English Language Arts Teachers Research Articles

Playful Multiliteracies: Fan‐Based Literacies' Role in English Language Arts Pedagogy

AbstractStandards and their corresponding assessments have continued to narrow English language arts (ELA) curricula, pushing more playful, creative composition to the margins or to out‐of‐school pursuits. Simultaneously, students enjoy writing creatively in many extracurricular spaces and activities, like fanfiction. Building from research showing that fan‐based literacies align with ELA curriculum, this collective case study explores how three secondary ELA teachers incorporated their professional learning about fandoms into their classrooms. Framed in multiliteracies and theories of play, qualitative data generated through interviews, surveys, and artifact collection were iteratively analyzed to establish themes that illuminate how these teachers valued fan‐based literacies within their curricula. Findings reveal teacher perspectives about fanfiction's role in fostering analytic reading of texts, cultivating creative responses to literature, scaffolding essay writing about real questions, and engaging students in the work of ELA. An argument for centering playful reading and writing in classrooms is presented.

(Re)Active Praxis: What Happens When You Read about Racism?

This reflective essay explores three graduate students’ experiences hosting an antiracist teaching book club with preservice English language arts teachers in the spring of 2021. The book club centered on practical advice for engaging secondary students through antiracist pedagogies while meeting the expectations placed on new teachers. Through reflection, the authors found the book club opened a space for critical conversations on their own responsibilities as antiracist educators.

Digital Citizenship, Media Literacy, and the ACTS Framework

AbstractIn a “post‐truth” era in which misinformation permeates digital environments, it is critical for teachers to help students develop media literacy skills by analyzing and evaluating media messages. Through these processes, English language arts teachers can also help students develop digital citizenship skills, in which they can analyze media, create messages, and then share their creations. These skills and processes empower students to become informed digital citizens who actively engage in civic processes and advocate for issues and actions in which they believe. This article explores the concepts of digital citizenship and media literacy and presents the Analyze, Create, Then Share Framework as a way to help students develop skills in these areas. Analyzing, Creating, Then Sharing media messages can aid students' understanding of disciplinary content, help students participate in civic processes, and promote digital citizenship.

How Two English Language Arts Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Impact Their Students’ Academic and Emotional Success

This study commenced as part of a more extensive narrative inquiry about a literacy coach building relationships with two early-career sixth-grade English language arts teachers. The more extensive study revealed a gap in research about the teachers' beliefs and practices and their impact on their students' academic and emotional success. The research questions are: (1) in what ways do two teachers' beliefs and professional knowledge influence their teaching philosophies? (2) How do these teachers' identities influence student outcomes? The two teacher participants took part in interviews, observations, and reflections. By re-storying the data into narratives, three themes from each question emerged. The data shows that teachers firmly believe in their roles in student learning, pedagogical styles, content planning, and curriculum. Additionally, teacher identities influence student outcomes with their engagement, relationships, and comfort in the classroom environment. The results of this study add to the growing body of research on the impact of student success concerning how teachers' beliefs and practices play a role in academics and the social and emotional well-being of overall student achievement.

Authority and authenticity in teachers’ questions about literature in three contexts

PurposeThis study aims to explore the authentic questioning practices of English Language Arts teachers. Although language arts (LA) education emphasizes the value of authentic questions in discussions about literature, teachers still tend to ask known-answer questions that guide students toward one literary interpretation. However, outside their classrooms, teachers talk about literary texts from stances of openness and curiosity. Helping teachers recognize and draw on their out-of-school literary practices might help them disrupt entrenched known-answer discourses. The authors studied how the same teachers asked questions about literature in different settings. The authors asked: To what degree and in what ways did teachers’ questions about literature change when they took on different roles in discussions of literature?Design/methodology/approachDrawing on theories of classroom discourses and everyday practices, this study compared and analyzed types of questions asked by high school teachers as they took on three roles: teacher in the high school classroom, discussion leader in a professional development and everyday reader in discussion.FindingsAnalysis showed that as participants moved further away from their teacher role, they were more likely to ask authentic, curiosity-driven questions that engaged fellow readers in exploratory, dialogic interpretation. They were less likely to attempt to maintain authority over students’ interpretations.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors hope researchers will build on these explorations of teacher stances and language in different roles, so we can work toward disrupt entrenched known-answer discourses in the classroom.Practical implicationsDrawing on this study’s findings about questioning practices of participants in their role as reader (as opposed to discussion leader or classroom teacher), the authors suggest that teachers and teacher educators consider the following: First, teachers need to understand the power of interpretive authority and known-answer discourses and compare them explicitly to their own everyday practices through rehearsals and reflection. Second, teachers might focus less on theme and more on exploration of individual lines, patterns and unusual authorial moves. Finally, when preparing to teach, if teachers can reconnect with the stance and language of uncertainty and curiosity, they are likely to ask more authentic questions.Social implicationsThese findings suggest both the power of entrenched known-answer discourses to constrain and the potential power of making visible and drawing on teachers’ literary reading practices in out-of-school contexts.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have made an empirical comparison of the relationship between the role a teacher takes on during discussion and the kinds of questions they ask about literature. This study offers insight into the value of everyday curiosity and other out-of-school resources that teachers could – but often do not – bring to their facilitations of classroom discussions. The findings suggest that teachers, teacher educators and researchers must recognize and recruit teachers’ everyday practices to the LA classroom.

From Classroom Community to Building Citizens: English Language Arts and Math Teachers Collaborate on a Guide to Help Integrate Civic Reasoning into Classrooms

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New NCTE Standards Released for Educators Preparing To Be English Language Arts Teachers

The National Council of Teachers of English Standards Include Antiracist/Antibias Instruction Across All Standards and Understanding of Digital Learning Opportunities

Why is it so hard to reconcile disciplinary literacy and antiracism? Informational texts and middle grades English language arts

PurposeThis study aims to understand the supports and challenges to using disciplinary and antiracism lenses when teaching with informational texts in middle grades English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes teacher talk in four virtual sessions with four middle grades ELA teachers in one school district. Teachers had recently completed a voluntary, school-based antiracism professional development. Researchers used thematic analysis of session transcripts and semi-structured interviews.FindingsTeachers’ informational text use was nested in and directed by curriculum and contexts that limited disciplinary and antiracist teaching. The context and texts constrained instruction to basic reading skills. Equity was conceptualized as supporting students’ persistence. Discussions of race were avoided.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has implications for ELA teacher preparation, and district and state resources to support merging disciplinarity and antiracism in informational text instruction in ELA. The study is limited by the small sample from one district and access to only teacher self-reports.Originality/valueSecondary ELA disciplinary literacy has privileged literature, yet there is an increase of informational text use in middle grades ELA. Teachers need support teaching informational texts through disciplinary and antiracism lenses.

Tensions between disciplinarity and generality within a professional development on writing instruction

PurposeAlthough English Language Arts (ELA) teachers have historically been expected to take the lead in literacy training, the domain of ELA has yet come to terms with what holds it together as a discipline. Within this conundrum, the author studied one group of ELA teacher leaders who led a professional development (PD) aimed at training teachers in disciplinary writing instruction. This study aims to explore the differences in perspectives between what constitutes disciplinarity for ELA teachers and teachers in other content areas.Design/methodology/approachOver the course of two years, the author observed the PD, taking extensive field notes, collecting artifacts and conducting interviews. The author engaged in constant comparative analysis of the data throughout this time, open coding within each data source and then triangulating the data to support the author’s finding.FindingsWhereas the ELA teacher leaders seemed to focus on general aspects of writing, teachers from the other content areas shared discipline-specific understandings about writing. The teachers and teacher leaders, however, did not explicitly discuss these differences in how they conceptualized writing instruction; rather, this tension was revealed through the author’s analysis of the data.Originality/valueThe findings of this study illustrate how a vague definition of writing in English and of disciplinary literacy has come to bear on one PD of writing. This study recommends future research to continue to develop clear epistemologies, purposes and literate practices of the disciplines related to ELA.

Collaborative literary reasoning as a support for preservice English language arts teachers' learning about disciplinary literacy

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand how preservice teachers (PTs) learn about disciplinary literacy in English language arts (ELA). In mathematics and writing, research has found that teachers’ participation in disciplinary work can support their understanding of domain-specific inquiry, problem-solving and argumentation.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory, qualitative case study of an English methods course extends that work into ELA, asking how PTs’ participation in collaborative literary reasoning (CLR) influences their understanding of ELA as a discipline and their instructional planning processes.FindingsFindings indicate that CLR supported PTs to define ELA as a collaborative discipline in which multiple interpretations of literature are valued; to name specific disciplinary literacy practices; to identify a focus and purpose for teachers’ design and revision of lesson plans; and to inform their thinking about text selection and complexity.Originality/valueThis work highlights the potential of collaborative literary reasoning to support PTs’ learning about disciplinary literacy instruction.

Research: “Can Someone Please Say Something?”: Avoiding Chaos in a Virtual Environment

This study investigated the experiences of preservice secondary English language arts (ELA) teacher candidates (n=12) as they attempted to complete their crucial student teaching field experience during the 2020–2021 pandemic crises. In addition, it looked at their university supervisors’ (n=3) experiences as they sought to mentor and guide the teacher candidates through a virtual environment. Findings indicated both positive and negative consequences for participants. Overall, the student teachers and university supervisors remained optimistic about the internship experience and found value in it. Yet the complexities of schedules, digital platforms, and expectations took a heavy toll with one student dropping out and another deciding to go to law school after finishing their education degree. Implications for supporting student teachers and mentors in virtual environments are included, along with recommendations for future research on promoting the cultivation of digital pedagogy in ELA preservice coursework.

Literacy Workshops for English Learners: A Review of But Does This Work With English Learners?

AbstractThis article provides a book review of But Does This Work With English Learners? A Guide for English Language Arts Teachers, Grades 6‐12 by Mandy Stewart and Holly Genova. This professional development book supports English Language Arts teachers, especially English as a Second Language teachers, to adapt readers’ and writers’ workshops to meet the needs of English Learners. The book provides robust and humanizing descriptions of classroom practice and suggestions for curriculum development for teachers who wish to use literacy workshop approaches with students developing English.

Examining English Language Arts Teachers: Evidence from National Data

Background: Much of the previous research in teacher attrition and retention focuses on teachers in general, without regard to specific types of teachers. We focus on English language arts (ELA) and English as a second language (ESL) teachers because the United States has stubbornly low achievement in reading, and reading is critical to the success of learning other subjects, and because these are the two groups of teachers most responsible for teaching both native and non-native English speakers to read. Purpose: Our goal is to understand how the demographics and qualifications of ELA and ESL teachers have changed over time, changes in the student characteristics and school conditions in which they teach, their attrition rate, and the factors that are associated with their attrition behaviors. We also pay close attention to teachers in economically disadvantaged schools. Research Design: We use nationally representative data from seven waves of the Schools and Staffing Survey from 1987–1988 to 2011–2012, as well as the 2015–2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey to examine ELA and ESL teachers and their turnover behaviors. We employ sampling weights to make the results nationally representative. We use both descriptive and regression analyses to examine these teachers. Data Analysis: We first describe how characteristics of ELA and ESL teachers and the schools in which they teach have changed from 1988 to 2016. We then examine how these characteristics vary systematically across high- and low-poverty schools and compare the attrition rate for ELA and ESL teachers relative to other teachers. We also examine the factors that are associated with various forms of turnover and how organizational supports may be leveraged to increase retention. Findings: We find the composition of ELA and ESL teachers has changed substantially over time, with more teachers attending selective schools, being certified to teach, and more likely to teach in high-poverty schools. Relatedly, teacher characteristics in high- and low-poverty schools are consistently different across time, and school working conditions play an enhanced role in high-poverty schools rather than in more affluent schools. Conclusions: Although we find ELA teachers turn over at similar rates compared to non-ELA teachers, we find ESL teachers are more likely to leave both their current school and the profession. This is particularly concerning given that the ESL population is increasing while at the same time there is a shortage of trained-ESL teachers.

Research: Developing English Language Arts Teacher Candidates’ Social Perspective Taking

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Silence as absence, silence as presence: A discourse analysis of English language arts teachers’ descriptions of classroom silences

This article reports on a discourse analysis of five English language arts teachers' descriptions of classroom silences. Drawing on sociolinguistic and poststructuralist influences on discourse analysis, silence was theorized as a resource for building significance about aspects of classroom life and as an interface that connects local circumstances to social, cultural, and historical processes. Data analysis focused on teacher descriptions of silence in post-observation interviews and an excerpt from a 10th grade class discussion. Findings demonstrate how the teachers drew on two discourses of silence: silence as an absence of verbal participation and silence as a presence of dynamic interpretation. Teachers in the study used both of these discourses of silence to call forth particular aspects of their classrooms that would otherwise remain hidden to an outside observer, which is further analyzed through one teacher’s use of discourses of silence to add layers of meaning to a one-minute excerpt from a class discussion about Edgar Allan Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death.” These findings are complemented by a critical analysis of silencing in the class discussion, arguing close reading interpretive practices as applied to a canonized text contributed to the silencing of students’ backgrounds and knowledges. Implications of the study include using silence as a site of critical reflection in teacher education and theorizing silence, paradoxically, as (a) nonexistent and (b) a constant accompaniment to what is “sounded” in the classroom.

Boys’ visuospatial abilities compensate for their relatively poor in-class attentive behavior in learning mathematics

The mathematics and reading achievement of 322 adolescents (159 boys) was assessed in seventh and eighth grades, as were their intelligence, working memory, and spatial abilities. Their seventh- and eighth-grade mathematics and English language arts teachers reported on their in-class attentive behavior. The latter emerged as an important predictor of achievement, but more so for mathematics than for reading. Boy were less attentive in classroom settings than girls (d = −.34) and performed better than expected in mathematics given their level of engagement in the classroom. Boys’ better-than-expected mathematics achievement was related to advantages on visuospatial measures (ds = .28–.56), which fully mediated a sex difference in mathematics (ds = .27–.28) but not in reading achievement, with control of in-class attentive behavior. The results suggest that boys’ advantages in visuospatial skills compensate for lower levels of classroom engagement in the learning of mathematics but not in reading competencies.

Ideology, identity, and pedagogy in English language arts teachers’ linguistic styling in U.S. classrooms

Linguistic styling is an important component of the language ideologies teachers communicate to their students. This study explores the of role identity and intent in shaping teachers’ language use in the classroom, and considers how students receive teachers’ linguistic style. Three high school English Language Arts (ELA) teachers’ linguistic style is explored through three sources of data: a Dialect Density Measure, discourse analysis of marked instances of linguistic styling by each teacher, and interviews with the teacher and their students. The social meaning of differences in teachers’ styling of language is examined in relation to each teacher's social identity and the context of their teaching. Findings show that teachers use their style to model academic norms, to counter academic norms, to develop relationships with students, and to complicate ideas about what kind of person can use what kind of language. The marked differences in each teacher's styling reveal the pedagogical and relational work that language use enacts in classrooms. Implications for further study of teachers’ styling, and for supporting teachers’ critical language teaching are considered.

Identifying Teachers' Needs for Results From Interim Unit Assessments

Interim assessments have been defined variously in different contexts and can be used for predictive purposes or instructional purposes. In this paper, we present results from a study where we evaluated reporting needs for interim assessments designed for instructional purposes and intended to be used at the end of defined curriculum units. Results from such unit assessments should help teachers determine gaps in student understanding and inform ongoing instructional decision‐making. Our goal was to determine if learning progressions (LPs) could serve as the cognitive lens through which teachers can evaluate how their students' understanding of key constructs improves through periodic unit assessments. Therefore, we used the LP framework in mathematics and the key practices (KP) framework for English language arts (ELA) to design preliminary teacher report mock‐ups for these unit assessments. Within a utilization‐oriented evaluation framework, we conducted six needs‐assessment focus groups with elementary and middle school mathematics (n = 12) and ELA (n = 11) teachers to specifically evaluate the extent to which they find results presented within the LP and KP frameworks understandable and useful for their instructional practice. Results from the focus groups show teachers' overall needs for types of information sought from unit assessment reports, the extent to which teachers are familiar with the LP and KP frameworks, their interpretations (including confusions) of the information presented in the preliminary mock‐ups, and their additional needs for reports from unit assessments to be instructionally useful.

From New York City to the World: Examining Critical Global Literacies in an English Language Arts Classroom

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine one teacher’s enactment of critical literacy pedagogy in a 7th-grade English language arts classroom in a New York City public school. By conceptualizing critical global literacies in relation to preservice and in-service teaching practices that reflect neoliberal interests, we attend to pedagogy inclusive of culturally, linguistically, and socially diverse learners intended to create equitable and globally contextualized learning opportunities. Through a qualitative case study, we analyzed one teacher’s pedagogical enactment of critical global literacies. Our analysis led to four overarching themes: 1) critically understanding that literacies are always globally situated, 2) demonstrating global relevance to students’ lives and curricula, 3) incorporating multimodal literacies for multidimensional student engagement, and 4) cultivating socially responsive dispositions through critical reflection and action. These interrelated themes demonstrate pedagogical choices that affirmed students’ local lives and experiences in relation to global, international social issues, which are always connected to one another. Findings provide teacher educators nuanced insight into how critical global literacies are extended through critical understandings of literacies, the multimodal nature of literacies, and opportunities for social response, each of which are particularly illuminating for English language arts teachers.

Chapter 8: Wobbling with Culturally Proactive Teaching: Facilitating Social Justice through Youth Participatory Action Research with Middle School Students

Background American students represent diverse life experiences, languages, cultures, and community memberships. Given the relatively unchanged demographics of U.S. teachers (primarily middle-class, white females), it is important that teachers engage in culturally proactive pedagogy and design curriculum that both reflects their students’ culture and engages them in developing skills to be participants in a larger society. Purpose This chapter explores how three veteran eighth-grade English language arts teachers in a large middle school in the southeastern United States navigated Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a culturally proactive and socially just pedagogy and encouraged students to examine power, privilege, and oppression in literature, in informational texts, and in their local communities to identify ways they might change inequities. Research Design Findings from this qualitative study suggest that even veteran teachers often struggle to implement social justice and culturally proactive pedagogies. Findings These teachers wobbled with their own uncertainty about the differences between a more traditional pedagogy, where they drive the learning, and a critical pedagogy that places the students in charge of the direction of their learning. Conclusion/Recommendations From the findings, recommendations are made to teachers who grapple with incorporating socially just and culturally proactive pedagogies into their teaching.