In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were done with middle school students. Questions were asked about their teachers' classroom management. Coded transcriptions showed that participants primarily described talk in the classroom. Analysis of talk in the transcripts resulted in four themes: Controlling the talk, Getting Off-Task…

Within the past two decades, federal and state governments have increased the frequency, number, and importance of standardized tests in elementary and secondary American schools. These tests are characterized by recognition-based frameworks that privilege "best" or "correct" answers, processes, and understandings which remain…

The purpose of this study was to examine the mean differences of factors associated with academic success and the use of person-centered therapy on the Exceptional Student Education population of fourth and fifth-graders in the public school system. Variables such as the number of days the student was in attendance, the number of written behavior…

The purpose of this study was to determine which of four Response to Intervention (RTI) programs, System 44, Read 180, Lexia Reading Core5, or Read Naturally, was most effective for alleviating phonics and phonemic awareness reading deficits in students struggling to read fluently and comprehensively. The problem related to this research is that…

Small-group discussions in which teachers and students interact with text are common in language arts classrooms. As documented in the extant literature, teacher discourse moves affect how the discussion unfolds and the resulting quality of the talk. What is not present in the literature is a unified lexicon or taxonomy for defining and…

There has been much debate about having standardized curricula content standards for all. Some have criticized state curriculum content standards for varying in quality by state. The purpose of this study was to compare content complexity as it appears within the high school English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the former…

Using a college admissions test as the statewide summative assessment is an attractive but risky option for some policymakers and parents. These assessments are used for admissions by nearly all higher education institutions, are shorter in length than most state-designed and consortia assessments, have brand name recognition, and are known for…

Given recent calls for integrating metacognitive strategy instruction in classrooms and current models of self-regulated learning that emphasize the importance of skilled metacognitive monitoring throughout the reading process (Azevedo, 2009a; de Bruin, & van Gog, 2012; Dent & Hoyle, 2015), this study investigated the effects of…

Within this study, I explored English language arts (ELA) pre-service teachers' (PST) language beliefs, specifically the ways in which they align with and diverge from the standard language ideology (SLI) beliefs laid out in the language subordination model (LSM) (Lippi-Green, 2012). The participants were ELA PSTs in both middle grades and high…

This article describes how four English language arts teachers formed an inquiry group to design approaches to writing assessment that would support and foster student writers' agency, empowerment, and freedom. They hoped that by focusing assessment on students' articulation of their writing processes rather than on rubrics or final products, they…

Responsible instruction teaches students to navigate digital news and social media spaces that barrage and overwhelm many of them. In truth, it overwhelms many adults. This article examines how English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms are uniquely positioned to curtail this trend by teaching students the value of informed citizenship and compelling…

In secondary schools in the United States, youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer (LGBTQ) encounter unwelcoming and unsafe, if not outright hostile, climates, experiences which lead to negative outcomes, both personal and academic. However, school-based supports such as supportive adults, GSA clubs, and LGBT-inclusive…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) is one of the most current reforms in the U.S. educational system. The standards were introduced, adopted, and implemented by 46 states along with the District of Columbia in 2009. Since the adoption of the CCSS, educators have expressed concern regarding the implementation process, specifically…

In this article, Michelle Ann Abate examines the typographical features of the comics and graphic novels frequently finding their way into English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms and challenges the viewpoint that they are secondary to prose-only texts, arguing instead that many comics can be seen as requiring more advanced levels of literacy…

Purpose: Little research has been done exploring the nature of multilingual students who are not categorized as English language learners (ELLs) in English language arts (ELA) classes. This study about a group of multilingual girls in an ELA class led by a monolingual white teacher aims to show how, when a teacher makes space for translanguaging…