English Journal
English Journal is NCTE's award-winning journal of ideas for English language arts teachers in junior and senior high schools and middle schools.
Columns and Column Editors
Teaching in a Time of Censorship Ann D. David, Annamary Consalvo, and Katharine Covino
Black Youth Futures Stephanie Toliver
Critical Approaches to Literature Carlin Borsheim-Black
Reimagining Research Tiffany DeJaynes
Teaching Multilingual Learners in ELA Classrooms Melody Zoch
LGBTQIA+ Intersectional Identities Stephanie Anne Shelton
Critical Curations: Developing Rich Text Sets Nicole Amato and Katie Priske
The Future is Now Melinda McBee Orzulak and Danielle Lillge
Poetry Alexa Garvoille
Teaching in a Time of Censorship
Column Editors: Ann D. David, University of the Incarnate Word; Annamary Consalvo, University of Texas at Tyler; Katharine Covino, Fitchburg State University
It is no longer if you will experience a book challenge, but when.
That reality is the genesis for this column that seeks to share teachers’ stories of teaching texts in a time of censorship. We are seeking to highlight conversations that both speak truth and encourage English language arts (ELA) teachers to be on the forefront of building brave systems (Clear, 2018) to ensure students’ continued access to diverse texts in their classrooms, schools, and districts.
Ideas you could explore include how you use book rationales in your planning or advocacy, create and nurture alliances with colleagues and parents, and collaborate with school administrators. Additionally, we would welcome reflections on how you navigate text selection, specifically with books that are frequently challenged, and how you engage in challenging conversations with students around those texts. Finally, you could offer examples of how you have used NCTE resources like book rationales and relevant position statements (“The Students’ Right to Read,” “NCTE Position Statement regarding Rating or ‘Red-Flagging’ Books,” and “Statement on Classroom Libraries”) to support your use of diverse and high-quality texts.
ELA teachers’ professionalism is regularly called into question by the “intransigent minority” (Taleb, 2018). These uncompromising and closed-minded people seek to ban books, inspect and approve curriculum, and enact ad hominem attacks on teachers. These individuals, often informed and supported by state and national media and political organizations, are seeking to limit and restrict all children’s access to diverse books and stories. Sharing stories of your experiences will help other teachers reclaim—or find—their voices and agency, while expanding their professional know-how. Please send inquiries and submissions of manuscripts of 1,200–1,400 words as Word or Google documents to Ann David for consideration.
References
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. Avery Publishing.
Taleb, N. N. (2018). Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries of Daily Life. Random House.
Black Youth Futures
Column Editor: Stephanie Toliver, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Over the past few decades, calls have abounded to prominently foreground the language and literacy practices of Black youth. Scholars have called for more attention to the historical literacies of Black people in hopes that educators see the inherent genius within Black youth (Muhammad 13). They have asked for teachers to consider the ways in which Black youth engage in play with text, genre, language, and each other (Baker-Bell 8; Gaunt 3; Bryan 74). They have demanded that educators uplift Black young people as they challenge the anti-Blackness embedded within school systems (Coles 36; Love 12), and they have implored educational stakeholders to make space for Black youth to imagine worlds in which they are free to experience the full range of humanity: love, anger, joy, excitement, sadness, pride, hope, and all the emotions in between (Toliver 85; Turner 128).
It is within these calls that this column exists. Specifically, this column is dedicated to the teachers, teacher educators, community members, and young people who are committed to the liberatory futures of Black youth. It is for all who imagine and create alongside young Black folx to ensure that the next generation of Black youth can thrive. With this in mind, this column welcomes commentary that attends to the expansive language and literacy lives of Black young people. Toward this goal, authors might consider questions such as the following: What texts (written by and about Black people) have you found particularly useful in the classroom? How have you made space for Black joy, Black dreams, Black genius, and Black pride in your classroom, research, and/or community work? What assignments have you created that enable Black youth to voice their concerns about the world? What does the future of education, schools, or schooling look like for Black youth?
Rather than just accepting traditional practitioner articles (i.e., research essay, nonfiction, or narrative nonfiction), this column aims to be as expansive as Black youth’s literacies. Thus, poems, narratives, comics, paintings, and the like are also welcome. Please send submissions of 1,200-1,400 words as a Word document to Stephanie Toliver at stoliver@illinois.edu. Inquiries about potential submissions are also welcomed.
Critical Approaches to Literature
Column Editor: Carlin Borsheim-Black
In this column, authors present pedagogical possibilities for teaching literature in critical ways. While critical approaches to literature study take up, examine, confront, and address systems of power, they can also illuminate joy, creativity, community, and agency as forms of resistance.
This column offers possibilities for engaging with literature as a vehicle for opening up justice-oriented conversation and just futures. Importantly, columns target the how of literature study—that is, ways in which teachers, students, and stakeholders of ELA exercise agency—rather than the what. Column authors may illuminate literature study approaches utilizing a variety of genres. We welcome columns that examine ways to teach subversively with canonical texts, foster critical literacies using young adult literature, pair literary nonfiction with current events, or decenter the role of specific texts entirely. Columns should be 1,200-1,400 words in length and can be sent to carlinborsheim@gmail.com.
Reimagining Research
Column Editor: Tiffany DeJaynes, Lehman College, City University of New York
This column aims to highlight thoughtful conversations about youth as knowledge generators, rethink the dominance of the traditional research paper in English language arts classrooms, and consider the ways in which young people’s original research can inform public policies and activism. As such, the column publishes accounts of youth conducting research in innovative ways in schools and communities; research innovations might include collaborative, multimodal, digital, action-oriented, community-focused, or arts-based practices.
Educators employing research practices that creatively engage young people in critical participatory action research, archival research, working with unconventional sources, or creatively sharing and disseminating research and more are invited to share their curricular approaches and lessons learned. Please contact Tiffany DeJaynes to discuss ideas for the column or send manuscripts of 1,200–1,400 words as Word documents to tiffany.dejaynes@lehman.cuny.edu for consideration.
Teaching Multilingual Learners in ELA Classrooms
Column Editor: Melody Zoch, University of North Carolina–Greensboro
Multilingual learners (MLs) are the fastest-growing group of students entering US public schools. In the next few years, an estimated one out of every four school-aged children will speak a language other than English at home. ELA teachers must be deft at addressing the needs of MLs, which can include drawing on their funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), embracing their identities as MLs, and understanding the challenges language-minoritized learners and their families may experience. Too often, middle- and high school spaces privilege monolingual instructional models where English language and literacy proficiency are considered the norm. This is counter to the needs of MLs, whose linguistic repertoires should be honored rather than repressed or punished.
This column seeks to amplify the voices of ELA teachers who are committed to the growth and well-being of MLs. The column editor invites submissions that feature research, examples of practices, and reflections on practice that support MLs in the ELA classroom. All submissions should engage asset-based approaches to discussing and supporting MLs in equitable ways. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the incorporation of translanguaging practices (García et al., 2017), how identity work and affirmation are explored in the ELA classroom, and using culturally sustaining practices (Paris & Alim, 2014). Questions authors might explore include: In what ways does language inter¬sect with other identities? In what ways do you incorporate fami¬lies and the community in your teaching of MLs? In what ways do you engage MLs in exploring activism and social justice issues in the ELA classroom? What are some critical incidents (Tripp, 1993) that have shaped your teaching of MLs? What specific strategies and texts have supported your MLs?
Please send inquiries and submissions of 1,200–1,400 words as a Word document to mzoch@uncg.edu.
LGBTQIA+ Intersectional Identities
Column Editor: Stephanie Anne Shelton, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
The acronym LGBTQIA+ incorporates ranges of identities and expressions related to genders and sexualities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, and asexual individuals. LGBTQIA+ youth are present in classrooms world-wide and are among the most vulnerable; however, substantial research demonstrates that supportive teachers make incredible differences in LGBTQIA+ students’ lives and school experiences.
LGBTQIA+ students’ needs are shaped by more than gender identity, gender expression, or sexuality. Students navigate assigned, assumed, and self-asserted social categories, for example, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, ablebodiedness, and language usage. They also live and learn in specific geographic and cultural contexts. Their LGBTQIA+ identities constantly intersect with these many factors; efforts to provide equitable, respectful, and effective learning spaces necessitate intersectional understandings of LGBTQIA+ issues in schools.
This column seeks to share English educators’ stories on how they learn about, recognize, and affirm intersectional LGBTQIA+ identities. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, instructional strategies that explore LGBTQIA+ issues as intersecting with other identities or contexts; case studies of efforts to engage students or colleagues in intersectional considerations of LGBTQIA+ issues; and reflective narratives that explore how awareness of intersectional LGBTQIA+ identities has shaped teachers’ professional identities.
Inquiries, submissions, or suggestions for future columns should be directed to Stephanie Anne Shelton at sashel@unc.edu. Submissions of 1,200–1,400 words should be sent as attachments.
Critical Curations
Column Editors: Nicole Amato and Katie Priske, University of Iowa
“Curate: Make meaning for oneself and others by collecting, organizing, and sharing resources of personal relevance.” —American Association of School Librarians, 2018
Critical curation invites both students and teachers to take critical stances and “explore multiple perspectives, challenge dominant ideologies, and include marginalized voices within and beyond the literary canon” (Lechtenberg 3). Alongside the importance of curation is the importance of representation, which as Hamad asserts has “real world consequences” (27). Work around the importance of curation and representation has been ongoing in English language arts spaces. We align this column with the work of #DisruptTexts, asserting that curriculum choices are never neutral, and curriculum must center Black, Indigenous, and other voices of color (Ebarvia et al.).
We believe critical curation of texts in the ELA classroom is an exploratory practice that honors curiosity and inquiry. These curations aim to support teachers in critical literacy and critical inquiry work within and beyond the classroom. This column is guided by the following questions: 1) What themes and issues are urgent points of discussion in 7-12 literacy classrooms? 2) How can ELA teachers and librarians collaboratively curate multimodal and multigenre text sets for their students? We invite essays dedicated to exploring these questions while curating texts (broadly defined) around critical topics for discussion in ELA classrooms, such as but not limited to race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability. We aim to curate and review 3-5 texts per column around a central topic.
Please contact Nicole Amato and Katie Priske to discuss ideas for the column or send your essays of 1,200–1,400 words as Word documents for consideration.
The Future is Now
Column Editors: Melinda McBee Orzulak, Bradley University
Danielle Lillge, Illinois State University
In November 2023, the “Future Is Now” roundtable sessions at the NCTE Annual Convention will celebrate a decade of providing opportunities for beginning English teachers to present their scholarship. Building on the strength of these sessions, this column shines a light on the inquiries of beginning ELA teachers, who are navigating the early stages of their professional learning journeys as preservice or inservice teachers with one to four years of teaching experience.
Acknowledging that none of us—beginning and veteran teachers alike—have arrived, we invite submissions that foreground a genuine question which drives beginning teachers’ inquiries through teaching, research, or creative activity. We encourage authors to illuminate the origins of their question in relation to their own experiences as well as in relation to other voices—whether students, colleagues, mentors, researchers, parents, authors, creators, or other stakeholders. And we urge authors to explore layered considerations that lead to possibilities for future learning, teaching, research, or creative activity. Instead of easy fixes, simple solutions, or truisms, let us highlight what we gain from assuming an inquiry stance in scholarly conversation with others as we look to the future by celebrating the nuance and complexity of ELA teaching.
We seek to support beginning teacher authors who, through their writing, will join and shape the conversations in our field of ELA. Toward that end, we invite single-author submissions as well as those coauthored with colleagues, mentors, or students. Please send submissions of 1,200–1,400 words as a Word document to the editors, Melinda McBee Orzulak and Danielle Lillge, at EJfutureisnow@gmail.com. Include in your email your full name(s), school affiliation(s), and the main email contact for the lead author, if the submission is coauthored. Inquiries about potential submissions are also welcomed.
Poetry
Editor: Alexa Garvoille, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham
In the pages of English Journal, we look to publish well-crafted poems that connect our readers to topics central to English education: the impact of reading and writing on young people, words and language, classroom stories, and reflections on teach- ing and learning. Poetry reminds us, as educators, how to live in this world.
Submit your work by emailing an attachment to englishjournalpoetry@gmail.com. Use the subject line “Poetry Submission for Review.” The first page of the attached document should be a cover sheet that includes your name, address, email, and a two-sentence biographical sketch. In your bio, include how long you have been a member of NCTE, if applicable, and a publishable contact email. Following the cover sheet, include one to five original poems in the same document. Though we welcome work of any length, shorter pieces (thirty lines and under) often work best for the journal. Poems must be original and not previously published. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, though writers must immediately withdraw from consideration any poems that are to be published elsewhere by contacting the editors via email.
Poets whose work is published will receive two complimentary copies of the issue in which their work appears. Additional inquiries about poetry submissions may be directed to the editor at englishjournalpoetry@gmail.com. Looking forward to reading and celebrating your work.
Telescopes
Arianna Banack
For general EJ Submission Guidelines, click here.