Language Arts Research Articles

The Complexities and Promise of Standing Beside Indigenous Literacy Scholars: A Language Curriculum Analysis

Literacy is an essential component of any elementary-school classroom. To address shifting understandings of literacy and how to teach it, Alberta has developed a new language-arts curriculum. This curriculum, however, was developed in a context where schools have a long history of not serving Indigenous children well, including not meeting their needs through literacy programs (Hare, 2011). Alberta Education, through the English Language Arts and Literature (ELAL) curriculum, claims to better address those needs. The purpose of this research is to examine how the ELAL curriculum and its implementation aligns with the field of language and literacy, and in particular, Indigenous literacy scholarship, namely Peltier’s (2016/2017) Wholistic Anishinaabe Pedagogy and Reese’s (2018) Critical Indigenous Literacy. Data included both an analysis of the curriculum and semi-structured interviews with literacy instructors/scholars and in-service teachers. There were several key findings: English only processes, sparce attention to feelings throughout the curriculum, an absence of critical literacy, and inappropriate text selection. This paper is significant, as it shows the complexities and promise of being a non-Indigenous literacy scholar, thinking deeply about places of resonance and tension in literacy in ways that Indigenous scholars are already writing about.

Writing for humanizing transformative professional learning and development

ABSTRACT This multiple case study with US English language arts teachers was designed to understand writing teacher professional learning and development (PLD) through a humanising lens, considering the whole person rather than only the professional development content or design. Research questions explored experiences that contributed to teachers’ decisions to participate and stay engaged in a year-long PLD, in this socio-political moment, and how issues of responsibility, relationality, power, and ethics were experienced. We found humanising PLD infused with writing as both content and method builds professional networks, fosters shifts in teaching-learning power dynamics, sustains teachers, and is an act of resistance against push-out politics. In the discussion, we provide a model of Writing for Humanising Transformative PLD for teacher educators to support the continued survivance of teachers across the disciplines.

All Work and All Play: Participation in Leisure Activities in Academically Focused Afterschool Programming Is Linked to Better Math Grades

Designed to improve outcomes for children from high-poverty, low-performing schools, the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) programs emphasizes academic outcomes. Our study suggests that children from disadvantaged backgrounds might be better served if 21st CCLC programs balanced their heavy academic focus with play and leisure activities. We examined the effects of participation in academic and leisure activities in Michigan 21st CCLC programs on English language arts (ELA) and mathematics grades among seventh- and eighth-grade students. Leisure activities were defined as any nonacademic activity: recreation and social time, physical movement, youth development, arts, and health and nutrition. Results showed that male students, low-income students and students who were low-performing in general had lower grades in both ELA and math grades than their counterparts, regardless of other demographic factors or participation patterns. Data from our sample did not reveal any racial gaps in ELA and math grades. Being older and having special education status were both associated with lower ELA grades, while English language learners tended to have higher ELA grades. After adjusting for these demographic differences, our study found that the dosage of leisure activities was linked to better math grades, while the dosage of academic activities was not linked to either here ELA or math grades. A 10-hour increase in leisure activity time was associated with an increase in the math grade point of approximately 0.02 (A = grade point 4; B = 3).

(Re)membering the Ecology of the Self

"I spent five years in elementary and middle school classrooms as a teacher of reading, language arts, and social studies. Because my school was located in a refugee resettlement area, I taught and engaged with students from across the globe – from Tanzania, Iran, and Mexico, among many other places. In this space, my students also served as my teacher, instructing me in the ways of their worlds..."

Exploring the Effectiveness of Large‐Scale Automated Writing Evaluation Implementation on State Test Performance Using Generalised Boosted Modelling

ABSTRACTBackgroundAutomated writing evaluation (AWE) systems, used as formative assessment tools in writing classrooms, are promising for enhancing instruction and improving student performance. Although meta‐analytic evidence supports AWE's effectiveness in various contexts, research on its effectiveness in the U.S. K–12 setting has lagged behind its rapid adoption. Further rigorous studies are needed to investigate the effectiveness of AWE within the U.S. K–12 context.ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate the usage and effectiveness of the Utah Compose AWE system on students' state test English Language Arts (ELA) performance in its first year of statewide implementation.MethodsThe sample included all students from grades 4–11 during the school year 2015 in Utah (N = 337,473). Employing a quasi‐experimental design using generalised boosted modelling for propensity score weighting, the analysis focused on estimating the average treatment effects among the treated (ATT) of the AWE system.Results and ConclusionsThe results showed that students who utilised AWE more frequently demonstrated improved ELA performance compared to their counterparts with lower or no usage. The effects varied across certain student demographic groups. This study provides strong and systematic evidence to support the hypothesis of causal inferences regarding AWE's effects within a large‐scale, naturalistic implementation, offering valuable insights for stakeholders seeking to understand the effectiveness of AWE systems.

Անատոլի Գրիգորյանի 1990-ականների ստեղծագործությունները / Paintings of Anatoly Grigoryan in the 1990’s

Anatoly Grigoryan is a prominent Armenian artist of the 20th-21st centuries, who made a significant impact on the country's visual arts. In the 1990s, his work entered a new phase, marked by the completion of the artistic search characteristic of his earlier period. This period became a time of recognizing and affirming his own artistic language and philosophical views. While earlier Grigoryan paid equal attention to line and color, by the 1990s, his focus shifted to composition and color. His works became more deeply structured, filled with symbolism and philosophical content. The main theme became reflections on life, its values, and meaning. His works no longer just depict reality but become philosophical meditations on existence. Color in his paintings transformed from a decorative element into a powerful expressive tool, helping convey the artist's inner world and emotions. The works of the 1990s are multilayered, where the viewer can find new interpretations and meanings. In this context, Grigoryan created pieces that not only visually impress but also serve as philosophical reflections on life. Thus, the 1990s for Grigoryan was a period of establishing a mature style and a deeper understanding of life through art.

If They Talk More During Lessons, Will They Achieve Better? Unlocking the Reciprocal Relationship Between Student Verbal Participation and Achievement

This study investigates the relationship between student verbal participation and achievement in sixth-grade language arts. We conducted an intervention in six classes to enhance and equalize student talk while reducing individual disparities in participation. The design of the study involved measuring talk time and administering reading literacy tests before and after the intervention, with similar measurements in six control classrooms. The results indicated increased and more evenly distributed verbal participation in the intervention classrooms than in the control classrooms. However, no significant differences in student achievement were observed between the two groups. A path analysis examined the link between participation and achievement, confirming that verbal participation is a predictor of student success. The study suggests that the impact of increased verbal participation on achievement might be more pronounced over the long term, necessitating further research with delayed post-measurements to fully understand this relationship.

STEAM education in the middle school language arts classroom

This paper examines the integration of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) principles into middle school language arts classrooms to enhance engagement, comprehension, and interdisciplinary learning. STEAM fosters creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving by connecting literature to real-world applications. Using novels such as The Westing Game, My Side of the Mountain, and The Memory Thief, the study highlights how incorporating scientific concepts—such as forensic science, environmental biology, and neuroscience—into literature lessons deepens students’ understanding of texts and STEM topics. This approach also benefits students with reading disabilities by providing multimodal, hands-on activities that support alternative learning pathways. Additionally, the integration of STEAM promotes 21st-century skills such as collaboration and communication. Despite challenges like limited resources and teacher training, STEAM-based language arts instruction offers a dynamic way to prepare students for success in a rapidly evolving world.

“Stories are our survival guides”: Ecojustice literacies in politically and ecologically vulnerable places

As a global emergency, climate change impacts all areas of life on the planet including the embodied experiences of teachers, students, and communities. Recognizing that “addressing climate change demands the involvement” of English Language Arts and Literacy (ELA-L) teachers (National Council of Teachers of English, 2019), research remains to be done on how ELA-L teachers use language and communication themselves around climate and socioecological crisis. In this article, we share learning from a collaborative study with educators who took part in a two-day retreat focusing on ecojustice orientations to education in Florida, United States. We use ecolinguistic analysis to understand and amplify the stories of teachers seeking to explore and teach for ecojustice literacies, examining how our collaborators’ ecojustice literacies inquiries (in the form of place-based walking and multimodal composing): (1) story their relationship to the human and more-than-human world; (2) construct/orient to stories-we-live-by that are important to their lives and work; and (3) offer their own stories-to-live-by. Focusing on one collaborator, Morgan, we consider her orientation to ecojustice literacies inquiries, as well as how she connected these activities to her teaching context and to teaching and learning as bodies-in-place. Our analysis revealed possibilities not only for creating space for teachers to “try out” ecojustice literacies but also for confronting political attacks facing teachers in their school systems as intertwined with ecojustice. This article contributes to the literacy scholarship by addressing the complex stories of ELA-L teachers working/living in politically and ecologically vulnerable places.

A renewed conception of the aesthetics of kunqu opera in the work of Ke Jun

This article explores the aesthetic and philosophical concepts that Ke Jun, a contemporary kunqu performer, has developed over his career. Ke Jun is one of the most prominent and active representatives of contemporary kunqu, having created his own unique artistic language over more than two decades. This language combines elements of both traditional and avant-garde approaches. Throughout his career, Ke Jun has been studying the deep foundations of traditional kunqu while actively incorporating elements of Western classical music and theater arts. The article starts with a brief introduction to Ke Jun, highlighting his extensive experience in traditional kunqu. It then discusses the expressive power of the avant-garde kunqu operas that Ke Jun has created and performed throughout his career. Finally, the article analyzes two key elements of Ke Jun's aesthetic and philosophical concepts: the dialectical relationship between tradition and the avant-garde, and the connection between the avant-garde and humanistic spirituality. The novelty of this article lies in its multifaceted interpretation of Ke Jun's performance experience and innovation from the perspective of his micro-artistic life history. The article argues that Ke Jun deserves high praise for his achievements in performing and preserving the historical heritage of traditional kunqu opera. His avant-garde works not only transform the traditional classical flavor of Chinese opera but also seek to harmoniously blend the cultural traditions of the East and West. This initiative represents a positive exploration of possible development paths for kunqu and serves as a theoretical basis for his philosophical view of art. As a result, Ke Jun acts as a driving force in the modernization of kunqu, confirming his significance in the contemporary context of Chinese theater art.

The Issues of Design of the Leningrad Porcelain during the "Thaw" Period: Organic Style vs Functionalism

Decorative and applied arts began to play a significant role in Soviet cultural discourse during the Khrushchev "Thaw". In the art of porcelain, the Thaw manifested itself in the active creation of shapes, updating the themes of paintings, and the development of an innovative artistic language such as decorative minimalism. In the article, the researcher aimed to analyze the issues of shape design in Leningrad porcelain of the Thaw period. Its relevance is due to research and curatorial interest in the heritage of this era. The lack of specialized works devoted to the shapes of porcelain products determines its novelty. The object of the study is the shapes developed by sculptors of the Leningrad Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in the second half of the 1950s – 1960s. The topic of the study is the artistic originality of the author’s shapes of this period. The researcher used comprehensive methodology. The author summarized that organic design with fluidity and a sense of inner life of shapes was dominating trend in the late 1950s – early 1960s. In the second half of the 1960s, the functionalist rigor and clarity of forms prevailed in the shape design. Each of the sculptors developed their own individual style within the framework of general trends. The shapes of vases and services created by sculptors regularly received awards at international exhibitions and favorable reviews in the press. The artists actively used them for paintings in the “modern style”. The aesthetic trends developed by Leningrad Lomonosov Porcelain Factory sculptors were also in demand at other enterprises. Contemporary porcelain artists use a number of Thaw shapes for their original compositions. In addition, the principles of shape design the period of the “second modernism” remain relevant for porcelain of the 21st century.

Network position and academic achievement in middle school

AbstractDoes network position promote academic achievement net of the characteristics of friends in the network? Using nearly complete friendship network data at two middle schools, we estimate fixed‐effects models to examine whether degree centrality and brokerage position affect grades, net of all time‐invariant student characteristics, and the observable content of the friend network. The results show that more central network positions advance academic achievement, but these effects are not the same across mathematics and language arts subjects. Degree centrality affects mathematics grades, while brokerage position impacts performance in language arts. These findings highlight the importance of network position on academic achievement and the relevance of different types of centrality for achievement in mathematics and language arts.

Samirah X’s Sense of Audience: A Case Study on Black Teen Activism on Social Media

This article presents a critical account of one teen’s sense of audience as she enacted literacies on social media platforms and provides strategies that can inform the teaching of audience and purpose in ways responsive to teens’ digital literacies. Informed by case-study research and insights gained from interviewing, observing, and collecting digital artifacts, I discuss how Samirah X, a self-described teen actress and social justice advocate, engaged in writing practices on social media for three different main perceived audiences: cultural and racial community audience, socially conscious audience, and parental audience. Other sub-audiences from Samirah X’s case narrative are presented: audience as Black people, culture, and identity; audience as Black women and girls; and audience as Blacks who experience injustice and acts of violence. At the conclusion of this article, I provide implications for teaching English Language Arts focused on how social media work can fulfill state standards.

Abolishing anti-Black linguistic racism in secondary ELA curricula: A pro-Black pedagogical approach

The pervasive disrespect for Black Language as raucous, static, anachronistic, and inherently deficient (Baker-Bell et al., 2020) is a troubling act of racism that is found within commercial textbooks and other curricular material. This implicit and inherent issue has remained largely unaddressed in the English language arts (ELA) discipline. Drawing from theoretical frameworks such as Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit; Dumas & ross, 2016), conceptual frameworks such as linguistic violence (Boutte & Bryan, 2021), and pro-Black Language Pedagogy (Boutte & Compton-Lilly, 2022), and my personal experiences as a Black Woman high school English teacher, I demonstrate how heavily relied upon textbooks frequently fail to highlight the rich linguistic and rhetorical patterns that are essential to commonly anthologized Black stories. This article posits that this exclusion, along with societal subjugation of Black Language, is a manifestation of anti-Black linguistic racism (Baker-Bell, 2020) and anti-Black violence (Boutte & Bryan, 2021) in schools. Through highlighting linguistic and rhetorical elements in brilliant Black texts of Black literary greats such as Alice Walker and Toni Cade Bambara, I advocate for normalizing the centralization of Black Language, which is worthy of analysis in ELA curricula. Through a pro-Black Language approach (Boutte & Compton-Lilly, 2022), I offer practical strategies for educators to critically examine, rectify, and redesign the existing curriculum materials that are available to them.

Особенности теоретического и практического преподавания портрета в диалоге традиций западной и китайской живописи при подготовке будущих живописцев в современных вузах и колледжах Китая

The purpose of the study is to identify and characterize the role of portraiture in the system of training future artists in modern Chinese universities and colleges. The article examines the theoretical part of the training of future artists that is the introducing students to the history of portraiture, the specificity of which is to identify the difference in "eastern" and "Western" approaches, as well as their transformation over time. In the framework of practical classes, students practice in the field of compositional portraiture, taking into account the peculiarities of Western European and national traditional art. When creating compositions, students independently choose materials and methods of expression, focusing on nature and developing an individual manner based on the synthesis of different traditions. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, based on the experience of various Chinese art teachers, it describes and systematizes the components of a modern educational process focused on teaching portraiture. As a result of the research, it was found that the acquaintance of future artists with portraiture necessarily includes a theoretical and practical component. The first one demonstrates the difference in the approaches of Western and Chinese art in the interpretation and means of expressing the portrait image, but at the same time the convergence in the process of transformations in the art of the 20th and 21st centuries. As part of the second component, students, after mastering the basics of constructing such images in both Chinese and Western painting, independently choose creative methods and artistic language, but based on nature.

Crafting Expertise: Developing Talent in English Language Arts

The focus of this article is on the development of expertise in interpreting literature within English Language Arts (ELA). Experts and novices differ significantly in how they approach problems and acquire information, with experts demonstrating more sophisticated pattern recognition, nuances, and conceptual understandings and approaches than novices. The domain-specific nature of expertise necessitates deliberate practice and intentional support in developing disciplinary knowledge. In this conceptual article, we integrate understandings from the talent development and gifted education literature, the learning theory and development of expertise literature, and the literary analysis field to explore the following questions: (a) Why is the development of ELA expertise important? (b) What skills do ELA experts possess that need to be cultivated in novices? (c) What are the pedagogical implications and practices necessary for enhancing ELA talent and developing expertise across the lifespan?

Supportive teachers, active students: Is teacher support a promising key to engaging students with and without migration backgrounds?

Students with and without migration backgrounds differ in terms of their achievement. One approach to reducing the gap between the two groups may be through equal participation in classroom discourse. Here, supportive teaching behavior can be particularly important for promoting student participation. Especially teacher support after a student has made a mistake, the so-called error culture in the classroom, could pave the way for students to become active participants. In this study, we analyzed whether error culture as a facet of teacher support could be a promising key to engaging students with and without migration backgrounds. To investigate the generalizability of the process across different subjects, we examined video data from 20 eighth-grade classrooms of academic-track secondary schools in both German Language Arts and Mathematics (N = 387 students). The results from nested hierarchical linear models indicate that error culture is related to student participation in German Language Arts but not in Mathematics. Interestingly, students with and without migration backgrounds did not differ in terms of their participation in classroom discourse. Furthermore, teachers’ positive error culture supported students’ participation irrespective of their migration background. Therefore, we encourage teachers to continue to pay attention to their error culture as this seems relevant for all students in the classroom.

What can educators do to accommodate twice-exceptional learners in Lebanon: a case study

An inclusive classroom accommodates learners with learning disabilities (LDs) or gifted learners (GLs). As part of the 1997 curriculum reform, Lebanon recognized one type of these learners-the LD. It provided the LD community with well-deserved support and the opportunity to be included in regular classroom settings, but nothing was done for the GL community. There has been an increase in interest in GL in Lebanon in recent years. Some private schools made a few attempts to accommodate GL. Two-exceptional learners (2e): those who are gifted and have at least one learning disability, were not catered for in these attempts. Schools and teachers are not equipped to handle the unique challenges faced by 2e learners. Consequently, these learners may experience anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and even behavioral problems. This paper presents the plan developed for a 2e learner (Khalil) that addressed his interests. Khalil had learning difficulties in reading and writing as well as giftedness in math, especially numerical math. Being 2e, Khalil received special lessons that made use of his math skills to improve his language arts. These lessons were project-based, which assisted Khalil in enhancing his mathematical talents while developing his writing and comprehension skills.

Read-aloud practices with children’s picture books in Turkish first-grade classrooms

ABSTRACT The current study aimed to explore the read-aloud experiences of Turkish first-grade elementary school teachers. This study employed a cross-sectional survey design, with a total of 61 first-grade elementary school classroom teachers constituting the research sample. A teacher questionnaire was used to collect the data. The research findings revealed that first-grade teachers included read-aloud practices in their teaching processes. They carried out various activities to enhance interaction during read-aloud sessions and utilized texts from both textbooks and picture books for this purpose. Moreover, the teachers employed read-aloud practices more frequently in Turkish language arts lessons and provided advice to families on incorporating read-aloud activities at home. Additionally, some teachers expressed a need for more guidance on how to effectively implement read-aloud practices. By providing effective scaffolding to first-grade teachers, it can be ensured that they utilize read-aloud practices more effectively in classroom teaching processes, thereby supporting children’s language skills.

“Reversed” New Historicism and the Latvian Literature: Gundega Repše’s Novels

The article1 offers an interpretation of Latvian writer Gundega Repše’s novels within their historical context by exploring interpretative possibilities of New Historicism. As a literary theory, New Historicism is an open and opaque methodology, inviting a playful engagement with methods, agencies, and interpretative strategies, and encouraging critical thinking within a theoretical discourse. I also propose that Repše’s novels might be read as a literary practice of what might be called “reversed” New Historicism by which I mean a particular method of creative writing that reinforces the correlation between history and literature and rhizomatic thinking. It helps to reveal systems and assumptions of power and comment on them from below, this way shaping new ways of how we think of fiction, history and language. In my interpretation, I demonstrate that “reversed” New Historicism as a method of creative writing encourages to rethink the continuous presence of power structure that still exists in contemporary society. A network of memories, displayed through artistic language, helps to see the present-day situation and the continuity of the past more clearly.