for English language arts (ELA) instruction. This research adopts collective case studies and mixed-methods studies to explore the quality and quantity of ELA instruction (time allocation to literacy components and group configuration) for ELLs in…

Two studies investigated the effect of departmentalized instruction on ELA and math achievement among 5th grade students in a large, urban school district. In 84% of the findings from the two studies combined, students in departmentalized classrooms produced significantly higher scores in ELA and mathematics, relative to students in generalized…

Alaska has implemented an innovative approach to a balanced assessment system called the Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR). The AK STAR summative assessments are administered each spring to students in grades 3-9. The AK STAR assessments were developed to provide information on student achievement, areas of strength and need, and…

Feedback is a cultural tool through which English teachers can facilitate secondary students' evaluative expertise in their writing development. While there is increased concern to use feedback to enhance learning at all educational levels, there is currently little empirical knowledge of how secondary teachers of English design feedback for…

Poor retention rates for Core French, combined with the federal government's action plan to increase bilingualism in Canada, have led to the introduction of Intensive French (IF) in Grade 6 as an alternative for learning French. While anecdotal reports suggest that IF has no negative impact on English language skill development, empirical evidence…

The range of teaching materials now available is becoming increasingly diverse. Despite this, however, the use and influence of textbooks in teaching still remains very high. When instructing reading comprehension, teachers often use textbooks as the basis for teaching in language lessons. Establishing a good match between textbooks and the skills…