Understanding subject-specific texts requires interpreting representations--words, symbols, and images--in their intended senses. Many such representations are ambiguous, with meanings that shift depending on context and disciplinary conventions. This applies not only to words, for example, 'paper' in everyday versus academic usage, but also to…

This article describes literacy practices and outdoor activities in high school English classrooms--framed as critical rambling, a pedagogy seeking to raise awareness of issues like climate justice--with illustrations from a dissertation of teacher research and additional student work.

In this paper, I explore the transitional spaces of teaching and writing by restorying an anomalous event in my teaching of Canadian literature in a grade seven classroom and my efforts to decolonise that teaching. Thinking with Elizabeth Ellsworth's concept of pedagogy as it relates to knowledge in the making and the learning self, I take…

This article explores the importance of incorporating diverse rural short stories into English language arts (ELA) curricula to foster empathy, understanding, and connection among students. It addresses underrepresentation and lack of variety in rural stories within publishing and traditional curricula, which affects rural students' sense of…

English language arts must be a class of both challenge and engagement. Joyful literacies can open the door to the unplanned and the new for both students and teachers as they center students' literacy experiences alongside the skills of the discipline, not just at the end of the year but, alternatively, throughout the whole school year. This…

This article explores how the Jewish tradition of l'dor va-dor (from generation to generation) is reflected in the readers/writers workshop model, highlighting the role of mentorship and introducing the 6M framework to support student-centered reading and writing instruction.

Personally and professionally, the author shares experiences with school safety and how the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom may utilize middle grade novels to address gun violence with adolescents. Highlighting five middle grade novels that address school shootings--Katherine Erskine's (2011) "Mockingbird," Emily Barth Isler's…

A high school teacher advocates for the use of the CARE method in the selection and teaching of fiction about disability in the English language arts classroom, considering the centrality, agency, and respect afforded disabled characters, as well as the expertise of the author.

Much has been written about the benefits of integrating social studies and English language arts standards. Because of the focus on reading and math as a result of accountability practices, a practical way to ensure social studies remains part of the curriculum in elementary grades is to integrate the curriculum. Historical graphic novels support…

English language arts (ELA) teachers and researchers have trialed methods for supporting youth who advocate for alternative and more just climatic futures (Beach & Smith, 2024; Datta, 2023). However, many educators are encountering legislation that muzzles critical talk in classrooms. Understanding that schools are not separate from society…

Argumentation, one of the foundational pillars of writing instruction in K-12 schools, is consistently framed in literacy policy, curriculum, and assessment as a crucial skill youth need to participate in democratic deliberation. Yet the normative emphases in argument discourse on individual subjectivity, binary analysis, and competitive social…

A teacher education professor and former secondary school instructor discusses using punk pedagogy and content in the English classroom to promote experimentation, interdisciplinarity, participation in community, and process-focused work.

In this article, I discuss how I pair the close reading of choice, high-interest, young adult literature (YAL) with the creative writing of young adult stories in a preservice English teacher preparation programme. This paired reading and writing is used to have preservice teachers (PSTs) engage with identities, communities, and stories of their…

This article details a unit of study bringing together shared reading, place-based pedagogies, and climate-centered texts to engage students in youth participatory community action (YPAR). The authors envision an English classroom where youth read, write, and argue for change as activists as they encounter climate justice literature through YPAR…

Despite the proliferation and use of literary lenses in English Language Arts classrooms, one lens still seems to be missing from theorization, formulation, and thus practical implementation: religion. This absence is well-noted in the field, as positive depictions of Christian themes in books are rare and religion is rarely discussed as an…