This article begins with a historical exploration of the U.S.'s implementations and usages of K-12 standardized testing, including efforts at and failures to promote educational equity. Then, centering teachers' voices, the authors use a dialogic narrative format to put two long-time friends and educators in conversation with one another and their…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" identifies argumentation as a central practice, and, subsequently, energizes teachers to develop students' capacity to write well-reasoned arguments and support their claims with relevant evidence. These skills now expected in the science classroom have long been central to instruction in…

Learning to read and write starts at a very young age. It is expected that by the time students enter high school, they have developed certain reading and writing skills. However, research has proven many students still struggle with reading and writing skills in high school. Some of these students graduate high school ill-prepared to enter…

This article critiques a classroom encounter between a Black student, Richard, and a white student, Nick, that complicated the white English teacher, Mr. Turner's, attempt to facilitate a discussion about racial progress in America. Students positioned their bodies on a continuum between 1, no racial progress since the 1930s, and 10, full racial…

Reflecting on how "the very nature of language learning has changed"(New London Group [NLG], 1996, p. 64), this article describes an inquiry-driven teaching approach to middle school English. Looking at student outcomes utilizing Google's 20% approach, this study explored how mentorship, digital tools, and student interests provide…

The researcher conducted a formative experiment in a ninth- and a 10th-grade English classroom to observe a multiliteracies-based intervention implemented to improve high school students' arguments. Traditionally, argument is taught from a cognitive perspective, emphasizing concepts such as claims, evidence, and warrants. However, arguments are…

Learning how to formulate, comprehend, and evaluate arguments is an essential part of helping students develop the ability to make better, more reasonable judgments. The Common Core identified argumentation as a fundamental life skill that is broadly important for the literate person. According to the authors, having students engage in an inquiry…

Instructional videos play a central role in most online English courses of the current generation. However, previous research on the design and production of these videos has not been adequate, with direct feedback of learners largely neglected. To address the gap, the present study provides an explorative investigation of the perspectives of EFL…

In this article, Jeanne Dyches investigates the ways in which inquiry models of instruction have failed to provide students with a space in which to grapple with discipline-specific histories and hegemonies. Accordingly, this study offers critical canon pedagogy (CCP) to help students problematize and disrupt the practices specific to a…

This essay presents an English teacher's inquiry into her professional practice in an institutional setting that is heavily regulated by standards-based reforms. Rather than something external to her, she sees those reforms as part of an internal conflict that affects her capacity to be fully responsive to her students. In dialogue with a…

This case study offers a qualitative perspective on a relationship between institutional structures and student outcomes. The data describe the conditions in 10 English remediation classrooms at one urban community college district. The study uses new literacies as a theoretical framework with which to understand how these conditions supported…

What is the practical pedagogic value of the zone of proximal development? How might we draw from the writings of Vygotsky and Leont'ev with regard to understanding the process of children and young people's development as socialised intellectual beings? This article applies cultural-historical theory to classroom activity in order to reveal the…

Today's educators serve the United States public-school system at a time of considerable curricular, technological, and demographic change. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards in Math and English Language Arts significantly altered the curricular landscape of K-12 classrooms. On the heels of this reform came the adoptions of English…

The study addressed a cognitive-affective gap in the textual content of a primary English curriculum. The research design was qualitative in nature. In the first part of the study, document analysis of the textbooks from grades 1-5 was done to prove that empathetic and pro-social themes were under represented in them. The second part of the study…

The purpose of this study was to examine LINUS teachers' knowledge of basic language constructs and the relationships between LINUS teachers' knowledge of basic language constructs, teaching experience and their perceived abilities to teach reading to LINUS students. 121 LINUS teachers teaching English literacy from 31 Johor Bahru national primary…