This article contends that if English language arts (ELA) teachers support students' ability to notice and name what influences their reading response, students can then return to texts in ways that allow them to understand the content differently as they are more mindful of how experiences shape meaning making. Slowing down, then, may lead to new…

This classroom-based qualitative study examines a multiliteracies approach to teaching Young Adult Literature graphic novels and memoirs within a five-week book club study unit that took place within a twelfth-grade secondary English language arts classroom in an urban school in the Southwest. It explores the teaching and take up of several…

This study was conducted with 11th- and 12th-grade high school students in western Florida. These students were not meeting the required achievement level in English language arts needed for graduation. This qualitative study investigated the barriers that hinder high school students' achievement in English language arts as a graduation…

In this study, we explore discussions of literature in a high school English Language Arts (ELA) classroom, examining how students read rhetorically. Reading rhetorically considers the ethical effects of narrative content as it is mediated through character dialogue and action, narrator discourse, and the author's organization: a narrative as a…

Background/purpose: Indonesian language education at the senior high school level is expected to foster not only linguistic competence but also critical thinking and cultural awareness. Textbooks, as the primary learning instrument, must be evaluated for their alignment with curriculum goals and global literacy demands. Materials/methods: This…

This study aims to understand how women's voices can be empowered in a high school English Language Arts (ELA) class. Through the use of female authors and female protagonists in the classroom texts, this study seeks to understand if implementing female-driven texts enhances female students' literary experiences, empowers the personal identities…

This quantitative study is primarily intended to examine whether district level performance results from Grade 8 ELA state assessments can help to predict future passing rates on AP exams. The participants for the study are all 218 K-12 school districts in New Jersey, all of which generated results across score levels and passing rates for PARCC…

Adolescent internet usage is incredibly prevalent, marking a need for educational support as they navigate online texts. As online texts are prone to bias and misinformation, it is important to fully understand how young people conceptualize this information and where they need support. These texts may also contain harmful messages, particularly…

This short story illustrates an occasion of culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogical practices in relation to the canonical texts which are often used in urban classrooms. In it, a lesson on Jane Eyre's childhood point of view and mode of introspectiveness delves into a tale of dancing and Otherness. The story shows that in spaces where…

At a time when antiracist teaching is increasingly needed, this article reports on an IRB-approved, mixed-methods study of high school seniors' affective experiences in an antiracist English language arts classroom. We find that students in this study became less scared and more confident writers. They attributed these positive changes to…

The academic consequences of being popular are well established, but much less is known about the academic consequences of desiring to be popular. Extant research on popularity goals only focuses on the implications for students' school engagement, help-seeking, and academic achievement. The current study expands these findings by examining the…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how teachers' choice of text, centering of student voices and collaboration with the community around a language arts curriculum impacted the engagement and learning experiences of 85 11th and 12th-grade refugee background students designated as English language learners. Design/methodology/approach: A…

Culturally responsive instruction scholarship often presents a binary standard that teachers either satisfy or do not, a determination largely based on perceptions of observed practice. Yet, conclusions about teachers' cultural responsiveness are dubious when researchers do not account for teachers' intent. Conceptualizing cultural responsiveness…

This research study explores the role of social annotation in supporting dialogic teaching in secondary English language arts. Grounded in Bakhtin's dialogism and building upon research into online discussion, this study describes how a high school English teacher and her students used a digital annotation tool to read and talk about texts.…

This article presents popular misconceptions on teaching culturally relevant books and provides strategies that can inform the search, selection, and teaching of books in culturally responsive ways. Informed by relevant research and insights gained from collaboratively teaching a children's literature course at college level, I discuss how the…