School English Language Arts Classroom Research Articles

Mental Health Literacy in the Middle School English Language Arts Classroom: Perspectives from Teachers and Social Support Staff

ABSTRACT Background The prevalence of mental health challenges among adolescents warrants innovative school-based approaches that support students’ mental health literacy (MHL). Purpose In this qualitative case study, we interrogated the experiences of three eighth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) teachers and two of their school’s social support staff as they conceptualized, developed, and delivered a novel MHL unit of study within their existing curricular framework. In doing so, we sought to better understand the experiences of these school professionals to inform future iterations of the unit. Methods We explicated focus group data to identify themes that emerged regarding participant goals, experiences, and outcomes as they related to unit planning, delivery, and recommendations. Results Generally, practitioners advocated for increased collaboration with each other to overcome professional apprehension and streamline efforts, a need for such a curriculum to enhance student wellbeing, and having access to more school-provided resources. Discussion Themes are contextualized within the current landscape of school MHL programming, and suggestions are highlighted to advance this ELA curriculum-based work. Translation to Health Education Practice Health Educators’ expertise can supplement the ELA curriculum with targeted MHL lessons for students, alleviating teacher role confusion and advancing the goals of the unit by providing psychoeducation.

Dialogic literary argumentation and close reading: effects on high school students' literature-related argumentative writing and motivational beliefs.

Given evidence that adolescent students' motivation to read and write about literature declines with age, we proffer an approach called dialogic literary argumentation (DLA) that asks students to explore literature through argumentation in pursuit of understanding the meanings and possibilities of being human. This quasi-experimental study compared the effectiveness of DLA with close reading (CR), a common approach to teaching literature in high school English language arts classrooms, in improving students' motivational beliefs about writing and literature-related argumentative writing. The study also examined how the links between motivational beliefs and argumentative writing performance varied by instructional contexts. Participants were 278 high school students in 14 classrooms across 8 public high schools. Classrooms of students received either DLA or CR throughout the academic year. While both the DLA and CR groups improved in literature-related argumentative writing, the DLA group demonstrated more growth than the CR group. Neither group exhibited changes in motivational beliefs. However, at the end of the year, both DLA and CR students' transactional writer beliefs were predictive of writing self-efficacy. Transmissional writer beliefs negatively correlated with argumentative writing in the CR group and had a null relationship in the DLA group. Overall, motivational beliefs and argumentative writing were more positively correlated in the DLA group than the CR group after the intervention. We posit that the argumentative elements unique to DLA may act to protect students from the negative impacts of transmissional beliefs. Our findings provide theoretical explanations and pedagogical recommendations on how DLA and CR can be jointly employed to heighten students' motivation and strengthen their argumentative writing competence.

“Every day do something that won't compute”: Student perceptions of daily poetry practice

AbstractThis article considers high school students' relationship to poetry through a small‐scale qualitative study guided by the question: what happens to student perceptions of poetry when class begins each day with a poem? As a former teacher and current teacher educator, I conducted a series of interviews with a small group of my former students regarding their experiences with poetry throughout their K‐12 education and with hearing a poem each day in their high school English Language Arts classroom. I sought to explore the dimensions and possibilities of non‐analytical literacy practices in addition to student perceptions of poetry as they relate to schooling contexts more broadly.

Oh, God: evangelical teachers, textual interpretation, and ELA classrooms

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how evangelical teachers’ religious identities influence their interpretation and teaching of texts in high school English Language Arts classrooms. Further, this paper examines how evangelical teachers make choices about how to balance the demands of their religious and teacher identities as they interact with texts in their own classrooms.Design/methodology/approachUsing Derridean deconstruction of the concept of ethical decision-making, the author uses critical discourse analysis to examine a conversation between two evangelical teachers as they talk about the tensions they feel as they teach The Crucible with their high school–aged students.FindingsThe findings show evangelical teachers’ religious and teaching identities were in tension across three themes: literary analytic frameworks, authorial intent and eternal truths and evangelism and fellowship.Originality/valueBy highlighting how evangelical teachers’ religious and teaching identities influence their classroom decisions, teaching practices and textual interpretations, this study offers another pathway through which teacher educators and researchers might examine the connection between teachers’ religious and teaching identities with the intent to invite more complexity into literary analysis.

Instructional patterns for the teaching and learning of argumentative writing in high school English language arts classrooms

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 argumentative components. This exploratory study identified instructional patterns for the teaching and learning of argumentative writing by observing 187 English language arts class sessions taught by 31 highly regarded high school English language arts teachers (529 students; 40% of the students were males). Multidimensional scaling identified three instructional patterns that vary in the level of teacher centeredness and dialogic interaction. These instructional patterns may reflect the occurrence of explicit teaching, dialogic learning, and in-class writing that was sometimes accompanied with teacher conferencing or coaching. Common across all of these practices was the teaching of claim and evidence. Warranting, counterargument, and response to counterargument, which are more complex forms of argumentation, tended to be taught by instructional practices involving low- to mid-level teacher centeredness and high-level dialogic interaction (e.g., small grouping, discussion). Overall, our findings highlight the gaps between what researchers suggest as effective approaches to teaching argumentative writing and how argumentative writing is currently taught in classrooms.

Reading Motivation in High School: Instructional Shifts in Student Choice and Class Time

AbstractResearch has shown that student choice of text and increased time spent on reading independently are two factors that can result in an increase in students’ reading motivation and enjoyment. The authors investigated implementation of evidence‐based practices to show how they played out in a high school English language arts classroom. The research was guided by two questions: (1) How does choice affect the reading motivation of a group of high school students? (2) How does silent reading time in class affect these students’ perceptions of reading? Findings reveal that students valued freedom of text choice, leading to increased reading self‐concepts and reading value. In addition, dedicating class time to reading and literature circle discussions helped students have more positive reading experiences than otherwise. These findings suggest benefits from flexibility in literature selection and instructional time, thereby providing a space in the classroom for student‐driven reading and discussion.

Writing Beyond “the Four Corners”: Adolescent Girls Writing By, In, From, and For Bodies in School

There is growing interest in foregrounding bodies in literacy research and pedagogy. Drawing across multiple conceptualizations of bodies as tools, mediums, and social texts, this qualitative case study examines the multifaceted nature of embodiment in two adolescent girls’ school writing. Situated in a research-practice partnership that included researchers, the teacher, adolescent youth, and their parents, this analysis explores the ways writing acted with/on bodies throughout a poetry-writing unit in an urban middle school English language arts classroom. Data collected over 11 weeks included student and teacher interviews, observations and field notes, and artifacts. Through inductive coding processes, coupled with member-check interviews with participants and their parents, four themes were identified: (a) embodied knowing as inspiration for writing, (b) bodies as a mode of multimodal representation, (c) writing as a way to counternarrate against/with other bodies, and (d) bodies responding to writing.

Complexity, Contradiction, and Carnival: Microethnographic Research on Student Disruption in a High School English Language Arts Classroom


 [full article in English] 
 When teaching, many educators must respond to unruly and disruptive students. While most scholarship on student disruption focuses on classroom management strategies and tactics, few studies consider the nature of the disruption, its ideological significance and the social consequences that follows. Via ethnographic methods and microethnographic discourse analysis, this paper examines the complexity and contradictions of macro- and microstructures as they manifest during a student’s disruption of a classroom discussion of a novel in an 11th and 12th grade English Language Arts class in the United States. Using Bakhtin’s notion of carnival as a theoretical framework, this paper examines the pattern of disruption in the classroom that evoked multiple and contradictory ideologies and both maintained and subverted power structures in the context. Contrary to the belief that classroom disruptions are always challenges to power, they sometimes reinforced power relations on a broader cultural level. This paper urges that research and scholarship embrace complexity and contradiction as inherent in the interactions of people in schools and seeks to rethink how educators view and respond to classroom disruption. It concludes by advocating that embracing complexity and contradiction will better allow teachers and researchers to think through systems of education as a way to effectively and ethically intervene when these structures prove problematic.

Shifting epistemologies during instructional conversations about “good” argumentative writing in a high school English language arts classroom

A widespread instructional practice in the teaching of argumentative writing is the use of writing samples or models during instructional conversations about what counts as “good argumentative writing.” In this article, we focus on a set of lessons in a high school English language arts classroom in order to gain insight into how a teacher’s use of writing samples contributed not only to what counts as “good argumentative writing” in that classroom, but how her instructional conversations with a group of 11th grade students revealed a shift in her “argumentative epistemologies” for teaching literature-related argumentative writing. We examine simultaneously the impact of instructional conversations on the evolution of the socially constructed definitions of good argumentative writing and the teacher’s shifting argumentative epistemologies by tracing the teacher’s socially constructed definitions of good argumentative writing in the instructional conversations around argumentative writing samples as they evolve and change over time. The findings suggest that the interactional construction of “good argumentative writing” in instructional conversations was influenced by the broader instructional context (e.g., a testing regimen), by the teacher’s argumentative epistemologies for what counts as good writing, and by the conversational interaction of teachers and students in classroom lessons.

Aiming for Authenticity: Successes and Struggles of an Attempt to Increase Authenticity in Writing

AbstractThe author analyzed an attempt to increase authenticity of writing in a middle school English language arts classroom. Drawing on a grounded theory of authenticity developed based on stated needs of a diverse group of students, the author and classroom teacher designed curriculum that sought to help students choose a valued topic, emphasize meaning making while developing writing skills and strategies, and have an impact on an audience. Students were also provided with opportunities to share in‐process and final work with others. Curricular attempts to enact these proposed factors of authentic writing in a personal narrative project are detailed, along with successes and struggles with implementing each factor. Findings highlight the importance of students writing for an actual, intended audience instead of an imagined one. Additionally, the author discusses how social justice education may provide a unifying curricular framework that strengthens students’ sense of audience and purpose.

Reading Comprehension and Co-Teaching Practices in Middle School English Language Arts Classrooms

This study reports practices implemented in over 2,000 minutes by 16 middle school special education and general education co-teaching pairs in English language arts classes. We report the extent to which teachers integrated literacy activities that support reading comprehension, the co-teaching models used, and the frequency with which each teacher led instruction. We also report the types of grouping structures teachers used and the extent to which teachers interacted with students with disabilities. Finally, we report the types of text used. Observations revealed that more than half of time spent on literacy activities involved reading aloud or silently with no co-occurring literacy instruction that supports reading comprehension. Students with disabilities spent a majority of their time in whole-class instruction or working independently with little teacher interaction. Special education teachers spent most of their time supporting whole-class instruction led by the content-area teacher. Implications and directions for future research are provided.

Book Reviews: Teaching and Learning Argumentative Writing in High School English Language Arts Classrooms: George E. Newell, David Bloome, and Alan Hirvela. Routledge, 2015

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What's in a Match? Disentangling the Significance of Teacher Race/Ethnicity

A growing body of literature documents that black and Hispanic students benefit from teachers who share their racial/ethnic background. Despite this evidence, data limitations have prevented researchers from analyzing how students’ actual experiences in the classroom vary by teacher race/ethnicity. The current study addresses this gap. Using over 56,000 new student surveys, I provide the first large-scale evidence on the specific ways in which matched teachers affect student experience. Comparing students within the same school, I find that matched black and Hispanic students report significantly better experiences than their non-matched peers. This relative advantage does not appear to be driven by difficulties reported with non-matched teachers and emerges primarily in middle school English Language Arts classrooms.

Dilemmas of design and predicaments of practice: adapting the ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ model in secondary school English language arts classrooms

This study examines three middle school and secondary school English teachers' attempts to adapt and enact the principles and practices of the ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ (FCL) model. As a systemic pedagogical model designed to foster authentic dialogue and inquiry, FCL challenges deeply held traditions of English as both a school subject and academic discipline. Three critical incidents, selected from separate extended case studies, reveal the conceptual challenges teachers face when bringing to life practices consistent with constructivist learning principles. The study shows that through simplification of the model and gradual experimentation, the teachers began to approximate the systemic integrity of FCL. The study identifies key curriculum‐planning strategies employed by the teachers that led to pedagogical innovation (e.g. double‐planning, renaming, isolation, retrenchment, and fusion).